A Sense of Belonging

Over recent weeks I have been a little surprised to hear people taking about Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs in relation to Rotary activity.   But I guess when we look at it the concept covers everything we do and how we do it.

So what do Rotarians do?  We provide "Community needs on a global scale" and we do this by undertaking Service above Self.

So taking a look at the simplest of hierarchies, in many cases our activities provide for peoples basic needs, safety and security.   Our Areas of Focus, Peace and conflict prevention/resolution,  Disease prevention and treatment and Water and sanitation concentrate on the basic needs.  Our others, Maternal and child health, Basic education and literacy and Economic and community development start to build on the requirements for love and belonging and self esteem.

As I start my District Governor visits to Clubs I realise that for many Rotarians there is a real sense of belonging to a Club, perhaps over and above Rotary International itself.  That regular weekly meeting is a place of friendship and fun and can be a regular outing in what could be difficult personal circumstances.   The Club meeting can therefore be a real anchor in someone’s life.

For others, who are perhaps more involved in our project work, the sense of achievement from a job well done and the provision of service for others gives a sense of personal esteem, occasionally reinforced by thanks from those that receive our service.

Every now and then a project will provide us with a special Rotary Moment, that spine tingling event that really gets to the heart of what we do and why we do it.  It’s these moments that help us move on to more innovative and creative thinking about what it is really possible to do as a member of Rotary. 

So, yes, Maslow’s Hierarchy makes a lot of sense of what we do.  

In this internet age the diagram on the right is an interesting take on the issue provided by blogger Erica Glaiser.  Where would you put LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Wordpress?

A Sense of Place

Having started a few weeks of intense travelling around the District I have been considering what a sense of place means.

Town Hall, Barrow-in-Furness

Many of the places I will visit during the year will have personal memories whether related to my family, school, working or Rotary life.   A good example from this first week on the road was the Town Hall in Barrow where I started my working career all those years ago.  The Rothay Manor Hotel, Ambleside that I helped put in the middle of a one way system and the A590 which I helped improve in the 1980’s.

Cumbria & Lancashire

The journey around the district will highlight the varied landscapes, towns and cities in which we provide our service.  The lakes and mountains of the Lake District, the rivers and valleys of the Eden, Lune and Ribble, the hills of Bowland and Pendle the coastal plains of the Solway, Morecambe Bay and the Fylde; It’s a great area to live, work and play.

We also have a wide range of communities in the district from small picturesque villages to run down housing estates in areas of deprivation.  A challenge for all of us as we determine what we should do in our communities and how we manage the growth in membership we know we need.

A final thought this week about the sense of place relates to where we meet.  It will be interesting as I travel the district to get a sense of what meeting venues mean to Rotarians and the communities which they serve.   Are there situations where our meeting place is inappropriate as we struggle with the challenge to bring more people into our organisation.

Managing time ....

This week has been about consolidating my diary, as I write I have all but 3 Club Visits in the diary together with around 50 charter dinners.  So that’s half the year gone.  Add to this District meetings, Competitions and Events, Community meetings, General Council, RIBI Committees and Conferences the year is almost complete.

I do have a 3 week gap around Xmas – what do I do?  Get away or wait to see if and when it fills up?  There is also a small window in May, but I guess not for long.

So two weeks away in Autumn 2014 now need to be booked – done!

Time will fly by, and I guess the trick is to enjoy every minute of it.  When I asked PDG Hubert Pierce for his one tip for the year he said always have your camera with you, because you will not remember everything you have done. 

The Rotary day is an unusual one in that when visiting it revolves around mainly lunchtime and evening meetings so mornings and afternoons are free(ish).  But as I noted last week we seem to have plenty of Admin work to contend with.

So perhaps the best advice on this whirlwind year ahead might come from Spencer Johnson in his book “The Precious Present”

“My past as the present
and my future will be the present.
The present moment is the only reality I ever experience.

As long as I continue to stay in the present.
I am happy for ever:
because forever is always the present.

The present is simply who I am
just the way I am ……
right now.

And it is precious

I am precious

I am the precious present !”

The Journey Begins

After an enjoyable weekend in Windermere when I took on the reins of District 1190 the initial thoughts that come to mind are just  how much I am going to have to write and comment about.

Reports for Executive and Council, monthly newsletters, welcome letters, thank you messages, Charter dinner speeches, district events, off the cuff, presentations and press items.

All of this will quickly help hone my thoughts on the task we have in front of us.  I will be using these random thoughts to help with this process and hope that those that read them enjoy the journey with me.

Engage Rotary Change Lives and all the various permutations of these words are a good starting point, but by Christmas we need to have engaged and moved on to taking action.

What then are the steps to be taken to move from engagement to action?

How about encourage, inspire, inform, motivate - the roles that I, our district team and club leaders have in the process of gearing up for action.

My first week has been used to work on encouragement and inspiration.  My own club were the guinea pigs followed closely by Carlisle Castle, Wendy's club, and if their reaction was anything to go by then I have an exciting few months ahead as we develop a dialogue for change within the District.

There won't be many more stunning drives than that we had when travelling to the first of my many Charter dinners.  The northern Lake District mountains in all their glory contrasted with the Irish Sea when we arrived at St Bees.  The 90th Charter anniversary of Whitehaven Rotary Club had to be hurriedly rearranged but was a great night of fellowship.

As for the speech critical feedback was good, but as ever I know I could have done better. Every one if these speeches needs to be personalised to the club and that is a challenge to be met.

Reflections on 42 Years - The parallels kept on appearing

Reflections on 42 years - The parallels kept on appearing

Having just retired after 42 years working for local government in the Cumbria area I have been reflecting on my career.   In doing so I identified some unexpected parallels between what I am about to embark on and what I have just left behind.

Starting in 1970 on £618 per year I worked for the Engineers Department of Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council.  A local Council very much immersed in its local community which even then was still servicing the world with the ships built by 14,000 in the yard.

Overground or underground, roads or sewers, at the time no contest but what if …..

A590 at Greenodd

Moving to the County Council in the late 70’s community involvement even more to the fore.    Balancing the needs of local businesses and farmers against the pressures of tourists in the Lake District, saving lives by investigating road traffic accidents and improving roads, building by-passes for disturbed communities.

The parallels kept on appearing …..

In the late 80’s a change of career with 10 years spent supporting young people at the start of their careers, helping managers and their teams in times of radical change and supporting communities as they asked for change.  And also becoming a competent manager myself with experience in both the public and private sectors.

Bridging the River Eden in Carlisle

The parallels kept on appearing …..

The final part of my career, back in Highways, but with a more Project Management remit.   Large scale contracts to develop and manage, pubic inquiries to support, politicians to work with but all with a people focus, whether my staff or the local communities they serve.

The parallels kept on appearing …..

Bringing "Water from Eden" in Dinfara, Mali

So now as I take on the role of District Governor for District 1190 here in Cumbria & Lancashire and we  “Engage Rotary to Change Lives”.  We will be connecting with our local and international communities, providing leadership when requested, exchanging ideas and of course taking action.

I wish everyone reading this a great Rotary year ahead as we continue to put “Service above Self”

We are "This Close" to ending Polio

Ending Polio

Many people of a certain age will remember all too vividly the impact that Poliomyelitis had on friends and family members.  As a reminder Poliomyelitis or polio is an acute viral infectious disease.  It is spread through overcrowded, unclean conditions, and improper sanitation of waste fluids. During the early 20th century polio devastated many populations around the world.  Until the mid 1950’s there was no readily available vaccine against this crippling disease.  It took several years for it to be eradicated from the industrial world.  Indeed there were significant outbreaks recorded in Coventry & Hull in 1957 & 1960.  In 1963 the oral vaccine was developed and polio is now rare in first world countries.   It was however only finally eradicated from the whole of Europe in 2002.

It took longer for polio to be recognised as a severe problem in developing countries.  However, "lameness surveys" during the 1970s revealed that the disease was frequent, crippling thousands of children every year. Routine immunisation was introduced worldwide, helping to control the disease.

In 1985 Rotarians decided that the eradication Polio would be a task they would take on for the people of the world.  Smallpox had been eradicated in the early 60’s so why not Polio.

Rotary has led the private sector in the global effort to rid the world of this crippling disease. Today, PolioPlus and its role in the initiative is recognized worldwide as a model of public-private cooperation in pursuit of a humanitarian goal.   As part of this PolioPlus initiative Rotarians, including those in the Carlisle area, regularly take part in National Immunisation Days, mainly in India but also in Pakistan and parts of Africa.  Working with local Rotarians they help ensure that every child of 5 years or younger receives the Polio Vaccine twice a year.  In a city of 8m people like Bangalore which a team from our area visited in 2010, this is an immense logistical task and it was a privilege for us to take part.  http://rotary1190india2010.blogspot.com/

In addition to providing financial and volunteer support, Rotary works to urge support from other public and private sector partners. This includes the campaign to End Polio Now, inspired by the extraordinary challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.   They have provided some $300m over recent years provided that Rotarians provided a further $200m.  We have $190m collected already and have until June 2012 to collect the rest – and we will.

When Rotary launched its push to end polio in the 1980s, the wild poliovirus crippled nearly 1,000 people every day. Since then, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have reduced the incidence of polio by 99-percent. And the push continues: This year, India has the lowest number of polio cases in history. We are “this close” to ending polio once and for all.

Peace the World Over

“Peace the World Over”

In 1940 the world was at war. Paul Harris, founder of Rotary wrote in The Rotarian magazine that February: ‘Must the best genius of men be devoted to the science of war and none to the science of averting it?’

The Second World War began to clarify views within our organisation that we could and should strive to make our world a far more peaceful place. After the war, The United Nations were formed. Around 100 Rotarians were deeply and fundamentally involved at senior levels in the formation of the most famous of all Organisations for Peace. Many people, even Rotarians don’t realise that Rotary has such an incredible history of ground breaking work in this field.

The Rotary Foundation is our charity. Its vision is-

“Enabling Rotarians to Advance World Understanding, Goodwill and Peace.”

It has three key elements to its mission:

·         Improving Health

·         Supporting Education &

·         Alleviating poverty.

Those of you up to date with current accepted theories on Global Security will know that these also happen to be (if you now add Global Warming), the key issues we need to address if we our World has any chance of remaining a peaceful one.

So the ultimate aim of our charity is the promotion of World Peace. You can’t get a more ambitious goal than that.

In 1999 Rotary decided to set up the Rotary Centres for Peace and Conflict Resolution around the world.  Rotary Peace Fellows attending these centres are leaders promoting national and international cooperation, peace, and the successful resolution of conflict throughout their lives, in their careers, and through service activities.

Each year, up to 100 Rotary Peace Fellowships are offered on a competitive basis at six Rotary Peace Centres, which operate in partnership with seven leading universities across the world.  The fellows are chosen from countries and cultures around the globe based on their potential as leaders in government, business, education, media, and other professional areas.

Rotarians in the UK are proud that one of these centres is the Peace Studies faculty at Bradford University.  At a recent Conference fellows gave us an insight into their work and interests.  These included insights into Land Conflicts in Cambodia; Humanitarian responses to the Somali refugee crisis; Civil Conflict, Peace Building and Reconciliation, experience from Sierra Leone; Conflict Minerals. 

The breadth of work undertaken by these dedicated individuals always astounds and impresses.   It also makes you think “What is Peace?”  At an international Peace Conference in 2009 I noted the following from Prof Paul Rogers  “Peace with work to do in an ever more Crowded, Glowering World” 

More info at http://www.causes.com/causes/87617-rotary-peace-fellowships