FAMILIES have annual reunions; Rotary International (RI) districts have annual district conferences (discons).
The discon somehow serves as a reunion for Rotarians if one has been with the organization for quite some time. He gets to build long-term friendships there, provided he clicks with the group, for there’s still such a thing as camaraderie. Or maybe chemistry. If he’s the type who keeps the group united because they would all love to strangle him, he becomes the pariah that makes everyone else cringe. That’s why recruitment is very important. A club should recruit quality members and not merely to meet the membership rate increase promised to the district governor.
There are times when one has been with another organization for several years. Then, he gets invited to join the Rotary, and once he’s in, he recruits his friends from the other organization. There are many Rotarians whose decades-long friendships have been built through joining the many clubs that hanker for his membership and that’s probably the one main ingredient that can keep a club going and going and going like the Energizer bunny.
One can easily say no to commitments sought by a new acquaintance, but saying no to a long-time friend is difficult. That friend could already be his kumpare, kumare, their children have also become close friends or even married to each other, so how can he ignore the other’s SOS pleas for yet one more Rotary project?
Rotary International has noted that the membership hasn’t really increased worldwide. It has remained as is, at 1.2 million, for many years now, meaning, if one Rotarian is inducted, there’s one also lying low from his club. It’s merely offsetting, not increasing. With the economic crisis becoming the favorite excuse for all the ills in the world nowadays (who knows, swine flu would one day exclaim, Blame it on the crisis!), it has also become a eureka moment for some Rotarians to vanish from their clubs.
Commitment is a heavy word. It involves committing one’s time to the club and the organization. But it becomes light when he realizes how that time is spent. Rotarians work hard and play hard. Usually, it’s the “play” that non-Rotarians notice, since Rotary clubs forget to let the public know about their projects. The discon, for example, is one Rotary activity that’s getting a lot of publicity. And most probably people are now thinking that’s all the Rotary does—to meet annually and hobnob with the “rich and famous.” What they don’t see are the projects that each Rotary club commits to each year.
The discon is the district’s grand finale for the Rotary year. This is the “play” part. This is one way it keeps the music playing. If family reunions usually happen during the Christmas season, RI discons may be held whenever the district wishes, as long as it doesn’t conflict with other RI assemblies and doesn’t fall either eight days before or after the RI world convention. Since each Rotary year starts in July and ends in June, any weekends from March to May seem ideal to give the hosts enough time to prepare, and also to enable the clubs to make their annual reports to qualify for the district awards.
For the term of District Governor Rhia Rita Y. Abalos, her club the Rotary Club of West Cagayan is hosting Discon ‘09, with Past Pres. Eduardo Alaba as Discon chair. It will be held on May 15-17, 2009 at the Grand Caprice Restaurant, Lim Ket Kai Center, Cagayan de Oro.
For more details on Discon ’09, please visit DG Abalos’s website, www.dgrhia3870.com. (Press release)
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