Do you have an idea or project that you want to share with the Rotary family at the Rotary International Convention in Houston? Breakout sessions can inspire attendees, help them improve their leadership skills, and give them new ideas for service projects, fundraising, diversifying membership, and more.
Help us build an inclusive breakout program that celebrates Rotary’s diversity, projects, and achievements! We’re seeking proposals for sessions in English, Portuguese, or Spanish. Submit your proposal online byThursday, 30 September. If you have questions, write to conventionbreakouts@rotary.org.
Celebrate the International Day of Peace and empower girls
To mark the International Day of Peace on 21 September, we encourage all Rotary members to prioritize projects that improve the health, well-being, education, and economic security of girls in their communities and around the world.
Equality is both a fundamental human right and a necessity for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. Still, girls and women worldwide face inequities in areas including health and education, and they experience significant violence and disproportionate poverty. Learn more about RI President Shekhar Mehta’s presidential initiatives and download Rotary’s Empowering Girls brochure.
You can also learn about the early efforts of some Rotary members to promote the International Day of Peace and find suggestions for observing the day and taking action to build a more peaceful world. Read more.
Organized by districts around the world, project fairs provide an opportunity for clubs in the host region to showcase their service efforts to potential global partners, and they give international visitors the chance to find a project that meets their club's goals. By attending a project fair, you’ll not only learn about local service efforts but also experience the local culture through host-organized events. These events allow you to expand your club’s service by building the foundations to a lasting international partnership.
Any club representative or Rotary member can attend to find an international service effort to support. Plus, district grants can be used to support travel to and participation in Rotary project fairs to help districts identify project partners. View upcoming virtual and hybrid events on theproject fairs page My Rotary, and visit the event websites for more information or to register.
As World Polio Day approaches, the Rotary community is getting ready to amplify our message about eradicating polio to protect the world’s children from this devastating disease.
Together, we’ve made tremendous progress. Now it’s time to intensify our fight to make polio the second human disease ever to be eradicated. Last year, the World Health Organization’s African region was certified free of wild poliovirus, showing that eradication is possible even in very difficult circumstances. The wild poliovirus remains endemic in just two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan. We can use World Polio Day to advocate for the support we need to end polio in countries where it still paralyzes children.
On 25 August, Rotary joined our partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in marking the first anniversary of the World Health Organization’s African region being certified free of wild polio. The infrastructure and innovations developed continue to benefit children’s and public health across the continent and play an important role in fighting COVID-19. Read how the GPEI’s new strategy aims to overcome the remaining hurdles to finish the job.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Australian Citizenship Day. It is an opportunity for all Australians to celebrate and value Australian citizenship; the peaceful, prosperous and inclusive society we share. It is a day to reflect on the role we each play in building our nation and shaping our country's future, as proud Australian citizens. Further information is available at https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/celebrating-citizenship/australian-citizenship-day.
Near Montignac, France, a collection of prehistoric cave paintings are discovered by four teenagers who stumbled upon the ancient artwork after following their dog down a narrow entrance into a cavern. The 15,000- to 17,000-year-old paintings, consisting mostly of animal representations, are among the finest examples of art from the Upper Paleolithic period.
First studied by the French archaeologist Henri-Édouard-Prosper Breuil, the Lascaux grotto consists of a main cavern 66 feet wide and 16 feet high. The walls of the cavern are decorated with some 600 painted and drawn animals and symbols and nearly 1,500 engravings. The pictures depict in excellent detail numerous types of animals, including horses, red deer, stags, bovines, felines, and what appear to be mythical creatures. There is only one human figure depicted in the cave: a bird-headed man with an erect phallus. Archaeologists believe that the cave was used over a long period of time as a center for hunting and religious rites.
The Lascaux grotto was opened to the public in 1948 but was closed in 1963 because artificial lights had faded the vivid colors of the paintings and caused algae to grow over some of them. A replica of the Lascaux cave was opened nearby in 1983 and receives tens of thousands of visitors annually.
After nearly 40 years of riding across millions of American TV and movie screens, the cowboy actor William Boyd, best known for his role as Hopalong Cassidy, dies on September 12, 1972 at the age of 77.
Boyd’s greatest achievement was to be the first cowboy actor to make the transition from movies to television. Following World War II, Americans began to buy television sets in large numbers for the first time, and soon I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners were standard evening fare for millions of families. But despite their proven popularity in movie theaters, westerns were slow to come to the small screen. Many network TV producers scorned westerns as lowbrow “horse operas” unfit for their middle- and upper-class audiences.
Riding to the small screen’s rescue came the movie cowboy, William Boyd. During the 1930s, Boyd made more than 50 cheap but successful “B-grade” westerns starring as Hopalong Cassidy. Together with his always loyal and outlandishly intelligent horse, Topper, Hopalong righted wrongs, saved school marms in distress, and single-handedly fought off hordes of marauding Indians. After the war, Boyd recognized an opportunity to take Hopalong and Topper into the new world of television, and he began to market his old “B” westerns to TV broadcasters in Los Angeles and New York City. A whole new generation of children thrilled to “Hoppy’s” daring adventures, and they soon began to clamor for more.
Rethinking their initial disdain for the genre, producers at NBC contracted with Boyd in 1948 to produce a new series of half-hour westerns for television. By 1950, American children had made Hopalong Cassidy the seventh most popular TV show in America and were madly snapping up genuine “Hoppy” cowboy hats, chaps, and six-shooters, earning Boyd’s venture more than $250 million. Soon other TV westerns followed Boyd’s lead, becoming popular with both children and adults. In 1959, seven of the top-10 shows on national television were westerns like The Rifleman, Rawhide, and Maverick. The golden era of the TV western would finally come to an end in 1975 when the long-running Gunsmoke left the air, three years after Boyd rode off into his last sunset.
Membership and marketing: Two sides of the same coin
Posted by RIDE Jessie Harman
Many of you will associate me with the membership roles I’ve held in Rotary. Yet in my professional life, outside Rotary, much of my career has focused on marketing and communications. For almost a decade, I taught Marketing Principles to undergraduate and postgraduate students at University. Later, when I moved into University management, I put those principles into practice - marketing the University’s programs to business, government and international students.
My marketing experience has centred almost exclusively on services (as distinct from goods) and I’ve experienced first-hand many of the challenges related to their unique characteristics. The fact that services are intangible experiences makes them challenging to communicate to would-be buyers; the fact that customers are integrally involved in producing the experience means they are difficult to standardise and quality is difficult to control. For all these reasons – and more - it can be difficult to demonstrate value.
Rotary ‘membership’ is a classic example and, like other services, promoting Rotary comes with inherent challenges. Fortunately, there are some tried and true tips which can help us promote our organisation more effectively. Here are five tips for services marketing that have always resonated with me and are directly relevant to
Rotary: Connect with your customers on a personal level - to ensure you understand their needs and wants. In the end, members perceive quality and value when their volunteering needs and wants are met through Rotary. We need to really understand our members’ needs.
Ensure the brand projects confidence and credibility - because a strong brand helps reduce the risk associated with buying an experience. Make sure your internal and external communications reinforce the message that Rotarians are People of Action creating positive change in their communities and themselves.
Use people to promote the brand - When it comes to purchasing services, would-be customers definitely prefer recommendations, testimonials and referrals from trusted sources. Educate and support your members to be great ambassadors for Rotary.
Post regular, high quality content to build awareness and understanding - Make sure the content captures Rotary’s brand essence, is credible and upbeat. Above all, be consistent.
Find ways to continuously improve the customer experience - to enhance perceived value and satisfaction. Like other customers, our members’ expectations continue to rise; so too do their options for volunteering. We need to find new ways to increase member engagement, improve retention and build loyalty.
This last tip reminds me that membership and marketing/public image are two sides of the same coin when it comes to promoting Rotary. It may also go some way to explaining why I’ve held membership, rather than public image roles within the organisation. Despite that, as I prepare for the role of RI Director, I am looking forward to working with our Public Image leaders throughout our zone. You have an incredibly important role to play in strengthening the present and the future of Rotary – you can count on my support.
1922-23 Raymond M. Havens (Stationery Products Manufacturing)
Rotary Club of Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Rotary vision: Vocational ethics, as practiced by Rotarians, as the building blocks of world civilization
"As a harbinger of business ethics, Rotary sends its message around the world that true service means personal responsibility for peace on earth and goodwill toward men" - Bethlehem - and Twenty Centuries. The Rotarian, December 1922
1944 Paris is liberated after four years of Nazi occupation
After more than four years of Nazi occupation, Paris is liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. German resistance was light, and General Dietrich von Choltitz, commander of the German garrison, defied an order by Adolf Hitler to blow up Paris’ landmarks and burn the city.
2009 Ted Kennedy, "liberal lion of the Senate," dies at 77
