Sunday 15 July 2012

General Council Meeting 14th July

Today was the first meeting of the RIBI General Council for the Rotary year 2012 - 2013.    It was an all day meeting starting at 9am and with just a 30 minute break for lunch.  It was held in the Council Chamber at the RIBI Headquarters in Alcester, Warwickshire involving all the District Governors and other officers of RIBI.

The day was taken up with business and with two presentations. The first one was in relation to the "End Polio Now" campaign with particular reference to Pakistan, one of the three still endemic countries.   We were told of the massive funding gap of over $940 million that is needed to finish the job of eliminating the wild polio virus and being able to declare the world polio free.  Tremendous strides are being made but Rotary the world over, must still remember that ending polio is still our no. 1 goal.   The drive now is to seek more funding from national governments.

The second presentation, by Past District Governor and chair of the RIBI Membership Development Committee, Amanda Watkin was on the five year Regional Membership Development and Retention Plan that has recently been sent to RI.    She highlighted the continuing and sustained decline  in our membership (RIBI) over a number of years and set out the steps that were being planned to reverse this decline.

The planning document that was produced reflects Rotary International's stated aim of having 1.3 million members by the end of June 2015.

From a personal perspective I thought the plan was well thought out, thorough and most importantly achievable.   It has been accepted by the RI Board and it is now up to us, Rotarians in Clubs and Districts to pick it up and run with it.  It can only make us stronger.    Full details will be circulated in due course.

The meeting broke up about 4.30pm and by 5pm Gail and I were on the road and back home by the late evening, for a well earned drink.

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