Proud to be involved with Rotary
John Pike, of Sedgley & Wombourne Rotary, looks at the international convention gathered in Birmingham.
Last week and this week have been very special for many of us in the West Midlands, as Rotary International held its annual convention at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre.
Many readers of this newspaper have no doubt seen our visitors in and around the city – more than 18,000 men and women from over 140 countries.
From an economic standpoint alone, the Rotary convention is a good thing, since it means a quick infusion of £20 million into our stores, restaurants, hotels and businesses.
But it also provides a far greater enrichment – an enrichment of the human spirit. A Rotary convention brings like-minded people together to celebrate their commitment to humanitarian service, share success stories, and make plans for future successes. Morale soars as Rotarians reflect on their accomplishments and inspire one another to achieve even more. It’s apt that the 100th Convention is being held in Birmingham – a city famed for its philanthropic past.
From my description, you might think Rotary members are naïve optimists. Yes, Rotarians are optimistic, but naïve? Quite the opposite. Rotarians by and large are a pragmatic sort – successful leaders in their businesses, professions, and communities who know how to get things done.
They don’t take on a project – from drilling a well for a parched village in Sudan to furnishing a computer lab at a local school – without taking steps to minimise risks and maximize efficiency and effectiveness.
This businesslike attention to detail has not gone unnoticed. In 2007, the Financial Times ranked Rotary among the top five non-governmental organisations with which to engage in corporate partnerships.
Thousands of individual Rotary clubs partner with businesses and other groups at the local and regional levels. At the organisational level, Rotary’s biggest success story is in fact its long-time partnership in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Rotary represents the private sector, working alongside the World Health Organisation, the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF to rid the world of the crippling disease polio once and for all.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, one of the most successful businessmen in history and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has awarded Rotary US$355 million in challenge grants, which Rotary clubs are matching with an additional $US200 million. All of the money will be spent on polio eradication activities in the handful of countries where polio persists. Rotary and its partners have reduced the incidence of polio by more than 99 per cent, but unless that final one percent is taken care of, the disease could stage a comeback, placing all of our children at risk. Once again, it’s the business approach: spending money to protect an existing investment, in this case an investment of $6 billion over the past two decades.
I should probably cease referring to Rotarians as “they,” because – if you hadn’t guessed – I am a Rotary club member myself. I was a part-time sports reporter for the BBC from 1968 to 2005, and I became a Rotarian in 1980 after interviewing a school headmaster for a radio sports story. The headmaster took me to his Rotary club meeting. I remember being very impressed with the guest speaker, but I didn’t know much about Rotary then. Even after I joined, I didn’t really understand what Rotary was about, but the more I learned, the more I got into it. It changed my life.
Now, between my volunteer work and serving as editor of Rotary Today, the magazine published by Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland, I probably spend up to 40 hours a week on Rotary activities. Of course, that’s my choice, but it’s just so rewarding that it’s hard to stop.
I must also mention a coincidence that I find intriguing because it touches on my life as both a sports journalist and as a Rotarian. You may have seen recent news coverage marking the 50th anniversary of the untimely death of Birmingham footballer Jeff Hall in April, 1959. He died after a relatively short bout with polio. As an avid fan with budding aspirations to be a sports reporter, I had seen Hall play maybe two dozen times at St. Andrew’s. Everyone was very sad when Hall died, throughout the country, as he played nine times for England. If there is a silver lining, it’s that his death caused parents to turn out in droves to make sure their children received polio immunizations.
Little did I know that some 20 years later I would join the organisation dedicated to making sure that no young person ever again would be threatened by polio. And for Rotary to hold its international convention in Birmingham not once, but twice – the first in 1984 – is another coincidence that makes me think that I was somehow destined to be a Rotarian.
So the Rotary convention in Birmingham has provided a very special week for me. When I joined my Rotary club, I didn’t really understand what I was getting into. Today, I could not be prouder.
