After a day of interviews with the committee vetting candidates for 2025–26 Rotary International president, Mario Cesar Martins de Camargo returned to his hotel and waited. And waited. “It’s an elimination process,” he says. “The anxiety level reaches sky high.” When he got a call asking him to return to Rotary headquarters in Evanston, his first thought was that he’d made some sort of mistake. As he walked the few blocks to the building, he mentally reviewed everything he’d said. When he finally realised why he’d been called back, it was an emotional moment, he says. “The nominating committee stands up and applauds you, and you are invited to say your first words as president. Mine were, ‘Are you guys sure?’”

Nearly 50 per cent of the Rotary clubs in his district are in smaller townships

A Rotary Knowledge Enhancement and Faculty Centre will be built in Thane to train Rotarians through a CSR grant

While analysing membership challenges, Prashant Raj Sharma identified that the first two years are crucial for new members to feel at home and integrate into the club.

He joined Rotary in 1985 guided by Dr Vijay Aradhye, a Rotarian. “I was impressed by its global efforts to eradicate polio, and diverse work for needy people,” says Dr Suresh Saboo.

Clubs have been told to do a “proper needs assessment before taking up a service pro-ject so that we don’t waste our scarce resources,” says Tushar Shah.

His most cherished Rotary ­memory is participating in the ­friendship exchange programme in 2014, which took Mohan Parashar to South ­Alabama, RID 6880, USA.

His vision is to make clubs “vibrant and irresistible so that they can build on the magic of Rotary.” Chetan Desai aims to add 700 new members and charter 12 new clubs, taking the total to 6,700-plus and over 130 respectively by June 2025.

Feeling gung-ho over the newly carved district 3191, Udaykumar Bhaskara says, “in the coming years, our clubs will do wonders in membership growth, TRF-giving and CSR projects.”