On August 30, 2012 President Gerry Mendez and his Board met with District Governor, Dr. Stephen Ramroop to present the Club’s 2012-2013 plans and objectives.
DG Stephen thanked the Board for hosting the meeting and following a perusal of the Club’s planning documents, the DG used the meeting to share with the leaders of the Rotary Club of Central Port of Spain, some of the key changes taking place at the Rotary International level and what Rotary expects its membership to bring to our organization to aid in its transformation. They include many disciplines, processes and activities that we pursue in our spheres of work, business and professional lives. He emphasized that there is a drive by RI to ‘formalize” the business processes in Rotary. DG Stephen advised that Rotary has shared its strategic plans and supporting the mission are three (3) pillars.
Pillar 1: Building strong clubs and supporting, empowering and motivating members. All leaders have been asked to focus on empowering our Rotarians. He described Rotary as pivotal in bridging the gap between the government and private sector. Rotary is well recognized for its activities and its structure and given Rotary’s values he believed that Rotary can bring equity, priority and the right focus during times of crisis and need.
Pillar 2: Make our projects more strategic and sustainable. While it is okay to “detour” and pursue the typical smaller projects, one off initiatives and pet projects during the Rotary year, RI would like clubs to stay focused and to execute their strategic (3 year) plans and to pursue sustainable projects; projects that are “higher impact” and DG Stephen urged the establishment of performance criteria and project management disciplines in managing them. He also communicated that Rotary Clubs will be required to each sign an MOU based on good governance principles, in order to access grants. Criteria for qualification include good stewardship practices such as ensuring that our public liability/risk transfer is covered and not exposed. He asked our club to establish procedures specific to our risk profile so as to mitigate our risks. For New Generation projects in particular DG Stephen stressed that we must ensure there is documentation for the project(s) to show we have applied risk mitigation procedures.
Pillar 3: Public relations and branding. Rotary is looking to develop a single brand and wants us to get involved in PR; share what we are doing. He shared that there were plans at the District level to advertise Rotary’s “Humanity in Service” and to publicize the greatness of our organization.
In summarizing his discussion with our Board, DG Stephen reminded the leadership that RI wants us to align with the three pillars and that RI has asked that we consider incorporating our club to protect ourselves against civil law suits. He further stated that this year’s Presidential Citation relates to the three pillars of Rotary and if we as a club embrace the three pillars we will in fact be executing a “balanced score card” and position ourselves for Presidential Citation consideration.
Pillar 1: Building strong clubs and supporting, empowering and motivating members. All leaders have been asked to focus on empowering our Rotarians. He described Rotary as pivotal in bridging the gap between the government and private sector. Rotary is well recognized for its activities and its structure and given Rotary’s values he believed that Rotary can bring equity, priority and the right focus during times of crisis and need.
Pillar 2: Make our projects more strategic and sustainable. While it is okay to “detour” and pursue the typical smaller projects, one off initiatives and pet projects during the Rotary year, RI would like clubs to stay focused and to execute their strategic (3 year) plans and to pursue sustainable projects; projects that are “higher impact” and DG Stephen urged the establishment of performance criteria and project management disciplines in managing them. He also communicated that Rotary Clubs will be required to each sign an MOU based on good governance principles, in order to access grants. Criteria for qualification include good stewardship practices such as ensuring that our public liability/risk transfer is covered and not exposed. He asked our club to establish procedures specific to our risk profile so as to mitigate our risks. For New Generation projects in particular DG Stephen stressed that we must ensure there is documentation for the project(s) to show we have applied risk mitigation procedures.
Pillar 3: Public relations and branding. Rotary is looking to develop a single brand and wants us to get involved in PR; share what we are doing. He shared that there were plans at the District level to advertise Rotary’s “Humanity in Service” and to publicize the greatness of our organization.
In summarizing his discussion with our Board, DG Stephen reminded the leadership that RI wants us to align with the three pillars and that RI has asked that we consider incorporating our club to protect ourselves against civil law suits. He further stated that this year’s Presidential Citation relates to the three pillars of Rotary and if we as a club embrace the three pillars we will in fact be executing a “balanced score card” and position ourselves for Presidential Citation consideration.