Engage our Youth to create Future
Leaders
September is dedicated to the Young
Generations which encompasses EarlyAct, InterAct, Rotaract, Youth Exchange
Programme and Rotary Young Leaders Awards.
New Generations Service became
Rotary’s fifth Avenue of Service in 2010. It is defined in article 5 of the Standard
Rotary Club Constitution to recognise the positive change implemented by youth
and young adults through leadership development activities, involvement in
community and international service projects, and exchange programs that enrich
and foster world peace and cultural understanding.
When we focus on young people, we are
focusing on building the future of Rotary and a younger generation of
service-minded individuals. When we serve our youth, we help to bring Rotary to
a new generation. We teach the importance of service to others, and pass on our
core values.
Every young person who goes on a
Rotary Youth Exchange will learn a great deal. Youth Exchange students learn
how people who seem so different are really the same. They begin to appreciate
what unites people everywhere. They have a broader understanding of the world.
They come back as different people. They no longer know only one language, only
one culture. They have connections with their host country, and with their
fellow participants from other countries and at the end of their exchange, they
are part of their host families. They are also part of the Rotary family – the
largest and most international family in the world. During the past few years
participants for long term exchanges have reduced drastically and whilst one
can argue that it is due to economic reasons I also think that our Rotary
family is growing older with our children having left the coup. As a result
having a younger child from a foreign land presents a new set of problems for
parents without children in the same age profile to keep your new child settled.
This challenge provides us with a great opportunity of calling on close
relatives and family friends to join in the programme which could encourage
them to become members of our the local Rotary Club.
This dilemma also provides us with an
opportunity of engaging with the younger generation and inviting them to join
our Clubs bringing with them new ideas, new talents and a fresh view to
community services whilst at the same time embracing our core values and
principles. Reaching out to New Generations is a commitment to the future of
your Rotary club. Clubs that build ties with youth in their communities
cultivate future members and become rejuvenated by the energy and new
perspectives that young people have to offer. Michael McQueen, a leading
authority on the youth trends and strategies for engaging with Gen Y notes that
one of the things that makes Rotary so unique and powerful is that way in which
it’s guiding principles and core values bring together people who would otherwise
have very little in common. Rotary transcends ideological, political and
cultural divides in a way few organisations can. I invite you to read Michael’s
full article on “5 Strategies to attracting younger members” on my blogpage.
I think you would agree with me that
the success of your Clubs depend on the leadership of your Club Executive. So
much of what we accomplish in Rotary depends on the direction provided by our
leadership. More than anything else we need Club leaders who will lead us into
the future, building on everything that has gone on in the past. An interesting
article was published by Dr Jagdish Bhatt of the Rotary Club of Bombay Airport,
Mumbai, India on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Rotarians. These included
attendance, fellowship, respect for one’s and other’s vocation, discipline,
empathy, image and time, money and energy. I have posted this article onto my
blog page. It is worth a read.
If we want to see another century of
Rotary we must make Rotary attractive to young people. Many young people share
our beliefs. To get them involved in Rotary we need to become more flexible
with our practices and our activities. We need to become more aware of the
communication channels of our younger generations. It is not the responsibility
for younger people to come to our Clubs, it is ours to invite them.
Perhaps the best way to describe
Rotary’s Fifth Avenue of Service was articulated by Past RI President Luis Giay
(1996-1997) when he said:
“Our
vision for the future, now more than ever, is the difference between success and failure. The
New Generations are our investment in the future. Let us begin to build that future today".
This was said, based on the year’s
annual theme of “Build the Future with
Action & Vision”. It was the year when I became Club President for my
local Rotary Club. When I became Governor in 2009-2010 the theme was “The Future of Rotary is in your Hands”. Appropriately,
both themes, included the word “Future”.
So let’s go out there to build the future Rotary, a younger Rotary and we can
do this by engaging with our Youth and bringing in younger members and through
mentoring, create future leaders and change their lives.
