Editorial
Front Page - Friday, July 30, 2010
New Rotary International president visits Club 99
Jay Edwards (with an assist from The Rotarian and www.rotary.org)
Ray Klinginsmith (left) with Downtown Little Rock Rotary President Randy Hyde, at the?SCRYE (South Central Rotary Youth Exchange) Summer Conference Celebration Luncheon, hosted by Club 99, on July 23 at the Doubletree Hotel. Klinginsmith is the 2010/2011 Rotary International president.
- Jay Edwards
The thought persisted that I was experiencing only what had happened to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others in the great city … I was sure that there must be many other young men who had come from farms and small villages to establish themselves in Chicago ... Why not bring them together? If others were longing for fellowship as I was, something would come of it.
– Paul P. Harris,
My Road to Rotary
The world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, was formed on February 23, 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to capture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The Rotary name derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members’ offices.
Rotary’s popularity spread, and within a decade, clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York to Winnipeg, Canada. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents. The organization adopted the Rotary International name a year later.
As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving club members’ professional and social interests. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization’s dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its motto: Service Above Self.
By 1925, Rotary had grown to 200 clubs with more than 20,000 members. The organization’s distinguished reputation attracted presidents, prime ministers, and a host of other luminaries to its ranks — among them author Thomas Mann, diplomat Carlos P. Romulo, humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, and composer Jean Sibelius.
Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to over 32,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.
Last month, another attorney, Ray Klinginsmith, took the helm as the president of Rotary International, nearly a half-century after he became a Rotarian.
It was back in 1961 that Klinginsmith traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, to attend the university there on a
Rotary Foundation Ambassa-dorial Scholarship.
Recently asked by “The Rotarian” magazine what he hoped to accomplish in his year as president, Klinginsmith answered, “We need to continue giving close attention to polio eradication. We have to put the cork in the bottle on the disease, or it will spread again. I’m sure we can do it, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is sure we can do it. Otherwise they would not have given us $355 million to help finish the job.
On Friday July 23, the new head of RI was in Little Rock for the SCRYE (South Cent-ral Rotary Youth Exchange) Summer Conference Celebration Luncheon hosted by Club 99. He began by telling the large crowd at the Doubletree Hotel about his theme for the coming year, “Building Communities – Bridging Continents.”
“I limited myself to four words, and then I decided that most of the themes address just Rotarians. I wanted to come up with a theme that would give a little insight for outsiders about what it is that Rotary does. And at the same time to validate for Rotarians the importance of what we do.”
“I kept in mind past president Frank Devlin’s admonitions that all of us should have an elevator speech. That if you get on an elevator on the first floor and someone notices your Rotary pin and says, “What’s that?” that by the time they get off on the third floor they should have some idea about what Rotary is and what Rotary does.
“So I wanted to give a platform for an elevator speech.
What we do in Rotary better than anyone else is build our communities and bridge continents. Those four words capture the essence of what Rotarians do.”
“As you provide a place for Rotarians to meet once a week you have helped the community, because you help the psyche of the Rotarian.
“And we are fortunate as Rotarians to have these weekly meetings to attend. It’s where we hear the good news, about our communities.
“Then we go to vocational service. I think all clubs should honor people and organizations in the community that show that they, through their actions and words live up to the Four-Way Test. It’s very easy to do and it’s so important.
One of my favorite stories is about past president Cliff Randle, who told the story about a young man working for a big corporation and one day had a chance to talk to the CEO and he said to this CEO, “Sir, what are the secrets to success in business?” And the CEO said, ‘Well it’s easy, two words, Integrity and Wisdom.’ And the young man said, ‘What do you mean by integrity?’
‘Well if you make a promise, you have to keep it. Even if it costs you time, even if it costs you money, even if it causes you to lose face. You have to keep your promises.’
The young man looked at the CEO and said, ‘OK, I understand that. But what about wisdom?’
‘Well, you have to be wise enough not to make all those dumb promises.’
Summarizing some of his own wisdom from 50 years in the service organization he is obviously passionate about, Klinginsmith said, “If there is a community need, fill it. Put
your whole club into it. Because that is what Rotarians and Rotary Clubs do the best. And we do it better than anyone else in the world, making the world a better place.”
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