September Rotary News

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Annual Subscription Rs.420 September 2014 Vol.65, Issue 3 New Generations Month

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September Rotary News India

Transcript of September Rotary News

Page 1: September Rotary News

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20 September 2014

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New GenerationsMonth

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TRUSTEES

Chairman DG Ramesh Agrawal, RI Dist. 3052

Secretary DG Vyankatesh S. Metan, RI Dist. 3132

Treasurer DG Sanjay Khemka, RI Dist. 3250

RI Dist. 2980 DG S.P. Balasubramaniam

RI Dist.3000 DG Jagannathan Paramasivam

RI Dist.3010 DG Sanjay Khanna

RI Dist.3020 DG Dr. G.V. Mohan Prasad

RI Dist.3030 DG Dattatraya Shantaram Deshmukh

RI Dist.3040 DG Narendra Kumar Jain

RI Dist. 3051 DG Jagdish B. Patel

RI Dist. 3053 DG Anil Maheshwari

RI Dist. 3060 DG Ashish Ramesh Ajmera

RI Dist. 3070 DG Gurjeet Singh Sekhon

RI Dist. 3080 DG Dilip Patnaik

RI Dist. 3090 DG Pardeep Kumar Chehal

RI Dist. 3100 DG Sanjiv Rastogi

RI Dist. 3110 DG Ashok Jyoti

RI Dist. 3120 DG Satpal Gulati

RI Dist. 3131 DG Vivek Aranha

RI Dist. 3140 DG Ajay Gupta

RI Dist. 3150 DG Malladi Vasudev

RI Dist. 3160 DG G.S. Mansoor

RI Dist. 3170 DG Ganesh G. Bhat

RI Dist. 3180 DG Dr. S. Bhaskar

RI Dist. 3190 DG Manjunath Shetty

RI Dist. 3201 DG P. Venugopalan Menon

RI Dist. 3202 DG K. Sridharan Nambiar

RI Dist. 3211 DG K.S. Sasikumar

RI Dist. 3212 DG M. Ashok Padmaraj

RI Dist. 3230 DG I.S.A.K. Nazar

RI Dist. 3240 DG Swapan Kumar Choudhury

RI Dist. 3261 DG Shambhu Jagatramka

RI Dist. 3262 DG Ashok Bihari Mohapatra

RI Dist. 3291 DG Pinaki Prasad Ghosh

Send all correspondence and subscriptions to

ROTARY NEWS TRUST 3rd Floor, Dugar Towers, 34 Marshalls Road, Egmore, Chennai 600 008, India.Phone : 044 42145666Fax : 044 28528818e-mail : [email protected]

ADVISORY BOARD

COMMITTEES

RID P.T. Prabhakar RI Dist. 3230

PRIP Rajendra K. Saboo RI Dist. 3080

PRIP Kalyan Banerjee RI Dist. 3060

PRID Sushil Gupta RI Dist. 3010

PRID Ashok Mahajan RI Dist. 3140

PRID Yash Pal Das RI Dist. 3080

PRID Shekhar Mehta RI Dist. 3291

RIDE Dr. Manoj D. Desai RI Dist. 3060

DG Ramesh Agrawal RI Dist.3052

DG Vyankatesh Metan RI Dist. 3132

DG Sanjay Khemka RI Dist. 3250

DG I.S.A.K. Nazar RI Dist. 3230

PDG Rabi Narayan Nanda RI Dist. 3262

PDG Radhe Shyam Rathi RI Dist. 3053

PDG Hari Krishna Chitipothu RI Dist. 3150

DG P. Venugopalan Menon - Chair, Finance Committee

DG Dr. G.V. Mohan Prasad - Chair, Editorial Committee

DG Sanjay Khanna - Chair, Marketing Committee

DG G.S. Mansoor - Vice-chair, Marketing Committee

ROTARY NEWS ROTARY SAMACHAR

EditorRasheeda Bhagat

Assistant EditorsJaishreeS. Selvi

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Your CommentsThought FullCompliments to RI Director P.T. Prabhakar for the brilliant message in May ’14 issue on

Rotary club attendance. He has rightly said that perfect Rotary service is more important than perfect Rotary attendance.

Rtn. R.K. KapoorRC Roopnagar

RI District 3080

‘First Thought’ is an informative and impressive message that describes the spirit of Rotary, quoting the statement of world renowned Polish pianist Witold Malcu y ski. His subtle message that every member is important, but not indispensible is noted! Thanks for publishing such articles.

Rtn. M.T. PhilipRC Trivandrum Suburban

RI District 3211

ReminiscencesIn the July issue, the keynote address of RI President Elect Gary C.K. Huang at the Sydney RI Convention was nice to read, especially the poem ‘Power of One.’ I welcome the useful column ‘Reminiscences 2013-14.’

Rtn. S. RangarajanRC Kumbakonam

RI District 2980

‘Reminiscences’ is a new idea which will enlighten all readers.

Rtn. Paramesh Dev ChoudhuryRC Guwahati South

RI District 3240

The photo feature ‘Reminiscences 2013-14’ was impressive. It is a good opportunity to see the best projects across districts and we could try and replicate them. Cheers to the editorial

From the President’s DeskI am a regular reader of Rotary News for the last 10 years, and am extremely happy at the content. Undoubtedly, the magazine is very much informative and useful for all Rotarians particularly new ones. RI President Gary C.K. Huang’s address is very motivating and inspiring. Compilation of all the Rotary International

District projects under the title ‘Reminiscences 2013-14’ is a novel idea. Congratulations for giving a new look to the magazine.

Rtn. Dr. Y.K. Dogra RC Dharmshala , RI District 3070

The first Chinese RI President Gary C.K. Huang’s theme ‘Light up Rotary’ is not just a theme but represents the heart and the soul, the essence and the cream of Rotary movement. Captivating articles in the July issue - President Speaks, First Thought and ZAN!

Rtn. M.R.K. MurtyRC Narsaraopet, RI District 3150

We welcome your feedback

team for compiling a collector’s issue.

Rtn. R. Murali KrishnaRC Berhampur

RI District 3262

You have done a marvellous job in bringing out ‘Reminiscences’ in the July issue, which is a good collection of photographs, capturing the past one year. It gives us ideas for new projects by looking at what other clubs have done. The articles and the coverage of events as usual are good and appealing. Keep it up!

Rtn. Nan. NarayenenRC Madurai West

RI District 3000

Inspirational articles ‘Around the Districts’ pages in June 2014 issue of Rotary News, with various club project photos and de-scriptions made me feel as if I were present in those places. The article ‘Love for Rotary’ was inspirational.

Rtn. Yaad K. SugandhaRC Rewari MainRI District 3010

All the articles in the June issue are impressive. Please accept

my compliments for bringing out an informative and high quality magazine.

Rtn. Rajneesh AroraRC Jalandhar Mid Town

RI District 3070

Membership DuesThe article ‘Enhancing Rotary Experience’ by Dr. Ulhas Kolhatkar in the June issue was very interesting and useful for all Rotarians. It has touched on important aspects of club activities. I also liked the ‘Announce-ment’ column with news about New Club Invoice and ‘7 things to know about your membership Dues.’ These articles give us an insight about Rotary in totality and help us to function as responsible Rotarians.

Rtn. Sudhir S. GhikeRC Nagpur Green City

RI District 3030

This is an excellent article, especially for new members. The details given provide a very clear picture about Rotary revenue and expenses to run the organisation efficiently.

Rtn. T.D. BhatiaRC Delhi Mayur Vihar

RI District 3010

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 11

Dear Fellow Rotarians,

One of the great privileges of being president of Rotary International is having the chance to visit so many parts of the Rotary world. Usually

I travel to participate in Rotary events; speak at Rotary clubs, conferences, and institutes; and encourage Rotarians in their service. But as president,

I am responsible for all branches of the Rotary family. This means that it is also my privilege to support the service of Rotary’s youngest generations: our Rotaractors, Interactors, Rotary Youth Exchange students, and Rotary Youth Leadership Awards participants.

When I see the work Rotarians do, I am always impressed, always excited, and always inspired. When I see the work of our New Generations, I am all of this – and frequently I am surprised as well. Not by the quality of their work – for I have learned to expect great things from them – but by the creativity and ingenuity of their thinking. I look at what they have done and think not just “What a great job!” but “What a great idea!” Because every generation sees the world in a unique way, and every individual has a unique point of view. Faced with the same problems, we arrive at different solutions. This is why, in Rotary, our diversity – of culture, language, expertise, gender, and age – is our strength.

In Rotary, we try to take the long view in our service. We aspire to serve in ways that will make a lasting difference, that will continue to have an impact after our participation ends. Our younger generations, in my experience, share this sentiment, and apply it globally, by focusing on environmental

issues in new and innovative ways. When I became a Rotarian, environmental issues were barely on our radar. To young people

today, these concerns are front and center. Their perspective is a valuable contribution to the world of Rotary service, and it is one

that we should all encourage and support. Just as they are learning from us, so should we be learning from them.

The young people who are serving in Rotaract and Interact, and participating in Youth Exchange and RYLA today, are the Rotarians

of tomorrow. When we support them, we are supporting the future of our entire organization. We are helping to train the men and women who

will be the club presidents, district governors, RI directors, and RI presidents of tomorrow.

Gary C.K. Huang President, Rotary International

ei

PRESIDENTSPEAKS

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2 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

John F. Germ, a member of the Rotary Club of Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, and chair of the International Polio-Plus Committee, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of RI in 2016-17. He will become the president-nominee from 1 October if there are no challenging candidates.

For Rotary to thrive, Germ says, members must face current and future challenges and opportunities with "passion, enthusiasm, perseverance, and above all, integrity."

"I envision Rotary boldly and cre-atively engaging the success of polio eradication, membership and iden-tity issues, strengthening clubs, work with youth – our future lifeblood, and the creation of critical, strategic partnerships," says Germ. "The 2016-17 Rotary year offers a tremendous opportunity for Rotary International and the Foundation partnership unified

and thriving, on all levels, via the six areas of focus."

Germ says no one should ever have to ask, "What is Rotary?"

"We will enhance Rotary's public image by successfully and enthusias-tically marketing who we are, what amazing things we are doing, and incredibly, have done locally and globally," says Germ.

With the global economy still unpredictable, Germ says Rotary must make participation affordable and "also be unfailingly diligent in efforts to ensure we spend every dol-lar effectively and efficiently," he says.

In 1965, after four years in the U.S. Air Force, Germ, an engineer,

joined Campbell and Associates Inc., an engineering consulting firm. He now serves as the company's board chair and chief executive officer.

He also serves on the boards of sev-eral organisations including the Public Education Foundation, Orange Grove Center Inc., and the Blood Assurance Inc. He is the founder and treasurer of the Chattanooga State Technical Community College Foundation and is president of the Tennessee Jaycee Foundation.

In 1970, he was recognised as Tennessee Young Man of the Year, Engineer of the Year, and Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year in 1992.

A Rotary member since 1976, Germ has served Rotary as Vice Presi-dent, Director, Foundation Trustee and Vice Chair, Chair of Rotary's US$ 200 Million Challenge, and RI President's

aide. He is a recipient of Rotary's Ser-vice Above Self Award and The Rotary Foundation's Citation for Meritorious Service and Distinguished Service Award. He and his wife, Judy, are members of the Arch Klumph Society.

"Rotary will adapt to a rapidly changing world by embracing inno-vation within the guidelines of our tradition and values," says Germ. "By aggressively embracing new technol-ogies, social media and new opportu-nities, individuals and businesses will see that Rotary helps promote a good civic and public image while adding credibility to their people."

The Nominating Committee mem-bers are T.D. Griley, Newark, Ohio, USA (Chair); José Antonio F. Antiório, Osasco, São Paulo, Brazil; Keith Bar-nard-Jones, The Island & Royal Manor of Portland, Dorset, England; Kenneth R. Boyd, Kerman, California, USA; Michael Colasurdo Sr., Brick Town-ship, New Jersey, USA; Yash Pal Das, Ambala, Haryana, India; John Eberhard, London, Ontario, Canada; Barry Matheson, Jessheim, Norway; Shekhar Mehta, Calcutta-Mahanagar, West Bengal, India; Carlo Monticelli, Milano Net, Italy; Samuel Owori, Kampala, Uganda; Kazuhiko Ozawa, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan; Ekkehart Pandel, Bückeburg, Germany; Juin Park, Suncheon, Jeonranam, Korea; John C. Smarge, Naples, Florida, USA; Barry E. Thompson, Padstow, New South Wales, Australia; and Thomas M. Thorfinnson, Eden Prairie Noon, Minnesota, USA.

Source: www.rotary.org

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12 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

Rotarians in over drive With major membership drive!

Worthy service projects tooChapter Two is through!

My dear partners in service,September has been designated as New Generations month. Our focus should be on the youth of today.

They are the key to the door of tomorrow’s prosper-ity. They are the foundation to the edifice of tomorrow’s salvation.

India is the second most populous country in the world, with over 1.21 billion people (2011 census), more than a sixth of the world’s population.

India is projected to be the world’s most populous coun-try by 2025, surpassing China. Its population is expected to reach 1.6 billion by 2050.

India has more than 50 percent of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65 percent below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan.

These statistics highlight the importance of inculcat-ing core values of Rotary in the youth, who are at a most impressionable age!

Rotary International believes that youth of today are the future of tomorrow.

It was the famous football champion, Pele who said “show me the youth of a nation and I will predict its future.”

It was Swami Chinmayananda who said, “Youth are not useless. They are used less.” There is a subtle difference between the two!

Swamiji also said, “Youth are not careless. They are cared less.”

RI’s youth programmes like Interact / Rotaract / RYLA etc are all designed to show that “Rotary cares” for the youth.

It was John F. Kennedy who said “If we cannot prepare our future for the youth, let us prepare our youth for the future.”

Yes, we are preparing our youth for the future!Our Interact / Rotaract clubs, through RYLA pro-

grammes are doing exactly that. As Rotarians, let us help in caring for the youth and

making them useful to themselves and to society.It is said that, “Every Rotarian is an example to youth.”This puts the onus of responsibility on us, to inculcate

in the youth, the best of discipline, moral and ethical values. I will share two real life stories with you.

Story No. 1Easy Eddie, was the lawyer of Al Capone who ran Chicago’s largest crime syndicate, in 1930’s.

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Easy Eddie had everything. Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things he could not give his son... he could not pass on a good name or a good example.

He decided to come clean. He confessed to the Law enforcement authorities.

Within the year, Easy Eddie’s life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street. But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he could ever pay. Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion and a poem clipped from a magazine. The poem read:

“The clock of life is wound but once. No one can tell just when the hands will stop, Now is the only time you own. Live, love, toil with a will. For the clock may soon be still”.

Story No. 2World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O’Hare.

He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific.

One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realised that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship.

His flight leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluc-tantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet.

As he was returning to the mother ship, he saw some-thing that turned his blood cold. A squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding its way toward the American fleet.

The American fighters were gone on a sortie and the fleet was all but defenseless. He could not reach his squad-ron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet.

Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he contin-ued his mission and dove into the formation of Japanese planes.

Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent.

Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction.

Deeply relieved, Butch O’Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier.

This took place on February 20, 1942 and for that action Butch became the Navy’s first Ace of World War II and the first Naval Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29. His home town would not allow the memory of this World War II hero to fade and today, O’Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man.

So, the next time you find yourself at O’Hare Inter-national, give some thought to visiting Butch’s memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor. It is located between Terminals 1 and 2.

SO WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES ... HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER?

Butch O’Hare was Easy Eddie’s son.Easy Eddy had given his son the greatest gift he had

to offer, highest ethical standards, at the greatest price he could ever pay!

Let us all learn from Easy Eddie’s life and in our own humble way, be an “Excellent example to youth.”

It was the famous poet Khalil Gibran who said :

“Your children are not your children.They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.They come through you but not from you,And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts.You may house their bodies but not their souls,For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams!You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday!”Through RYLA camps and Career guidance pro-

grammes we can present the vision of the Promised Land to them and fire their desire to reach that destination.

Through conferences for the new generations we can help them think about goals actively instead of reactively and shape ideas instead of merely responding to them.

Let us be the music makers And the dreamers of dreams

Let us be the leaders and the movers And work together in teams.Let us fashion Rotary’s glory

And “Light Up Rotary”Out of each of our district’s success story!

Yours in Rotary,

P.T. PrabhakarDirector Rotary International (2013–15)

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14 ROTARY NEWS JUNE 2014

Yesterday was over yesterday. Today is a new day. Today is a new begin-

ning. The rest of your future begins today. Accept this reality and your

suffering will cease that very instant. Draw a line to your past and move on.

Your past has left you a long time back. Don’t continue to carry it in your

head and continue to be affected by it. Your past has no reality except in

your own memory.

The trouble with living from the ‘past’ is that it gives you scratchedspectacles

to view the future. When your spectacles are scratched, everything you

see appears to be scratched. You become incapable of seeing life as it is

or as it can be; you only see it through the experiences of your past. You

need new spectacles to view your today and build your tomorrow. Treat

your past not as a source of hurt and agony, but as an experience that you

needed to gain maturity. You needed those experiences to become the

person you are. But remember, maturity must be used to construct your

future, not to dissect your past. Bitter yesterdays has the power to create

better tomorrow. When bad things happen to good people, they become

better people.

A saying goes: “Today can be the last day of your life.” True! Equally true

is the fact that ‘Today is the first day of the rest of your life’. The beginning

is from where you begin. Begin today. Begin now. Begin here and move

on.The person you will become in life is waiting for you in the future. Go

and meet him.

Life is not about the opportunities missed in the past. Life is all about the

opportunities you can create in the future. Life with this belief that your

future begins today.

Get enriched with inspirational thoughts

reproduced from renowned new-age life guru and spiritualist,

Shri. Mahatria Ra. He is also the founder of

Alma Mater, an organisation dedicated

to self-mastery and holistic personality. His

spiritual foundation, Infinitheism encourages

a path that inspires breakthroughs in people by thinking abundance in all spheres of human

endeavour.

HOLISTIC THOUGHTS

14 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 17

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Help us reach our goal

Rotarians are generous peo-

ple. They give to many good, chari-table causes in their communities but in many instances do not support their own charity: The Rotary Foundation.

This Rotary year, I would like to see every Rotary club make a contri-bution to our Rotary Foundation.

Remember that the good we do in the world is limited only by the contributions we receive. And when we give to our Foundation, we are not sending cash to Evanston – we are helping a blind man to see, a polio victim to walk, a child to grow to adulthood healthily, a student to become better educated, and a family to have food to eat.

Each year, the trustees of The Rotary Foundation set a goal for the Annual Fund – the fund that feeds the World Fund. This year, the goal is US$123 million, with each Rotar-ian being asked to contribute a min-imum of $100. I am conscious that this figure would mean more in some countries than others. But Rotarians should give according to their means.

The slogan Every Rotarian, Every Year means exactly that. Every Rotar-ian should make a contribution to our Foundation every year. Make it a pri-ority this year to impress on your club the importance of every club support-ing our Foundation in some way.

As I said at the outset, Rotarians are generous people. I am sure you will translate that generosity into giv-ing to our Rotary Foundation.

It is up to each and every one of us to do so.

John KennyFoundation Trustee Chair

Membership in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives

Source: RI South Asia Office

As on August 1, 2014

RIZone

RIDistrict

RotaryClubs

No. of Rotarians

Women Rotarians

Rotaract Interact RCC

5 2980 157 6,484 131 64 262 1855 3000 92 4,161 299 130 247 684 3010 133 5,439 560 53 178 805 3020 63 3,180 173 29 123 2584 3030 87 4,663 510 42 177 1214 3040 90 2,234 217 25 87 1314 3051 65 2,559 185 35 119 3294 3052 71 3,449 454 23 124 1204 3053 50 1,847 160 13 30 894 3060 81 3,585 305 33 95 1004 3070 115 3,291 268 42 116 554 3080 78 3,237 159 39 146 964 3090 70 1,775 74 19 27 1224 3100 87 1,992 100 9 76 1466 3110 101 3,083 135 42 29 606 3120 64 2,471 189 23 30 484 3131 116 4,795 673 44 167 664 3132 72 3,086 204 27 82 534 3140 142 7,329 989 96 335 1375 3150 91 3,262 254 54 152 1075 3160 58 2,046 94 8 37 805 3170 122 4,736 229 24 241 1535 3180 136 5,538 198 37 354 1415 3190 84 3,551 245 48 104 415 3201 120 4,624 231 58 83 435 3202 101 3,945 165 48 342 385 3211 125 3,907 151 6 59 1135 3212 79 3,360 159 15 124 1175 3220 61 1,669 194 58 182 935 3230 126 5,680 369 97 350 2716 3240 74 2,630 245 36 109 1096 3250 88 3,103 388 34 110 1626 3261 72 2,345 283 14 93 406 3262 77 2,744 265 24 59 656 3271 80 1,415 165 35 14 136 3272 89 2,081 376 13 33 316 3281 134 4,094 417 182 68 1696 3282 83 2,362 163 110 20 386 3291 149 4,050 599 42 93 5186 3292 88 2,856 314 92 86 85

Total 3,771 138,658 11,289 1,823 5,163 4,691

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Beginning September 1, Senior Journalist Rasheeda Bhagat joins as the

Editor of Rotary News. She brings with her 36 years of experience in the media, 18 years with the Indian Express in Chennai, which she left in 1996 to join The Hindu Business Line, where she was till now an editorial consultant.

During her illustrious career, Rasheeda has held several senior editorial positions, travelled extensively across the world and written on politics and foreign affairs, agriculture and rural economy, environment and health care, education and human rights, gender issues (with particular emphasis on the evil of female foeticide), travel and lifestyle, food and small investors.

She has travelled to conflict areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and reported from there on the devastation caused by conflict and war in those societies. She has visited several times India’s neighbours such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, covering elections in both Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and interviewing Nobel Laureate and the ‘father’ of the self help group movement Mohammed Yunus who set up the Grameen Bank.

It is her connect with the rural and social sectors, writing about social entre-preneurs and the voluntary sector, telling positive stories about the changing face of India, with vivid details, conviction and passion, that makes her most suitable to take up this new assignment. Incidentally, the awards she has bagged during her career include one given by Rotary News Trust for the best Indian Journalist in 2009!

Rotary News magazine welcomes her and wishes her all the best.

Rotary News has a new Editor

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3

As we celebrate our 68th Independence day, millions of young Indians — the well heeled as well as the poor and disadvantaged — are looking up to the new Government with a primary promise it had made while sweeping the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. And that has to do with rozi-roti.

Consider the numbers; in this election a record number of about 150 million youngsters in the age group 18–23 years had qualified to vote for the first time. Just imagine … this number is the voting population of several European countries put together. If we raise the bar to the 35-year-olds, 65 percent of Indians belong to this group.

Both the new Government, as well as the leaders in our voluntary and social sectors know only too well that the hopes and aspirations of this group are phenomenal. What is more, young Indians have, or are, moving away from the mai-baap or high-reverence towards our rulers. They are impatient, they are angry and they want to see a positive change in their lives.

On their part, they are willing to do whatever it takes… study hard, work hard and become eligible for a decent livelihood. But they need a helping hand to do so. As start-up enterprises need angel-investors (Venture funds, sometimes called Vulture funds too!), India’s young, particularly those from the disadvantaged sections, need an “angel” to bring hope to their lives.

Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation, who is featured in the cover story of this issue, is an entrepreneur who has perfected a win-win formula to run a successful business enterprise — annual sales of his Zoho Corporation is $180–200 million — while helping bright and talented youngsters from disadvantaged families. He recruits Plus Two or polytechnic students from villages of Tamil Nadu, trains them for 18 months at a Rs.7,000 stipend, and those who clear the rigorous training are all absorbed at a salary of Rs.20,000 a month.

Connect such inspiring stories with the inspirational address Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave from the Red Fort this Independence Day.

The most endearing and moving feature of his speech was that for the first time a top Indian politician spoke on gender issues, ranging from female foeticide and sexual harassment of girls/women to the urgent need for building separate toilets for girls in all government schools. He got the nuances, sensibility and sensitivity of the gender debate right, when he urged parents to ask the same questions to their sons as they do to their daughters — where are they going, what are they upto, who are their friends, and so on.

He also urged doctors not to fall prey to the greed factor and in order to “fill their coffers” murder the girl child growing in a mother’s womb. India’s sex ratio had fallen to an alarming low of only 940 girls to 1000 boys. The PM reminded us that this is not an “imbalance” caused by nature; it was our own doing, and it was this imbalance which was responsible for so many problems in our society, he cautioned.

India looks upon its young to heed such sound advice, so that both the genders can walk side by side, shoulder to shoulder to take India forward … and to great heights.

Rasheeda Bhagat

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2 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Making Headway on Membership DevelopmentD-3000 inducted 66 new members

Rotary Internsional has desig-nated August as as Membership

Development month. Our District

3170 organised a District Member-ship Development Seminar to stress on the importance of membership.

The seminar hosted by RC Belgaum North, was held on August 10 at Belgaum.

RID PTP amd DG Ganesh Bhat with 212 new members, inducted since July’14 in various clubs of D3170.

Rotary Club of Karur, chartered in 1955 is one of the oldest clubs of

RI District 3000. The club enhanced their membership count from 296 at the start of the Rotary year 2014-15 to 362 by inducting 66 new members

that includes 24 women Rotarians also. Inspired by RI President Gary

Huang and RI Director P.T. Prab-hakar’s encouraging words on membership development, the Club President M.P. Ramasamy confidently

says that the club intends to bring in at least 34 members making it a total of 100 new members Rotar Year 2014-15.

With inputs from RC KarurRI District 3000

RC Karur honors its new members on stage.

D-3170 gives warm welcome to new members

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3

The Membership Development Seminar of Rotary International

District 3212 was organised by Rotary Clubs of Rajapalayam and Rajapalayam Central on August 17 at Rajapalayam. The event aimed at inspiring Rotarians with strategies for new member recruitment and retention of existing members.

RI Director P.T. Prabhakar was the chief guest for the meet and his moti-vational address enthused the Rotari-ans to execute the slogan, ‘Each one Bring one.’ He pointed out that recruit-ing members is not merely increasing the numbers; it means ushering in new attitudes, ideas and new ways.

Stressing on bringing in more women to Rotary, RI Director requested the District Governor to waive the District dues for women Rotarians and also appoint a lady coordinator for Membership Devel-opment. He urged the Rotarians to infuse young blood in Rotary by inducting former Rotaractors, and that would bring in new inspiration and make the club younger and more zealous. Brimming with construc-tive ideas, RID Prabhakar suggested to the Rotarians to encourage for-mer Rotarians to re-join Rotary and involve them in club activities and, to identify and induct quality members into the Rotary family. In keeping up with the time, he also advocated the need for forming e-clubs to attract the net-savvy youngsters.

RID Prabhakar requested the city-based clubs to have a minimum mem-bership base of 40 and town-based clubs to have a minimum membership of 30. He requested all weak clubs, below 30 members to immediately increase their membership strength so as to make the clubs more vibrant. In short, RID PTP mesmerised the audience and, all of them went home, clearly convinced about the need for qualitative memebership growth.

The District team promised to add 10 e-clubs, two all-women Rotary clubs and improve upon the membership of weak clubs. Thanking the RI Direc-tor for his inspirational message, DG Ashok Padmaraj and District Member-ship Development Chair Rtn. Ramasu-bramania Raja promised to achieve the District target on membership growth.

Rtn. Ramasubramania RajaChair, Membership Development

RI District 3212

We had the privilege of having RI Director P.T. Prabhakar as our chief guest.

We had an audience of 1,000 Rotarians and RID P.T. Prabhakar had an interactive session with all of them!

In his own inimitable style, he convinced the audience of the neces-sity to induct young members & women members in line with the

emphasis on membership by RI Presi-dent Gary Huang, who is also is laying great emphasis on Spouse members.

RID PTP recognised on stage, the 212 new members inducted in various Rotary clubs in the District since July 1, 2014, along with the respective club presidents and the Assistant Governors.

District Governor Ganesh Bhat, exhibiting keen interest on member-

ship development, is determined to fulfill his target of inducting 1701 Rotarians by June 30, 2015.

DG Ganesh G Bhat, PDG Mahesh Raikar ARC, PDG Avinash Potdar Officer on Special Duty (OSD) together motivated the Rotarians to go all out for increasing membership in their respective clubs.

Rtn H.S.Chandrashekhar, RI District 3170 Coordinator

D-3212 organised a motivating Membership Seminar

RID PTP interacting with the Rotarians at the seminar.

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Sridhar Vembu is a tech guru with a difference. He co-founded the IT company Zoho Corpo-ration (in another name) in 1996 at the age of 28.

With annual sales of $180-200 mil-lion, it employs 2,500 people, but what makes it unique is its recruiting philosophy.

In the beginning, knowing well that academic achievers, IITians, etc would anyway opt for the IT majors and not the then unknown Zoho, he recruited from lesser known engineer-ing colleges. By 2004 he realised that his top performing managers didn’t have a great academic background, and those they recruited had to be trained for the job anyway. So why not go directly to schools.

So Zoho University was set up; when a professor of engineering, B. Rajendran, agreed to come on board, they found six students and the “uni-versity” was operational!

Last year I met one of the first six students, Saran Babu. All of 24 years, he was already a manager handling a team of five and his salary had crossed Rs.70,000.

So what is he earning now, I ask Vembu.

“Oh, much much more; I can’t embarrass him by telling you the fig-ure”, he laughs. “He is one of our star performers. In this business, the pay rises very rapidly once they reach a certain level and they become globally competitive.

Two years ago, when Saran Babu had to replace a senior manager for a task in Japan’s Zoho office, the cli-ent, Yahoo!, was so impressed by the youngster that it offered him a job in Japan. But Saran turned it down.

“Because I am doing so well here, enjoying the challenge and I think I will grow faster here,” he tells me. Saran, like many of his younger col-leagues, passed out of Class XII from a government school in Chennai. He wanted to become an engineer, but

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COVER STORY

A life worthLIVING

by Rasheeda Bhagat

Sridhar Vembu, Co-founder & CEO, Zoho Corporation.

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3

his father fell ill and he had to start working.

Today he earns much more than what a degree from a passable engi-neering college might have allowed. His younger brother is on board too, and together they not only run the house, Saran has invested in a flat and FDs, and gives his mother Rs.10,000 every month. “I work hard, but I really enjoy my work,” he says.

Who wouldn’t, when the boss is so friendly, supportive and informal. I have a meal with Vembu and sev-eral youngsters at the Zoho canteen in Chennai. Vembu is dressed casually in a Tee shirt and jeans. The entire office is spanking clean, colourful and exudes a cheer and energy that warms the heart.

No fuss, no frillsIn the canteen, when he joins them, nobody makes a fuss over the boss. Apart from India Zoho has offices in

the US, Japan, China, and “we will soon be opening our European office as there is a lot of demand coming in from Europe”. He spends 30 per cent of his time in Chennai and the rest in the US.

At the Zoho office, I meet young-sters from poor and lower mid-dle-class families, recruited from the villages around cities like Madurai, Tiruchi, Vellore. Their stories warm the heart, as almost all of them are first generation white collar workers.

During study/training at Zoho, they get a stipend of Rs.7,000 for 18 months. Most of the money goes to their parents families in the villages.

But admission to the Zoho University isn’t a cakewalk. “We screen about 60,000 Std XII and polytechnic students to select 60. It is basic intelligence, some math skill, abstract pattern matching and an aptitude for hard work.” About 10 per cent can’t make it through the

rigorous and challenging training and drop out.

Where learning is fun In Prof Rajendran’s class, there is camaraderie and laughter. Now 64, he has been told by Vembu: “There is no retirement for you!” Here, I had ear-lier met Gunasundari, 17, nicknamed Great Guna, as she was very fast with software code-writing. From a village near Vellore in Tamil Nadu, she had lost her father and her mother was a construction worker. She shared a room in Chennai with a co-worker, and was happy she didn’t have to “mug up as in other colleges”.

Later, Vembu says that till a few months earlier, Guna hadn’t even used a computer. “But within six months she was writing complicated codes. All of them write codes which I’d find difficult because I’m out of touch.”!

Most students are from Tamil medium schools, and have to

Vembu (centre), the friendly, supportive boss with his staff.

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On India’s youth Vembu says, “India has a big demo-graphic dividend, and the young today are hugely

aspirational. Earlier our parents or elders would say this is my fate. But no longer; today’s young have both aspiration and ambition and we see that in our recruitment. Through the social media and the Internet they have much more exposure.”

On why more Indian companies are not doing what he has done – taking talented youngsters from modest background and giving them an opportunity, Vembu says, “I believe the realisation is slowly kicking in, particularly in the US, with people questioning the value of college and the idea of home schooling is spreading. Many more alternatives are emerging thanks to the Internet, and based on this our education system is going to face a massive change in the next 5-10 years.”

That, he adds, will create opportunities for a larger num-ber of people. “Today, even if you come from a rural college, there is a strong exposure to new technologies, compared to 10 years ago. So the confidence that I can learn on my own or I can learn in small groups is spreading.”

Initially people hankered after “official sanction. But now what I call the democratisation in education is spread-ing. Earlier only government colleges had official sanction, and private institutions were on the margins. Now they’ve come to the forefront. Similarly 25 years ago, working for the government was the right or ‘official’ thing to do; working for the private sector was not cool. That has now changed.”

This process, he believes, will only strengthen. Small groups of people will take charge of their lives, their des-tiny. “To me, Zoho University is a reflection of that process. We say we need good employees and we see a massive pool of talent out there, so why not put the two together

ourselves. We didn’t seek official sanction or accredi-tation. It’s not important. We compete in the market with our products and what our customers care about is the quality of the product. Not who built it and what is her grade. They don’t care. So we focus only on that.”

Another important point Vembu makes is that educa-tion and related employment opportunities opening up

thanks to the Internet are going to lead to a decentralised society in a big way. He points to India’s history; 30 years ago the Central government was all powerful. “No more. Our States have now become powerful. In the next stage the district governments will get more autonomy. Today no district administration has any real depth to it, but all this will change in the next 10 years.”

This, adds Vembu, is great news for India as greater development will take place. The same thing is happening in the private sector and in “our individual lives too; we are in charge of our destiny. That’s why I never complain: ‘Oh, the government should do this or that. I don’t believe in that. We have to take charge and solve our problems.”

It is here that the voluntary sector has a lot of scope and the positive thing is many youngsters doing voluntary work in India, he says.

Looking back, he feels good at the course he has charted for himself and his company that he started at the age of 28. “When I was 25, I’d wonder what is the measure of worth, the purpose of life, and whether life was worth liv-ing. All philosophical questions which led to the single question… if I didn’t live, what difference would it make anyway. But I do feel now that it has been worth living. I want to live and continue the work we’re doing.”

He dismisses the question about his message to Indian youth with, “Oh, that sounds too grandiose.” But he is “very optimistic about India’s future for several reasons. As poor as we are there are lots of things that are right about India. Look at the level of communal harmony we have, not taking into account minor skirmishes. Look at Iraq. We have to be thankful for what we are and have. And we can build on all this. Law and order might not be perfect, but it is decent. It’s not as though we are fearful for our lives when we step out.”

Zoho CEO with Zoho University students in Chennai.

Democratisation of education is spreading

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compulsorily undergo a daily one-hour English class.

Whether Mohammed Afsar, whose fathr working as a ward boy in a gov-ernment hospital, Vijayaraghavan from Srivilliputtur, G. Aruna and Madan from Madurai, or Asghar Khalid, Saravanan, Maharajan, … all of them have similar tales of poverty and tough lives to share. If they successfully complete 18 months’ training Zoho will absorb them with a starting sal-ary of Rs.20,000, a windfall for these youngsters.

What makes the eye moist is that these students, who have 12-hours classes 6 days a week, would love to come in on Sunday too because of the air conditioned environs and, more important, wholesome food, but Vembu insists that they should take a break.

Small wonder that the loyalty quo-tient is so high and attrition so low in this company.

The beginningThe company began in 1996 in a room in his Chennai house, with two com-puters his brother Kumar had brought from the US. Today the company employs 2,500! With his father a ste-nographer in the Madras High Court, the boy studied in Tamil medium, becoming the first from his school to get into IIT Madras. In 1989, the electrical engineering graduate got a scholarship to do his Ph.D. at Prince-ton. Interestingly, at both IIT and Princeton, he avoided computer sci-ence as “it meant writing software and I felt building was better than sitting in front of a computer.” Interested in maths and economics, he wanted to become a teacher.

But after getting his doctorate he had doubts about his vocation. “The best analogy is that of the Catholic Church; I trained to be a bishop and I started to question God. If you do that, you are in deep trouble,” he laughs.

He turned down a teaching assign-ment in Australia and finally joined

Qualcomm, then in San Diego, pre-ferring its sunny weather to the “freez-ing winters in Princeton. Just like you marry a girl because she looks good… a superficial reason!”

After two years of writing codes, he realised the power of software; “whether a car engine, camera or any-thing else, they were all first designed and tested on the computer through software.”

With his brother Kumar, a soft-ware engineer, also at Qualcomm (“those days you could literally board a plane to the US and find a job as there was a great shortage of software engineers”), the two brothers would discuss how India was on the verge of something big in software. The year was 1994, and “we’d say how in this industry you don’t need capital, equip-ment or infrastructure; only your brain. That’s how Infosys started! So should we start something too.”

When Kumar became home-sick and left the US with two computers, a small software venture began. After many an obstacles and pitfalls, tiny orders for $2,000-5,000, came in. This was 1996; by 1998 their sales touched $300,000, and next year jumped to $1 million, “and we kept growing to $3 million and then $10 million, and knew we hade a successful business,” he recalls. In 2009 the firm’s name was changed to Zoho Corporation.

Simplicity, candourVembu disarms you with his simplicity and candour. On Zoho going public, he shakes his head and says, “Not really; I like the freedom to do what I want and dress the way I want. I don’t care how I look, I don’t like to talk to Wall Street or our Dalal Street guys wear-ing a suit and a tie. I don’t socialise in those circles. I don’t play golf — I’m not interested and consciously avoid all of it. I do whatever I do with passion.”

Another reason, he says with a smile, for his not taking Zoho public, was he wants to avoid being talked about in terms of his networth. “I don’t want to be defined by the zeroes in my name. I am more interesting than that!”

And those “interests” include run-ning 10-mile marathons and helping his wife Pramilla, who runs her own company in the US, to home-school their 14-year-old autistic son. “He is learning at home at his own pace; if we send him to a school he will be miserable. He is very good at playing the piano.”

Ask Vembu what he loves the most and he says: “Any peaceful place. Watching harvest in my village in Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu).” His home in the US is in the countryside too and has a big farm attached to it. “My son loves the solitude, and so do I. Our office in Tenkasi is also very peaceful and scenic.”

Sharing some light moments with his staff.

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MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

As the Liaison Director, I had the pleasure and privilege of attending 2014 -15 R I Membership committee meeting on July 31 & August 1, 2014 at R I Head quarters, Chicago.

The importance of the meeting to RI can be gauged from the fact, that, it was attended by RI President Gary Huang , General Secretary John Hewko, TRF Trustees Jackson S.L. Hsieh ( Tai-wan), Monty Audenart (Canada) & PRID Barry Rassin ( Aide to RIPE K.R. Ravindran).

The committee was Chaired ably by PRID Allen Jagger.

I give below the highlights of the membership committee meeting.

1. Status Report on Membership

An update to the committee was presented on membership statistics and progress with respect to the regional membership plans. Rotary is at a critical point with respect to membership. For 18 years membership has remained stagnant.

The 30 June 2014 number is a decline from 30 June 2013: 1,207,102 versus 1,208,660 from 30 June 2013. Based on our typical loss of approximately 2% between the 30 June and 1 July figures, we might estimate that the 1 July start figure will be below the start figure from last year.

For the first time we see two years of decline, in succes-sion, perhaps an indication of a declining trend.

The committee discussed the importance of retention and retaining new clubs and existing members in general. We lose approximately 120,000 members each year!!!

2. Research Studies

Staff presented results from the Strategic Plan Committee’s Membership Satisfaction Research. Under the direction of the Strategic Planning Committee, Strategic Plan Surveys have been conducted to gather Rotarian feedback . In March 2014, a survey invitation was emailed to a random and rep-resentative sample of over 67,000 Rotarians. Achieving a response rate of 15%, a total of 10,334 Rotarians provided their feedback on a variety of strategic planning topics.

Overall, the survey results affirm the strategic direction of the RI Strategic Plan. As in 2012, Rotarians continue to strongly endorse the priorities and the goals. The results also point to areas of strength and areas of opportunity for Rotary in achieving its objectives.

Areas of Strength

• Consistency of Rotarian views on the priorities and goals of the strategic plan – Regardless of country or club, most Rotarians share similar aspirations for Rotary

• Increasing awareness of the importance of strategic planning at the club and district level

• Proud to be Rotarians and recommend our organization to their family, friends and acquaintances

• Support for both the new grants model and sustaina-bility in Rotary’s humanitarian efforts

• Tremendous amount of Rotarian pride in the success of Rotary’s campaign to end polio

• Agreement with the Strengthening Rotary initiative’s aims

2014–15 Rotary International

Membership Committee meeting 31 July – 1 August 2014

by P T PrabhakarRI Director, 2013–15

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3

Areas of Opportunity

• Ongoing worries about the decline in membership• Feeling that there is insufficient diversity, particularly

of age and gender, in their clubs• Lack of awareness of the new online tools, Rotary Club

Central and Rotary Showcase• Frustration with “old-fashioned” processes, bureau-

cracy, requirements and slow pace of change• Fears that attendance and meeting frequency rules

drive away prospective new members• Emerging concerns about financial sustainability of

Rotary as a whole and individual clubs in the next ten years

3. Membership Committee Workgroups

The 2013-14 Membership Committee identified five key issues and established workgroups to address them. The RI Board received an update on these groups and endorsed them at their May 2014 meeting. The work-groups met in small groups and discussed the following topics in details :

1. Communication2. Rules vs. Engagement 3. Governance Structure 4. Training for club presidents5. New membership models

In discussion of the reports from each Workgroup, the committee discussed the following recommendations to the RI Board and the general secretary.

The committee decided to make the following recommemdation

1. requests the general secretary to conduct a focus group of alumni and young professionals to help in the development of a new membership model that appeals to the 25–40 age group;

2. expands the Innovation and Flexibility pilot from 200 to 1,000 clubs effective 1 July 2015;

3. based on the success of the recent membership pilots, requests the Constitution & Bylaws Committee to draft legislation for possible submission the 2016 Council on Legislation that would allow for global implementation of the provisions of the Meeting Fre-quency, Corporate Membership, Associate Member-ship and Satellite Club pilots;

4. requests the Leadership Development & Training Committee to consider the quality and consistency of president-elect training seminar with respect to mem-bership, and to review the role of Rotary coordinators and assistant Rotary coordinators at president-elect training seminar;

The committee makes the following SUGGESTION

1. promote the availability of Rotaract e Clubs;2. consider how membership development is presented,

in all training materials, ensuring that membership is positioned as the top priority of the organization, when publications are next revised;

3. provide an update on the translation pilot program at the 2014–15 Membership Committee’s March meeting;

4. review the leadership responsibilities for membership development, with an emphasis on the role of the assistant governor, for review at the 2014-15 Mem-bership Committee’s March meeting;

5. study the regions currently defined in the Regional Membership Plans to better align with the Rotary Coordinator appointments and the RI Directors, for consideration by the 2014-15 Membership Commit-tee’s at its March meeting;

4. Regional Membership Plans

The committee discussed the regional membership plan implementation the last two years and discussed the strengths and weaknesses to this approach. The committee felt strongly that this regional approach is the best approach for membership and discussed some possible opportunities to improve the implementation of the regional membership plans, including: • Getting the plans and membership goals to the club level • Develop a simple and clear explanation of the goals in the

region (not distribute the full plan but some key action steps)• Use metrics to better inform goal setting • Better inform district governors and club presidents as to

their roles in support of the goals • Look at distributing the funds allocated toward regional

membership plans to the club – establishing at club grant program, for example

• Improve the definition of responsibility for the regional membership plans – ensure that each leadership role understands their individual responsibility for the plans.

5. Membership Development Business Plan

The staff presented an update on the staff activities sup-porting membership development including publications, social media, webinars, district membership chair survey, pilot evaluations and research.

It was one of the most professionally run and actively participated meeting in RI, that I have ever attended.

I will keep you posted of the developments in member-ship plans, after the October 2014 Board Meeting.

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This year, I am urging all Rotarians to Light Up Rotary by participating in Rotary Days. The Rotary Day concept is a simple one: hold a fun, informal event in your community for the non-Rotary public and use it as an opportunity to introduce them to Rotary. It’s that easy.

Rotary Days can help your club drive up inter-est in membership, strengthen your club’s rela-tionships with local institutions and community members, and improve Rotary’s image in your community. Imagine the collective impact we can have if all 34,000 Rotary clubs worldwide make a concerted effort to introduce the public to the fun, rewarding experiences that we all enjoy as Rotary members.

Gary C.K. Huang President, Rotary International, 2014–15

LIGHT UP ROTARY

Gary C.K. Huang2014-15 RI President

Rotary Days

CELEBRATINGROTARY DAYS

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3

Hosting a Rotary DayAny club, big or small, can host a Rotary Day. Neighboring clubs can pool their resources and cohost a Rotary Day event, and even entire districts can come together to host a large-scale Rotary Day.

Rotary Days can take any form, as long as they are fun and appealing to the non-Rotary public. Here are just a few possibilities: • Hold an outdoor picnic or barbecue • Host a sporting event or concert • Organize a family fun run • Align the event with a public parade or festival • Sponsor an event at a museum, art gallery, or

cultural center • Secure an auditorium or arena and plan a ticketed

reception or buffet dinner

Tips for Rotary Day planners • Feature guests that will appeal to a non-Rotary

audience. Consider inspirational speakers, celebrities, musicians, or other public figures.

• If the event will offer food, keep it simple — for example, a barbecue buffet rather than a formal, sit-down meal.

• Keep admission prices low. Approach local businesses to sponsor your event.

• Make your event welcoming to families. Encourage members to bring their spouses, children, and other relatives.

• Avoid using Rotary jargon or referring to internal traditions; present Rotary as an enticing opportunity for prospective members to make new friends, exchange ideas, and take action to improve their local community and the world.

• Highlight the work of ordinary Rotary members doing extraordinary humanitarian work.

• Consider including a hands-on service project as part of the event to give visitors the chance to see firsthand how Rotary benefits the community.

• Recognize non-Rotary community members who embody Rotary’s service ideals.

• Seek coverage for the event in local newsmedia.

• Collect participants’ contact information and follow up within two weeks to invite them to attend a club meeting or event.

National Rotary DaysIn addition to the many club- and district-level Rotary Days that will take place this year, there will be a select number of national Rotary Days facilitated by current RI directors and other senior leaders. These events will convey Rotary’s relevance, highlight our good work, and appeal specifically to residents of the countries where they take place. Visit President Huang’s page on rotary.org after 1 July 2014 for details on these events.

Rotary Days recognition for clubsDistrict governors are encouraged to give special awards to clubs that undertake successful Rotary Day events during 2014–15. Rotary will provide governors with an electronic template for a certificate.

Rotary Days photos Post photos from your Rotary Day event online using Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #RotaryDay to share your impact with Rotary’s online community. Photos of Rotary Day events around the world will be collected and shown at the 2015 Rotary International Convention in São Paulo, Brazil. Some photos may also be featured in The Rotarian magazine.

Rotary Days video contest Clubs and districts are invited to submit brief videos highlighting their Rotary Day events. President Huang will recognize one grand prize-winning club or district with a special award plaque. The winning video, along with videos from select finalists, will be featured on rotary.org and possibly at the 2015 Rotary International Convention in São Paulo, Brazil. Submissions must be less than three minutes long, use English or English subtitles, and be uploaded to YouTube. To submit your video for the contest, visit President Huang’s page on rotary.org between 1 July 2014 and 31 March 2015 and complete the online submission form.

Source: www.rotary.org

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by Kiran Zehra

RI District 3230 all set to paint the city in colours of patriotism and set a world record.

Rotary International President Gary Huang has urged the Dis-

trict Governors and club Presidents all over the world to Light Up Rotary by organising a Rotary Day in their community during the Rotary year 2014–15. Rotary Days would give Rotary, marvellous PR opportunities across the world. During a Rotary Day, Rotary clubs could host a fun, infor-mal event for the larger community

which would enhance Rotary’s image and also boost the membership of the club. It is a perfect occasion for clubs to showcase their service projects in their communities.

In line with RI President’s focus, DG I.S.A.K Nazar, RI District 3230 has planned to host a Rotary Day — Rotary My Flag My India — on December 7, 2014, in Chennai which would be the biggest PR event in the Rotary world.

A curtain-raiser for ‘Rotary My Flag My India’ initiative was launched on August 18 in Chennai. With this event, RI District 3230, in its endeavour to create a new Guin-ness Record of forming the largest human Indian National Flag with the participation of 50,000-plus Rotari-ans, Rotaractors, NCC cadets, col-lege and school students and others from various walks of life, opened

Tamil Nadu Governor Dr. K. Rosaiah unveiling the logo as RID P.T. Prabhakar, DG I.S.A.K. Nazar and Rotary Days Chair Mohan Raghavan look on.

RI District 3230

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 65

RID P.T. Prabhakar receiving the brochure from Tamil Nadu Governor Dr. K. Rosaiah. Also seen: Rotary Days Chair Mohan Raghavan, DG I.S.A.K. Nazar and PDG A.P. Khanna.

RID P.T. Prabhakar decorating RIP Gary Huang with Rotary Days pin at RI Head Quarters, Evanston, USA on August 1, 2014.

its registration counter for the mega event that is to be held on December 7, 2014 at Chennai. More than two lakh spectators are also expected to witness the magnificent show.

Governor of Tamil Nadu, Dr. K. Rosaiah, unveiled the logo and released the brochure which was received by RI Director P.T. Prabhakar. The Governor praised and congratulated RI District 3230 for its efforts to raise patriotic fervour in the hearts of Indian youth. Calling it a “Mega Event,” Rtn Mohan Raghavan, Chairman - Rotary Days, inspired the audience to join the initi-ative and lend their support to provide education, sanitation and clean water to the underprivileged in our country.

Britto Educational Institutions, with submission of 1,000 participants took the lead in registration, which was handed over to RID Prabhakar. He congratulated DG Nazar and Rtn Mohan Raghavan for coming up with such an incredible concept. Addressing

the audience RID PTP said, “It is a great time to be a Rotarian from India because: India is No.1 in the world in membership development, No.3 in contribution to TRF, and most importantly India is polio-free mak-ing Rotarians in India truly proud of having achieved a milestone.”

A special feature at the launch was the promo video that featured handmade clay dolls depicting vari-ous social welfare themes that Rotary brings about in India. DG Nazar urged the support of Rotarians and

non-Rotarians “to reiterate the impor-tance of our nation’s values and prin-ciples” and together enforce the much awaited change.

When this extraordinary concept was communicated to RI President Gary Huang, he was very much impressed with the elaborate idea and enthusias-tically accepted to be the Chief Guest for the grand event.

For registrations or to pledge in this initiative log on to: www.rotary myflagmyindia.com or email at [email protected].

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3

In an overwhelming response to the “A Million Books, A Million Smiles” campaign, Rotarians in India have collected 15,83,427 books. The number continues to grow as more and more clubs upload their collection data on the www.rotaryteach.org website.

By definition, a library is “a building or room containing collections of books, periodicals, and sometimes films and recorded music for use or borrowing by the public or the members of an institution“. It may be large or small. When a library is created in a school, the thumb rule allocates at least 3 books per child. Thus, for a school with 40 students the library must contain a minimum of 120 books.

A school library can be of two types: 1. Traditional Library 2. Classroom Library*

BOOK SORTING & LABELING 1. When sorting you will have books of different lan-

guages like English, Hindi and other local languages. So the sorting needs to be done, both, language-wise and colour-wise.

2. Ear mark a different space for a different colour of books while sorting.

3. Under each colour there should be allocated space for each language of books.

4. The colours and the corresponding level of book is given in the table below:

5. Stickers have to be printed with the corresponding col-ours. Design of stickers is in picture 2.

6. The books have to be sorted and placed, according to the classification given in the table above in the area designated for a given colour.

7. Label with the corresponding colour is to be stuck on the spine of each book, such that, half the sticker shows on the front cover and half on the back cover of the book.

Colour coding with GROW BYCode Colour Standard Nature of Books

G Green Class II Pictorial Books with 1-2 sentences per page with very simple, understandable words for children

R Red Class III Pictorial books with 1-3 sentences per page and more difficult words than in Green coded books

O Orange Class IV Pictorial books with 3-4 sentences per page and more complex words

W White Class V Books with 5-6 sentences per page with construction more complex than in previous levels

B Blue Class VI Books with 6-7 sentences per page using more complex structure and difficult words than in the previous label

Y Yellow Class VII Books meant for good read-ers. This will include books with scientific explanation of natural phenomena like solar eclipse

8. Each colour indicates a bunch of books that is suitable for a student class.

9. Once all books collected by a club are sorted, the club may find that it has too many books of one colour.

10. In that case the club will need to join hands with neigh-boring clubs to get the correct mix of books for a library.

11. The colour of books to be considered for a particular classroom will depend on the standard/ability of stu-dents for whom the library is being created.

12. The clubs in a city/area/Rotary District can sort the books together at a common location and convert it into a PR event with press coverage.

GROW BY READINGA Guide to Setting

up Library

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4 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

TRADITIONAL LIBRARY

To set up a traditional library, the following needs to be done:1. A room or space in the school building needs to be

designated for setting up the library.2. Cupboards need to be bought and installed to store the

books. 3. Books need to be sorted and put into the cupboards.

(The process of sorting books to create a traditional or classroom library is the same and as described above).

4. For a traditional library a librarian has to be appointed to keep record of books acquired and borrowed by the children.

Note: The library cupboard in Government schools, in rural areas, is usually kept in the Head Teacher’s room. The chil-dren are often scared to go there to browse through or even borrow books for reading.

CLASSROOM LIBRARYTo set up a classroom library the following needs to be done:1. Portable libraries, Classroom Book Hangers (picture 4)

are put up against a wall in the classroom at the begin-ning of the day and folded and kept away when school gets over.

2. The Classroom Book Hanger is made of canvas or water-proof material (used for making school bags) with four to six transparent pockets capable of holding at least thirty books each.

3. The Classroom Book Hanger can be of the following types:

Hanger with Length in Inches Breadth in Inches

8 pockets 42.5 24

6 pockets 32.5 24

4 pockets 22.5 24

Size of Pocket 9 10

4. The pockets are labeled according to the GROW BY colour coding system and language-wise.

5. The books are sorted and labeled with colour coded stickers to be put into the corresponding pockets.

6. This is accompanied by a colour coded Book User Chart as shown in picture 5

7. This chart is to be pasted on the wall beside the Class-room Library.

8. When a child picks up a book to read he looks at the colour of the sticker on the spine and accordingly ticks a box of the same colour in the corresponding month on the chart.

9. The chart helps the teacher to keep track of the progres-sion in reading habits and comprehension ability of the students in his class.

Note: In a Classroom Library the books stay in the classroom and children feel more comfortable to pick them up for read-ing. The books can be taken home by the students - however, it is advisable not to permit this as then record will need to be kept of which child is taking which book.

Let us begin the process of library creation. It will be, I am sure, both enjoyable and educative for us adults too! Together we will create more than 1,500 libraries and light up the faces and eyes of lakhs of children with smiles, chil-dren who may have never seen or touched books like these.With warm regards,

Shekhar MehtaChair, Rotary India Literacy Mission

*The process and guidelines on Library creation are pro-vided by our knowledge partners Akshara Foundation & Hippocampus.

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4 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

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2 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

ROTARY ACTS

Comfort ZonesRotary Club of Madras, RI District 3230, gives a big thrust to community sanitation

and aims to make Tamil Nadu open-defecation free by the end of the decade!

Half the population of India - over 600 million people - defecate in the open. The result is a host of diseases includ-ing diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid, stunting of children’s growth, high infant mortality and assaults on women who defecate after dark. The Gov-ernment of India has been generous with its toilet subsidies and numerous NGOs have constructed and donated toilets, but this has had little impact on open defecation. In order for sanitation to improve, behavioural modification of the target communities to sensitise them to sanitation is a must before toi-lets are constructed.

The Rotary Club of Madras, the third oldest Rotary club in India, has launched a sanitation programme to end open defecation through its path-break-ing pilot project in Gummidipoondi near Chennai, Tamil Nadu to create an open- defecation free community.

The project uses a variant of the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) method pioneered by Dr. Kamal Kar which has been successful in several countries around the world, including parts of India. Bangladesh, for instance has reduced the number of open defecators to under ten percent.

At the heart of CLTS is the rec-ognition that merely providing toilets does not guarantee their use. It relies instead on triggers such as disgust and shame to make communities change their behaviour in a sustainable man-ner. Likewise, the “unglamorous” pro-ject of RC Madras works to create a “sense of disgust” among residents.

The success that the pilot project of the club has seen is incredible. Immediately after being ‘triggered,’

the villagers of Amarampedu in Gum-midipoondi have, on their own started digging leach pit toilets.

Importantly, the Government of Tamil Nadu, impressed with the pilot project, organised a meeting of all

Panchayat Presidents in Gummidi-poondi and had the expert facilitators of the RC Madras, address them. The Panchayat Presidents committed to dates by which they would make their villages open-defecation free.

Rtn. S.N. Srikanth, President, RC Madras sensitising the issue of open-defecation to the villagers.

Panchayat Presidents eager to bring in the change.

Page 35: September Rotary News

SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3SEPSEPESEPTEMTEMMBERBERRBER 202022014141444 ROTROTROTROR ARYARYAARY NENEEN WSWSWS 3333

News features in The Hindu August 26 and July 16, 2014 respectively. News Courtesy The Hindu

Chennai » Events

Rotary Club of Madras plans campaign against open defecation

Special Correspondent

The Rotary Club of Madras, the third-oldest Rotary Club in India, will soon launch a sanitation programme to endopen defecation. The project will focus on behavioural change brought about through community involvement, saidthe club’s president S. N. Srikanth, at a meeting of the club held here on Tuesday.

Mr. Srikanth said the “unglamorous” project will aim to create “a sense of disgust” among residents. It will beinitiated in phases at Amarampettai, Kimalur and Panjalai villages in Gummidipoondi, and Rotary Nagar in Chennai.

On the need for the project, he said that for India to become an economic super power, fundamental issues such asending open defecation had to be dealt with.

“It will be implemented in a professional manner and be completed during a 9.5-month period. The Tamil Nadugovernment is mighty receptive to the project. We will work in tandem with the government. We don’t want to justcreate a pilot project. By the end of the decade, our club aims to make TN open defecation-free,” he said.

Ajay Sinha, CEO, Feedback Foundation, an NGO that has worked on several sanitation projects and brought aboutchange from within villages, said that poverty, lack of toilets and lack of water had nothing to do with opendefecation.

“Though 70 per cent of rural population has access to toilets, 80 per cent of people in the villages still prefer todefecate in the open. In east Godavari area, there are rich cashew exporters who do not use toilets and insteaddefecate in the open,” he explained.

Meenakshi Rajagopal, commissioner of rural development and panchayat raj, said that the State was ahead in socio-economic indices and the government aimed to make it open defecation-free. “The biggest barrier is changing themindset of the people,” she said.

Page 36: September Rotary News

4 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

The Tamil Nadu Government is now looking at making the whole of Tamil Nadu open- defecation free.

The success of this pilot project has come at a very opportune time. The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi has given a clar-ion call for “Swachh Bharat” or Clean India by 2019. Speaking from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi, he called for an end to open- defecation, an end to the injustice against mil-lions of women who are compelled to refrain from relieving themselves

during the day for reasons of modesty and yet are subject to violence if they do so after dark.

President S.N. Srikanth of RC Madras says, “It is our objective to act as a catalyst for an Open-Defe-cation Free India through our pilot project which stresses the need for behaviour modification before the toilets are constructed. We will also assist the Government in evolving an enabling policy environment to make the Prime Minister's dream come true.”

Director, Community Service, Rtn. P. Suresh and Chairman, Rtn. M.S.Nagarajan say, “The Rotary Club of Madras was a pioneer in Polio Plus. We will be the pioneer in sanitation too!” The club plans to initiate action in phases at Amara-mpettai, Kimalur and Panjalai vil-lages in Gummidipoondi, and Rotary Nagar in Chennai.

With inputs from RC Madras,RI District 3230

Leach pit toilets being dug.“Triggering” the residents of a village.

Page 37: September Rotary News

Rotary leaders visit Rotary News Trust Office

We at Rotary News were happy to receive PRIP Kalyan Banerjee, RI Director P.T. Prabhakar, RI Director-elect Dr. Manoj Desai and Advisory Board member DG I.S.A.K. Nazar who visited the Rotary News Trust office at Chennai in August 2014.

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2 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

The pencil sketch portraits of the three RI Presidents from India PRIP Nitish C. Lahiri (1962–63), PRIP Rajendra K. Saboo

(1991–92) and PRIP Kalyan Banerjee (2011–12) were unveiled at the installation ceremony of Rtn. Sundaram as President of RC Mysore West for 2014–15. The portraits were unveiled by PDG R. Guru, RI District 3180, amidst widespread applause from several Rotarians and Past District Governors and their families. The idea was to recognise and honour the three leaders from India who had reached the pinnacle of success in Rotary, bringing laurels to the country through their leadership and selfless support.

These remarkable sketches were done by Rtn. K. Raghavendra of RC Brindavan, RI District 3180; the artist was complimented by both Past RI Presidents Rajendra K. Saboo and Kalyan Banerjee. PRIP Rajendra Saboo said, “These pencil sketches have come out extremely well. I am deeply touched by the thoughtful event perceived by the leadership of Rotary Club of Mysore West. Please convey my special compliments to Rtn. Raghavendra for the superb job that he has done. He has created something so beautiful, that we are all flattered.”

PRIP Kalyan Banerjee also complimented Rtn. Raghavendra’s work: “I am both surprised and honoured and shall always cherish this gift of love.”

Pict

ure

Perfe

ct

Rtn. K. Raghavendra, the artist being honoured by PDG R.Guru.

PRIP Nithish Lahary PRIP Rajendra K. Saboo PRIP Kalyan Banerjee

by Jaishree

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Page 40: September Rotary News

2 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

RC Vikravandi RI District 2980

School bus at a cost of Rs.20 lakhs donated to Vela Special School along with Global Grant partner RI District 5500, USA and TRF.

RC Cumbum Green Valley RI District 3000

Notebooks and stationery donated to government school children.

RC Rewari Main RI District 3010

A car rally to promote literacy was undertaken by the Rotarians.

RC Palakol RI District 3020

Educational books distributed to government college girl students.

Compiled by Kiran Zehra

Spreading Cheer

Page 41: September Rotary News

SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3

RC Srimadhopur Sunrise RI District 3052

School furniture donated to Bidami Devi Government Girls Upper Primary School.

RC Deesa RI District 3051

Medical check-up and welfare camp for nomadic and de-notified tribes.

RC Jalgaon West RI District 3030

The club along with Rotary Clubs of RI Districts 5280 and 6940, USA and TRF installed water purifiers at various government schools.

RC Indore Greater RI District 3040

Rotarians opened a Rotary Poly Clinic at Khajrana to assist poor and needy patients.

RC Shinkheda RI District 3060

Rain coats and educational kits distributed to students of Krushi Madyamik Vidyalaya.

RC Bikaner RI District 3053

Educational kits distributed to the students of Gov-ernment Upper Middle School.

5280 andd 69purifiers at

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4 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

RC Moradabad Civil Lines RI District 3100

Books and pens donated to students of Saraswati Vidya Mandir.

RC Central Hisar RI District 3090

Stationery items were distributed to students of Chetna School, Hisar.

RC Pathankot Greater RI District 3070

Educational kits distributed to students from slum areas.

RC Roopnagar RI District 3080

Technical training imparted to students with hearing and speech impairment at Blue Bird School.

RC Basti Midtown RI District 3120

Blood donation camp was organised by the club.

RC Shahjahanpur City RI District 3110

Medical check up conducted for students of Gov-ernment Swargiya Banwarilal Memorial School, Mauzamppur.

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 5

RC Armoor RI District 3150

Notebooks distributed to students at a primary school in Armoor.

RC Palghar RI District 3140

A fully equipped Palghar Rotary Dialysis Centre was inaugurated by the Rotarians.

RC Kharghar RI District 3131

English communication classes inaugurated at Zilla Parishad School for Marathi medium students.

RC Aurangabad West RI District 3132

Chess Board for the visually challenged were donated to Interact Exchange team of Johor Centennial, RI District 3310, Malaysia.

RC Amritsar East RI District 3170

Furniture and food kits donated to the inmates at Shri Guru Ram Das Old Age Home.

RC Tadipatri RI District 3160

Vocational training in tailoring imparted to under-privileged women and certificates given to them on successful completion of the course.

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6 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

RC Tirupur Metropolis RI District 3202

Passenger shelter constructed at a bus-stop to protect commuters from sun and rain. This structure would also serve to enhance Rotary’s public image.

RC Irinjalakuda North RI District 3201

Notebooks distributed at Government VHS School, Nadavaramba.

RC Hungarcutta Sasthan RI District 3180

Auricular check up followed by distribution of hearing aids for children suffering from hearing impairment.

RI District 3190

Rotary’s T-E-A-C-H initiative was inaugurated in RI District 3190.

RC Dalavaipuram RI District 3212

Scholarships distributed to students who topped the X std. Board exams.

RC Sherthallai RI District 3211

Newspapers distributed to school students.

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 7

RC Rourkela RI District 3261

Club collected 18,000 books for Rotary’s literacy promotion programme T-E-A-C-H under the ‘A Mil-lion Books – A Million Smiles’ initiative.

RC Patna Midtown RI District 3250

Sewing machines donated to poor women to help them pursue the vocation and thus improve their financial status.

RI District 3230

Paediatric cardio check-up and treatment for the needy organised by city and city-plus Rotary clubs of the District at a cost of Rs. 2.25 crores.

RC Jalpaiguri RI District 3240

Annapoorna Day observed at Anubhab an orphanage. Nutritional diet served to the inmates.

RC Port Blair RI District 3291

Saplings planted on Vanmahotsava week at Haddo Jetty to promote a greener earth.

RC Shri Jagannath Dham RI District 3262

The National Chess under-11 Chess Championship was organised to promote and encourage sporting skills in children.

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64 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

Compiled by Selvi

The 20th Commonwealth Games 2014, held in Glasgow, Scotland had 4,950 athletes from 71 countries participating in 18 different sports. Indian athletes sparkled as they won 64 medals - 15-gold, 30-silver and 19-bronze, placing India in an impressive fifth position.

What impressed most was the humble background of many of our heroes.

These youngsters define ‘New Generation’ in a manner that does India extremely proud.

GANESH MALI Bronze medallist in the 56 kg weightlifting category is the son of daily wage labourers Chandrakant Mali and Anita from Kurundwad village in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. This 21-year-old weightlifter has been a cadet with the Indian Air Force, and helped his parents in the fields. Inspired by his cousin Ravindra, he took up the sport. Ganesh’s parents survived on their income and whatever little their son could send from his salary. This youngster, who won a medal in his first international event, has made both his parents and country proud.

PRAKASH NANJAPPA (38), from Bangalore, brought home a silver medal in the men’s 10-metre air pistol shooting. It is heart rending to know that he suffered a facial paralytic attack last year during a competition in the World Cup in Spain. Prakash fought back his illness with courage, defied all barriers and won the medal for India. He still needs to use eye drops to avoid dryness in his eyes.

SANTOSHI MATSA, from Kondavelagada village in Nellimarlamandal, Andhra Pradesh, won a bronze medal in the 53 kg women’s weightlifting. This 19-year-old is the daughter of a jute mill labourer Satyam Matsa, who encour-aged his daughter to take up this sport and invested in her training despite the family’s poor finances. It is significant that the young woman underwent training in her small village as she could not afford to do so bigger towns.

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 65

ANISA SAYYED won the silver medal in women’s shooting in the 25-metre pistol category. She belongs to a lower middle class and conservative Muslim family in Pune, Maharashtra. Anisa had already bagged two gold medals from the 2010 Delhi CWG. This courageous woman has fought many battles including her family’s poor economical condition, inability to afford expensive training required for a professional shooter, and according to media reports is yet to get the job promised by the Haryana Government in 2010. Her proud husband Mubarak Hussain has been a pillar of support.

SATISH SIVALINGAM, who comes from a village in Vellore District, created history in his debut Commonwealth Games, by setting a new game record and winning the gold medal in weightlifting. This 23-year-old weightlifter battled poverty and many hardships to win this gold and has made the nation proud.

VINESH PHOGAT has won a gold medal in her first Commonwealth Games in the 48 kg women wrestler’s category. Hailing from Balali village in Harya-na’s Bhiwani District, this 19-year-old comes from a family of wrestlers. She followed in her sisters footsteps, who was a trail blazer in a village dominated by Khap panchayats, who frowned on girls participating in sporting events.

SANJITA KHUMUKCHAN, 20, is from Manipur and has won a gold in the 48 kg women’s weightlifting event. The woman, who took a two-year-break from international sports due to an injury, had to practise vigorously to com-pete with strong contenders from across the globe. Her story is truly inspiring.

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2 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

Under Sec. 135 and 439 (subsection (1) and (2) of The Companies Act, a new legislation on CSR has come into effect from financial year 2013–14. It is now mandatory for corporates with certain size of profit, net-worth or turnover, to spend at least 2 percent of profits (Terms apply) on some form or other of community service. The law is known as ‘Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Law’ and is under the Companies Act, Section 135 and 439 (subsection (1) and (2)). Rotarians should note the opportunities that like for funding development and community service projects, thanks to this legislation, which is bound to change the dimension of community service.

Eligible Companies: Following are the eligibility criteria for companies coming under CSR. They must fulfil any of the following three parameters

• Net profit of Rs.5 crores or more,

• Networth of Rs.500 crores or more,

• Turnover of Rs.1,000 crores or more

CSR Committee: Every company coming under the legis-lation will have to appoint a CSR Committee. It will consist of three directors of the company, of which one should be an independent director. This committee shall formulate and recommend to the Board a CSR policy indicating the activities to be undertaken; recommend the amount to be spent; and monitor the CSR policy periodically.

CSR activities are not to be linked or carried out by the H R D department; they wil come in a separate category.

SCHEDULE VII - Activities which may be included by companies in their CSR

• Eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition; promoting preventive healthcare and sanitation and making availa-ble safe drinking water;

• Promoting education, including special education and employment enhancing vocational skills especially among children, women, elderly and the different-ly-abled and livelihood enhancement project;

• Promoting gender equality and empowering women, setting up homes and hostels for women and orphans; set-ting up old-age homes, day-care centres and such other facilities for senior citizens and measures for reducing inequalities faced by socially and economically back-ward groups;

• Ensuring environmental sustainability, ecological bal-ance, protection of flora and fauna, animal welfare, agro-forestry, conservation of natural resources and maintaining quality of soil, air and water;

• Protection of national heritage, art and culture including restoration of building and sites of historical importance and works of art; setting up public libraries; promotion and development of traditional arts and handicrafts;

• Measures for the benefit of armed forces veterans, war widows and their dependents;

• Training to promote rural sports, nationally recognised sports, paralympic sports and Olympic sports;

• Contribution to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund or any other fund set up by the Central Government for socio-economic development and relief and welfare of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women;

• Contributions or funds provided to technology incubators located within academic institutions which are approved by the Central Government;

• Rural development projects.

A Welcome

CSR legislation

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3

Opportunities for Rotary clubs and Districts The CSR legislation says that CSR activities can be under-taken by Corporate themselves; Under their Foundation or trusts; With the help of other sister corporate; With coop-eration of NGOs/NPOs, provided they have necessary cre-dentials and good track record.

This gives ample opportunities for NGOs/NPOs like Rotary clubs for getting funds from corporates, who should be happy to work with us rather than duplicate such work. For this, Rotary clubs need to approach corporates in a professional manner and give confidence that they can do quality work that will make a difference to the region or the community.

The Rotary Foundation has six focus areas for com-munity service which in many ways are matching with designated areas under CSR legislation vide schedule VII as mentioned above.

It will be useful if corporates can explore the possibil-ity of working with Rotary International and clubs. Under schemes of The Rotary Foundation such as Global Grants, Packaged Grants or Term Gifts, money can get multiplied if the project is handled under The Rotary Foundation frame work. There are schemes in which corporate and Rotary clubs can identify areas for the projects and Rotary, which

has a ready and experienced volunteer force, can implement the projects efficiently.

For this Rotary clubs have to be a registered charitable trust with its up-to-date accounts and report submission as required to the designated authority; they should have good track record of minimum three years of handling service projects on better scale, have a board of trustees who are chosen at regular intervals and in general, the club and its trust should be creditworthy.

Such clubs can identify the corporates in their area com-ing under this legislation, establish contact with its CSR department and concerned Directors of the CSR committee, find out the priority areas of the said corporate for CSR work and then explore possibilities on how they can work in cooperation with such corporates. To get advantage of TRF schemes and funding, such clubs can discuss with their district TRF team and prepare a roadmap.

Apart from making more funds available under CSR leg-islation, another positive aspect is to get corporate involved in attending community needs through Rotary to make life of common citizens more comfortable by providing some basic needs. In this context, we need to welcome this legislation.

PDG Dr. Sudhir Rashingkar RI District 3131

WWW.ROTARY.ORG/ROTARYIMAGES

ROTARYIMAGES

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Now Rotarians can search and access thousands of high-quality photos taken by Rotary International photographers.

Rotary Images is a database of pictures that bring Rotary’s stories to life and can help enhance club Web sites and other publications.

Page 50: September Rotary News

64 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

The audience at Rotary Community Centre at Nagerco i l zea lous ly cheered the chess play-

ers for the moves they made on their board – but what is new about it? These players were all visually challenged. The event was the South India Zonal Chess Competition for the Blind organised by Rotary clubs of Nagercoil Central and Nagercoil West, RI District 3212.

The ‘blind,’ so to speak, are not disabled; instead, they are ‘special-ly-abled.’ “People who consider themselves victims of their circum-stances will always remain victims unless they develop a greater vision for their lives,” observes Stedman Graham, an American author and educator. The participants at the

South India Zonal Chess Competi-tion for the Blind proved this quote right. They did not let their disability hinder their life; instead they won over their challenges to show the world that will-power and self-con-fidence could take them places.

The event was an excellent plat-form for the visually impaired to showcase their skills and proficiency in the game. It was truly a transform-ative and humbling experience for the facilitators and the audience to watch these talented participants make calculated moves to save their Kings; their self-confidence seemed infectious.

The three-day event was inaugu-rated by the then District Governor Jessiah Villavarayar and, the current DG Ashok Padmaraj felicitated the

winners at the end of the tournament. Sixty-eight players from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Pondicherry and Andhra Pradesh competed in the pro-gramme. It was organised in asso-ciation with the Tamil Nadu Chess Association for the Blind which is affiliated to All India Chess Fed-eration for the Blind (AICFB), the governing body for the game of chess among visually impaired in India. Top twenty winners of this tourna-ment went on to represent South India at the National Chess Tourna-ment for Blind that was held later at Mumbai.

“Chess, for the visually chal-lenged is much more than a sport,” says Rtn. Azeezur Rehman, the pro-ject coordinator of the tournament. “The game gives them confidence in

by Jaishree

Winners with the Rotarians.

Page 51: September Rotary News

SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 65

their own competency which is very helpful in their professional lives as well,” he said.

Chess for the blind deviates from the regular game in a few ways: the chess board of 64 squares is modified such that the black squares are raised 3 to 4 mm more than the white ones to help the players distinguish between the two; the squares have slots and the coins are designed with pegs at the base so that the players can fix the pieces into the slots in the squares; all the black pieces have a pin on their top to help differentiate it from the white ones. The players can iden-tify the pieces, whether it is a pawn, rook, knight, bishop, king or queen, by feeling the piece. As the player makes his move, he would announce it loudly so that it can be recorded by the opponent in Braille or on a voice recorder. Reference books in Braille, audio books and screen reading soft-ware help in improving the playing skills of the visually challenged.

Several of these players were of the view that the state governments should encourage and provide ample oppor-tunities for the differently-abled in the field of sports. Presently, India boasts of more than 65 visually challenged players who have secured interna-tional ranking in the game. The event

at Nagercoil was an eye-opener for the Rotarians to realise that the game of kings and queens is not limited to the sighted; the sightless are equally capable of achieving great heights when provided with right motivation and ambience. And the District leaders have vowed to make it happen.

Air-conditioned Conference Hall with a seating capacity of 30 persons in the office of the Rotary News Trust

Contact:

ROTARY NEWS TRUST3rd Floor, Dugar Towers,

34, Marshalls Road, Egmore,

Chennai - 600 008Phone: 044-4214 5666

Fax: 2852 8818, e-mail: [email protected]

A game in progress.

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64 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

Bill Gates has famously said, “If I were down to my last dollar, I

would spend it on public relations.” The 1.2 million Rotarians in

34,000-plus clubs across the world have been bringing phenomenal transformations in communities world-over, ranging from healthcare, eradication of poverty, education, adult literacy, financial support for vocational training and much more. This work needs to be showcased, more than anything else, to inspire more people, particularly youngsters,

to get interested in the cause of serv-ing humanity.

To further build Brand Rotary and attract new members to the Rotary fold, District Governor Vyankatesh Metan, Rotary International District 3132, organised a Pan District Press Conference. The District encompasses 15 regions and the press conference was conducted in all the regions simultaneously. So on June 29, at the designated hour, district leaders of all the 15 regions briefed the press about the Rotary movement, the Foundation

and predominantly Rotary’s signifi-cant role in polio eradication around the world with particular emphasis on India. India has attained the historic Polio-free certification from WHO. The leaders spoke in detail about the humanitarian activities undertaken by the Rotary clubs of District 3132 and their goals for the Rotary year 2014-15.

Both print and electronic media covered the event and the interviews with the district leaders were aired on Akashwani and FM radio.

The Pan District Press Conference held simulta-neously in all the 15 regions of RI District 3132 on a designated day, designated time proved to be an

excellent image building exercise that helped District 3132 in getting the Rotary message out to the larger

community.

by JaishreeWith inputs from DG Vyankatesh Metan,

RI District 3132, Secretary, Rotary News Trust

INSPIRE INFLUENCEIMPRESS

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2 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

ROTARY ACTS

An Indian wedding is always a grand event… charming, daz-

zling and full of vibrant colours. In what has become an annual exercise, members of RC Amritsar Midtown, RI District 3070, have helped organise and formalise the marriage of under-privileged girls.

One of the brides, Harpreet Kaur was born to blind parents. She now works with a private company in Delhi, but with both her parents no more, and her two brothers being blind too, she had very little hope of find-ing a groom and funds to organise a wedding. When the Rotarians of this club got to know of her plight, they began the hunt to find her a groom from Delhi. They succeeded in doing so and now she is happily married and the couple continues to work in Delhi.

The wedding of a daughter means the world to a parent. These ‘angels’ from Rotary made any parent’s job of shortlisting and scrutinising their daughter’s groom that much easier by providing them with a list of prospec-tive young men who were eligible to get their daughters’ hands. The list of men went through layers of filtering before the parents got to make the final choice.

The prospective groom’s family background was checked, as well as the job he had on hand. Even the kind of friends he kept was scruti-nised! Only after this the marriage was planned. “We literally went from door to door to cross check on the pro-spective groom’s background”, says the then President of the Club Satish Kumar Babbar. Another issue to be

safeguarded as checking on the age of both the brides and the grooms to make sure that the legal marriageable age was followed. “Otherwise there is danger of child marriage”, he added.

Thanks to the Rotarians, the cou-ple got a gift of household items to begin their married life. Beds, chairs, cupboards, blankets, utensils and other household items were gifted to them.

And this was not all. A lot of care went into organising the big event. The Rotarians chose the venue, decoration, food and seating arrangements. As over 2,000 guests were to be invited, almost every member of RC Amritsar Midtown was involved in planning and executing various aspects of the wedding.

On the crucial day, as the shehnai notes started wafting in the

Marriages may be made in heaven, but the Rotarians of RC Amritsar Midtown, RI District 3070, are God’s matrimonial angels for these young women.

by Kiran Zehra

Balle Balle!

Brides and Grooms along with Rotarians of RC Amritsar Midtown.

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3

air, brides began to assemble at the Bhavan’s S.L Public School, wearing colourful lehengas and chunnis - the

bridal joda cost Rs 2,200, and the bridegrooms looked happy in their wedding suits which had been sent

to their homes earlier. Jewellery and accessories like the chuda, parand, kalira and a vanity kit were also gifted to the bride by the club. Bridal make-up was done by the Beautician Wing of the Ganesh Das Chadha Rotary Centre, a project run by this club for the last 15 years. It trains poor women in cosmetology and related skills, and equips them for economical independence through the beauty industry.

The baraat came accompanied by band-baaja, and of course who can do without bhangra at a Punjabi wedding? A sumptuous breakfast was arranged for all the guests. The couples then exchanged garlands and rings. As some of the couples were Christian, the brides wore white and were accompanied by bridesmaids.

The purohits and priests solem-nised the wedding and the couples were united in holy matrimony.

But the responsibility of the Rotarians did not end here. They counselled the men to treat their wives with both respect and respon-sibility. Lunch was served to the cou-ples as well as the families by the Rotarians.

The most remarkable factor is that from 1998 onwards the club has been helping poor parents to organ-ise a dignified wedding ceremony for their daughters, and with this year’s celebration, a total number of 480 couples have been united in matrimony.

Beautician wing of Ganesh Das Chadha Rotary Centre grooming the brides.

The white wedding.

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2 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

Situated on the banks of the Sabarmati River in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, about 90 villages sur-rounding Kalol have benefitted by the ongo-

ing projects of the Rotary club of Kalol, RI District 3051. Right from its inception in 1959, the club has con-ducted blood donation, eye care and medical camps here, apart from other projects.

Rotary Shantivan is a crematorium renovated by this club which has built a modern structure with three platforms for cremation, a shed and seating area for relatives to perform the final rituals, along with 15 small temples. Toilets and bathrooms with hot water facilities have also been built. The once dilap-idated burial ground now has a green cover and a landscaped garden, thanks to this project which included plant-ing of two thousand saplings. All the amenities including the firewood used for cremation is provided free of cost.

The Rotary Amusement Park built from the contributions from club mem-bers and Mrs Ilaben H. Shah, a gener-ous donor, has a beautiful garden and many free rides like toy train, baby car,

disco cup and saucer, super trooper. This Children’s park has become a noted landmark and a popular outing spot amongst locals. Many children

come with their family and enjoy the rides in the park which also has pay and use toilets. The park was built at a cost of Rs.21 lakh.

COMMUNITY FIRST

ROTARY ACTS

by Selvi With inputs from

RC Kalol, RI District 3051

Physiotherapy centre.

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3

The Rotary Community Hall built with members’ contribution of Rs.28 lakh, is constructed on two floors; this air conditioned hall can accommodate 1,000 people. It is rented out at a nom-inal cost for social gatherings.

This Rotary Club’s most pres-tigious community service project is the Rotary Medical and Research Centre – Rajesh Hospital. This mul-tispecialty hospital has departments such as OP, ICCU, three operation theatres, a dialysis centre, ENT, CT scan, pathology and radiology depart-ments,75 beds with piped oxygen and multi-para-monitors, ambulance and 24- hr medical stores with round-the-clock medical officers and in-patient staff. All these facilities are provided with nominal charges so that even the marginalised can benefit. The total cost of this hospital is Rs.280 lakh, and a major donation came from Mr Vishnubhai P. Patel, who wanted to build a hospital in the memory of his late brother Rajesh. The rest were con-tributed by members of the club.

Through a Matching Grant pro-ject with RI District 6650, USA and with contributions from The Rotary Foundation, a ‘Physiotherapy and Health Centre’ was inaugurated in the hospital premises in May 2014, on the occasion of the 12th Annual Day of Rajesh Hospital. The hospital is managed by Rtn Ganapati Patil and Rtn Dinesh Gajjar.

Dialysis machine.

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2 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

Rotary District 3131 has honoured Mr Vishal Gokhale, Managing

Director of city-based Gokhale Con-structions, with the ‘Rotary Leader-ship Excellence Award.’ The award was presented to him by P.T. Prab-hakar, Rotary International Director (2013-15) who represents Rotary in seven South Asian countries, at an event held at Poona Club. Dr. Deepak Shikarpur, District Governor of Rotary District 3131, and Abhay Gadgil, Dis-trict Secretary, were also present at the occasion.

Mr Gokhale has carved a niche for himself in the world of real estate in a short span of 10 years. He is known for his contribution in all segments of real estate – mid and affordable, premium and ultra premium. His speciality is re-development of old buildings in key locations in the city. Source: India Today, August 4, 2014.

India Today Reports aboutRotary Leadership Excellence Award D3131

Poor blind villagers, a far off eye care hospital, a Corporate donor

and to connect the dots - Rotary!Rotary Club of Bangalore, RI Dis-

trict 3190, in association with Timken India, under a single corporate grant project of $112,000 has donated two vans to the Shankara Eye Hospital to facilitate transportation of villagers in and around Bangalore to the eye care facility. Under the leadership of Rtn Purnima Ranganath and Rtn T.V. Raghunath, this project has given of the gift of vision to hundreds of dis-advantaged villagers.

Eye Connectby Kiran Zehra

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64 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

Partners in

T he statistics are staggering. Worldwide, 2.5 billion people

have no improved sanitation facil-ities. More than 783 million lack access to clean drinking water.

But the message at the World Water Summit – held 30 May before the RI Convention in Sydney, Aus-tralia, and sponsored in part by The Rotarian – was encouraging: Rotary members and their clubs can make progress through collaborations with the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, and governments.

“These are scary numbers, ” said Jenny Da Rin, assistant secretary for the Health and Environmental Safeguards branch of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. “Reducing the numbers is a great challenge, but you are all here today because you are com-mitted to tackling these challenges. This is a wonderful forum for us to think about how we can do things better, think about how we can work together more effectively, and think about how we can get better results. ”

The water summit, the sixth con-vened by the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group, aimed to match expertise from the industry with Rotary-led projects. For exam-ple, Past District Governor Brian Cook talked about his district’s part-nerships with universities to promote water education in developing coun-tries, including Malaysia and India. Event organizers hope participants

Speakers at the water summit included Past RI President William B. Boyd.

by Ryan Hyland and Diana Schoberg

Clean Water

Page 69: September Rotary News

SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 65

left with a better understanding of how they can work with other groups.

Seth Womble, a former Group Study Exchange student, is building relationships between his organiza-tion, Water Missions International in South Carolina, and Rotary clubs to take on urban water issues in the United States.

“Rotary is invaluable when it comes to understanding local needs, ” he said. “The knowledge base and matching the right players with the right connections helps water pro-jects not just succeed but thrive. ”

“There is a tremendous amount of energy in Rotary water projects, ” said Thomas M. Thorfinnson, past RI vice president and a member of the action group’s management team. “These initiatives matter because there are tangible results. But we can’t do it alone. We can be infinitely more successful by working with outside groups. ”

Breakout sessions focused on collaborations across Rotary’s areas

chair of the action group; Past RI Vice President Thomas M. Thorfinnson (above left); Seth Womble from Water Missions International (above right); and Greg Koch from the Coca-Cola Company.

chair of Rotary’s International Polio-Plus Committee; Braimah Apambire, director of the Center for Inter-national Water and Sustainability at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nev.; Juliet Willetts, research director at the Institute for Sustain-able Futures at Sydney’s University of Technology; and Peter Crowley, UNICEF’s chief of polio.

Crowley, who attended a meeting of the International PolioPlus Com-mittee before the water summit, pref-aced his remarks by talking about what he has learned about Rotary and polio since starting his position in September 2013. He noted that because polio is transmitted through fecal matter, improving sanitation plays an important role in fighting the disease.

“What makes Rotary special is the dedication of individual Rotar-ians in Rotary clubs, ” he added. “They don’t just give funds or advo-cate for political support for polio. They get on the ground.”

of focus, advocacy and education, and monitoring, evaluation, resolu-tion, and learning. Keynote speakers included Robert S. Scott, longtime

ROTARY BASICS ONLINEA fun, multimedia introduction to Rotary.

Find photos, videos, audio clips, and more!

www.rotary.org/rotarybasics

Welcome to Rotary!

Glad you can join us!

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www.rotary.org/rotarybasics

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Print copies are also available for purchase (595, $0.75)

Page 70: September Rotary News
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64 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

If you want to make lamb chops at home and get it absolutely right, here

is a little tip from one of the experts - Executive Sous Chef Manvinder Singh at the Hyatt Regency in Chennai.

In mid-August, the hotel’s restau-rant Spice Haat launched The Super Large Sunday Brunch, and nibbling into some bits from its huge spread, I love best the prawns and the lamb chops in its grilled section.

Normally I like my lamb well done; this chop isn’t too well done but it is crunchy and delicious, and so juicy. Chef Singh shares the secret of

getting it both right and juicy. “There are two ways of doing your lamb chops; the European way involves marination with red wine, garlic paste and rosemary. In the Indian variation, if you want to get it tender, you have to marinate the chops with a paste of raw papaya, garlic and ginger,” he says.

But to retain the juices in your meat, the trick, he discloses, is to first cook it on the grill (or tawa) on high flame. This way the skin gets sealed and the juices remain inside, so a bite into the lamb chop gives you the full flavour. After that the lamb is cooked on slow flame.

A Sunday family treatby Rasheeda Bhagat

The grilled prawn is equally deli-cious and crunchy. In this the highlight of the marination is dahi (curds) and Kashmir chilli powder; “that gives it the appealing red colour without mak-ing it too spicy”, he says.

The brunch has an India section that includes all the kebabs – both the lamb and mushroom (veg) galauti kebabs are soft and delicious-, curries from different regions of India, and of course the Awadh biryani. “I come from Lucknow”, the Chef says with pride, and his lineage is reflected in the delicious flavour emanating from the perfectly cooked basmati rice.

Here too there is a little trick. While making mutton biryani, cook the meat in sufficient water so you’re left with a lot of mutton stock. Cook the biry-ani rice in the mutton stock instead of water, and see the difference!

Apart from the Indian counter, which includes aapam with vegetable stew, and different kinds of chaats, aloo patties, paneer, etc, there is a sub-stantial Middle Eastern or Mediterra-nean counter, the highlight of which are the Moroccan Tajins, and of course pastilla. I try the beetroot hummus and it doesn’t disappoint. Then there is the sushi counter, various kinds of tapan-yaki, and Thai baos… they look like dimsum but are different and taken along with a thick soup.

From the huge range of desserts on offer, don’t miss out on the house speciality – baked yoghurt. It isn’t too sweet and just perfect after such a heavy meal. The hot jalebis are too tempting, and a bite into a piece is justified as it is crispy, fragrant and delicious.

The Brunch also has an interesting kids corner, and a vast range of freshly made ice creams to please any palate.

Cost Rs.1,850 (plus taxes)

For Tipplers Rs.2,150 plus taxes. (If you choose this option, do try the Australian pink sparkling wine to lift up your spirits.)

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2 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

HEALTH

MakingHerbal Salt

by Rasheeda Bhagat

Though extremely modern in its manufacturing practices and technology, the Swiss are also extremely passionate about zealously guarding the traditions that have been handed down to them

over generations. It was an eye-opener to watch the detailed care with

which Lydia Durig, a Swiss farmer, held a herbal salt mak-ing class for a group of eight international journalists in the Appenzell region of Switzerland. Armed with bagsful of interesting herbs and fragrant herbs, many of which just grew wild in her farm, she put us to work at mortar and pestle sets laid out neatly across a few tables.

As she made us first crush some heavenly smelling lemon balm leaves … a gentle plant with “generally calming and relaxing” tendencies, Lydia said: “Today modern science can be used to analyse the health benefits of these herbs but

in earlier days people intuitively chose herbs depending on their ailments as they grew up in the midst of that knowledge.”

Lemon grass, she added, going around the table inspecting the work we had

done in crushing the fragrant leaves, is also a good digestive and induces undisturbed sleep. Also, after

an attack of chickenpox, these herbs help to ease the itching sensation.

Each of us was given 100 gm of sea salt in a ceramic jar; after the lemon balm leaves had been ground fine and mixed into the salt, Lydia gave us two tiny sprigs of stinging nettle leaves. Staying clear of its fine thorny stems, we plucked and ground the leaves that promised to remove toxins from the body — particularly kidneys and bladder — and purify the blood. “These are also good for getting rid of kidney stones … actually you can make a fine tea with these leaves; it helps to flush the system,” said Lydia, adding that some people say it is good for controlling Stage 1 cancer. Apparently, most Swiss farmers put the nettle plants on their farms to ward off insects and pests, but the better informed know its medicinal value.

Next we worked on wild garlic leaves, which, as expected, were good for managing hypertension and removing toxins from the body and purifying the blood. “They have a spring cleaning

effect on your system, and the good thing about this herb is that it grows

wildly and plentifully. Actually it is so sturdy that it can push its way through gravel,

so it shows you its healing powers!”

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SEPTEMBER 2014 ROTARY NEWS 3

Then of course the very popular Italian herb and pizza essential oregano went into our salt, along with the refreshingly fragrant lavender blossoms that have a calming effect on the body and can also help to

ease and relax cramped muscles. Laven-der oil applied on cramped muscles also

provides relief. “Add a pinch of lavender blos-som to your soup just before serving to improve

digestion,” she said, adding that rubbing lavender flowers, mixed with olive oil, on the stomach relieves men-strual pain.

The last ingredient that went into our exciting salt were Elderflower blossoms, considered good for treating cold and fever; the beans from this plant are frequently used in making a syrup for treating cough and cold.

All the herbal plants were being grown in her farm from cent percent organic cultivation, and these were hand-picked and processed without any additives. Most of these herbs could be used for making a tea that would flush toxins out of the system. “Unfortunately, we tend to lose traditional wisdom about the inherent goodness and curative powers of what is available in our backyard.” These herbs helped the body to heal itself and boost its immunity; while they took a little time to act, they cured the disease or problem instead of just suppressing the symptoms like modern medicine does. “While many youngsters have lost this valuable traditional wisdom, animals know it instinctively. So if the cow has stomach pain, she would know exactly which leaves to chew to ease the pain,” Lydia added.

By the time we had carefully poured our herb-powered salt into the tiny glass jars she distributed, and labelled them, we asked if we could buy herbal salt from the supermarket. “Not from the supermarket, but from specialty food stores. But it will not be as pure and effective as the one you are taking home because there are additives to prolong shelf life,” she added.

S C A M W A S I S E A M L A L A T V A N T E N N A A G E N T S O F C H A N G E M E C C A E R O S E A C E Y S C A L I A D E V O T E D L E A D E R S C O D E T R A Y P S H A W A N I O U T L I N E R N A S A T A N L A N E M E I N C L O S E N E I G H B O R S A D R A T E S I N N R A T S O A K E L A T R U S T E D F R I E N D S O I L T Y C O O N E T R E E P E E T R E S S O S A

S C A M W A S I S E A M L A L A T V A N T E N N AA G E N T S O F C H A N G EM E C C A E R O S E A C E Y S C A L I A D E V O T E D L E A D E R SC O D E T R A Y P S H A WA N I O U T L I N E R N AS A T A N L A N E M E I NC L O S E N E I G H B O R SA D R A T E S I N N

R A T S O A K E L AT R U S T E D F R I E N D SO I L T Y C O O N E T R EE P E E T R E S S O S A

SOLUTION FOR THELAST MONTH’S CROSSWORD

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80 ROTARY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2014

CONVENTION

Goooool!Only five countries have won soccer’s World Cup more than once, and Brazil is among them — in fact, Brazil has won five times, more than any other nation. Rotarians who come to São Paulo for the RI Convention in June will find themselves among some of the world’s biggest fans of soccer — or futebol, as it’s known here. To fit in, you’ll want to have some facts at your disposal:

Brazil won the World Cup in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002.

Pelé, perhaps the planet’s best-known soccer player, competed in four World Cups (in 1958, when he scored two goals in Brazil’s winning game, 1962, 1966 and 1970). He also spoke at the 1981 RI Convention in São Paulo.

The Museu do Futebol is located in São Paulo’s Estádio Municipal Paulo Machado de Carvalho. Admission is free on Thursdays and Saturdays; find details at museudofutebol.org.br.

Charles Miller, born in Brazil in 1874 and educated in England, brought organised soccer to the country in the 1890s, when he returned home and joined the São Paulo Athletic Club.

The Brazilian tradition of using nicknames or only first names for soc-cer players, such as Pelé and Socrates, dates back at least to 1914, with a team member named Formiga (“Ant”). The 2014 World Cup roster included Hulk, Fred and Neymar.

Register for the 2015 RI Convention in São Paulo at

www.riconvention.org.

Across 1 Debra of The Ten

Commandments 6 “Fancy that!” 10 Low-pitched 14 Syndicated horoscope

writer Sydney 15 Longing 16 Herbal healer 17 Places to fill up your tanks 20 Blue dyes 21 Withstand the lure of 22 Garden locale 23 Artist Eric 26 Datum on an IRS form 27 Hardly well 28 “___ a bet!” 33 In this place 37 Be at odds 39 “Too complex for me” 42 Lover, and then some 43 As ___ on TV 44 Human rights

activist Bonner 45 Antiquity, in days past 47 Folk song mule 50 General public 53 Entertainer with no lines 54 Observable 58 Flew, as a plane

60 Like some healthy humor 63 Maple or oak 64 “... sunshine ___ shadow”

(“Danny Boy” lyric) 65 Retail outlet 66 Circular current 67 Fare 68 Underwater detection system

Down 1 Certain flowers 2 Modifies, as legislation 3 Faucet attachment 4 Sam of Watergate fame 5 Calc cousin 6 Swiss breakfast choice 7 Mos. and mos. 8 Bus. directors 9 Be filled with longing 10 Emcee’s spot 11 The Time

Machine people 12 Forever, so to speak 13 Unwelcome visitor 18 NYSE listings 19 ___ Mutant Ninja Turtles 24 Friends since childhood 25 Inter ___ 29 Scary character 30 It’s better when it’s smooth

31 Multi-vol. lexicon 32 Born, in a

bridal bio 34 Novelist Hunter 35 Assigned an alias to 36 Philips of comedy 38 Pt. of GPS 39 Card in the hole

or up one’s sleeve 40 ___ Harbour, Fla. 41 Part of Y.S.L. 46 Count (on) 48 Supreme

Theban deity 49 Account book 51 In ___ (wowed by) 52 [Don’t blame me

for this error] 53 What the first parts of 17-,

39- and 60-Across constitute, for Rotary

54 Sunny vacation spot 55 Essential thing 56 ___ the Impaler

(Dracula prototype) 57 Problematic 59 Glaswegian’s

daughter 61 Master 62 Brazilian port, for short

F I R S T W O R D S

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Solution in the October issue

Reproduced from The Rotarian

Page 75: September Rotary News

EXCHANGE IDEAS: www.riconvention.org

SÃO PAULOBRAZIL6-9 JUNE 2015

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION

Page 76: September Rotary News

Dear fellow Rotarians:

Bem-vindo ao Brasil! Welcome to São Paulo, the site of the 106th Rotary International Convention, which will be held 6-9 June 2015. Corinna and Ihope you will join us so we can celebrate together the light your service has brought to the world this year, and for the future, as we make the commitmentto Light Up Rotary.

São Paulo is the perfect venue for a Rotary convention because Brazil, like Rotary, reflects many different cultures and peoples who have made the country their home. The financial and creative hub of Brazil, this sprawling city boasts many expanses of parks and gardens, including the immense Parque Ibirapuera. The best way to experience São Paulo is to explore its diverse neighborhoods, from Vila Madalena, where you will find galleries, bookstores, and nonstop nightlife, to Higienópolis, known for its international cuisine.

São Paulo’s churrascarias, pizzarias, bakeries, and ethnic restaurants make the city the gastronomic capital of Brazil. Visit the indoor Mercado Municipal to sample tropical fruits and enjoy a freshly made mortadella sandwich or pastel de bacalhau, a deep fried cod fish turnover. Museums such as Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), shopping centers such as Iguatemi and Morumbi, and the city’s architecture and public art will excite your mind and senses.

With so much to do in São Paulo, you might forget that pristine beaches, such as Maresias and the island of Ilhabela, are just a few hours away. Adventure farther to visit breathtaking Rio de Janeiro and Iguaçu Falls, historic Salvador and the Northeast, Minas Gerais, Brasilia, Amazonas, and much more.

Come for the fellowship, come to learn and be inspired, and come to meet and share ideas with Rotary members and their guests. And you’re sure to experience samba, the Afro-Brazilian musical form that best defines Brazilian culture. So bring your dancing shoes and prepare to join in a very special carnival celebration!

Sincerely,

Gary C.K. HuangRotary International President, 2014-15

Come celebrate with us in

São Paulo and experience

the magic of samba, the

heartbeat of Brazilian

Carnival!

Tracing its roots back through

Rio de Janeiro to the West

African slave trade, this Afro-

Brazilian music and dance

form has evolved into the

voice of Brazil’s urban centers.

At convention time, you can

experience a taste of carnival

at a special event planned for

visiting Rotary members.

#RICON15

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EN—(814)

PRECONVENTION AND ROTARY-TICKETED EVENTSTickets are limited and sold on a first-come, first-served basis; advance purchase is recommended. Preconvention and Rotary-ticketed events are open to all convention registrants unless otherwise noted. Participants may attend preconvention events without registering for the full Rotary International Convention.

Preconvention Events Eligibility

Rotary Peace Symposium 4-5 JuneDesigned for Rotary Peace Fellows and alumni and interested Rotarians and their guests

Rotary Peace Symposium Reception 5 June Open to all Rotary Peace Symposium participants and their guests

Rotary Peace Symposium and International Institute Dinner

4 JuneOpen to all Rotary Peace Symposium and International Institute partici-pants and their guests

International Institute 4-5 JuneOpen to incoming, current, and past RI officers and their immediate family members only; includes International Institute welcome reception on 3 June

International Institute Luncheon 4 June Open to all International Institute participants and their guests

Rotaract Preconvention 4-5 June For Rotaractors and Rotarians interested in Rotaract

Youth Exchange Officers Preconvention 4-5 June For Rotarians who work with Youth Exchange

Youth Exchange Officers Banquet 5 JuneDesigned for networking for Rotarians who work with Youth Exchange, but all convention registrants are welcome

Rotary-Ticketed Events Eligibility

President’s Recognition Luncheon 7 JuneDesigned for current RI officers, district governors, club presidents, RI com-mittee members, and spouses, but all convention registrants are welcome

President-elect’s Leadership Luncheon 8 JuneDesigned for incoming RI officers, district governors, club presidents, and their spouses, but all convention registrants are welcome

On to Seoul Convention Luncheon 9 June Open to all convention registrants

CANCELLATION AND CHANGESAll registration cancellations are subject to a US$50 service fee. Requests to cancel registrations or tickets must be received by 30 April 2015. Cancellations caused by visa denial must be received by 9 June 2015. You can sign in to your account at www.riconvention.org to cancel your registration or submit the request to RI Registration Services by emailing [email protected] or sending a fax to +1-847-556-2194. Cancellations cannot be accepted by phone.

RI will refund registration and ticket fees if the 2015 Rotary International Convention is canceled but takes no responsibility for travel or other related costs incurred by Rotarians and their guests. Registration and tickets are not transferable.

LETTERS OF INVITATION AND VISASVisa requirements vary by country of citizenship. For the most accurate information, contact the consulate or embassy serving your region or visit its website. To find the nearest embassy or consulate, visit www.portalconsular.mre.gov.br/sites-dos-postos/por-ordem-alfabetica (in Portuguese, sorted by country). If a letter of invitation is required, RI will email you the letter as a PDF along with your registration confirmation. Letters will be sent to the main registrant and include all guests’ names. RI will send letters of invitation only to those who are registered for the convention. Registrants are responsible for all costs associated with attending the meeting and applying for visas.

If you need a visa to enter Brazil, we strongly recommend registering ONLINE by 15 December 2014 so you can receive immediate confirmation of your registration and letters of invitation.

PROCESSING AND CONFIRMATIONOnline registration is the fast and secure method of registration and provides immediate receipt of confirmations and letters of invita-tion, if needed. Hard copy forms submitted to RI Registration Services require three to four weeks to process; please allow more time for forms submitted on or around registration deadline dates. Once your faxed or mailed registration has been processed, you will receive an email confirmation. A unique email address is required for each registration.

REGISTRATION AND TICKET FORM2015 Rotary International ConventionSão Paulo, Brazil6-9 June 2015

THREE WAYS TO REGISTER!1. Register online at www.riconvention.org (RECOMMENDED)

2. Fax the form to RI Registration Services at +1-847-556-2194

3. Mail the form to Rotary International 14244 Collections Center Dr., Chicago, IL 60693 USA

Please note: RI cannot accept registration forms submitted by email. Allow 3-4 weeks for processing of faxed or mailed forms. RI will email all confirmations.

Page 78: September Rotary News

1. MAIN REGISTRANT DETAILS

Membership ID (required for Rotarians)

Family Name First Name Middle Name/Initial

Badge/Call Name Classification (Rotarians only)

Club/City Country District

Contact Information Provide your current mailing address. Any changes will be reflected in your member profile.

Address or P.O. Box

City State/Province Postal Code Country

Business Phone (including country and city codes) Home Phone Business Fax Home Fax

Email (Required and must be unique. Email address cannot be shared by another club member or club.)

Parent or Guardian Information Contact information for an adult is required for all registrants age 18 or younger.Parent or guardian information will be used only for contact purposes and does not register the parent or guardian for the convention.

Family Name First Name Middle Name/Initial

Phone (including country and city codes) Email

Emergency Contact during the meeting (required): Name Phone (including country and city codes)

PLEASE COMPLETE ALL FIVE SECTIONS.

REGISTRATION AND TICKET FORM2015 Rotary International ConventionSão Paulo, Brazil6-9 June 2015

Event code: IC15

Page 1 of 3

Language Preference

English French Italian Japanese Korean Mandarin Portuguese Spanish

Responses are used to determine the need for simultaneous interpretation, but this service cannot be guaranteed in all languages.

Special Needs I require special accommodation (check all that apply):

Wheelchair/Scooter (specify below if bringing your own) Braille materials Assisted-listening devices Other (please specify):

Dietary Needs I require special accommodation (check all that apply): Allergies Vegetarian Diabetic No red meat No pork No shellfish No seafood Other (please specify):

Additional Information

I wish to serve as a volunteer sergeant-at-arms. (Information will be sent at a later date.)This is my first Rotary Convention.

Registration Selection

Convention Registration Category (select one): *Rate does not apply if you were a Rotary member before your Foundation program participation.

1 Rotarian 3 Rotary club/district employee 4 Spouse of deceased Rotarian 5 TRF alumnus (before 2007-08) 6 Rotaractor 7 TRF alumnus (2007-08 or later)* 9 Youth Exchange student 10 Interactor

Preconvention Events** **Please see eligibility requirements

Rotary Peace Symposium Rotary Peace Symposium Reception Rotary Peace Symposium and International Institute Dinner

International Institute International Institute Luncheon Rotaract Preconvention

Youth Exchange Officers Preconvention

Youth Exchange Officers Banquet

Rotary-Ticketed Events

President’s Recognition Luncheon President-elect’s Leadership Luncheon On to Seoul Convention Luncheon

Where did you hear about the convention? (check one)Rotary club Rotary district 2014 RI Convention Email Social media The Rotarian Regional magazine

www.riconvention.org 2015 Promotion Committee presentation Other Personal Information Sharing RI may provide your contact information to Rotarians, including zone and district promotion chairs and those organizing re-gional or district events, to assist them in planning convention-related activities. If you indicate that you do not want your contact information shared with others, communications about, and invitations to, special convention events will not be sent to you.

No, RI may not use my contact information as outlined above.

Page 79: September Rotary News

2. GUEST REGISTRANT DETAILS If more than three guests will accompany you, attach additional copies of this page as needed. Complete only the guest section on the additional forms.

Registration Categories 1 Rotarian 2 Guest age 19 or older 3 Rotary club/district employee

4 Spouse of deceased Rotarian 5 TRF alumnus (before 2007-08) 6 Rotaractor

7 TRF alumnus (2007-08 or later)* 8 One guest of category 6 or 7 9 Youth Exchange student

10 Interactor 11 Guest age 5 to 18 12 Guest younger than 5

* Rate does not apply if you were a Rotary member before your Foundation program participation (e.g., GSE team leaders and Rotary Volunteers).

Guest 1 Category # (see above) Guest 2 Category # (see above) Guest 3 Category # (see above)

Family Name Family Name Family Name

First Name First Name First Name

Middle Name or Initial Middle Name or Initial Middle Name or Initial

Badge/Call Name Badge/Call Name Badge/Call Name

Classification (Rotarians only) Classification (Rotarians only) Classification (Rotarians only)

Club/City Club/City Club/City

Country Country Country

Birth Year (if under 18 only) Birth Year (if under 18 only) Birth Year (if under 18 only)

Language Preference** English French Italian Japanese Korean Mandarin Portuguese Spanish

Language Preference** English French Italian Japanese Korean Mandarin Portuguese Spanish

Language Preference** English French Italian Japanese Korean Mandarin Portuguese Spanish

Special Needs (check all that apply) Assisted-listening devices Wheelchair/Scooter (specify below if bringing your own) Braille materials Other

Special Needs (check all that apply) Assisted-listening devices Wheelchair/Scooter (specify below if bringing your own)

Braille materials Other

Special Needs (check all that apply) Assisted-listening devices Wheelchair/Scooter (specify below if bringing your own)

Braille materials Other

Dietary Needs (check all that apply) Allergies Vegetarian Diabetic No red meat No pork No shellfish No seafood Other

Dietary Needs (check all that apply) Allergies Vegetarian Diabetic No red meat No pork No shellfish No seafood Other

Dietary Needs (check all that apply) Allergies Vegetarian Diabetic No red meat No pork No shellfish No seafood Other

Preconvention and Rotary-Ticketed Events Rotary Peace Symposium Rotary Peace Symposium Reception Rotary Peace Symposium and International Institute Dinner

International Institute International Institute Luncheon Rotaract Preconvention Youth Exchange Officers Preconvention Youth Exchange Officers Banquet President’s Recognition Luncheon President-elect’s Leadership Luncheon On to Seoul Convention Luncheon

Preconvention and Rotary-Ticketed Events Rotary Peace Symposium Rotary Peace Symposium Reception Rotary Peace Symposium and

International Institute Dinner International Institute International Institute Luncheon Rotaract Preconvention Youth Exchange Officers Preconvention Youth Exchange Officers Banquet President’s Recognition Luncheon President-elect’s Leadership Luncheon On to Seoul Convention Luncheon

Preconvention and Rotary-Ticketed Events Rotary Peace Symposium Rotary Peace Symposium Reception Rotary Peace Symposium and International Institute Dinner

International Institute International Institute Luncheon Rotaract Preconvention Youth Exchange Officers Preconvention Youth Exchange Officers Banquet President’s Recognition Luncheon President-elect’s Leadership Luncheon On to Seoul Convention Luncheon

Additional Information I wish to serve as a volunteer sergeant-at-arms. (Information will come later.)

This is my first Rotary Convention.

Additional Information I wish to serve as a volunteer sergeant-at-arms. (Information will come later.)

This is my first Rotary Convention.

Additional Information I wish to serve as a volunteer sergeant-at-arms. (Information will come later.)

This is my first Rotary Convention.

**Responses are used to determine the need for simultaneous interpretation, but this service cannot be guaranteed in all languages.

Event code: IC15

Page 2 of 3

Page 80: September Rotary News

3. CONVENTION REGISTRATION FEES (All prices are in U.S. dollars and inclusive of tax)

Register Early and Save!

Registration CategoryDeadline 1:

15 December 2014Deadline 2:

31 March 2015After 31 March

(On-site or Online)Total Registrants

by Category

Total (Total Registrants

x Fee)

1-5 $325 $375 $425

6-8 $70 $100 $130

9-11 $10 $10 $10

12 Free Free Free

Registration Total: $

4. PRECONVENTION AND ROTARY-TICKETED EVENTS

Preconvention Events Quantity Price Total

Rotary Peace Symposium 4-5 June $150

Rotary Peace Symposium Reception 5 June $40

Rotary Peace Symposium and International Institute Dinner 4 June $100

International Institute 4-5 June $150

International Institute Luncheon 4 June $65

Rotaract Preconvention 4-5 June $50

Youth Exchange Officers Preconvention 4-5 June $50

Youth Exchange Officers Banquet 5 June $100

Preconvention Events Total: $

Rotary-Ticketed Events (total number of tickets per event must not exceed total number of convention registrants)

President’s Recognition Luncheon 7 June $65

President-elect’s Leadership Luncheon 8 June $65

On to Seoul Convention Luncheon 9 June $65

Rotary-Ticketed Events Total: $

GRAND TOTAL: (Registration Total + Preconvention Events Total + Ticketed Events Total) $

All rates inclusive of tax.5. PAYMENT AND SIGNATUREAll fees must be submitted with this signed registration form. All personal check payments must be drawn on a U.S. bank in U.S. dollars. RI international offices and fiscal agents will accept payment for the convention and events. Personal or club checks cannot be accepted on-site.

Credit Card Type Visa MasterCard JCB American Express Discover

Card Number

Cardholder’s Name (as it appears on card) Expiration Date (mm/yy) Security Code (3 or 4 digits) Signature (if different from below)

By signing,* I submit the registration and ticket form, and I verify that I have read and agree to the notices and the cancellation policy.

Main Registrant’s Signature Name (please print) Date (dd/mm/yy)

*If main registrant is age 18 or younger, an adult parent or guardian must sign this form.

CANCELLATION AND CHANGESAll registration cancellations are subject to a US$50 service fee. Requests to cancel registration or tickets must be received by 30 April 2015. Cancellations caused by visa denial must be received by 9 June 2015. Sign in to your account at www.riconvention.org to cancel your registration or submit request to [email protected] or fax request to +1-847-556-2194. RI will refund registration and ticket fees if the 2015 Rotary International Convention is canceled but takes no responsibility for travel or other related costs incurred by Rotarians and their guests. Registration and tickets are not transferable.

LETTERS OF INVITATION AND VISASIf a letter of invitation is required, RI will email you the letter as a PDF along with your registration confirmation. Letters will be sent to the main registrant and include all guests’ names. RI will send letters of invitation only to those who are registered. Registrants are responsible for all costs associated with attending the meeting and applying for visas.

If you need a visa to enter Brazil, we strongly recommend registering ONLINE by 15 December 2014 to receive immediate confirmation of your registration and letters of invitation.

Page 3 of 3

Event code: IC15

THREE WAYS TO REGISTER!1. Register online at www.riconvention.org (RECOMMENDED)

2. Fax the form to RI Registration Services at +1-847-556-2194

3. Mail the form to Rotary International 14244 Collections Center Dr., Chicago, IL 60693 USA

Please note: RI cannot accept registration forms submitted by email. Allow 3-4 weeks for processing of faxed or mailed forms. RI will email all confirmations.

Page 81: September Rotary News

Changing your address? Please write to us before you move, two months in advance. Mention your Club name, RI District Number and Rotary News Account Number from your magazine address label or simply attach the label itself.

Your Rotary NewsAccount Number

Name Rtn. __________________________________________________________________________________

Rotary Club of __________________________________________________ RI District ____________________

New Address (Please write your NEW Address below, in CAPITAL letters)

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

City / Town _____________________________________________________ PIN Code ___________________

Mail this coupon to: ROTARY NEWS TRUST, 3rd Floor, Dugar Towers, 34, Marshalls Road, Egmore, Chennai-600 008.

Make sure Rotary News Moves with you!

Rotarian today.

Invite someone to become a

Printed by Mukesh Arneja at Thomson Press (India) Ltd, Plot A-9, Industrial Complex, Maraimalai Nagar 603209, India and published by Mukesh Arneja on behalf of Rotary News Trust from Dugar Towers, 3rd Flr, 34, Marshalls Road, Egmore, Chennai 600 008. Editor: Rasheeda Bhagat.

Page 82: September Rotary News

RIPE K.R. Ravindran pre-sented a Rotary Citation to PDG Sudhir Rashingkar, RI District 3131, for his dedi-cated work for more than three decades in bringing out Rotary literature in Marathi. Books authored by PRIP Frank Devlyn and translated by PDG Sudhir Rashingkar were also released by the RI President Elect on the occasion.

RI District 3010 teamed up with Microsoft India to offer technology training to over 1,50,000 students and 7,500 teachers in the Region of Delhi-NCR. The MoU was signed by Mr. Karan Bajwa - Managing Director, Microsoft India Private Ltd., and DG Sanjay Khanna, RI District 3010.

RC Bangalore, RI Dis-trict 3190, presented the Vocational Excellence Award to Mr. Arunachalam Muruganantham, a social entrepreneur and inventor of low-cost sanitary pad making machine. He has innovated grass-roots mechanisms for generating awareness about traditional unhygienic prac-tices around menstruation in rural India.

Page 83: September Rotary News
Page 84: September Rotary News

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