MESSAGE FROM R.I. PRESIDENT JOHN GERM

Posted by John Germ on Sep 25, 2016

Dear fellow Rotarians,

Part of moving Rotary forward means providing you and your clubs with the tools you need to succeed. A project that I’m proud to have launched this year is the upgrade of Rotary Club Central. We’ve listened to your feedback and are currently working to create a platform that is easier, faster, and more user-friendly by 30 June. Updates will be provided as they become available.

There are several upcoming events in the Rotary world.

Reconnect Week, 9-15 October, is an opportunity for you to invite Rotary alumni in your community to join you in a celebration or special event that will help strengthen their bond with Rotary. By staying connected with alumni, you not only cultivate new membership opportunities and network with proven leaders, but you also help them find new ways to make a difference through Rotary.

Rotary’s fourth World Polio Day celebration, on 24 October, will highlight the extraordinary progress made in the eradication campaign and emphasize the work that remains before we wipe out the virus for good. Health officials and Rotary’s celebrity polio ambassadors will head to Atlanta, Georgia, USA, for the event, the first to be held at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It will be streamed live and then will be available for viewing at endpolio.org. You can participate by:

Download the World Polio Day toolkit for information and resources on planning and promoting a successful World Polio Day event, such as a viewing party or fundraiser.
Register your event here for a chance to be recognized in Atlanta, or to be featured on our website and social media pages.
Write to local media and government officials. Pitch a story about your club’s contributions to the campaign and remind them why it’s important to keep fighting.

Looking ahead, the Rotary convention will be extra special as we celebrate the centennial of The Rotary Foundation in the city where it was born. I hope you’ll join me in Atlanta, 10-14 June 2017, to look back proudly at a century of being people of action and serving humanity—and look ahead to the challenges Rotary will tackle in the century to come.

You can help make this the most memorable convention yet by inviting your fellow members to register. Visit the online convention promotion kit for tools and ideas. You can also help by sharing your knowledge and experience at a breakout session in Atlanta. Submit your proposal online by 19 September for consideration.

Prior to convention will be the Presidential Peace Conference, 9-10 June, at the Georgia World Congress Center. We’ll celebrate our successes of making peace a priority and work on the underlying causes of conflict while looking ahead to opportunities to continue our commitment to peace. This special two-day event is open to the general public and all preconvention and convention attendees, including Rotary members, Peace Fellows, alumni, youth, and friends of Rotary. Find event information online.

I hope you see these events for what they are: opportunities to celebrate our accomplishments and spread the good work that we do as a part of Rotary Serving Humanity.

Sincerely,
John F. Germ
Rotary International President, 2016-1