DG Drew Frohlich Addresses Mid-SFV Club
District Governor Drew Frohlich's message to the Mid-SFV Rotary club hinged on a simple fact: There are more and more Rotary clubs springing up in places like Germany, India, Korea and even the old Soviet Bloc. Even the Chinese allow foreigners to have Rotary clubs with Chinese citizens as guests, but not members. The only place clubs aren't growing is in the U.S. What can we do to help our club and our district grow? Drew believes we need to Think Bigger, Bolder and Better.
We accomplish this in several ways.
District Governor Drew Frohlich's message to the Mid-SFV Rotary club hinged on a simple fact: There are more and more Rotary clubs springing up in places like Germany, India, Korea and even the old Soviet Bloc. Even the Chinese allow foreigners to have Rotary clubs with Chinese citizens as guests, but not members. The only place clubs aren't growing is in the U.S. What can we do to help our club and our district grow? Drew believes we need to Think Bigger, Bolder and Better. We accomplish this in several ways.
Good Communication
Using the example of a neighbor in the garment district who used overseas manufacturers to make his clothes, Drew explained how imprecise communications produce imprecise results.
"My neighbor Fred was in the garment business for youth and teens. He would go to Korea and Taiwan to have his garments made and bring them back for the shows here. The company he worked with in Korea was wonderful. He would show them drawings of the clothing, leave it with them for a week and come back to pick up perfect clothing samples. However, his luck changed when he used a Taiwanese manufacturing firm. He told them if they couldn't match the color exactly, to choose something that was close. He came back to see his designs in garish colors. When he asked about it, they said they relayed his message about the cloth color to the seamstress and she chose a fabric that was close by her. He told me he learned a valuable lesson â€" say precisely what you mean.
Said Drew, "Choosing quality people to join Rotary will give all of us greater opportunities to grow." He challenged the club to share the message of Rotary and asked the members to each find at least one qualified individual to introduce to Rotary.
Worldwide Projects
Like his friend in the garment business, Rotarians not only work in the community, but worldwide. Rotarians have:
• Dug wells for fresh water
• Built school bathrooms so young girls could attend school while retaining their modesty.
• Built schools
• Begun a project that still lives on today: Polio Plus. Since its inception in 1986 as a pilot project in the Philippines, the number of cases of polio has dramatically decreased. When it first started, polio was endemic in more than 200 countries. By the 1990s, the numbers had dwindled to 60 countries and by 2000, it was in five countries. Recently, for the first time ever, not a single case of polio occurred in India for six months.
• This disfiguring disease is currently in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Nigeria and a new virulent strain has spread to some parts of Western Africa.
Over the years, Rotary International has gained partners like the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control, and donors such as the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation.
"We're going to win. Success has many fathers. Failure is an orphan