“Every Rotarian, Every Year” Open Forum
                
Keynote Speaker : Frank J. Devlyn, TRF Chair-elect

1030-1200, Saturday, 7 May 2005

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Buenos Dias / Good Morning! 

Hola! 

My family of Rotary….. 

Great to be here at this presidential celebration authorized by our centennial R.I. Pres. Glen Estess. 

Good to be back in Taiwan and in this important part of the world of Rotary. Like many in the world of Rotary, we still remember a memorable R.I. convention held here in Taipei. 

Good to see so many friends, present, past and incoming leaders of R.I. & T.R.F. 

Most of us who are senior leaders in Rotary are here because of my good friend dynamic, proactive past V.P. of Rot. & now Trustee Gary Hunang who is co-Chair of this pres. Celebration with Dir. Yoshikasu Minamisono. 

I like to know my audience…… 

I want each of you to get out a card with your email to give to me at the end of this program. 

I promise…I will not ask for a loan….I might send you some important information of ask for your help for a Rotary project. Do mention if you also speak English.

Whenever I go to any event I wonder about the why, the what that brings us together.

This is an important event for this part of the Rotary world.

We come here to this presidential celebration to celebrate the past, present and ongoing work of Rotary in our centennial year. 

Presidential celebrations involve forward thinking, visionary Rotarians and our centennial president Glen Estess heads the list. 

Yes, visionary Rotarians who saw that a presidential celebration in this part of the world at this time would be beneficial to all as per our 4-way test.

Forward thinking Rotarians are all those who are involved in this presidential celebration co-chaired by P.V.P. and trustee Gary Huang and director Yoshikasu Minamisono & their team of outstanding Rotarians…. 

They realize that you are taking out valuable time form your work and your life….

They want to make your time here meaningful and worthwhile….That’s the why of the diff. topics important for this part of the Rotary world.

All of us in the family of
Rotary are fortunate to be members of the most prestigious service club in the world… 

We are fortunate to be here at this presidential celebration where you are hearing and will hear many ideas, comments, suggestions, observations, and recommendations on how to move Rotary forward…. 

Many of these ideas are from thinking inside the box. (What we normally do in Rotary & many don’t) 

Others are from thinking outside the box….

(What many clubs have never done in Rotary?) 

At this presidential celebration, I hope that you might see things both from inside the box and outside the box with the end objective of helping your clubs and districts move forward as we enter our 2^nd. century. 

Subjects I personally feel of major importance are: 

Membership development.

Retention

Better understanding of all that Rotary has to offer.

Specially the Rotary Foundation 

Many of you are aware that I wrote a book called “Frank Talk”…The benefits of belonging to Rotary have your read the book? 

Best seller…almost 100,000 in 8 languages.

I’m glad that we have that book in Chinese and Korean. Someday in Japanese. 

My new book “Frank Talk II”

Gives proven successful retention techniques & proven ideas on how to reenergize a R.C.

You can buy or order both these books from your D.G.’s.

Let me suggest to our friends from the Philippines that they order this book in English from the India news, Rotary’s regional magazine at a very attractive cost.

Remember all profits go to the Rotary Foundation. 

Some of you might be asking yourself… just what does the Rotary Foundation do???

Why this campaign Every Rotarian, Every Year. 

You will be getting a better understanding of the many things our Rotary Foundation has to offer & the why of E.R.E.Y. here at this session with the comments of distinguished senior leaders who will follow me. 

As the incoming chairman of the Rotary Foundation, I want to remind you of the importance of our Rotary Foundation. It is the hope of the trustees that I represent that we can convince you today, that you make giving to our Rotary Foundation one of your priorities. 

One of the best things about Rotary is the magic that happens when Rotarians come together. One Rotarian might not change the world alone, but with 1.2 million – now you’re talking! 

Our Rotary Foundation is an incredible example of Rotary magic. Most donations to the Foundation are not tremendous. 

The Every Rotarians, Every Year campaign only asks for an average yearly donation of $100 USD. But the actions that happen when all those contributions come together are invaluable. 

Let’s talk about some of those actions that happen because of your involvement in Rotary Foundation programs….Giving education to the girl child often overlooked in many countries; communities bettering themselves because a Rotary Foundation project gave them a needed water well; helping stop the spread of malaria in communities in Africa by giving them malaria nets; seeing persons getting a new lease on life because they received a needed heart pacemaker; Ambassadorial Scholars and group study exchange scholars spreading goodwill among nations…In India you see thousands who are blinded by cataracts seeing again because Rotarians such as yourself gave support to an avoidable blindness project:. 

Did you know that in the last 4 years almost 500 thousand yes, 1/2 million persons have had their sight restored or bettered because of Rotary involvement? 

Yes family of Rotary, our Rotary actions do grow. Let’s never forget that we have our crowning example where we learned to think big….

Thanks to ------Polio Plus…. 

Our foundation is what makes much of the great work that Rotary does possible. 

This is why so many of us look upon our rotary Foundation as we look upon our university, our alma mater. We are grateful to it for helping US change our lives…Does not Rotary do likewise???? 

I personally look upon Rotary with more love than I do the universities where I received my education and I feel that many of you think likewise, which explains why we see more Rotarians giving more donations to our rotary Foundation every year. 

Do you remember the moment when you were first turned on to Rotary? What project did it for you? Was it PolioPlus, with its millions—literally, millions—of lives saved? Was it a local project, where you saw the shining faces of the people you helped? Was it the moment you learned how water pumps in a distant village could change the lives of a whole community? Was it when you give a wheel chair to a child?

Was it when you learned that in some parts of India 3 blind persons could have their sight restored with cataract surgery for approximately 100 dollars. Is that why you made a personal donation of 1000 dollars or convinced your club to do so. 

I am sure that you like my wife Gloria Rita and me have heard or witnessed one of the many heart warming Rotary Foundation success stories changing lives, which encouraged many of you to make your first personal donation to our Rotary foundation. Later many of you heard more stories that convinced you to give those increased continual yearly donations we vitally need in our Foundation. 

Whatever the story, whatever motivated you to support our Foundation----We can do it better, building a stronger foundation of which all of us as Rotarians are responsible. 

I encourage you to make giving to the Rotary Foundation one of your major priorities in this centennial as well as the year ahead. 

We need you to be our promoters in your clubs. We want you to be part of our Rotary Foundation team starting with president Glen Estess, Pres. Elect Carl-Wilhelm and myself, the RI Board, the trustees and your district governor who are all here to help you. You can also count on our regional Foundation coordinators, Foundation committee members and your district team including your club president and club Foundation chair. 

Some of you will find members of your clubs who are not fully aware of all the good work of our Rotary Foundation.

It is impossible for me with this distinguished panel to tell you this morning of all the programs of the Rotary Foundation. We can only hope that after this session you are encouraged to learn more about the great work of our Rotary Foundation. 

We hope you learn about different fundraisers that help get the contributions for our R.F. that your club might also use. 

We hope you learn about the different types of Paul Harris recognition you can receive for your personal contributions to our Foundation. 

I want you to go out and tell those wonderful Rotary Foundation stories of how we have created awareness and taken action. Use our new 9 minute inspirational DVD that tells the story of the Rotary Foundation and its programs. 

Let me suggest 5 ways that you might consider to help your club achieve the best year ever in giving to our Rotary Foundation. 

1) Make sure the members in your clubs know about our foundation, and how vital it is to the good work Rotary does. Some members think that we carry out the work of the Rotary Foundation with what they pay as dues. You have to remind them that is not the case. 

Our Rotary Foundation supports many of the hundreds and thousands of projects that the public associates with Rotary worldwide. The scholarships, the univocational GSE teams, the orphanages, the malaria nets, the clean water, the wheelchairs, the cataract surgeries, the local youth programs—you name it, our foundation is there. Encourage every member in your club to become more acquainted in our different rotary Foundation programs and projects. Help get local media interested in the work of the Rotary Foundation. This will enhance rotary’s image in your communities. It might attract new members and will definitely make current members proud of our work. 

2) The Every Rotarian, Every Year campaign is one of the best things that has happened to the Foundation in its 88 years. One hundred dollars may not be a tremendous amount of money, but multiplied by 1.2 million Rotarians, it’s an amazing force for good. We in your Rotary Foundation hope that in your weekly meetings you might mention often our Every Rotarian, Every Year campaign. But first, make sure you make your donation yourself. Your example in giving will help others to do the same. 

Remember that a dollar in your home community may not be as valuable as when spent on a humanitarian need in

3) Learn of new innovative ways to help our Foundation using a rotary affinity credit card where we receive a percentage for all purchases made. Robert Mintz will give all of us more details later.

4) We want you to help your incoming DG to form & promote the Paul Harris society. Most Rotarians are leaders in their fields and can make the $1,000 or more contribution part of their annual giving so they can belong to this new Paul Harris society.

Many of you here today and other you know can belong to that ever growing number of major and significant major donors who make large donations to our foundation - $10 thousand to one million dollars to our permanent fund.

 Rotary dreams to get one billion dollars by 2025 and then use the interest to carry out hundreds of projects.

Rotarians are helping us by putting our foundation in their will’s, some give outright gifts to become what we call benefactors and those who promise more than 10 thousand belong to our bequest society. 

Today we calculate having about 441 million in expectancies for our permanent fund. 

I hope you share some of the wonderful stories of who these major donors whom we honored this morning and, most importantly, tell your club why they decided to give these large donations to our Foundation – trust being the key reason. 

Would all of those who were honored this morning as major donors…as well as all major donors who have given over 10 thousand dollars to our foundation please stand up and be recognized. 

We also have another group of significant major donors that belong to the arch klump society and they have their picture hanging at a special arch klump gallery at our rotary headquarters. These are persons who have given over 250 thousand dollars to our foundation. Here in Taiwan you have several distinguished Rotarians who belong to this select group of persons. 

1. Jackson 

2. Color 

3. Archi 

4. 

I remember one Rotarian from south Korea telling past director, treasurer and trustee D.K. Lee and me that he was giving 250 thousand dollars to our Foundation because he felt that our rotary scholars for peace & conflict resolution might some day help unite his country. 

Paul Elder, a Rotarian who donated 7.5 million dollars, the largest single contribution to our Foundation said & I quote… “The Rotary Foundation can do more good with my money than anyone else”. His gift will continue to provide help for years to come. 

5) Help us identify & convince those organizations who at present are giving money for special causes, projects who might want to partner with Rotary to carry out more of their humanitarian help….

I am talking about those Foundations, NGO’s who at present without Rotary have available money to carry out some humanitarian cause who we might convince to turn that money over to our foundation to use our people power, our proven good stewardship to help carry out more of their humanitarian work. Let me stress…..I am referring to organizations that have available funds where we can be of help. I am thinking of those groups who might be investing 500 thousand dollars at present to help some worthwhile cause or project such as helping to educate the girl child, putting in water wells, malaria nets….you name it. We simply tell them if you give that 500 thousand dollars to the Rotary Foundation as a restricted gift we will get Rotarians to match that amount caring out the type of projects they support

I strongly feel that there are organizations out their in our world that will see the benefit of added enhancement, added credibility if they consider donating money to our Rotary foundation for whatever might be their pet or favorite project. They can use the good Rotary seal of approval….. 

Look for added help to our matching grants outside of Rotary, There is a strong possibility that some government, NGO or business group with impeccable reputation might match the amount received from the Rotary Foundation. 

Remember those cards I asked each of you to give to me at the end of this program…..Please hold up your card so I can see you understand me.

Now I want you to write down what new amount you will consider giving or promising to consider giving to our Rotary Foundation this year or next. You can also write down the name of a person or group who might give added help to our Foundation via partnering. We will follow up on them. –just make sure we get your card. 

Finally my family of Rotary love the Foundation like you love Rotary itself. Keep in mind always that without our Foundation, the grandeur of Rotary as we know it, would not exist. Our Foundation is what brings Rotary from a network of service-minded individuals to something higher and greater—a bright and shining force for good in the world. 

Let your personal proactive enthusiasm and dedication for our Rotary Foundation be seen by all the Rotarians in your club and I guarantee you that our district & club members will share in your excitement. 

We are depending on you to create awareness and take action to celebrate Rotary by giving special emphasis to our motto service above self in your club and district by helping get more contributions to our Rotary Foundation. 

My family of Rotary…..If we can depend on you to support our Foundation, stand up and say yes!! 

Muchas Gracias.