Brad Weiss boasted Ken Green and Campus Kitchens. As Brad explained, Campus Kitchens is thriving at Northwestern.  It is a well-organized, efficient, and worthwhile endeavor, one that Brad shares with his sons. Thanks to Ken for keeping the effort alive with his training and oversight.

 

Don Gwinn boasted his son Peter, whose play, Twist Your Dickens, will be performed during the 2016 holiday season in Chicago at the Goodman Theatre, in Washington at the Kennedy Center, and in Los Angeles.   

 

 

 

Kristin received a slew of questions in response to her pre-program solicitation.  Evanston Lighthouse Rotarians are interested in Rotary’s structure, leadership, charity rating, polio progress, future goals, etc.   She vowed to answer as many questions as time permitted.
 
Kristin began her program with graphics illustrating Rotary’s basic organization. Rotary International is the association of Rotary Clubs.  More than 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 35,000 clubs in 200 countries/territories.
 
Individual members belong to clubs, which are grouped into districts. Districts are led by District Governors, who appoint multiple Assistant Governors and District Chairs.  There are about 534 districts worldwide (based on the number of active clubs). Districts are grouped into 34 Zones, with some zones sub-divided based on geography and language. Our club is in District 6440, which is in Zone 28. 
 
Rotary International is governed by a Board consisting of the President, the President-Elect, and 17 Directors who serve two-year terms and represent two zones each. Rotary’s leadership is planned three years out. There is always a President, a President-Elect, and a President Nominee.   Leadership at the local levels is also forward thinking. District leadership, for example, includes the District Governor, the District Governor-Elect, and a District Governor Nominee. Only Club Presidents are eligible to become District Governors; only District Governors are eligible to become Zone Directors; only Zone Directors are eligible to become RI Board Members. Because of Rotary’s three-year time horizon for each position, the shortest path to the Presidency would be a minimum of 12 years.  It typically takes much longer than that, however, for an individual member to rise to the Presidency of the organization.

 

The Rotary year, running from July 1 to June 30, is punctuated by many training opportunities and assemblies. GETS, the Governor-Elect Training Seminar, is held each fall prior to the International Assembly.  At the International Assembly in January, the President-Elect introduces his theme to his ‘class’ of Governors-Elect. (President-Elect John Germ recently announced his theme for 2016-2017: Rotary Serving Humanity.) PETS, the President-Elect Training Seminar, usually occurs in February or March. The International Convention is held in late May/early June.

 

Other training institutes held in Evanston bring a stream of interesting visitors to our club.
 
Evanston is the worldwide headquarters of Rotary International, with seven international offices located around the world and an 8th technical support/data services office in Pune, India. 

 

John Hewko is the General Secretary of Rotary International. Newly promoted Deputy General Secretary Michelle Berg will oversee the regional offices. There are six General Managers responsible for the following areas:  Communications, Information Services, Financial Services, Strategy and Enterprise Projects (Joe Brownlee of the Noon Club - General Manager), Programs and Member Services (Kristin’s area), and Polio, Development and Partnerships (John Osterlund - General Manager, also Carol Pandak, Eric Schmelling, and Karena Bierman).

 

The latter two areas are “Rotarian-facing,” with Polio, and Development and Partnerships raising money to do good in the world and Programs

and Member Services supporting clubs and districts in the many ways they do good in the world. 
 
Rotarian support is the goal of the Programs and Members Services area.   Member Support assists club, district, and zone leaders and the Support Center handles all frontline inquiries. Meetings and Events stages the International Assembly, International Convention, and more. Learning and Development designs curricula for the leaders at various levels (for Assembly, GETS, PETS). The Programs staff supports Rotary connections, partnerships and service, and the Grants staff processes, District and Global Grant applications. Membership Development focuses on growing Rotary’s membership. 
 
Programs and Member Services also supports international networking and connection activities, fostering service, fellowship, and cultural understanding. 

 

Last, but not least, Programs and Member Services helps the Rotary family connect online with social business tools.  Online discussion groups foster communication on shared topics of interest. Rotary Ideas is a crowd-sourcing tool that allows clubs to publicize service project resource needs and connect with partners. Rotary Showcase enables clubs to share their service accomplishments with the Rotary world.
 
The eradication of polio is Rotary’s primary corporate objective. Tremendous progress has been made and polio is currently endemic only to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Various Rotarian Action Groups are currently jockeying to be Rotary’s "next big thing" after polio.  There has been no formal word on what might be next.
  
A newly released book,  RI:  Doing Good in the World (The Inspiring Story of the Rotary Foundation’s First 100 Years), is being donated to the Evanston Public Library.