Fostering Rotary in Rotarians through RLI
Addressing the Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) South Asia meet in Chennai, RLI South Asia chair PRID Kamal Sanghvi, said, “We must encourage and foster the ideals of Rotary in everyone. An informed Rotarian is an asset to Rotary, he will inspire people around him to join us and serve the world better in all possible ways. So be well informed and cautious in what you deliver. And what you impart to the Rotarians must be universal with no regional differences.”
RID Anirudha Roychowdhury spoke about declining membership, continuity of leadership and adaptability to the new Rotary world. He urged the delegates to “organise RLI for green Rotarians.” Congratulating the RLI members he said, “you are making the organisation stronger by engraving Rotary thoughts in the minds of Rotarians.”
RLI international chair PRID Michael McGovern, in an AV message said, “Rotary needs leaders who can understand its objectives and what those mean — not just the words,” The meet aimed to explore ways to promote RLI in every region and discussed challenges the members face, and brainstormed solutions.
“RLI is a multidistrict, grassroots leadership development programme recommended by the RI Board and was strongly endorsed by the CoL at three of its triennial meetings,” said RID 3232 PDG A Subramaniam, regional chair for zone 5. The RI training at the International Assembly is crucial to prepare the DGEs and other district officers for their roles. The same is true for PETS and SETS. But RLI is a foundation course to transform a member into a Rotarian, and make him more knowledgeable about Rotary.
Citing an ongoing conflict of opinion regarding districts adopting RLI as a programme, he explained that the misunderstanding is in the word ‘leadership’. “If it was Rotary Learning Institute instead of Rotary Leadership Institute it would have received better support from all districts,” he said.
RLI vice-chair PDG George Sundararaj added that RLI will help in membership retention and groom everyone for leadership roles. RLI International training leader PDG Frank Wargo (US) was a special invitee at the meet. Membership planning, TRF, DEI, strategic planning, public image, club communication and empowering Rotaract were some of the topics discussed at the meet.
Several district governors, DGEs and DGNs were among the 175 delegates who attended the meet. Zonal chairs PDGs Sivarraj (zone 4), Dilip Pattanaik (zone 6) and Jorson Fernandez (zone 7), RLI advisors Binod Khaitan and PDG Ulhas Kolhatkar, and secretaries PDG Arun Kumar Gupta and Mohan Kumar were the resource persons.
