Rotary International President-elect
Barry Rassin laid out his vision for the future of the organization on Sunday,
calling on leaders to work for a sustainable future and to inspire Rotarians
and the community at large. 2018-19 RI President Barry Rassin announces his
presidential theme, Be the Inspiration, at Rotary's International Assembly.
Rassin stressed the power of Rotary’s
new vision statement, “Together, we see a world where people unite and take
action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in
ourselves.” This describes the Rotary that leaders must help build, he said.
To achieve this vision, the
president-elect said, Rotarians must take care of the organization: “We are a
membership organization first. And if we want to be able to serve, if we want
to succeed in our goals — we have to take care of our members first.” Rassin asked
the incoming district governors to “inspire the club presidents, and the
Rotarians in your districts, to want to change. To want to do more, to want to
reach their own potential.
Rassin noted that one source of
inspiration has been Rotary’s work to eradicate polio. He described the
incredible progress made over the past three decades. In 1988, an estimated
350,000 people were paralyzed by the wild poliovirus; just 20 cases were
reported in 2017 as of 27 December. “We are at an incredibly exciting time for
polio eradication,” he said, “a point at which each new case of polio could
very well be the last.”
He emphasized that even when that
last case of polio is recorded, the work won’t be finished. “Polio won’t be
over, until the certifying commission says it’s over—when not one poliovirus
has been found, in a river, in a sewer, or in a paralyzed child, for at least
three years,” he said. “Until then, we have to keep doing everything we’re
doing now.” He urged continued dedication to immunization and disease
surveillance programs.
Sustaining
the environment
Rotary has focused heavily on
sustainability in its humanitarian work in recent years. Now, Rassin said,
Rotarians must acknowledge some hard realities about pollution, environmental
degradation, and climate change. He noted that 80 percent of his own country is
within one meter of sea level. With sea levels projected to rise two meters by
2100, he said, “my country is going to be gone in 50 years, along with most of
the islands in the Caribbean and coastal cities and low-lying areas all over
the world.”
Rassin urged leaders to look at all
of Rotary’s service as part of a larger global system. He said that this means
the incoming district governors must be an inspiration not only to clubs, but
also to their communities.
“We want the good we do to last. We want
to make the world a better place. Not just here, not just for us, but
everywhere, for everyone, for generations.”
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For more Details: https://my.rotary.org/en
