Engage Rotary, Change Lives Agenda of Ron D Burton, President, Rotary International Presentation by Sunil K Zachariah Adapted from the Theme Speech

Journey of Twenty-six years “Twenty-six years ago, I sat in the class of Rotary District Governors that began the job of eradicating polio” “Today, I stand in front of the class of Rotary District Governors that will finish it”

What We Learned from Polio Plus The most important thing we learned from Polio Plus was that we could do something about it. We could save kids from life in a wheelchair, or on crutches, or crawling in the dirt. We all realized that, through Rotary, we could change lives.

The Challenge “The challenge for Rotary leaders at every level — for me, for you, for the club presidents — is making sure that every Rotarian can have that experience of epiphany, that moment of realizing what Rotary is, what doors it opens, what a privilege it is to be a Rotarian”.

Future Vision – A New Era Future Vision is a new era for Rotary Foundation. Future Vision encourages bigger, more sustainable international projects while providing increased flexibility for local projects. Help clubs to understand Future Vision, benefit from the changes, and do the most they can with their resources.

Leading By Example Rotary Foundation should be the charity of choice for every Rotarian. Lead by example. If you want somebody to do something -just ask Before International Assembly 2013, Ron Burton asked every incoming Governor to make a donation in their own name to The Rotary Foundation. Every Governor Elect did — as well as every RI Board member and every Foundation Trustee. Together, they raised US$675,000.

Membership is your job Ron Burton was an active member of Key Club in high school; but he did not join a Kiwanis Club as no one ever asked him. Rotary Club of Norman, Oklahoma invited him and therefore he joined Rotary. “Membership is not someone else’s job — it’s my job, it’s your job, it’s every Rotarian’s opportunity.”

You have to ask You have to ask. Invite prospective members to your club. When they become members — your job isn’t over. Mentor them, make sure that they find a meaningful role in the club and that they get satisfaction out of Rotary. Ron Burton challenges through the Presidential Citation to add one net member to your Rotary Club in

Membership Goal We add about 120,000 new members every year. But every year, just about that many members leave. And that’s why our numbers have stayed the same, at about 1.2 million members, for more than 15 years. We need to take a look at those who are leaving and find out why they’re leaving and find what we can do about it. We are committed to seeing Rotary membership climb to 1.3 million by That’s an absolutely achievable goal.

Women and Young Members “In 1987 Rotary was given the opportunity to extend membership to women. It was, indeed, a red-letter day for Rotary. But if you look around you, it quickly becomes very obvious that there should be a lot more women in this room today than there are. There is no reason that half of the incoming governors shouldn’t be women. That’s something we all need to work on.” “Additionally, we need to work on bringing younger members into Rotary — making sure that today’s Rotaractors, Interactors, RYLArians, Youth Exchange students, Foundation Scholars, and Group Study Exchange team members become tomorrow’s Rotarians”.

Engage Rotary, Change Lives When Rotarians get involved — when they get engaged — lives change. In , inspire Rotarians, get them engaged, share with them the gift to be a positive force for change in our world.

This presentation, comes to you from eFlash_Rotary, attempting to make the President’s theme simple and easy to understand. eFlash is an electronic newsflash on Rotary, now in its 13 th year. It has members from over 100 countries. To subscribe, please send an to You are invited also to visit