Thursday, January 21, 2010

Building Communities -- Bridging Continents

It was wonderful to be in San Diego for the International Assembly with more than 500 DGEs from around the world. RI President-elect Ray Klinginsmith announced the 2010-11 RI theme, Building Communities -- Bridging Continents, during the opening plenary session. President Elect Ray said he arrived at the theme after reviewing RI themes of years past. He noticed that only a few spoke to non-Rotarians.

He said, "As a result, I decided to search for a briefly stated theme that would fulfill two objectives: the first to explain Rotary to non-Rotarians, and the second to validate our work for Rotarians". "The words I have selected to describe Rotary's current mission and to highlight our achievements are what we do best: Building Communities -- Bridging Continents. " The president-elect described how his 50 years of Rotary experience have contributed to his focus on communities at home and abroad. For example, as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar, he studied for a year in South Africa, becoming the first student from his small town of Unionville, Missouri, USA, to study abroad.
He encouraged all of us to reexamine traditional procedures that were no longer best practices and to begin new traditions where appropriate.
I think the theme is easy to work with. Just four words to tell us all what Rotary does.

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