August, 2009
 
WELCOME TO 2009-10

The start of a new Rotary year is always cause for optimism. With many thousands of new Rotary officers on all levels, we hope for new ideas and the improvement of not so new ideas. RLI welcomes our new governors and RLI officers throughout the world to another year of progress. With our current membership of 208 Rotary districts and as we continue to grow, we have more and more responsibility to continually improve the quality of our program in order to make a constructive impact on the health of our Rotary clubs. 
 
Quote of the Month
 
"More than twenty years ago, when most volunteer efforts were aimed at solving problems that existed down the street, Rotary took on a global fight nobody believed they could win. A fight to end polio worldwide. Since then Rotary has revolutionalized our thinking about the possibilities that exist for ordinary people to significantly change the world." Bill Gates, Sr. as reported in "The Rotarian".

 
Random Thoughts about Leadership

The quote of Bill Gates, Sr. above expresses a great example of the need for risk taking and creativity by good leaders. That is equally true for both international and community activities. While unfortunately it doesn't happen in all Rotary Clubs, it does happen in many, where leaders are not afraid to promote something different, perhaps difficult, but important. What has made Rotary a great organization is the unbelievable "creativity" of many of our service projects.

 
Revised Curriculum for 2009-12 Now Available  

As all Divisions and Officers have been advised, the newly revised and upgraded curriculum for 2009-12 has been posted on our materials website. Both participant outlines and faculty outlines have been published to the site. The new curriculum is part of our annual review of the Parts I, II and III sessions by the RLI International Curriculum Committee that met in Orlando, Florida last January. Because of the need to translate the material into so many languages, the Committee decided to make major revisions every three years and limited revisions in other years to update changes in R.I. and The Rotary Foundation, etc.

 
RLI Welcomes Special Advisers
 
As reported in our June eBulletin, RLI has created the position of Special Adviser. For 2009-10 there will be two Special Advisers, Rotary International Vice-President Eric Adamson of Virginia, USA and Immediate Past Rotary International Vice-President, Monty Audenart of Alberta, Canada. Both are strong supporters of the RLI leadership development program for Rotary CLUBS. Both will assist in special expansion assignments in various parts of the world and other special assignments as needed. RLI is fortunate to have such outstanding R.I. leaders in these positions.

 
RLI Welcomes New Members of the Intl. Senior Leaders Advisory Board

RLI is proud to announce that eight distinguished past R.I. Directors have joined its Intl. Senior Leaders Advisory Board, bringing its total membership to 82 including nine past R.I. Presidents. The new members are:
Donald Kwait, Director/Treasurer, 1978-80
H. William Ives, Director, 1983-5
G.H. "Curley" Galbraith, Director/Vice-President 1988-90
Luis Felipe Valenzuela, Director, 1994-6
Edgar C. Hatcher, Director, 1996-8
Robert O. Brickman, Director/Vice-President, 1997-99
Samuel L. Greene, Director, 1999-01
Carlos Enrique Speroni, Director, 2005-7
 
We are honored to have the support and counsel of these past general officers of Rotary International.
 

Welcome New Divisions/Districts

RLI welcomes the new Rocky Mountain Division in the America West Region. The new division will also incorporate the former Arizona Division of the three districts in that State. The first new member district outside of Arizona is District 5440 that covers parts of northern Colorado and Nebraska and the State of Wyoming. The Agreement of membership was signed by District Governor David H. Scriven of Casper, Wyoming. Chair of the Division is PDG Greg Podd, who also serves as the Intl. Regional Vice-Chair for America West.

We also welcome the new Pacific Coast North Division that will cover Zone 25. The Washington State and Oregon, USA districts in Zone 25 that were members of the Cascadia Division will now move to this new division and will be joined by new member District 5130 in northwest California, USA. Chair of the new Division will be PDG Michael P. Merrill. The Agreement of Membership for District 5130 was signed by District Governor Kirk L. Brown of Crescent City, California, USA. We thank RLI Intl. Regional Vice-Chair Chris Offer for his efforts to form the new division.

Districts 2980 and 3212 have joined the South India Division. Signing the Agreements of Membership were District 2980 Governor N. Govindaraj of Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, India and District 3212 Governor V. Shanmugam of Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, India. PDG K.S. Pillai is Chair of the Division that now has four member districts. We thank PDG Rekha Shetty for her assistance in this expansion of the South India Division.


Personnel Update

District Governor Uri Zeiger is the new Chair of the Israel Division. Governor Uri is from Maalot, Israel and is a member of the Rotary Club of Maalot-Montfort.


Pakistan Faculty Orientation

The new Pakistan/Afghanistan Division kicked off its RLI program with a successful faculty orientation program in Karachi, Pakistan in late May and early June. The event was organized under the leadership of PDG Faiz Kidwai, Division Chair and the training activities were led by PDG Abe Clymer of Virginia, USA, a member of the RLI International Training Team. In his report on the sessions in Karachi, PDG Abe praised PDG Faiz for his outstanding leadership and then District 3270 Governor Saeed M. Shamsi for his strong support for the RLI program. 40 top district leaders attended the faculty orientation sessions to form a strong core group for future RLI courses. The first courses were scheduled in August for Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan.


International Training Team Calendar Filling Up Quickly

The calendar of the International Training Team is keeping many trainers busy with faculty orientation programs for new divisions/districts.  For August, 2009 training dates and places were August 1-2, Cordoba, Argentina with trainers RID Antonio Hallage assisted by PDG Juan Pedro Torroba; August 8-9, Buenos Aires, Argentina with RID Hallage and PDG Celia Giay; August 12-13, Dhaka, Bangladesh with PDG & RRFC Hoe-Beng Fong; August 28-9, Detroit, Michigan, USA with PDG Daniel Spencer, Jr.; August 28-9 with PRIVP Frank Collins, Jr.; and August 29, Portland, Oregon, USA with PDG Michael Merrill. More about these sessions and coming sessions during the first half of this Rotary year will appear in future eBulletins.

The Training Team and Promotional Visits Calendar is being posted on the RLI Website under RLI Organizational Information. It will be updated frequently.


SAVE THE DATE!!!
 
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 is the date of the RLI Annual Convention Breakfast at the Intercontinental Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Registration forms for ticket purchases will be available soon. The ticket price is US $32.00 per person. PLAN TO BE THERE.
 


RLI PHILOSOPHY

"Having leadership skills does not alone assure good Rotary leadership. An effective Rotary leader must ALSO have Rotary knowledge, perspective about where Rotary has been, where it is now going and a vision of what Rotary can be."