DG, Ross Butterworth
He came back with two projects. The Board approved the second project and told him to go find the money. The project was to conduct two hundred eye cataract operations in a southern Provence of India. He found a host Rotary Club in the Provence and sought funding from Rotary Foundation. By the end of the first year they had completed fifteen hundred operations. The magic of Rotary in this case was the ripple effect with the release of parents to again be productive or the child able to re-attend school.
As a district Governor he has received many training opportunities, for example attending training in San Diego with five hundred and thirty seven other district governors. He came away with three key insights;
- An updated status regarding the end of polio Project, which was started in 1985 with 350,000 cases a year. This year globally there were 220 cases. By the 18th may this year there were 26 cases and an end game is anticipated in 2018
- A talk from Rick King Past World President regarding membership. Make sure we approach people to join who share similar ideals and have a “Quality of Heart”. Rotary International has 1.2 million members, gaining and losing 120,000 members a year. The same joining as leaving. Of those joining 68% want to give back to the community and some join for fellowship. We need to give new members a job early and engage them to put forward new ideas. If you get a member for three years you have them for life.
- Bill Boyd Past Rotary International president in 2005 spoke about strengthening the brand. This has been done by re-visiting digital imagery. With 21 clubs in the 9800 districts partnering their public image budget it totalled $100,000. By joining two districts, RI contributed $465,000. Over $2.1million in campaigns have been spent this year
Ross offered a few points from his year
as District Governor:
- 1. Need new clubs or satellite clubs
- 2. Investigate Rotary International Funding.
- 3. Challenged the club to make one change.
- 4. Attend one of the two conferences, either The National Gold Coast Convention or the Rotary International Convention in Sydney next June.