Incoming President's Message
Fellow Rotarians, I am honoured that you have given me the opportunity to lead the club in such a historic year as this – our 50th year of existence. I hope that by my actions and deeds I will live up to the examples set by the distinguished roll of past presidents who have served this Club before me.
As I said in my installation address, the tenets around which I plan to conduct my programme of activities in this our 50th year are based on the things that RI itself suggests are the ingredients which are key to being a successful Rotary Club namely:
· Sustaining and increasing our membership
· Conducting successful Community Service Projects
· Supporting the Rotary Foundation and its programmes
· Developing leaders at club level and beyond.
In doing the above I will specifically reach out to the “hidden weapon” of Rotary – namely the partners in service. Especially during the course of the coming months when we will be implementing the various activities and plans for the year including our special 50th anniversary programmes and my presidents project.
Most importantly though, I hope to inspire us all to live the words of the theme from RI President Kalyan Banajee, as we “Reach within to embrace humanity” at all levels ...
· ... internationally ... by donating to RI for use in its programmes including Polio Plus thereby allowing us to meet the Bill Gates Challenge and finally eradicate polio from our planet;
· ... regionally ... by supporting DG Lara’s vision around family, the environment, continuity and the foundation;
· ... locally ... by supporting and participating fully in the numerous activities planned to celebrate our 50th anniversary milestone, thereby allowing us to provide even greater benefits to our Barbadian society;
· ... personally ... by recommitting to live according to the central philosophy which inspired us to join Rotary in the first place, namely ... “Service above Self”.
Rotarians, let us remember, the Greek proverb: ‘A civilization flourishes when people plant trees under which they will never sit’ . - Let us plant the trees! Both literally and figuratively.