Governor's Message - May 2016

 
I am certain most of us are aware of the earthquakes that took place recently in Japan and Ecuador.  There was another “earthquake” recently, on April 12th, in Evanston, Illinois, at our Rotary International Council on Legislation (COL).  Paul Netztel, the Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Foundation called the changes both “evolutionary and revolutionary”.   The COL meets once every three years to consider and vote on “enactments” which, if voted in, change Rotary International’s constitutional documents (the Constitution, bylaws, and the standard club Constitution).  Each district sends a voting delegate so there are 534 voting delegates from around the world who attend.  This very progressive, forward-thinking Council made several important enactments, a few of which I will bullet-point briefly for you here:
  • (16-21)   Flexibility in Meetings/Attendance
    • How often a club meets is now up to the club except it must meet two times per month (there is no definition of “meeting”).
    • Attendance requirements are now up to the club.
    • (16-21) Allows clubs to remain the same or change accordingly.
  • (16-36)   Kinds of Membership
    • Clubs may now have other types of memberships than the standard “active and honorary” memberships.  This may include “corporate, associate, family,” etc.  memberships. 
  • (16-38)  Revise Qualifications for Membership to a club
    • This enactment eliminates business and professional criteria from membership qualification.
  • (16-99) Dues Increase
    • RI dues are currently $55 per year.   RI dues will increase $1 per year in 2016-17; increase $4 per year in 2017-18; increase $4 per year in 2018-2019; and increase $4 per year in 2019-20, reaching $68 per year in 2019-2020.  
    • Rationale:  investment returns are down; forecast shows deficits in next four years without a dues increase; more monies needed for upgrading the infrastructure (websites, etc). 
  • (16-01)  Requires written minutes of club Board of Director meetings
  • (16-02) Club Treasurer is added as an officer and board member, in addition to the Immediate Past President, President, President Elect, and club Secretary
  • (16-40) Rotaractors can simultaneously belong to a Rotary club.
  • (16-51) Transferring or former Rotarians are ineligible for membership in a club if they have debts to another club.
  • (16-82) E-Clubs - This enactment erases any distinction between regular clubs and e-clubs.  Regular clubs can have an on-line meeting; an e-club can have an in-person meeting.
There are many more important enactments (click here for a brief summary) as well as proposed resolutions and enactments that were rejected.   For a more in-depth look at the COL, our representative PDG Wade Nomura has a separate article in this newsletter.
 
In late February, we decided to have a contest for our Young Rotarians and Rotaractors (ages 19-35) to compete for a chance to attend the Young Leaders’ Summit (YLS) at the RI Convention in Seoul, South Korea on Friday May 27th.  The main purpose of the YLS is to provide an opportunity for young leaders around the world to convene and interact with one another to develop a road map for the future by discussing both challenges and opportunities to serve the world as future Rotarians. The summit includes speeches by world renowned speakers, panel discussions, performances and more.  But there’s more!  Each of these attendees are being offered accommodations and the opportunity to attend the RI Convention from 5/28 thru 6/1.   I am very proud to introduce to you our contest winners and soon-to-be District representatives/attendees to the Seoul YLS: 
  • RENE MARTINEZ,  RC of Buellton
  • DOMINIQUE BREDESON, RC of San Luis Obispo
  • JONATHAN  BROIDA, Rotaract Club of Santa Barbara
  • DAVID VO, RC of Santa Barbara Sunrise
  • SHANE NAZARETH, Rotaract Club of Santa Barbara
ATTENTION:  Club Program Chairs - each of these five people would make a wonderful program for your club!
 
 
Finally, here is a short 3-minute YouTube video to show you how easy it is to update your club logo, newsletter, website with our new imaging:  click here
 
In Rotary Service . . . . .  Jim Bell