Rotary District 9800
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District Governors Annual Message
Rotary International has a simple overarching philosophy. Service Above Self. This motto succinctly encapsulates in just three short words the very character behind every Rotarian.
Rotarians are people who choose to act when they see a community need at home or abroad. While some choose instead to pity, to blame, to look to someone else to fix the issue, to worry about the personal cost, or to write the issue off as “that’s just the way it is”, Rotarians instead look to change things for the better. Simply put, while others are busy saying “someone should do something about that”, Rotarians are busy doing just that something.
But this isn’t to say that all others outside Rotary are somehow selfish, uninterested in helping or egocentric. Far from it. There are plenty of people in the community who share just the same ethos as us Rotarians.
My challenge to every Rotarian in our District at the start of this Rotary year is to reach out to these people and give them the means to do what they have always meant to do. To be a person who truly makes a difference. Give them the vehicle to join you in creating tangible differences in the world. Give them Rotary.
The 2011-2012 Rotary year sees us adopt the theme “Reach Within To Embrace Humanity”. Our Rotary International President for the coming year, Kalyan Banerjee, has spoken of his inspiration from the Gandhi’s words, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. These words remind us that change does not come from wishing nor hoping alone, nor does it come from waiting for others to decide to act. It comes from our own personal actions.
Even when we see an issue too large for us to influence with just the one set of hands, it does not mean we cannot construct the change that we wish to see. If we wish to see great good in the world, we need to muster great resources. We need to reach within – within our hearts, within our minds, within our networks, within our resources and within our willingness to ask others to join us – in order to bring others together in the pursuit of the common goal of making the world a better place.
So reach out to others – to prospective members, to community organisations, to charities, to small businesses, to corporates, to the media, to friends, to family – and bring them on board. Figure out what it is they wish to achieve in this world, and where their values and desires are aligned with our own, invite them to work with us to achieve more than we could individually.
Don’t wish. Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Reach within to embrace humanity.
Keith Ryall
District Governor 2011-2012
Rotary District 9800
