(Prepared by Terry Harper)

This page was created to depict some noteworthy postings on the ROTI listserv within the past month. May you enjoy and appreciate them as much as we do in a truly Rotarian spirit..

Message: 1
WHO Cancels Polio Innoculations for Afgahn Children
Posted by: "Ron" yamahajazz@yahoo.com yamahajazz
Sun Sep 21, 2008 6:53 pm (PDT)

This is a sad article... ROTI Chair Ron

WHO cancels polio jabs for Afghan children after doctors killed Tue Sep 16, 7:30 AM ET

GENEVA (AFP) - Polio vaccinations for over a million Afghan children have been cancelled, the World Health Organization said Tuesday after two doctors were killed in a Taliban suicide attack.

"Campaigns in the southern region are cancelled," WHO spokeswoman Sona Bari told AFP. The programme was due to start on September 21 and was intended to reach 1.2 million children aged under five in Afghanistan's southern regions, she said.

Two Afghan doctors working for the WHO were killed in a suicide car bombing in southeastern Afghanistan Sunday that was claimed by the Taliban.

The WHO said that a similar campaign in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Laghman was still likely to go ahead, as were future campaigns in the south in October and November.

Message: 2
ROTI; Reduced Number of Posts
Posted by: "Sam Chapman" scchapman1@sbcglobal.net sam12002000
Tue Sep 23, 2008 9:28 am (PDT)

To all who have commented on this slow season: just try to post a political or religious themed message. The results are predictable. Stand BACK smile

Sam

D6040 Liberty, Missouri USA

Message: 3
Membership: Are we paying attention? Voluntourism Is Catching On
Posted by: "Doug Vincent" dougv@TheFamilyBusinessAdvisor.com dwv444
Tue Oct 7, 2008 1:52 pm (PDT)

Greetings Rotary Leaders and friends:

We all know that membership is a major issue for Rotary and that there are different generations of potential member needs we should target if we are to attract them into our organization.

Most of you already know of my International travel activities, taking Rotarians and friends to experience hands-on opportunities for humanitarian service projects abroad.

I believe the article linked below, well illustrates what people are wanting these days. Are we giving sufficient attention to this aspect of member satisfaction by encouraging and promoting the great opportunities that we have in Rotary?

http://newsletter.cibc.hnw.com%2Fc.do%3Fcid%3D980500%26oid%3D643000

Just some food for thought.

Doug V.

Message: 4
GREAT NEWS Our investments are safe. RI General Secretary addresses
Posted by: "Art McCullough" artmccullough@cox.net
Fri Oct 17, 2008 9:52 pm (PDT)

Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 5:32 PM

RI general secretary addresses impact of U.S. financial crisis

Dear Rotarians,

Given the troubling news from Wall Street over the past several weeks, we have received many inquiries about the impact these events will have on Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation. Although our investments have lost value in the short term, we believe they will recover when the financial markets stabilize. In addition, Rotary maintains a diversified portfolio that includes investments outside of the markets that were adversely impacted by recent events. Rotary's investment policies have proven to be sound through past down markets. This prudent management should allow our programs and projects to continue as planned.

Many Rotarians have asked specifically about our investment holdings, insurance coverage, and reserves, so I would like to note the following:

• Both The Rotary Foundation's and RI's investment portfolios have only minor exposure to the companies that were taken over by the U.S. government (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG), purchased by other financial institutions (Merrill Lynch and WaMu), or declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy (Lehman).
• Although RI has some insurance coverage placed with AIG, AIG's insurance businesses are safe in that they are separate legal entities closely regulated by both state and federal agencies.
• Both RI and the Foundation have strong cash balances, and year-to-date revenues from sources other than investments are ahead of last year.
• All money in the PolioPlus Fund is invested in U.S. treasuries, the safest securities available.
• Both RI and the Foundation have adequate reserves to operate without having to sell investment securities at a loss.

Last week, The Rotary Foundation Investment Advisory Committee met with Rotary's independent investment consultant and several money managers for its regular investment review. The committee confirmed that the current investment policies set by the RI Board and Foundation Trustees continue to be appropriate for the long term. The committee advised the Trustees to continue diversifying the portfolio to further mitigate the impact of losses in any particular market.

You can be assured that Rotary's senior leaders, the general secretary, the Financial Services staff, and Rotary's investment consultant are monitoring this situation very closely. We are confident our investment and reserve policies will allow the good work of Rotary to continue around the world.

Sincerely,

Ed Futa
General Secretary, Rotary International

Message: 5
Good Matching Grants Website
Posted by: "Ron" yamahajazz@yahoo.com yamahajazz
Sat Nov 1, 2008 4:42 pm (PDT)

Those of you interested in helpful information re matching grants my benefit from -- A Newsletter to Rotarians Interested in Matching Grants with The Rotary Foundation --- by PDG Philippe Lamoise of D 5340. His presentation at the Los Angeles Convention was well attended. Be sure to go to the section entitled "Quick Tips" to an overall view of the website. That url is found at:

http://www.matchinggrants.org/quicktips.html

From there you can then explore more of the site he developed for matching grants with The Rotary Foundation.

Ron Nethercutt
ROTI Chair 07-09
RC Clark Centennial D 3790
Angeles City, Philippines

Message: 6
Rotary Volunteers
Posted by: "Aylin Olut" aylinolut@yahoo.com.tr aylinolut
Sun Nov 30, 2008 9:25 am (PST)

Dear Rotarians,

Thanks to all Rotarian Friends for their friendship . When I did join ROTI I was new in Rotary Family and do not have much info . I did ask lots of questions sometimes they were very basic . All friends did answer my questions and I became a leader with my knowledge in my district. I need your help once again .

DGE offer me serve to my district as Rotary Volunteers Chair for 2009-10 . This subject is new and not very welknown in my district .

I will ecourage the Rotarians to be RV and active in projects . If you can send me some info I will be very glad . I want to be a succesfull chair and if possible to invite and send RV for the projects . Looking for to hear your projects that you did in your district and memories that you have . You can share info via my private email addres.

Thanks , YIR

Aylin Olut
D 2440, GSE Chair

Message: 7
Mangrove Planting at Bangrin Marine Protected Area
Posted by: "Henry" Alaminoslaw@alaminoscity.com elijah_joseph
Tue Dec 2, 2008 12:34 am (PST)

Mangrove Planting at Bangrin Marine Protected Area

Last November 29, 2008, the Rotary Club of Hundred Islands (RCHi) planted two thousand two hundred (2,200) mangrove seedlings at the one-hectare portion of the Bangrin Marine Protected Area in San Miguel, Bani, Pangasinan. Present during the activity were represents from the Municipality of Bani, Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) and the Bangrin Federation, Rotaractors of the Rotaract Club of PASS College and NSTP students from the PASS College.

An offer came from the Municipality of Bani if the RCHi is interested in adopting a portion of the Bangrin MPA for mangrove planting. This is most welcome offer for RCHi for the environmental concerns of the Rotary International.

A Memorandum of Agreement was entered into among the Municipality of Bani, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources through the CENRO, the RCHi and Bangrin Federation. The Municipality and Bangrin are partners in taking care of all mangroves planted in the Bangrin MPA. The CENRO has provided the mangrove seedlings, the RCHi counterpart were the NSTP students, Rotaractors and Rotarians who joined in the planting. Bangrin Federations responsibility is to assure the survival of the mangrove planted by cleaning the mangrove area with debris brought by every high tide. The Bangrin Federation will be awarded monetary consideration if after six (6) months from the date of planting of the mangrove there proves to be sixty percent thereof to have survived.

The RCHi would like to thank all the people, organizations and offices which made the initial stage of the project successful. Special mention is due to the 40 NSTP students and their professor Mike Santos, the representative from CENRO and the representative from the Municipal Agriculture Office, Bani.

The RCHi would also like to thank Queenleen Shellane for the use of the delivery truck who ferried the NSTP students from PASS College to Barangay Aporao and back. To Bergonia Farms for the use of the delivery truck which delivered the mangrove seedlings from the CENRO office to the Barangay Aporao. The Aporao Fisherfolks Association, Inc. for the use of their motorboat to ferry the team of mangrove planters together with the mangrove seedlings from Barangay Aporao to Bangrin MPA. To Rotarian Jean Rendon who prepared and brought some merienda. To Rotarian Frank Braganza who went hands-on planting and guiding the NSTP students during the planting of the mangrove. To Rotarian Irin Onia who carried mangrove seedlings from boat wharf to the planting site. To Mr. Jerry Rendon who took action pictures during the implementation of the project. These pictures will be shown at the Gallery of the Hundred Islands Rotary website www.HundredIslandsRotary.org

Henry Onia
President RY2008-2009
RC Hundred Islands, D3790, Philippines

Message: 8
"ROTI Families"--Proposal
Posted by: "Philip" pmnugget@yahoo.com pmnugget
Tue Dec 2, 2008 5:58 pm (PST)

Hi all,

I was just thinking about how we often know each other only by the words we read here on the lists. It seems we would become closer and more familiar with each other if we had some images to go along with the words. And to go one step further I think it would be great if we had photos of ourselves with our families that are easily accessible to all members of the Fellowship.

I have two ideas on how this could be accomplished:

1. We could submit our family photos to our Breadbasket Editor Chris Wilks or one of the staff members, and create a section in the Breadbasket where all the "ROTI Families" are hosted. When you would click on "ROTI Families" on the main page you would go to a page where we would have thumbnail photos of the families with the name of the ROTI member under the thumbnail in alphabetical order. Then when you would click on the thumbnail the photo would enlarge. Also maybe each month Chris or staff could select a ROTI Family to feature on the main page of the Breadbasket along with the ROTIan of the Month.

   or

2. We could add a "ROTI Families" section to our www.roti.org home site and have a similar page with the thumbnails and name.

I think it would encourage activity on whichever site it was hosted. I know that I personally would like to put a face with a name when I read postings here on the list and I would also like to see the families of our members. In fact I would like to see the photos of all our members and families whether they are active posters or lurkers. When we get new members we could encourage them to submit a family photo.

I just feel that it would bring us closer together and encourage participation in the Fellowship.

In closing, may I kindly and respectfully ask for your opinion on this proposal?

Best regards,

Philip Merritt
PP RC Mabalacat D3790

Message: 9
Re: Walking among the planets in Anchorage
Posted by: "Jon Deisher" jondeisher@yahoo.com jondeisher
Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:53 pm (PST)

Hello Folks,

Anchorage Rotary and the several other contributing Rotary Clubs in our community are pleased with the results of our efforts to develop the Light Speed Planet Walk. Videos are available here:

http://homepage.mac.com/deisher/iMovieTheater155.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Px5rgaaCw

We are now involved in developing a series of "community events," one for each solstice and each equinox, involving getting students, families, and anyone interested in walking, running skiing or otherwise spending time "walking the planets."

This has been a truly community involved project.

Jon in Alaska

Message: 10
Playing around with computers!
Posted by: "Chris Sweeney" rotary@121technology.com sweens121
Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:54 pm (PST)

Hi all

I wrote to the general list earlier about my latest computer 'playing', which might be more appropriate to the tech list.

A few weeks ago I was chatting with one of our club members who has recently discovered Mandriva, a Linux distribution. He was telling me that it was possible to run Windows within a 'virtual machine' within Mandriva + it came installed with the OpenOffice software and a whole load of other stuff.

I thought I'd give it a go - my last attempt with Linux was less than successful a few years ago (I think it may have been command line only then) and in no time at all had downloaded and created a bootable CD and installed Mandriva so it dual-booted with Windows XP. Playing around with this, I was very impressed.

So impressed, I decided to build a computer with sufficient space, memory etc that I could experiment with running the 'virtual machines' mentioned previously. I also thought I'd try Ubuntu, which is a different distribution of Linux.

I built a computer with a 1 terrabyte hard disk, 8Gb RAM and a fairly modest (by today's standards) Athlon dual core CPU. I also bought a 22" widescreen LCD (so cheap I bought 2 - one for the kids!). I created an Ubuntu CD and installed it. Played around with that for a couple of days before installing anything else (OpenOffice, Firefox and numerous other programmes are installed by default - my 8 yr old daughter loves the games). I didn't have much success installing the virtual machine software that my friend used, but a quick look in the compatible programmes (available in the Control Panel-like area) showed a different one was available - virtualbox. I installed this and in no time had Ubuntu running, with a virtual computer running XP and another one running Vista. In for a penny, I also created another for Mandriva.

The widescreen was perhaps unnecessary (though it looks great) as switching between desktops with different virtual machines running concurrently is an absolute breeze - just a roll of the mouse wheel brings Vista or XP. I don't need to fit them on one screen in different size windows. Ubuntu comes with its own free email programme, 'Evolution', which is very similar to Outlook, giving you a calendar, tasks, contacts list etc

I found that the mouse didn't work within the virtual machines - but a quick trawl on the Internet gave me the solution in no time; mouse now works perfectly, as does my graphics tablet (The Linux distributions come with a programme called The Gimp, which is a bit like Photoshop - a high end programme, allowing you to edit RAW photos and much more). The next problem was how to share files across all the different virtual machines and Ubuntu - again, a quick trawl had this solved in no time.

There are still a couple of teething problems I need to sort - like attaching it to my Windows network at home (another club member is a long time Linux user and has already said he'll help me out with this).

The best thing of all about this is it's all FREE (the Windows bits aren't - you still need licenses for those products) and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes to play around a bit, especially if you've got an old PC lying around doing nothing. Wipe the hard disk and have a go. It's taken me back years and I haven't had so much computer fun in ages - but maybe I'm just a sad old geek!

I'm sure there are many on the tech list who have been Linux users for years; having started with an Apple (2GS?) many years ago, then gone through Apple Macs, Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, NT, XP and Vista I was taken back to the early days when I tried to install the CS4 suite - TWO dvd's which I had to swap half way through. Bit like swapping floppies all those years ago - but about a zillion time SLOWER. There's progress.

Cheers

Chris Sweeney

Message: 11
New Year's Wish
Posted by: "Ron" yamahajazz@yahoo.com yamahajazz
Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:18 am (PST)

As 2008 draws to a close and we look forward to 2009, I am hopeful that many of your personal desires have been met. Half of Rotary year 2008-2009 is almost complete and it is time to tally the aims of your club. It is not for the awards that your club may take home at the End of the Year Review, but:

1. How many children, elderly, and other needy have been helped by the efforts of your club?
2. How many new Rotarians have you brought into our organization?
3. How many personal friendships have you developed via Rotary?
4. How many meetings did you attend to share Rotary?
5. Is your personal attendance above 90%?
6. How many times did you say "NO" to something that did not meet the Four-Way Test?
7. Have you contributed anything to The Rotary Foundation?

So here is a toast to the New Year. The material is credited to that famed writer known simply as "Anonymous."

"May you have:

• Enough success to keep you eager. Enough failure to keep you humble.

• Enough joy to share with others. Enough trials to keep you strong.

• Enough hope to keep you happy. Enough faith to banish depression.

• Enough friends to give you comfort.

• Enough determination to make each day better than yesterday."

Message: 12
Documentary on Polio - The Final Inch
Posted by: "T Raghav Rao" traghavrao_hyd@dataone.in traghavrao2004
Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:12 pm (PST)

Dear all,

Here is the link for the trailer of the documentary, The Final Inch.

It has received the Oscar nomination in the category of Best Documentary (Short Film)

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=YCZ-bbkn44c

I wonder if anyone on ROTI has seen the entire film - does it have Rotary featured in it? Google, who co-produced the film, acknowledges the role of Rotary, but the trailer at least does not show any involvement of Rotary. Is the film available as a DVD anywhere ? I would love to get hold of a copy to ensure it is shown to as many people as possible, with or without the credit to Rotary - it is such an important subject.

The Final Inch is Nominated for an Oscar!

Google.org extends its heartfelt congratulations to Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant on their first Oscar nomination in the category of Best Documentary (Short Film) for The Final Inch, a film produced with support from and in collaboration with Google.org. In speaking with Irene this morning, she said, "This is a great day as more people will see that polio hasn't yet been eradicated, and is still a disease affecting the world's poor. This is a story needing to be told, and now more people will see the film."

Indeed, this is a great day for polio eradication, and we salute Gates Foundation, Rotary International and the governments of the UK and Germany who yesterday announced $630M for polio eradication. Polio continues to afflict mostly children under age 3 in the poorest regions of just a few countries. We hope that our film, which will air nationally on HBO in the coming months, energizes the group of dedicated donors and health workers to bring this eradication campaign past the final inch.

Posted by Gregory Miller, Managing Director, Google.org

Message: 13
Important ROTI BOD Message
Posted by: "Ron" yamahajazz@yahoo.com yamahajazz
Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:24 am (PST)

Dear ROTIan,

Since January 10, your ROTI Board of Directors have been studying the possibility of adding a social networking group, Facebook, to ROTI. Hundreds, if not thousands, of social networking groups may be found on the Internet. The most popular for the general audience and personal contact are MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and Bebo. The most popular among professionals areLinkedIn and Xing. The former and is one of the largest business social networking services. Those seeking to locate former high school, college, and military friends use Classmates and Reunion,

These groups are all tied to one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, friendship, visions, hobbies, and professions.

A test site was placed on Facebook using ROTI as a group which creating considerable discussion among the BOD. Some felt that Facebook would help spread our organization's growth and appeal to more younger members. Others expressed opinions that the security of our mailing list would be endangered and our members would receive more spam.

Since January 1st, 168 messages have been exchanged on BOD list; probably over 100 of those were expressing their views and opinions over the merits and demerits of ROTI having an official presence, and connection with Facebook.

See how hard the BOD works? Anybody want to volunteer? Excuse my adding a small bit of levity to our very serious work for the ROTI membership. But seriously, your board is comprised of members from five continents, many of whom have been in ROTI since its inception, while some have only recently been active in ROTI. Some are technically oriented while other may not. But all have a deep love and devotion to both Rotary and ROTI.

We recently concluded voting on one motion ""That the ROTI facebook group created by (xxxxxx) be adopted as an official part of the ROTI Fellowship." That motion was defeated by a vote of 7-5. After study we will move forward to vote on a second motion which will also consider having a formal presence on a Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, or others, and how it might be best managed by the ROTI Board of Directors.

Yours in ROTI and Rotary,

Ron Nethercutt
ROTI Chair 07-09
RC Clark Centennial D 3790
Angeles City, Philippines

Message: 14
Facebook controversy
Posted by: "Stanley E. Cahn" hhiguy@gmail.com stancahn
Mon Feb 2, 2009 5:31 am (PST)

Chairman Ron has asked me to share with you an off list email I sent him before the controversy started.

It follows:

I agree with you on Facebook and the other social network sites. LinkedIn has more security built in and the groups area is completely moderated. the owner and moderator has complete control over membership. This is the same as the Yahoo group structure.

I'm not an expert, but I believe Facebook, Friendster, and Myspace has a more open architecture, and anyone can participate. It may be useful for someone like Obama, who was looking for votes, but I don't see it for a Rotary fellowship.

The LinkedIn group would be business oriented. Members of ROTI who are looking for business connections could use this group to find and publicize their programs. We sometimes forget that Paul Harris did use his idea to increase his practice in Chicago where he was a stranger.

That would keep the Yahoo groups strictly for fellowship.

Stan

Several months ago we started correspondance about putting a ROTI discussion group on LinkedIN. We occaisionally see members putting business propersitions on the Yahoo lists. My idea was to add a presence on LinkedIN for that purpose.

Everyone should note, that I asked, I didn't just start a discussion group on LinkedIn, which was done with Facebook. I believe it should be a board descision not mine alone.

The founder of the Facebook group stated on the list that the ROTI facebook group has 241 members which came about in less than 30 days. which begs a question

How many are actually members of the Fellowship? How many are actually members of a Rotary club, Interact, or Rotoact?

If the group is totally open, you have the possibility of scammers, and thieves having access to our members information.

That is the problem, and the board needs to ascertain that basic protections are there. I also feel that we can have groups on all these social networks once we have put into place such protection.

Stan Cahn
PP Hilton Head - Sunset RC

Message: 15
To restore decorum and civility.
Posted by: "Ho Loon Shin" loonshin@yahoo.com loonshin
Tue Feb 3, 2009 4:33 am (PST)

Dear ROTIans,

Frankly, I see the need to restore some decorum and etiquette in the forum.

So I look up notes in RI website to find that there are 'RI Discussion Room Rules and Conditions' that can guide civil behaviors.

In this regard, I am especially attracted to the first rule -- that is applicable here too -- that says: "You agree not to harass, threaten, embarrass, or cause distress or discomfort to other forum participants." Can we be the Rotarians we can be, and be civil?

On civility, well civility assumes that we will disagree. Civility requires that we express ourselves in ways that we show our respect for others. Civility allows criticism of others, and sometimes even requires it, but the criticism should always be civil. These are some of the teachings I learned from the guru Stephen Carter.

What do you think?

With best wishes,
Ho in Malaysia

More:

Message: 16
ROTI Networking Group Announcement
Posted by: "Ron" yamahajazz@yahoo.com yamahajazz
Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:41 pm (PST)

Dear ROTIans,

I am pleased to announce that the motion by BOD member Ivan re social networking groups was passed that with NO opposing votes. For your information, that motion follows:

"The board shall formally request Don to remove the ROTI logo etc. immediately and then decide what happens later. Should the board decide to have a formal presence on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or wherever, the board shall assign somebody to be an administrator of such venue and do all actions necessary. A sub-committee of the board be formed to liaise with the administrators of the ROTI presence on the various networking venues."

The sub-committee has developed the following procedure to be used to develop a ROTI presence on the various networking venues:

Rotarians On The Internet (ROTI), a Fellowship of Rotary International, would be pleased to associate with any networking system that meets the ethical and moral standards of Rotary.

The following rules apply to any person wanting to start an "Associate" group.

• The administrator must be a current member of ROTI.
• The member must apply to the ROTI board for the "Franchise" on that particular network.
• A single group will be given the right to use the ROTI name on each network.
• The groups operate "at will", but will only lose status on complaint by members of the group or gross violation of Rotary rules and principles.
• Each group will display the special logo on their site. The logo has the ROTI emblem with the word Associate below. A copy of that logo will be placed on the ROTI Website as soon as possible.
• Where possible, the logo will be "hot linked" to the ROTI web site.
• In the description of the site, the following will be displayed. "This site is associated with, but not administrated by, Rotarians On The Internet, an official Fellowship of Rotary International. Their goal is to enhance the member awareness of processes of applying information technology to enhance Rotary service, fellowship, and knowledge. We encourage you to visit their website at www.roti.org and learn about the listservers they support and their projects."
• In support of their associates, ROTI will maintain a list on the ROTI website of all contact networks that have a ROTI Associate.

In other words ROTI may accept several networks as Associate members if they have a member of ROTI as the administrator and insure the aforementioned policies are followed.

Steve Sokol has agreed to serve as coordinator and assist the network administrators. In order to maintain continuity of leadership, Chair Elect Leticia, has been involved in the administrative discussions from the onset.

This has been a long a difficult task for the BOD and I am grateful for their efforts and input, findings, and research. Nearly 250 posts appeared on the BOD list; an example of the intensive discussions that occurred on this issue.

I am most happy that this issue has been settled prior to my leaving for the US to visit my Mom, children, grandchildren, Todd Lindley, and attend 3 Rotary functions. Glo and I leave very early Wednesday the 11th and return to the Philippines the 26th.

Yours in Rotary and ROTI.

Ron Nethercutt
ROTI Chair 07-09
RC Clark Centennial D 3790
Angeles City, Philippines

Message: 17
ROTI Associate Group on Facebook up and running with 409 members
Posted by: "Don Higgins" don@higgins.net dsh33782
Tue Feb 10, 2009 3:18 pm (PST)

Steve, Ron, BOD, all

I am pleased to announce that the ROTI Associate group on Facebook has now been updated with the new official ROTI Associate logo and the new description per the ROTI board announcement by Ron. If you are already a Facebook member, you can check it out by clicking on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34820007415#/group.php?gid=45925008146

If you are not a member of Facebook yet, I invite you to go to www.Facebook.com, create an account with your own email id and password, and come join the 409 current members of the ROTI Associate group on Facebook.

You don't have to give up the ROTI lists, I haven't. But you can reach out via Facebook to Rotarian friends and potential Rotarians and ROTI members around the world through the world's largest and fastest growing social network.

Don Higgins

Message: 18
Bushfire Disaster in Victoria, Australia.
Posted by: "David Andrew UNGAR" dauvik2@bigpond.net.au dauvik
Sat Feb 14, 2009 4:57 am (PST)

SHELTERBOXES DEPLOYED IN FIRE DISASTER RELIEF
First response sees aid delivered to Kinglake and Whittlesea

The first delivery of 50 ShelterBoxes was made to the fire-ravaged Whittlesea area yesterday. 40 boxes are in Kinglake with 10 at the Whittlesea Recovery Centre. ShelterBox Australia General Manager, Jenni Heenan spent the day with ShelterBox Response Team [SRT] volunteers Eb Friedrich (Rotary Club of Woodend) and Mark Mallman (Rotary Club of Whittlesea), witnessing scenes she describes as, "unimaginable loss, destruction and suffering – it's like a war zone."

Jenni was moved by the sense of community, and especially the support of Rotarians in these areas. "When people saw what the green ShelterBoxes contain, they could not believe they were being given a tent, blankets, a cooker and other equipment … and at no cost," Jenni said adding, "they are so grateful … tearfully saying their need is now."

Message: 19
Rotary District Peace Communities Programme (RDPCP)
Posted by: "Geoffrey B.W.Little The Smiling Policeman" polepfor@bigpond.com
Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:01 am (PST)

Dear Fellows Et Al,

I thought we could give the RDPCP a kick along on this URL I have sent to you all.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1806211&trk=anetsrch_name&goback=%2Egdr_1234587413533_33

As you can see I have set up the RDPCP in my name but we can negotiate around that.

Given that Facebook and Linkedin are taking off like hotcakes, I thought it was timely to establish a presence which will help to revive some, and ignite others of our established and declared Rotary District Peace Communities around the Globe.

This is a prelude of course to Rotary International hopefully taking the programme on board after the 2010 Council of Legislation processes the Resolution out of the Rotary Peace Summit held in Windsor, Ontario, in April 2008.

Please see www.rotarypeacesummit.com for more information.

yir

PP Geoffrey B.W.Little JP.PHF
RC North Sydney Sunrise D9680
Dean of the Ambassadorial Chair
Rotary District (9700) Peace Communities Programme (RDPCP)

Founding Chairman
Police Law Enforcement Professionals Fellowship of Rotarians (Polepfor - www.polepfr.org)

Message: 20
Should the position seek the Rotarian? Or should the Rotarian seek the position
Posted by: "Philip" pmnugget@yahoo.com pmnugget
Feb 15, 2009 5:00 am (PST)

Hi all,

I was wondering how you felt about these two possibilities for acquiring positions in Rotary. I have always believed that positions should seek Rotarians, and that for the most part Rotarians should not seek positions.

When Rotarians seek positions I have always found that politics and subtle (sometimes not so subtle) campaigning become a part of attaining the position. Politics and "campaigning for a position" are two elements of Rotary that I have found to be destructive and extremely divisive to the clubs and districts. It seems to me that often when Rotarians seek positions, their motives are not in the right place. They are often (but not always) looking to further their ambitions in Rotary and they use the position as a stepping stone or ladder to move further up the hierarchy or to give themselves more prestige or recognition within the club or district.

On the contrary, when positions seek Rotarians, I think it is because the Rotarians within a club or district often know who would be the best person for the position because of past performance, actions and leadership abilities, and they often approach the Rotarian and ask him/her to consider the position. I think it often takes a whole lot of convincing to persuade these Rotarians as they generally do not have ambitions for the job and are reluctant. But I think they are often the best candidates for the job, and because of their initial reluctance to be considered for the position, there is little or no campaigning involved and not so much divisiveness.

Surely different countries have different perspectives on this because of varying attitudes and cultures.

Just wondering what some of you feel on this. I hate politics in Rotary (and ROTI) and I do not like seeing Rotarians campaigning for positions. In fact I think the MOP addresses campaigning to some degree. (something to the effect of it not being allowed)

Best regards,

PP Philip Merritt
RC Mabalacat D3790