Meet and hear RI President Kalyan Banerjee

From DG Maureen Merrill message:

Multi-District Annual Dinner with R.I. President Kalyan Banerjee

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Doubletree Hotel in Sacramento

$32.50 per person

President Kalyan will speak

Enjoy evening with friends from District 5130 and other northern California districts

Please indicate if you are definitely interested or MAY be interested and the number of tickets.

Ticket price information coming soon.

Selling coffee for a cause

Selling coffee for a cause
By Megan Ferringer
 
Rotary International News -- 10 November 2011
 
(this article is taken from the RI website)
By selling fair trade coffee to Rotary clubs throughout the United States, a former Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar is helping to raise money to fund worldwide clean water initiatives.
  
A pump provides water to a village in Tanzania -- part of a project made possible by the Foundation’s donor advised fund. Water and sanitation is one of Rotary’s areas of focus under the Future Vision Plan.
  
Five for Water, a project started by Bill Prost, a member of the Rotary Club of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA, finances a Rotary Foundation donor advised fund for water projects in coffee-producing countries. After forming a partnership with Green Mountain Coffee, Prost invited clubs to purchase the organic coffee and sell it in their community. Funds generated from the sales would go toward water projects throughout Africa, Central and South America, and Indonesia.
 
(A pump provides water to a village in Tanzania -- part of a project made possible by the Foundation’s donor advised fund. Water and sanitation is one of Rotary’s areas of focus under the Future Vision Plan. Photo courtesy of Five for Water )
“I wanted to create a year-round project that’s fit for any size club,” says Prost, who studied in England as a 1979-80 Rotary Scholar. “Any club, no matter how large or small, can help be a part of this. It’s a really simple project.”
  
Coffee sales
  
Even though the project was launched only a year ago, more than 300 clubs in the United States are already selling the coffee. Their efforts have netted nearly $184,000, providing more than 50,000 people in 10 countries with access to clean water.
  
An estimated two million people die every year from waterborne diseases, and more than one billion lack access to clean water, according to the World Health Organization. “I told myself that, as a Rotarian, it was my responsibility to do something about [that],” Prost says.
 
After the money is raised, clubs seek an international partnership with another club and apply for a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant. A big focus of Five for Water has been funding the installation of wells to serve schools, orphanages, and medical clinics -- but, according to Prost, the project’s scope goes beyond that.
  
“We’re not narrow-minded on what we’ll fund,” he says. “It’s always about water and where we can have a good partnership.”
  
Wells in Bolivia
  
Recently, Five for Water installed eight wells in Bolivia and pump stations near a reservoir in Sumatra. Prost has also partnered with a club in Missouri and Engineers Without Borders to create a pipeline in Honduras that supplies water from an existing well and a water tower. The project’s goal is to provide more than 300 families with clean drinking water.
  
Because Five for Water only sells coffee in the United States, and several clubs elsewhere have expressed an interest in getting involved, Prost says the next step is to expand the project internationally.
  
“This is a simple and fun project designed for any club,” he says. “It works because Rotary has so many international components, and we’re all wanting to work together for a similar cause.”
  
Sign up to receive Reconnections to read more about Rotary Foundation alumni.
  
Rotary Club of Napa Sunrise also sells coffeee for a Rotary cause. The coffee from Guatemala and supports the coffee growers through minibanks. Contact Andrea Schrader of Napa Sunrise for more information.

Rotary Foundation Month

Rotary Foundation Month

November is Rotary Foundation Month. Your support of the Annual Fund through the Every Rotarian, Every Year (EREY) initiative makes it possible for the Foundation to continue its work of Doing Good in the World.

See five reasons to support the Foundation

Read how program participants express their thanks

Sign up for the EREY newsletter

(photo: from Rotary images-RI website)

Rotarian Action Groups (RAGs)

(logo: Rotarian Action Groups for the Alleviation of Hunger and Malnutrition)

Rotarian Action Groups

Rotarian Action Groups provide assistance and support to Rotary clubs and districts in planning and implementing service projects in their respective areas of expertise. They are autonomous, international groups organized by committed Rotarians, Rotarians’ spouses, and Rotaractors who have expertise in and a passion for a particular type of service.

How to get involved

If your club needs help with a service project, consider contacting a Rotarian Action Group with expertise in the appropriate area. If you have a personal interest in a particular issue, consider joining a group.

View a complete list of Rotarian Action Groups

How to organize a new Rotarian Action Group




While Rotarian Action Groups operate independently of Rotary International, they must receive official recognition from the RI Board of Directors and function in accordance with Rotary policy.

Forming a new Rotarian Action Group requires time, long-term planning, and a commitment to establishing an effective international network of Rotarians who share your vision. Prospective Rotarian Action Groups must secure at least 25 prospective members representing at least five countries and three Rotary zones and submit a detailed proposal to RI. If you are interested in organizing a Rotarian Action Group, please contact RI staff  for guidance. 

WEBINAR

An upcoming webinar will show how clubs and districts can collaborate with Rotarian Action Groups (RAGs) to increase the scope and sustainability of their service projects. This webinar gives you the chance to hear first-hand from Rotarian experts, ask questions, and learn how your club or districts can benefit from working with RAGs. Dates and registration links:

Tuesday, 8 November, 10:00-11:00 CST -- Click here to register 

Tuesday, 8 November, 18:00-19:00 CST -- Click here to register

 

These webinars will be in English. There will also be a Spanish webinar for the same topic on 11 November, 10:00-11:00 CST.

World Polio Day

Rotary celebrates, takes action on World Polio Day

By Dan Nixon 

Rotary International News -- 2 November 2011 

“In honor of World Polio Day, 24 October we are asking for your help to tell the world about Rotary’s achievements and to finish the job,” stated Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Bill Boyd, in announcing to club presidents a special online initiative in support of Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge for polio eradication.  

photo: After the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, the governments of Australia, Canada, and Nigeria, along with the Gates Foundation, made a combined pledge of more than US$100 million in new funds for polio eradication. Standing with Canadian Rotarian and polio survivor Ramesh Ferris (center) are Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Photo by Petina Dixon-Jenkins

Rotarians responded generously during the 24-28 October initiative, in which the Foundation offered double Paul Harris Fellow recognition points for online contributions of $100 or more. Contributions are being tallied and the total will be announced soon.

 

Throughout the week, Rotarians took up the call to end polio in variety of ways. In Australia, Rotarians and the Global Poverty Project carried out a petition drive to persuade world leaders to fully fund the critical work of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Almost 25,000 supporters signed the petition, resulting in a $20,000 contribution to Rotary's challenge by the Rotary Club of Crawley, Western Australia, which had offered to donate A$1 (about US$1) for each signature. In Perth, the Global Poverty Project's End of Polio Concert on 28 October raised additional funds. The concert coincided with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth; Rotarians had teamed up with the group to encourage government leaders to put polio eradication on the agenda. Following the meeting, the governments of Australia, Canada, and Nigeria, along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, announced a combined pledge of more than US$100 million to support polio eradication efforts. 

“I also want to acknowledge the efforts of Rotary in what has been a long-standing global initiative for change, and I'd like to remind everyone that change is possible,” said Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. “When the Queen first visited Perth in 1954, it was in the grips of a polio epidemic. Of course, circumstances have changed in our country.”

“The government of Canada is proud to have supported [the Global Polio Eradication Initiative] for many years,” said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “When Rotary International first began the campaign that would lead to the 1988 WHO resolution to eradicate polio, poliomyelitis was still a devastating disease all over the world, crippling those it touched for life.”

“Global collaboration has ensured that eradication is within reach,” said Michael Sheldrick, the Global Poverty Project's polio campaign manager and a Crawley club member. “Our generation has a chance to realize a historic opportunity and ensure that no one else ever has to fear this disease. That’s why it’s vital we commit to finish the job." 

In Washington, D.C., Bill Gates joined dozens of Rotarians on Capitol Hill to affirm the joint commitment of the Gates Foundation and Rotary to make history by eradicating the disease. 

Rotary clubs in Arizona, USA, launched Hike the Arizona Trail to End Polio, aimed at raising $250,000 by 14 February. Rotarians and others are pledging at least $100 each to walk, bike, or ride horseback on sections of the 800-mile trail, which extends between the state’s borders with Mexico and Utah. 

In Italy, Rotarians and friends participated in the Run to End Polio fundraiser, organized by the Rotary Club of Venezia-Riviera del Brenta, as part of the 23 October Venice Marathon. 

Rotary club members and supporters also created personalized photos of themselves as part of Rotary’s “This Close” public awareness campaign and used them as their social networking profile pictures on World Polio Day. Celebrity participants included Angelique Kidjo, Jack Nicklaus, Itzhak Perlman, Tanvi Shah, and Ziggy Marley.  

The week that began with World Polio Day ended on another high note as well: more than 80 million children in Africa and Asia were immunized against polio, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Learn more about polio and how you can help eradicate the disease:

Learn more about Rotary's polio eradication efforts.

Use "This Close" resources from the Rotary Media Center.

Begin planning for an End Polio Now lighting to celebrate Rotary's anniversary 23 February.

See a video with Dr. Rob Murphy, Director of Global Health at Northwestern University Feinberge School of Medicine.

video: http://player.ooyala.com/player.js?embedCode=NsMGl3MjowXAYIOR2-IBDkVKBF6lGkFf&deepLinkEmbedCode=NsMGl3MjowXAYIOR2-IBDkVKBF6lGkFf

Learn how the cold chain delivers the vaccine to remote locations.

International Interact Contest

"International Action" is theme of third annual Interact video contest

Rotary International – 18 October 2011 

We're doing it again.

We are seeking your entries for our third annual Interact video contest, focusing on the theme "International Action." So grab a camera, produce a short video, and enter our contest before 16 December.

you tube connect: http://youtu.be/Qa1a4Xsgmhk

This year's theme recalls the origins of the Interact program name -- a combination of the words international and action . For the 2011 contest, we want you to create a video that shows how your Interact club takes international action through fundraising, service projects, building friendships across cultures, and more. "It's hard to put into words what this project meant to our club," says Lindsey Murphy, past president of the Interact Club of Syosset High School, New York, USA, who produced the video that won last year's grand prize .

Over the past seven years, members of the Syosset club have raised more than $100,000 for Gift of Life International, a nonprofit that provides free lifesaving heart surgeries and cardiac care for young children whose families cannot afford treatment. Their video showed the club's efforts during 2009-10, when the Interactors raised $42,000 for the organization, covering the cost of four surgeries for children in El Salvador.

"Through the Interact video contest, our club was able to convey our passion for making a difference and inspire other Interactors," Murphy says. "The most important message of Interact is that age plays no role in the impact you can have on the world. The Interact video contest allowed that message to come through on computer screens throughout the world."

How to enter

To enter the 2011 video contest, create an account on YouTube and upload your video. Then submit the contest entry form by email, fax, or post by 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time on 16 December.

All Interact club and sponsor Rotary club members are eligible to enter. Entrants under 18 years of age will need to indicate parental consent on the entry form.

The grand-prize winner's video will be featured on the RI website. The grand-prize winner and three finalists will receive a personalized certificate signed by RI President Kalyan Banerjee. To ensure that your video is not disqualified, check out the short list of do's and don'ts below, and read the complete contest rules .

Do

Be creative and have fun. Incorporate the theme "International Action" Keep your video between 30 seconds and three minutes. Submit your video in English or with English subtitles. Use royalty-free music.

Don't

Include copyrighted music, images, footage, artwork, or videos. Include trademarks, logos, or brand names other than the official Interact logo or name. Submit a video that has been previously published, submitted, distributed, or aired. Submit a video that you did not create. Enter multiple videos.

Questions? Email interact@rotary.org .

the article is taken from the RI website: www.rotary.org

Extreme Makeover

Watch on Friday -November 4. in ABC Channel 7. Allen Hill a very recent veteran-graduate from Pathway Home and his house shown in the Extreme Makeover-House Edition.

Rotary Foundation

Three things every Rotarian should know about the Foundation

1. The Foundation is working on our primary goal.

2.The Foundation change lives.

3.You make it possible.

A Q'eqchi' Maya woman collects water from the Tatin River near her home and Ak'Tenamit, a community development project funded in part by Rotary Foundation Matching Grants. (from Rotary images- photo by Monika Lozinska-Lee)

READ MORE

for the complete article go to : http://www.rotaryleader-en.org/rotaryleader-en/en201111/?pg=3&pm=1&u1=friend

A message from RI President Kalyan Banerjee

November 2011

My dear brothers and sisters in Rotary,

In 1885, the London Times ran a series of editorials honoring the 100th birthday of Sir Moses Montefiore, the British financier and philanthropist knighted by Queen Victoria. The editorials commented on his honesty, his generosity, and his willingness to come to the aid of anyone in need. One story was particularly telling.

Someone once asked Sir Moses, one of the wealthiest men of his era, how much he was worth. In the face of such an ill-mannered inquiry, he merely paused for a moment’s reflection before naming a figure – one that fell far short of his questioner’s expectations. Naturally, it was met with an objection; surely he must be worth 10 times as much! Sir Moses merely smiled. “Young man,” he replied, “you didn’t ask me how much I own. You asked me how much I am worth. So I calculated how much I have given to charity this year, and that is the number I gave you. You see, in life we are worth only what we are willing to share with others.”

When we calculate our own worth, do we think about it in terms of what we have, or how we use it? When we say that all human beings are of equal worth, do our actions follow our words?

I believe that being a Rotarian means looking at all of our resources differently. What is the most good that we could choose to do with what we have? What are the choices that will ultimately leave us the richest? In Rotary, we are all aware of the great needs in so many parts of our world. And we all know how much we can do to help through our Rotary Foundation. We can change lives, we can restore hope, we can build futures – if we choose to. In life, everything is a choice. We can choose to close our eyes to the needs of others, to keep what we have for ourselves, to declare the problems of others to be theirs alone. Or we can choose to look past distance, past color, past language and dress and culture, and see that people everywhere are just like us – and then refuse to walk away.