Olayinka H. Babalola

President 2026-27

September 2026
Rotary has always been about people. Not projects. Not numbers. People.

Our goal of reaching 1.25 million Rotarians and 125,000 Rotaractors by our 125th anniversary in 2030 is also about people.

I bring up this goal again not because I expect the number itself to move you. Numbers rarely do. I bring it up because I worry that a goal this large can begin to feel abstract, distant from the everyday work of our clubs. I do not want that to happen. So let us talk, once more, about what is truly behind it.

I want to offer your club a simple exercise. Look back over the last five to seven years and find your best year. Maybe it was a year new members arrived and, more meaningfully, stayed. Maybe it was a year your meetings became something members looked forward to, rather than another obligation on a crowded calendar. Find that year. Then I ask you to do better than your best.