HANDOVER CEREMONY REPORTS FROM SYDNEY by PN.BARBARA and PP.ROBIN with photos (at the end of the reports).
Report by PN Barbara:
Past RI President Burton handed the “mantle” over to incoming RI President Gary Huang:
Excerpts from new RI PRESIDENT GARY HUANG presentation who made reference to Asian families coming together at the Family table for dinner and eating with chopsticks…
“Rotary is about forming relationships with other Rotarians. In Rotary we stand together like a bunch of chopsticks….. Together we can do so much more. Partnership is so important and we need to tell people that we enjoy working together…..2500 years ago, Confucius was born (was he perhaps the first Rotarian?) He said:
It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.
If 1.2 million Rotarians light up one candle each we can light up the world!!!
Go home and encourage your club to hold a ROTARY DAY. It can be a service project or fun event and be sure to invite the PUBLIC. Make sure your community knows that Rotary is FUN, Rotary is THERE and doing GOOD WORK
LIGHT UP ROTARY
It ENCOURAGES us to be proactive and sincere in what we do. The stronger our light the better we do.
Paul Harris said ….
Friendship is the foundation rock on which Rotary was built…
We need to reach 1.3 million Rotarians this coming year.
Use your HAND to help others
Use your HEAD make sure u are doing the right thing
Use your HEART to make it sincere.
Nothing else matters.”.
RI President GARY HUANG
Best Wishes
Barbara MackenzieRotary Convention report from PP Robin.
The Convention closed last night to cheers and tears when the President of RI, Rotarian Burton, said “Goodbye” to the 18,000 rotarians at the convention. He said that this year was the highlight of his years with Rotary. He said he would enjoy the final 26 days of his presidency. He introduced the incoming President – President elect Huang from Taiwan with his family. His mother is 95, his wife, his three children, their sources and his two grandchildren.
After the speeches and goodbyes, we had a splendid musical show with a group called “The Ten Tenors” leading musical star, Maria Prior.
The breakout sessions yesterday was excellent and I enjoyed working on one regarding planning Service Projects, implanting them and doing an evaluation of them and resourcing them. (Some things I will discuss with Yuki and other Project Leaders). As well as the standard information, there was other interesting information imparted. A Rotarian from an innovative Rotary Club from Fiji told us that his club had started their own NGO in order to allow them to employ local people to work on their Water Project, which hastened their projects.
My final observation was that there is much going on in the Rotary world that we can learn about if we want to improve our club and our work. There is no need to invent the wheel – just put the word out and find out how others have done things. The trend with RI is that Clubs should make policies and procedures to suit their club.
Lots to think about to ensure that Rotary is moving along and continuing the great work that it does.
Barbara and I will tell you all about it after we have absorbed all the information and gathered our thoughts together.
I am off to Melbourne on Monday to visit two Rotary Clubs who want to help with our Global Grant.
I will see you all when I get back.
Regards,
Robin