RI PE Shekhar Mehta who originates from the Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar, West Bengal, India, revealed the 2021-22 presidential theme, Serve to Change Lives, to Incoming District Governors (DGs) on 1 February during the Rotary International Assembly.
The assembly, a yearly training event for district governors-elect, was originally set to take place in Orlando, Florida, USA, but was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This new year PE Shekhar wants members to focus their efforts on empowering girls and ensuring their access to education, resources, services, and opportunities so that future generations of women leaders will have the tools they need to succeed. Mehta asked members to use Rotary’s belief that diversity, equity, and inclusion is critical in all we do as a compass to guide this work.
Shekhar urged incoming DGs to dream big, guided by our shared vision for Rotary. “You will plan and set goals, inspire and motivate Rotarians to reach goals — goals to expand the reach of our organization by increasing membership, and goals to increase the impact of Rotary by serving the world.”
He stated our guiding mantra “Do more” as in bigger and impactful service projects, and “grow more” as in increasing our membership and expanding the participation.”
Membership was identified as our biggest challenge since the 1.2 million membership had not moved for last 17-plus years. He noted that we have an opportunity to make the biggest change in Rotary history by accomplishing in 17 months what we have not accomplished in the last 17 years.
To achieve this goal his ask is for each Rotarian to bring one member to Rotary in the next 17 months as he believes we need to grow more to do more.
Shekhar stated, our special focus this year will be on empowering girls drawing reference to one of Rotary’s core values - diversity. He stated “We have a public statement that outlines our belief in DEI — diversity, equity, and inclusion. It is important that we empower the girl as we all find that more often than not, the girl is disadvantaged. We will serve all children, but our focus will be specially on the girl. There are many issues that girls face in different parts of the world, and you as leaders will ensure that we try and mitigate the disadvantage of the girl that they may have.”
He ended with a note penned for our theme:
The biggest gift we are given
Is the power to touch a life
To change,
To make a difference
In the circle of life.
If we can reach out
With our hands, heart, and soul
The magic will begin to happen
As the wheel begins to roll ...
Let’s turn the wheel together
So all humanity thrives
We have the power and the magic
To serve ... to change lives ...