Jimmy’s Monthly Newsletter
Issue 1. 2019.
With just over 1 month to go in the year for District Governor Jim Ross, I thought
it may be an appropriate time to ask you to start looking ahead for session
2019/20.
I plan to provide a ‘forward looking’ monthly newsletter, probably sharing
information up to 3 months in advance, so that you may promote some of your
activities and seek collaboration from others for some of your projects.
My starting point is the recent District Council at which the executive shared
with you the information that RI (Rotary
International) had indicated that the numbers in our District, had been
dropping steadily over the years and that we had passed the threshold of being
able to have our own District. The discussion at Council agreed and understood
that any proposed merger may result in a dramatic loss of Rotarians from our
District.
Therefore:- we have PETO (President Elect
Training and Orientation) It would be great if all our Presidents attending, can share the plans for our future
and enhance the opportunity for a continued Rotary presence in the West of
Scotland. Please, could you strive to have a representative from your club
attend?
I can only be your servant as District Governor, as I
have been elected to represent our District within the wider world of Rotary.
To be able to do this efficiently and effectively, I need to hear from each one
of you, on which aspects I should take the lead, to represent your wishes. I
would have thought that the one thing you do not want, is for me to go and be
an egomaniac and promote my own thoughts on what you want or need. Particularly
as I may get it very wrong!!!
You may have heard or read from my previous reports
during the past year, which I have been looking ahead on the issue of
collaborating with other ‘community
service’ volunteers in other organisations. The purpose of which will
enable us to perhaps gain some new Rotarians from within these groups.
During the past 12 months, I have met with
representatives from various cultural and ethnic groups in the West of
Scotland, discussions are still at an early stage, although they may already be
showing some ‘new shoots’ emerging, from which we may manage to record new
Rotarians. If you have any links or contacts within these groups locally, share
this news and you may manage to encourage their participation with you.
The representatives I have chatted with so far are The
Chinese community; The Indian community; The Pakistan community; The African
community also, with help from our Rotaractors, we plan to target the student
cohort attending Universities and Colleges in the West of Scotland, using
information in their own language, such as – Korean; Japan; French; German;
Portugal; Italian and Spain, promoting Rotaract opportunities and the various
youth opportunities open to them, i.e. ‘Youth Exchange’; ‘Camps’; ‘RYLA’; etc.
If you have any contact within one or more of these groups, please let us know,
we can then provide you with resources to reach out to them and encourage
participation locally.
Not only have the cultural groups been contacted, some
of us who were volunteering at the ‘Scottish Schools Athletics’ event in the
Emirates Arena, managed to chat with many individuals who were showing and
interest in the work which Rotary does, locally and internationally. One of
those individuals happens to be a coach for the ‘Springburn Harriers’ in which
they have young athletes from our (Glasgow
North & Bishopbriggs) five local secondary schools. I hope to build a
collaborative link and perhaps negotiate some ‘corporate’ members from the
adult athletes.
Some of you may know that I swim a couple of mornings
each week. I regularly meet and chat with another swimmer who happens to be the
Boys Brigade Captain of a local Company in (Glasgow
North & Bishopbriggs) who is also the Glasgow Battalion Secretary. He
indicated that they are also in early stage talks with their fellow
organisations – The Scouts; The Girls Brigade; The Guides; we chatted about
offering some of the ‘youth’ opportunities through their organisations and we
may perhaps gain Rotarians from the Officers and Leaders.
I must thank you for a link to the last group that I am
chatting with, The Police Young Volunteers – I chatted with one of the leaders
at a Paisley event and since then I have been contacted by our local group and
I plan to chat with them also. My aim is to share any information gained, with
each of you in the hope that you will also see the opportunities to engage with
all of these groups; organisations and cultures around you locally.
We need to ‘THINK
DIFFERENTLY’ and break down the barriers within our communities, allowing
us to continue to provide a ‘Service Above Self’ and enhance our Rotary
presence in the West of Scotland.
If you happen to have a link to – The Soroptimist ladies;
The Inner Wheel ladies; or The Womens Institute ladies; please let me know and
we can look to building a link with them too.
To finish this first newsletter, here are specific
Rotary items to think about from the Rotary Foundation 6 areas of Focus and
annual calendar:
May is ‘Youth Service’ month;
June is ‘Fellowship’ month;
You should also be planning your AGM; Assembly &
Handover (May; June / July)
The District Handover dinner is Sunday 30th June 2019,
at 1.00pm in the Glynhill Hotel, Renfrew.
The ‘District Conference’ is 12th/13th
October 2019 in the Golden Jubilee Hospital & Conference centre, Clydebank.
More information on the conference will emerge in the future ‘Monthly
Newsletters’ – make sure that you look at the various options to attend and
participate, bring family and friends, encourage potential Rotarians to attend
and hear about the great work you do as a Rotarian, locally and
internationally.
Thank you for selecting me to represent you as your
District Governor next session, I can only perform at my best with your support
and input, therefore let us build up a dialogue between us, so that I am able
to focus on the route District wishes to go.
Yours in Rotary Service
Jimmy
