DGEs gear up for their year

A one-day orientation workshop was held in June in Chennai for the incoming DGs where senior leaders — RID C Basker, RIDEs Bharat Pandya and Kamal Sanghvi, TRF Trustee Gulam Vahanvaty, PRIP Kalyan Banerjee and PRIDs Shekhar Mehta and Y P Das — addressed them on aspects such as membership development, stewardship and election issues, literacy and the new enactments passed in the recently concluded CoL. The meeting enabled the incoming district leaders to discuss various aspects with the senior leaders at close quarters.

“Create your own walk and talk. Your actions must inspire your team to excel in all activities,” said RIDE Sanghvi and urged the district leaders to plan programmes to commemorate the centennial celebrations to be held in February 2020 in Kolkata in the presence of RI President Mark Maloney.

Both the incoming directors urged the delegates to dream big and implement bigger and sustainable projects in their respective communities. “People look up at Rotary with immense faith and hope that we Rotarians will find solutions to their challenges and it is up to us to honour their faith and fulfil their expectations. Each one of us is the face of Rotary,” said RIDE Pandya.

RID Basker, talking on leadership qualities, said that the governors are the role models for the district team including the club presidents and secretaries and “you are the closest tier that your team looks up to. So be careful in your words and deeds. Motivate them to deliver more than what they think they can.”

TRF Trustee Vahanvaty urged the district leaders to spend the district grants purposefully and not hoard the money “which act will not help anyone in the long run. The money is sanctioned by the RI Board for you to execute meaningful projects. So use it diligently and for the purpose it is meant for.”

PRID Das, the Chair of Rotary India National TB Control and Awareness Committee, prevailed on the governors to raise awareness among Rotarians, people and local doctors on TB and the need for its early diagnosis and treatment. Health camps can include screening for the disease and awareness sessions particularly in rural areas, he said and suggested districts to appoint District TB coordinators. Making note of a report that 75 per cent of Indians die due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, BP and obesity, he said, “it is time Rotary addresses such issues through a ‘Stop NCD’ project,” to which Dr Pandya added that districts can promote the ‘One spoon less’ project aimed at cutting down on sugar and salt which are the catalysts for NCDs.

Jatinder Singh from the RISAO spoke on membership and election pilot. PRIP Banerjee gave an insight into the genesis of the Rotary India Literacy Mission and its Chair Shekhar Mehta explained the various aspects of TEACH and urged the governors to focus on child development and adult literacy among others. He updated the delegates of the various achievements met by RILM and lauded the Inner Wheel clubs for their overwhelming support.