You need to ask

My Rotary Moment: You Need to Ask

-          By 9920 PDG Willard Martin

Rally New Zealand [2012] leader Sébastien Loeb in flying form during one of the special stages held in Northland.  Photo credit: Alan McDonald

Why did I join the Rotary Club of Ellerslie Sunrise in Auckland, NZ 27 years ago in 1988? 

I was involved in motorsport, and Ellerslie Sunrise Rotary had a fundraiser called Drive a Dream.  It was the chance to visit the Pukekohe Race Track and drive bendy buses, trucks and forklifts to compete in a Motorkhana, and have a ride in a race car around the track, that was good fun and a great fundraiser. 

I can still remember my friend Grahame Knight asking me to join Rotary.  He had to ask me several times before I got into action!  I enjoyed the speakers at meetings, served on committees, was the club Treasurer, and became President in 2005-2006. 

In 2011, I was privileged to attend the inaugural multi-district South Pacific Presidents Elect Training Seminar (SPPETS) as an Assistant Governor for then District 9920 Governor Alan Eyes when my eyes were opened to the world of Rotary.

Rotary International President Ron Burton when presenting his theme for 2013-2014 Engage Rotary and Change Lives at International Assembly in San Diego made the point that you have to ask. You - not the person sitting next to you, or the person in charge of the Membership Committee, or someone else who you might think would be better at it, or who maybe has more time. Membership is not someone else’s job - it’s my job, it’s your job, it’s every Rotarian’s opportunity.

So you have to ask. You need to find those people who are waiting to be asked, find the people who never thought about Rotary, and let them know that you’d like to have them in your club. If you do a good job, and they say yes, and they become members, your job isn’t over. It’s only just beginning, because you need to mentor them, make sure that they find a meaningful role in your club so they get satisfaction out of Rotary.

What you go out and achieve this Rotary year is in your hands, because all the good things that we achieve in Rotary depends on our clubs, but it is your leadership, your members, how well you choose your projects, how you work with The Rotary Foundation and polio eradication, new generations and every other programme of Rotary that will make the difference. 

My club has its own theme which I adopted for District 9920 when I was governor in 2013-2014 - Feel Good while Doing Good. This is what Rotary is all about. 

Who will you invite to join Rotary? 

I know I how to wash my hands but there is no water!

The water barrel is empty at Falelima School, Savai’í, Samoa

Past President Bruce Hancock, Rotary Club of St Johns, Auckland, NZ

My Rotary Moment occurred during a trip to Samoa in May 2008.  I was invited there because of my Civil Engineering background, to assist the Rotary Club of Auckland Harbourside (a club with which my Rotary Club of St Johns has close ties, as both clubs are in District 9920) in scoping a water supply project they were sponsoring.

The village of Falelima situated on the island of Savai’í happens to be located on a very porous layer of volcanic lava, so the natural rainwater runoff, unlike in other villages on the island, soaks in above the village and runs underground to the sea.  The village therefore relies on water collected from roof areas by gutters and connected tanks.

The problem was that much of the guttering in place was inadequate - there was not enough of it to provide the required amount of water to tide over the dry season, and many of the tanks were small and leaking.  Also many of the roofs were difficult to attach gutters to because of a lack of facia boards.  The villagers lacked the skills and resources to improve the situation, so were forced to import expensive tanker supplies each dry season.

The trip I went on was the first to the village and had the objective of scoping the work required, particularly at the village primary school which has a large roof area and adequate facia boards, but lacked much of the possible guttering and tank capacity required.

My Rotary Moment occurred when I observed a young girl no more than 7 or 8 years-old come out of a toilet, turn on the tap at the hand basin, and despite the fact that there was no water coming out, go through the actions of washing her hands!  I then suddenly realised what District 9920 was all about and the wisdom of Rotary as an organisation tying in the Pacific Island countries with New Zealand districts.

On a subsequent trip, Auckland Harbourside Rotary with some financial assistance from other clubs, including my own, were able to complete guttering on the school, provide additional tank capacity, repair the existing leaking tanks and also improve other amenities at the same time. 

In addition, guttering was added to the village church which had an existing large tank and throughout the exercise the locals villagers learnt to construct guttering and repair the other tanks in the village. 

Selecting good ambassadors for our country

Coronet Peak ski field near Queenstown, NZ during their South Island safari.

Rotarians get involved in many community activities, and in my 28 years in Rotary, no event has brought me greater pride than helping the selection of students to go to another country, to share in family life attend school with a commitment to learn and to enjoy a new culture. I have moved on to other things in Rotary as a Governor, and serving on the Board of Rotary Down Under with fellow directors from Australia, but I thoroughly enjoy continuing to offer my services to interview students and families for the Rotary Matched Student Exchange Programme between New Zealand and Australia.

 

This programme is a short exchange of 12 weeks, with secondary students selected from Year 9 (the first year at secondary school) to go on a matched exchange to Australia in the following year. Kiwi students go to South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland early in Year 10, and a selected matched Australian student comes to New Zealand for 12 weeks.

 

The lead up to selection is exciting, with much anticipation. Families get into the process of selection – will it be good for my son or daughter? can we afford the cost of travel? how will they get on living with another family, and what if there is a falling out?   The answers to these questions are sorted out in family interviews, and this is where I get my kick, as I love dealing with these issues and dozens of others.

 

The smiles come on the faces of students and their Mums and Dads when you show genuine interest in their well-being, that you are there to help build their confidence and to make the exchange experience a memorable one.  If the match is made and the students are well prepared, they will fit into their exchange as planned. With full knowledge given to them by their selectors and mentors, it is a very successful Rotary venture.

 

When you get a big hug and thanks at the end, you really feel part of their family. It is great for Rotary’s profile.

By PDG David Watt

Rotary Club of Karori, Wellington, NZ

A Rotarian in all but name? Becoming a Rotarian did make a difference.

When I am ask how I joined Rotary I answer: ”unwillingly!”. I was told by a friend to assist him in doing a slide show presentation on the project of the Beautification of Luganville (Espiritu Santo). I came to assist my friend by passing the slides in his old slide projector, he was doing his talk presentation to Santo Rotary Club. 

I was amazed when I realised that all the members of what I took for a semi-clandestine society were good friends of mine or people I knew for years and who never mentioned to me they were Rotarians. At the end of the presentation I was proposed to stay and assist to the meeting, few weeks later I was inducted.

Nothing was new to me as I had been doing Rotary work unknowingly when I was assisting communities in setting up rain catchments or repairing Aid posts or classrooms using funding from French Embassy. 

My connection with Aid Donors and Volunteers networks became an asset when few years later I was told at 11.30am to prepare a project worth Euros 40,000 by 1.30pm. I used my lunch time giving some phone calls and getting quotes to prepare a draft project of providing rainwater catchment to remote communities. I started with a list of 80 tanks mainly needed for communities in the Shefa Province. 

The project was approved and while I turned the draft into a formal application I recalled David Hutchinson, Director of Communities Services, telling me through RAM (Rotary Against malaria) I can get you 50cents to one dollar. By Magic the €40,000 where joined by NZ$40,000 as at that time the rate was 1€ to 2NZ$. 

Finally the 80 tanks became 131 tanks and the Islands of Malekula, Epi, Malo, Santo, Ambae were added to the Shefa Islands. In five months, with help of Volunteers based is all these islands we gave more water tanks than in the ten previous Rotary years. 

All it took, few hours of my time and few dedicated friends to make a better world for hundreds of people.

International volunteering at the remote Kioa Island School in Fiji

My Rotary Moment - PDG Raewyn Kirkman

Seven members of my Rotary Club of Waikato Sunrise, NZ headed to remote Kioa Island in Fiji - home to 300 people and a four room school for around 100 children - to refurbish a school building. Apart from a beautiful beach and stunning sunsets, this was not the resort version of Fiji - we had a flush toilet that worked for the first three days, the shower was a bucket and bowl and our beds were mats on the floor. 

Each day, the village women would bring lunch, welcome us to the communal area and we shared a meal. 

On the first day, a woman thanked us for helping changing the lives of the young people of the island, for giving them hope for their children’s futures and for opening up the world beyond Kioa for the next generation. Every day, the welcome would be the same – thank you for giving up a week of your lives to make a difference to the rest of the lives of our children.

And I thought I had just gone there to fix up a rundown building. 

For 18 years, I had heard Rotarians talk about their Rotary moments - those special moments when they went from Rotary member to Rotarian - and while I have had many special moments in Rotary, as I sat there on the ground in Kioa that first day listening to the village matriarch talk about changing the lives of their children, tears streaming down my dusty, paint splattered face, I truly understood the magic of Rotary. 

- Words and photos: PDG Raewyn Kirkman, of the Rotary Club of Waikato Sunrise, NZ

International volunteering

Simon Manning administers precious polio drops in the final push for a polio free India

My Rotary Moment - DG Simon Manning, District 9940

A few years ago, I assisted with a National Immunisation Day (NID) in Delhi, India that was an experience that changed my life! 

On the NID we were sent out to a school where families were being encouraged to bring their children for immunisation against Polio. The lines of people never stopped. I still get emotional just remembering how, when the eyes of a little girl who has probably never seen a white face before, connected with mine. Her eyes were full of fear at being bundled up by her brother into my arms, and for me those two drops not only changed her life that day, but they changed mine as well. 

You see my life changed because I had seen what a difference we can each make as Rotarians and it changed my life because I had engaged with Rotary. I was working to assist this little girl’s future away from a life which could have been very different if she had become a Polio statistic. 

This journey took us to the Polio Hospital in Delhi where we witnessed those who had not been immunised and the doctors who were doing their best to help straighten the bones of children who were otherwise unable to walk. We witnessed a boy who was able to take his first steps following his operation, so we were experiencing Polio face-to-face. 

The memory of that little girl again rose from my heart. I helped make a difference and I cannot describe to you how that has made a difference in my life. For me, the impact of being a part of placing the two drops in the mouths of those children and knowing that I was making a difference while working for Rotary will stay with me for the rest of my life. 

I encourage you all to consider donating your time and traveling with fellow Rotarians to make a difference in the world, as it will change your life. I still wonder about that little girl, where is she now, what is she doing. I will never ever forget her eyes. She will never know me, but she will always be in my Rotary heart. 

 - Words and photos: District 9940 Governor Simon Manning

My Rotary Moment - the internationality of Rotary

S.M.I.L.E. and the whole Rotary world smiles with you

-by Cathy Gourbault-Lawrence, Rotary Club of Papeete-Tahiti, District 9920

The polio walk: Hugh Lawrence, Cathy Gourbault-Lawrence,
Leanne and Mike Jaggs at the Polio Walk
during the Rotary International Convention 2014 in Sydney, Australia

Prior joining Rotary, when I was 2001 Junior Chamber International (Jaycee) world vice president, S.M.I.L.E. (Sharing Motivation and Involvement through Leadership Experience) was my motto that has now accompanied me for many years.

In my 12 years in Rotary, there have been many special moments that have been times of sharing involvement, passion and emotion, so at the end of the day, we all become stronger and wiser.

Everybody can live Rotary at the local level, but a Rotarian will truly experience the global picture of Rotary when experiencing the international dimension, so think globally and act locally.

Whatever the background, culture, and language we share, let us nourish ourselves with ideas, projects and positive energies through exchanging with Rotarians from other countries. It is like an injection of dynamic energy!

The very special Rotary moments for me, were when I started discovering Rotary outside the boundaries of my Rotary Club of Papeete-Tahiti, talking about projects, taking part in seminars, district conferences and Rotary International conventions.

I am different each time I come back from a district conference, an international meeting or an international convention. You feel so humble and come back to your club richer with special Rotary friends and experiences you will treasure forever.

I am fortunate to be part of Rotary District 9920 (the largest maritime district in the world that includes eight countries and the Rotary e-Club Francophone) which offer so many opportunities close to us.

On a personal level, I am above all lucky to be married to Hugh, who is a former Jaycee and a new Australian Rotarian, to share the internationality of Rotary at his Rotary Club of Seymour, Vic (District 9790).

These special Rotary moments embody the whole dimension of Rotary and enhance my pride of being a Rotarian.

My Rotary Moment - a perspective on Polio

Jennifer Scott administering polio vaccine drops in India

By Jennifer Scott, Rotary Club of Central Blue Mountains, District 9685

 

I was five years old when I first heard the word "polio". I was seeing a doctor because my legs were not straight. Next to me in the waiting room was a boy with callipers. I asked my mother "will I have to wear those?" She said, "no dear, you don't have polio, you are not crippled".

The second time was only a few months later when my sister, brother and I were watching a children's television program. They talked about raising money for crippled children. We decided that we would put on a concert, invite all the neighbourhood children and raise some money. We ended up on television handing over a cheque. Little did we know, that we had handed the cheque to a Rotarian.

Fast forward to 1972. I was president of my Interact club. Our local Rotary club in Castle Hill asked us to act as companions at a weekend camp for the then Northcott School for Crippled Children. I discovered that this was the school that Rotary was raising funds to build when I was five years old.

50 years later, I am still involved with the eradication of polio, as a volunteer in India, placing those two precious drops into the mouth of a five year old child, and as donor to our Rotary Foundation.

Only six months ago, I found a book that talked about the Crippled Children's Society in Australia. I discovered that in 1928 the president of Rotary International asked Rotary clubs around the world to find the crippled children hidden away in shame, many crippled by polio. Rotary clubs were asked to assist with medical care, to help them walk again, and to give them opportunities though education and vocational training.

The great work of Rotary has been woven into my life. I wonder if those Rotarians in 1928 had the vision that India would be declared polio free, and that one day soon, the world will be free of polio.

But it is not over yet! In Australia today we still have 400,000 people suffering from the effects of polio, called post polio syndrome, and in New Zealand an estimated 10,000 people who had polio are still alive.

Bill Gates Snr summed up the work of Rotary when he said, "back when Rotary became involved with polio, most people thought that voluntary organisations were about tackling projects down the street or across town - not across the world. Rotary changed all that. You reminded us that there is no human problem so daunting that it can't be overcome by people."

My Rotary Moment - Rotary is a Family Affair

By Leanne Jaggs, Rotary Club of Manukau City Sunrise, Auckland, NZ

Peace Dance: Number two has also been brought into the Rotary fold: PDG Leanne, Brayden, Mike and Isabella (Izzy) Jaggs with then DG Ron Seeto at the District 9920 Rock ‘N’ Rotary Peace Dance in 2013 in Auckland, NZ

Rotary is changing and sometimes quicker than we realise. My defining Rotary Moment was having my wonderful District Governor (DG) year group 2009-10 accept that during our training lead up, I would be attending with our newborn son Brayden.
 

The boundaries were pushed when I had to attend the Rotary International Director’s Training Weekend in 2008 when Brayden was only four months old, so I was still breast feeding. The funniest part was I wasn’t the one having to leave the room - it was my husband Mike who had the job of rocking Brayden to sleep. I didn’t miss any of my training, as I was armed with my “hooter hider”. My year group and all of the presenters were amazing. Once they got over the initial shock, and understood this was the way it was going to be, it was like this wasn't unusual.
 

It was the start of an amazing journey. Brayden attended so many meetings, he even got his own Rotary badge. The joke during my official club visits, was that even as a baby, Brayden was 100 per cent attendance, so if he could do it, so can you!
 

It even got embarrassing when I turned up to a meeting without him, as everyone was always asking after him. This was a special part of why my year as DG was the best of my life.
 

The way Rotary embraced our family situation and still does, is why I stay part of this amazing organisation. Don’t get me wrong, it is a constant juggle of family, Rotary and work, especially having two Rotarians in the family now, but with the help of everyone around us, we make it work. Many ask how we do it, and my answer is, “As long as the balls don’t fall down at the same time, we will be ok.”
 

When I put my name forward to become DG, the Nominating Committee were dying to ask if I was thinking of falling pregnant, but they couldn’t do so. My sincere thanks to our District 9920 and also my DG year group for believing that family wouldn’t get in the way, but actually enhance the Rotary spirit.