Rotary’s long-term membership strategy aims to attract a diverse set of new leaders who share our commitment and vision for creating lasting change while also making the club experience more engaging so even more of our current members stay. 

The first step to strengthening Rotary is to adapt to today’s realities and challenges, so we remain relevant to current and prospective members. 

Many clubs are implementing innovative ways to involve members and the community in Rotary. Whether they do it by creating new membership types, starting new clubs that accommodate busy schedules and different interests, or thoughtfully reexamining the style and frequency of their meetings, these clubs are discovering the value of changing to meet the diverse needs of today’s business, community, and civic leaders. To explore and find your own innovative solutions visit rotary.org/flexibility for examples, FAQ, and other resources.

Barry Rassin

President 2018-19

June 2019

As I look back on all the things I have seen and the people I have met since becoming president of Rotary International last July, I am certain of this: Rotary’s capacity to transform lives for the better is unparalleled. Our impact is far beyond anything I could have imagined when I first became a Rotarian.

Like a lot of us, I spent much of my childhood riding bikes, but fell out of the habit for a while. Forty years. Then my wife and I moved to New York, where cyclists risk their necks in a daily Thunderdome of cabs, police cars, firetrucks, double-decker buses, messengers on motorbikes, and delivery trucks backing around corners at 20 miles an hour. Not for me! At least not until my 50th birthday, when my metabolic furnace flamed out. Calories started going directly from beer bottle to beer belly. It was time to start exercising. Either that or give up Samuel Adams, and I couldn’t do that to Sam.

I started on a stationary bike in a gym. Working up a sweat while watching TV, I could see how many calories I was burning: about 200 in a half-hour at a smooth pace, enough to cancel out one beer. I felt stronger and more alert afterward, but there was something unsatisfying about being an aging, balding guy working hard to get nowhere. Call it a midbike crisis – I longed to get outdoors again.

On my 55th birthday, my wife bought me an all-black cruiser with fat tires and wide handlebars. That bike is as indestructible as I feel when I’m on it. Riding around Manhattan, I stuck to bike paths along the Hudson River at first, feeling the wind blowing through where my hair used to be. Little by little I branched out into the city.

I was a late-life convert to a fast-growing trend. “Walking and jogging are awesome, but you cover so much more ground on a bike. There’s no better way to explore a new city or the town where you live,” says Steve Taylor, a spokesman (get it?) for the League of American Bicyclists, a nonprofit group with more than 100,000 members. He calls biking a healthy, environmentally friendly alternative to sitting in a car, “not just for young people or fitness buffs, but for businesspeople who might not have been on a bike since they were kids. It has never been easier for grown-ups to ride, and it’s getting easier every year.”

Each year brings thousands of miles of new bike lanes all over the world. In the United States, programs modeled on those in cities like Paris and Amsterdam are making bike-sharing the Zipcar of human-powered transport. New York’s Citi Bike, the nation’s largest, boasts 100,000 members. Others include Boston’s Hubway and Chicago’s Divvy.

Like most cyclists my age, I’m not out for thrills, chills, or medals. Whenever I’m tempted to race a rider who’s zipping up behind me, I remember the day I spent with Lance Armstrong when he was Tour de France champion. When I asked how he could possibly dominate world-class cyclists who were doping if he wasn’t doping, he gave me an icy look and said, “Hard work. Any other questions?”

I had one. “Any advice for a cyclist my age?”

He looked me over and said, “Don’t fall off.”

I have tried to live by Lance’s advice. Unfortunately, it is practically impossible to ride across the Brooklyn Bridge without running into a tourist. They’re always stepping into the bike lane without warning, smiling for selfies. Later, rubbing Neosporin on my scabs, I console myself by thinking of people all over the globe enjoying photos of their trip to New York, with me as a blur in the background, skidding off my bike.

Nations around the world observed the International Day of Peace on 21 September, a date designated by the United Nations in 2001 as "a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence."

 Rotary's commitment to building peace and resolving conflict is rooted in the Rotary Peace Centers program, formed in 2002. Each year, the program prepares up to 100 fellows to work for peace through a two-year master's degree program or a three-month professional certificate program at university partners worldwide.

Today, nearly 1,000 peace centers alumni are applying their skills — negotiating peace in conflict areas, drafting legislation to protect exploited children, keeping communities safe through innovative law enforcement tactics, and pursuing many other career paths devoted to peace.

 Click here to Learn how you can support Rotary Peace Centers.

Rotary News

http://homeinsteaders.org/#sthash.qa18CW2N.HifCKLSO.dpuf

WHAT IS INTERACT?

Interact is a club for youth ages 12-18 who want to connect with other young people in their community or school. Interact club members have fun while carrying out service projects and learning about the world. Interact clubs organize at least two service projects a year: one that benefits their community and one that encourages international understanding.

While Rotary clubs sponsor them, Interact clubs are largely self-sustaining, requiring little or no financial support from your club.

HOW DO I SPONSOR A CLUB?

Once your club has decided to sponsor an Interact club, form an Interact committee to organize and support the Interact club. Refer to the Interact Guide for Rotary Club Sponsors and Advisers for complete details.

Before starting the club:

• Determine the need for an Interact club in your community
• Identify a school or community partner
• Locate possible Interactors such as current and past participants of Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) and Rotary Youth Exchange
• Organize an informational meeting for potential members
• Assign a Rotarian adviser who will attend board meetings of school-based clubs and all meetings of community-based clubs
• For school-based clubs, identify a faculty adviser who will serve as the liaison between the sponsor Rotary club and the school administration

Join Rotary International General Secretary John Hewko and Rotary staff members as they bike in El Tour de Tucson to raise funds for the fight to end polio.  

On 21 November, Rotary General Secretary John Hewko and a team of staffers will join Rotary members to bike up to 104 miles in El Tour de Tucson to raise funds for polio eradication. The event is one of the top cycling events in the U.S., attracting more than 9,000 cyclists each year. John and the Rotary team aim to raise $3.4 million, which will be tripled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a total of more than $10 million, for the fight to end polio. Make a contribution to help Rotary create a polio-free world.  

To Donate visit their website http://www.endpolio.org/miles-to-end-polio

ARE YOU A STUDENT OR YOUNG PROFESSIONAL LOOKING TO GROW YOUR LEADERSHIP SKILLS?

Rotary Peace Fellows are helping refugees start over.

Click here to read more in the Rotarian Magazine.

Voices For Peace from Rotary International on Vimeo.

Rotary Foundation Chair Dong Kurn Lee talks about the Foundation’s accomplishments during the third plenary session on 3 June.

If progress is measured in numbers, Rotary has entered rarified air in the fight against polio. Eighty percent of the world is now certified polio free, and two of the three strains of the disease have been eradicated, according to Dr. Bruce Aylward, who heads the polio eradication program at the World Health Organization.

Still, major challenges remain, including the international spread of the disease, the insecurity in endemic countries, and geopolitical tensions. In May WHO declared polio a public health emergency, asking the world to step up its vaccination efforts for international travelers.

"The world has decided it will do everything possible to protect the progress of PolioPlus," said Alyward, who traveled from Switzerland to Australia to deliver Monday's keynote address. In Somalia, for example, hundreds of sites have been set up to vaccinate anyone attempting to enter or travel outside the country. Six months after setting up those sites, not one child had been reported polio stricken, Alyward added.

To read the rest of the story please visit this link:  Eighty Percent of World Polio Free

MAY 2014

I've had a unique opportunity to be a part of the polio eradication campaign from its very beginnings, more than a quarter century ago, to where we are now, which is truly "this close" to the end.

None of us knew back then how long eradication would take, or how many obstacles we'd meet along the way. I'm not sure how we would have felt about taking on the challenge if we had known. But there is one thing I know for sure: that every single day of the last 29 years has been worth it. Because over those years, we have saved millions of children from being paralyzed by polio. There's no way to put a price tag on that. And today, we are closer than ever to a world in which no child will be paralyzed, ever again.

It's been a long race to the finish line. That line is now in sight. But we'll only cross it if we keep moving forward. And the only way to do that is with the help of every single Rotarian, everywhere in the world.

The first thing we need is your voice, and your advocacy. Think ahead to World Polio Day, on 24 October: What can your club and district do to raise awareness? Write letters to your elected officials, hold a purple pinkie fundraiser, plan an event with a local school. If you or someone you know has a story to tell about polio, share it at www.endpolionow.org/stories. The most important thing is to keep the momentum going. Let your community, and the world, know that the fight against polio is at its most critical stage yet.

I'm glad to report that the End Polio Now – Make History Today campaign is going well. Rotary met the terms of the new agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and received US$70 million in matching funds in January, which will be fully committed in this calendar year. We have four more years of this agreement remaining, during which the Gates Foundation will match two-to-one every dollar Rotary spends on polio, to a maximum of $35 million per year. I encourage all of you to do what you can to help us make the most of this opportunity. I know that together, we can engage Rotary to end polio – and change the world, forever.

RON D. BURTON

PRESIDENT 2013-14

Throughout India and around the world, Rotary clubs are celebrating a major milestone: India has gone three years without a new case of polio. The last reported case was a two-year-old girl in West Bengal on 13 January 2011.

To mark this historic triumph -- reached after a decades-long battle against polio -- Rotary clubs illuminated landmarks and iconic structures throughout the country with four simple but powerful words, "India is polio free."

Visit the Rotary International website to read more about the astonishing accomplishment.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Of The Things we think, say or do 

Why join Rotary?

Maybe you’ve seen a need in your own community and wondered how you could help. Maybe you want to use your professional skills to help others — or even learn new skills. Maybe you’re seeking connections with other service-minded professionals in your community or abroad.

Whatever your reason, joining Rotary can help you achieve these goals, and so much more. See why these men and women are members of their local Rotary club. Then learn how you can get involved.

In more than 34,000 clubs worldwide, you'll find members volunteering in communities at home and abroad to support education and job training, provide clean water, combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, and eradicate polio.

Explore this site to learn more about Rotary and how you can join your local Rotary club.