Recent Photographs

President's Message

Assignment Baghdad

Why No Women Directors?

RYLA Celebration in W.A.

Rotary Kokoda Walk 2004

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

It is sad that I have to let the members know that Gina Raccanello will be leaving our club in December. Gina has a posting next year to teach full time on the tablelands. She will be working full time and renovating their house.

We will have Xmas in the mountains next year and certainly catch up with her and Cliff. I am sure we will also see her from time to time, maybe at lunch at the Hilton in the school holidays.

This month is Rotary Foundation month, and our club will have Denise speaking to us on the Foundation at our meeting on November 28th.

This weekend is PEPS being held at the Southside Rainbow Inn from 8.30am until 2.30pm on Sunday.

Relay for Life will be happening again next year probably June 5 and 6. The organizers have asked Rotary for assistance and running some of the food stalls.

Cairns South are holding a Rotary Expo this month. It will be for people wanting to know about Rotary. I will advise the times, place and dates when they are finalized.

It is a good idea for all our members in our club to apply for a Blue card, the cost is fifty dollars and there is a waiting time for processing of several months. It is recommended for members involved with Yep, GSE etc. to have one. I will be obtaining the forms and handing them out to members in the next few weeks.

President Robyn

A Progressive Dinner

Calling all members - especially those who live on the North Side of town.....

We are wanting to have a progressive dinner with the theme of Dutch (for Yoop) and German (for Sophie) - so a night of beer drinking and clog wearing - recipes will be sought from the internet - and distributed.

We need a volunteer house for Entree, one for main course, one for dessert and perhaps one for coffee and chocolates............

Everyone in the club supplies the food - we just need a spot to place our fold up chair.

If you would like the pleasure of hosting one of the courses - please email me back

Sandy

Assignment Baghdad

By Christina Kent

Rotarian Beth Payne is on stranger to international hot spots, having served the U.S. Department of State in Israel, Kuwait and Rwanda. But her current assignment may present the ultimate test of her ability to perform under pressure.

The 37 year old member of the Rotary Club of Washington, D.C., recently was named the first U.S. consul to post war Iraq, temporarily attached to the defense Department's Office Of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. Her main duties are to aid and protect U.S. private citizens in Iraq and process U.S. visa requests.

Creation of a consular affairs office is seen as an important early step in the troubled nation's rebuilding process. And while there are currently no Rotary clubs in Iraq (Baghdad supported at least one club in the late 1950's, according to the R.I. archives) Beth Payne already is looking ahead to the day when a stable government is in place with policies favourable for Rotary's return.

Members of R.I.'s Extension to Muslim Countries Sub-committee are closely monitoring the situation in Iraq, including activities of Rotarians from other countries who, like Beth Payne, are there because of their military or civilian professions. "One of the things that I like most about Rotary is that our motto, Service Above Self, has no religious limits, no cultural or ethnic divisions," Beth said, relaxing in her Alexandria, Virginia, apartment a few weeks before leaving for Baghdad.

The former peace Corps volunteer observed at first hand Rotary's power to bring people together during her term as U.S. consul to Rwanda in 1998-2001, when the nation was emerging from a period of violent strife between the Hutus and Tutsis, the two main ethnic groups. The violence culminated in 1994, when an estimated 800,000 people, most of them Tutsis, where killed in what amounted to a campaign of genocide.

Beth Payne requested the Rwanda posting as her third foreign assignment - she was vice-consul in both Kuwait and Israel- - because of its troubles, not in spite of them. "I wanted to understand how after people have experiences something as horrible as a genocide, how do they rebuild? And can we improve our ability to recover form such horrible events without continuing to inflict harm on others?"

In Rwanda, then U.S. Ambassador George Staples encouraged Beth Payne to join the recently formed Rotary Club of Kigali-Virunga, the country's first English language Rotary club. The former Belgian colony already was home to three French speaking clubs.

Beth Payne hesitated about joining, saying "I still had the perception that Rotary is an organisation for older men." But George Staples, who was also a member, pointed out that as chief of the economic and consular sections of the U.S. Embassy, Beth Payne could help the country by bringing business contacts together through Rotary.

Once Beth Payne was involved, she became a believer. "When I learned Rotary's mission, it was a natural combination of work and my own personal interests she said. "I'll be a lifelong member, regardless of whether it relates to my profession. Service Above Self was how I was raised."

Her parents were Mennonite missionaries who taught in Ethiopia. Plus, the Kigali-Virunga membership was so diverse that attending the meetings was a pleasure, both Hutus and Tutsis joined the 30 member club. A few members were government officials, but most were from the private sector. Many were women.

Initially, club members used the meetings to get to know one other and learn about Rotary. Then came the question of what to do to help the community. "In Rwanda, you could step out of the door an choose a dozen projects. Everything's there, just begging for help," Beth Payne said.

Early projects aimed to improve road safety and provide artificial limbs to victims of the prolonged violence. The "Eureka moment" happened as the club members asked: "What do we give to our community that will make a difference in every one of our needs, whether its HIV/AIDS or street children or poverty reduction?"

That question led to the conclusion that unless people have access to education and ideas, you can only do so much in any of those areas. Club members launched one of the most ambitious Rotarian supported education projects in Africa in the creation of a $US1.2 million public library, Rwanda's first. The need of a library was clear to Beth Payne form the outset.

"When I got to Rwanda, I would order old Rwandan history books mainly in French, from out of print book sites on the Internet," she said, "Most Rwandans had never seen these books, written about their own history. I would take them around, and people would just be amazed, people didn't know their own history because they didn't have access to it."

She also hoped that the library's presence might help ease the ethnic tensions between the Hutus and the Tutsis. If Rwandans had access to a library with books about their history, Beth Payne reasoned, then they could more easily move forward into peace. "How can you have reconciliation if you keep yourself locked into old divisions and the old mythology?" she said.

First on the task list was finding a site accessible to the most people, including those too poor to pay for transport. Members also decided that the property must be free of squatters so that nobody would be displaced. "At a time when we were getting desperate, the government came through with land, a little bit out to town, but not so far that people couldn't get to it," Beth Payne said.

The club held a contest to determine the building's design, soliciting plans from architects and displaying them so that the public could vote. The winner was a simply designed, contemporary, three story building capable of accommodating 500 patrons and a collection of 25,000 books. "

We decided we'd build it the way they build things in Africa, which means section by section as funding becomes available." "The fence has been donated, and someone who produces electrical wire agreed to donate all the wiring. People have given bags of cement and a company donated security."

The project also received a $US2,000 Matching Grant form The Rotary Foundation of R.I. for a computer, printer and accessories, sponsored by the Kigali-Virunga club and Rotary Club of Littleton in Colorado, U.S.A.

Beth Payne said the Rwandan Government had been supportive without being controlling. Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his wife went to one of the club's fundraisers, a used book sale.

After Beth Payne left Rwanda for Washington to head the State Department's Office of Children's Issues, she continued to work on behalf of the project. She joined the Washington, D.C., Rotary Club and helped establish the American Friends of the Kigali Public Library, a non profit fund raising organisation.

A British Friend's group also has been initiated. Despite a drop off in donations attributed to the overall dip in charitable contributions after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, about $800,000 in money and pledges had been raised by the time Beth Payne left for Baghdad in June this year. As she settles into her duties in Baghdad, Beth Payne hopes to contribute to Rotary's positive and growing presence in the Middle East.

There are 105 Rotary clubs with about 4,000 members in District 2450, which includes Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, and United Arab Emirates. District 2450 also includes Cyprus, which is about 20 percent Muslim. Israel comprises all of District 2490 with 42 clubs and 1,200 members.

One of the region's more recently chartered clubs, the Rotary Club of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, chartered In March 2002, was among the first to offer assistance to the people of post war Iraq. Beyond service opportunities, Beth Payne sees Rotary as a tool to help stabilize troubled societies, instill democratic principles and advance the goal of world peace and understanding.

When Rotary extends into nations where democracy is new, for example, the club's annual elections of officers to one year terms provide real life case studies on the orderly transition of power. Beth Payne said: "I really do believe that whenever civil society learns how to contribute to the broader community, that helps to develop ways to transfer power in a non violent manner, and that leads toward world peaces as a long term goal."

Christina Kent is a freelance journalist. From Rotary Down Under October 2003.

Why No Women Directors?

Letters From Rotary International

I strongly support the goals that RI President Jonathan Majiyagbe has set for 2003-04.

However, I must take exception to one of his statements in the article "Lend a hand" (July). He states that "although the number of female business and professional leaders continues to grow at a rapid pace, women remain woefully underrepresented in Rotary."

He goes on to say "it is now up to Rotarians at the club level to actively seek out and invite qualified women to become members."

With all due respect, I submit that women also are "woefully underrepresented" on the RI Board of Directors. In fact, they are not represented at all. Worldwide, there are Rotarian women who run corporations, serve Rotary in district positions, and also serve on various other influential charitable boards.

Surely, more than 15 years after women first joined Rotary, there is at least one woman whose credentials are strong enough to be considered for a director position.

Linda W. Doliber,
Rotarian Marblehead Harbor,
Mass., USA

I find it hopeful that in the July issue, RI President Jonathan Majiyagbe encourages clubs to actively develop greater participation by women.

"Although the number of female business and professional leaders continues to grow," he says, "women remain woefully underrepresented in Rotary."

However, in that same issue, I noted that there was not one woman on the RI Board of Directors. Does the RI president have any input as to the make-up of the board? Has there ever been a female board member?

Surely there are at least one or two women Rotarians in the world who would qualify for this position.

Mary Baldwin,
Rotarian
Tunkhannock,
Pa.,
USA

Another new Rotary year, another RI Board of Directors. All are very qualified and dedicated to the goals, objectives, and programs of Rotary. But after 15 years, still no women Rotarians qualify for such posts?

How about some effort to find women to serve at the international level? They are doing so much so well at local and district levels.

Jim Hagerty,
Rotarian
Melbourne,
Fla.,
USA

Reply

RI Bylaws spell out the nomination and election procedure for directors in Article XII. The bylaws are available on the RI Web site and in the RI Manual of Procedure.

To further clarify, RI President Jonathan Majiyagbe, who moved the motion to admit women during the 1989 Council on Legislation, shared with us his recent response to a past district governor who raised the same issue.

Here are the relevant portions of that response:

"You very correctly note that I strongly support providing opportunities for women in all areas, including Rotary membership. However, the selection of Rotary International directors is done by Rotarians in each zone of the Rotary world.

Therefore, the responsibility for identifying, nominating, and electing suitable women to the RI board rests not with the president or other senior Rotary leaders, but rather with the Rotarians in each zone.

"I share your desire to see women represented at all levels of Rotary leadership. In making appointments for the training leaders who served at the 2003 International Assembly and for all the committees and task forces in place for 2003-04, I included women wherever possible.

I suggest the place to start working toward the change you desire is by sharing your perspective and concerns with other Rotarians in [your zone]. Perhaps your zone could be the first in the world to elect a woman to serve as a director of Rotary International!"

Rotary International Newsroom Ed.
From http://www.rotary.org/newsroom/rotarian/0310/letters.html

RYLA Celebration in W.A.

RI President Jonathan Majiyagbe has announced that the University of Western Australia will be the venue for R.I.'s official Celebrate RYLA Day on January 16, 2004.

Celebrate RYLA is just one of several special Family of Rotary celebrations planned by president Jonathan during the 2003/2004 Rotary year.

He will be a special guest of honour and speaker on January 16. The day will also include addresses by past and present awardees and community leaders, discussion groups involving youth oriented people from various backgrounds, and feedback sessions culminating with a buffet meal under the summer stars.

By work shopping with other groups involved in developing youth leaders, it is hoped to define common goals and strategies and share resources and ideas.

Further details:
Past President Don Reid on 08 9284 3959 or email don.reid@bigpond.com.au

Rotary Kokoda Walk 2004

In one of the most exciting project concepts for many years, Rotarian John Williams and the Rotary Club of Jindalee, Qld, called for expressions of interest in the Rotary Kokoda Walk 2004.

Planned to provide Rotarians with the opportunity of personal fitness and challenge, while recognizing the heroic efforts of Australian soldiers in 1942 and, very appropriately, supporting Legacy, the Rotary Walk is planned for nine days commencing August 20, 2004.

The project has the support of District 9630 Governor Ray Brand and offers a unique opportunity for Rotary fellowship through a sustained training period. John Williams said: "The ultimate goal is to raise $22,000 from the project to sponsor 20 Legacy children to attend Outward Bound courses."

He said many people had talked about a dream to walk the most talked about "Track" in Australian military history. This project would provide the opportunity to turn such dreams into reality.

Plans are also in hand for two Rotary meetings during the walk. The first planning meeting of participants is scheduled for 6.30pm on October 14 at McLeod Golf Club, Westlake, Brisbane. Qld.

However, there is plenty of time for interested Rotarians and friends to join the walk.

Contact John Williams on 0407 123 124 or email jwilliams@csbl.com.au for further information.