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Rotary
International
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RI
Convention Update |
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| December
2012 |
| Register
by 15 December for best price on Lisbon
Convention |
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Register for the 2013 RI Convention
by 15 December to save up to $100 off
the onsite registration fee. Why attend?
Deborah Bowen, of the Rotary Club of Top
of the Lake-Mooresville, shares her
reasons. Bowen attended her first
convention in Chicago in 2005 as a
centennial club president. “When I saw
the flags from all the Rotary countries,
I felt a lump in my throat. You had me
at the flag ceremony!"
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| An
unforgettable night of fado |
| The
heart of Lisbon, a historic bullfighting
arena, will be transformed into a
concert hall 24 June for an
unforgettable evening of fado. During
this ticketed host event, convention
attendees will have the opportunity to
fill their senses with Portugal’s own
unique contribution to music, as one of
today’s best fado singers performs.
Convention attendees will also be able
to hear fado performed live at bars and
taverns in the Bairro Alto or Alfama
district of the city.
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| Apply
for booth space by 1 February |
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House of Friendship at the RI Convention
offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity for
you to showcase your service project,
celebrate your Rotary accomplishment, or
share information about your Global
Networking Groups. RI licensed vendors,
by invitation, also market RI
merchandise. Applications for booth
space must be received by 1 February.
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| President
Sakuji Tanaka's challenge |
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As
we come together to celebrate the 104th
RI Convention in Lisbon, peace should be
uppermost in our hearts and minds. To
encourage you and your fellow Rotarians
to experience Lisbon as A Harbor for
Peace, I am issuing an attendance
challenge to this year’s district
governors that I hope will encourage you
to promote the convention.
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Rotary International President 2012/2013
Kyoko Tanaka, Yashio, Japan
Monthly messages
July 2012
For
about a year now, we here at Rotary International have had the pleasure of
sharing the elevator, the cafeteria, the lobby, and a corner of the 18th floor
with a white-haired man of impeccable manners, who laughs easily and seems
genuinely happy to see us.
A smile erupts on his face when
he says hello, bowing his head and adding a gentle chuckle. He moves among us
gracefully – with his interpreter Eiko Terao in tow – maintaining his
signature cheer without revealing whatever else might be on his mind. But he’s
probably thinking about Rotary. To hear him tell it, the only time Sakuji Tanaka
is not thinking about Rotary is when he’s sleeping and eating. And that only
goes for when he is not dining with other Rotarians.
“Rotary pretty much occupies
my every waking moment,” the new president of Rotary International playfully
admits.
Tanaka says that his wife,
Kyoko, would describe him as “a Rotary nut.” A glance at his résumé
supports this claim. He’s been a member of the Rotary Club of Yashio, Japan,
for 37 years and has served Rotary at every level, including district governor,
training leader, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, member of the Polio
Eradication Advocacy Task Force and Future Vision Committee, chair of the 2009
Birmingham Convention Committee and Permanent Fund Committee for Japan, RI
director, and Rotary Foundation trustee. Through it all, and after 49 years of
marriage, Kyoko has been a willing companion on his Rotarian journey. Together,
she and Tanaka are Paul Harris Fellows, Benefactors, and Major Donors. Although
she doesn’t speak English, he says his wife has a knack for communicating with
people through gestures and body language, and that she is a “jolly, uplifting
person.”
The couple have also remained
close throughout Tanaka’s career in the wholesale industry. When scheduling
conflicts have prevented him from attending business meetings, she has been
known to stand in for him. When he is away from home, he calls her every day.
The Tanakas have three grown
children – a son and daughter who live in
Japan
, and a daughter who lives in
Malaysia
– and six grandchildren, with another on the way. The family gets together at
the couple’s home in Yashio every year for New Year’s.
“Being considerate and patient
with your partner is the secret to a successful marriage,” Tanaka says.
“I’m a lucky man to have a wife who is so patient with me.” He adds that
in Japanese society, “men probably have more freedom to express their anger or
their frustration than women do. I consciously try to be patient, not only with
my wife but with other people.”
Tanaka balances this patience
with practiced efficiency. The former president of the National Household Papers
Distribution Association of Japan says he has learned the value of a clean desk,
in both a literal and virtual sense. He uses email extensively and maintains a
lean inbox, saving only the messages he needs. “My personality is that of
someone in a hurry,” he says. “It’s not my style to let things pile up. I
like to get things done and move on. “
However, in his home office, he
has a 10-foot-long bookcase that houses both diaries and work documents. He
doesn’t let them accumulate for very long, he says, and periodically pitches
large amounts of them when their utility to him has expired. In some cases,
Rotary-specific material goes to his club.
When he is traveling, Tanaka
says, the thing he misses most is his wife’s cooking. She is, hands down, his
favorite cook. He prefers Japanese food to all other cuisines, but notes that
the versions he finds outside
Japan
do not measure up to what is available in his country. Ramen noodles taste
different away from home, and it is difficult to find a satisfying sukiyaki. To
make up for the culinary hardships of traveling, he often gravitates to other
fare. He admits to a weakness for the distinctive taste of Korean barbecue, and
Terao volunteers that you can always distract him with a bowl of spaghetti, as
long as it is in a marinara or other red sauce. He favors it plain otherwise, as
he faults food of any kind with “too much cheese.” He has noticed
America
’s growing passion for Japanese cuisine, including the booming business that
sushi restaurants enjoy in the
United States
, and thinks this speaks more to Americans’ increasing concern about their
health than an endorsement of the authentic food one would find in
Japan
.
Tanaka is not all business all
the time, but even when he is in relaxation mode, he puts forth his best effort.
During one evening of karaoke, he set a personal record by singing 54
consecutive songs, without a break. He recalls that three-hour crooning marathon
with shy pride and quickly doubts that he would ever have the energy or stamina
to do it again. But those who know him well may not be so quick to agree.
They might recall that not so
long ago, Tanaka and a Rotarian friend began to clean the streets in their
neighborhood. Tanaka would pull weeds, pick up litter, and cart the trash away.
He would even remove the occasional dead dog or cat. “Before,” he says,
“there were some very dirty places. But people would see me and others
spending the day cleaning the area in front of their houses. Eventually they
would join in and, even better, would keep the area tidier on their own.” What
started as a two-man effort soon evolved into a project of the local Rotary
clubs, which carried out a neighborhood cleanup once a month. This expanded into
a communitywide effort, with 59 groups covering neighborhoods across Yashio
twice a year, and the city’s mayor coming out to participate and address the
volunteers.
Tanaka has said that after
joining the Yashio club, he realized that “by helping others, even in the
simplest of ways, I could help to build peace. Peace, in all of the ways that we
can understand it, is a real goal and a realistic goal for Rotary.” He has
established an endowed Rotary Peace Fellowship, and in January, he announced
that he’d chosen Peace Through Service as the RI theme for his year.
“Peace is not something that can only be achieved through treaties, by
governments, or through heroic struggles,” Tanaka said. “It is something
that we can find and that we can achieve, every day and in many simple ways.”
He later elaborated: “Peace
and conflict resolution should start at home. The family is the smallest unit of
society, so we should start from there. If you are mindful of peace with your
partner and your family members, that gives you an opportunity to reflect on
your family life and to spread that sense of peace by example. Peaceful families
lead to greater peace for everyone.”
The Japanese tradition of
putting the needs of society above the needs of the individual parallels the
Rotarian concept of Service Above Self, Tanaka says. He notes that this view has
been instrumental in helping
Japan
rebuild after the tsunami and earthquake that ravaged the country in March
2011.
The cooperation among individuals throughout the recovery effort also
presents a positive lesson that the world can learn from, he says. “I believe
that Rotary is contributing to that lesson, especially in training and educating
members of the younger generation through its Rotary Peace Centers. They will
bear the personal responsibility to society and work to make the world a better
place.”
As The Rotary Foundation prepares for the global launch of its new
grant model next July, a number of changes are being made based on feedback
from Future Vision pilot districts.
Rotarians can expect to see these improvements in coming months:
1. A user-friendly online system for district
qualification and grant application
2. A streamlined global grant application process with clearly defined
expectations and a list of resources to help applicants get started
3. Clear guidelines on how to meet global grant requirements for area
of focus and sustainability
4. Expanded criteria in two areas of focus: basic education and literacy now
includes secondary education, and disease prevention and treatment covers
prevention of noncommunicable diseases and health promotion; in addition, all
areas of focus allow certain types of infrastructure projects
5. The elimination of a requirement that applicants for global grant
scholarships provide proof of language testing
6. Adjustments to the composition of vocational training teams, reducing the
minimum number of travelers to three and allowing, with Foundation approval, the
team leader to be a non-Rotarian
7. Funding for international travel to implement global grant projects
8. An option for a contingency fund of up to 20 percent of the total district
grant spending plan
9. A reduction in the minimum budget for a packaged grant from US$50,000 to
$20,000
10. The addition of a district stewardship subcommittee to ensure careful
management of grant funds
The Foundation expects these improvements to help Rotarians develop projects
that meet the eligibility requirements for global grants, thus reducing the time
from application through payment.
To start preparing for the transition to Future Vision, consult the
transition timelines for clubs
and districts
Comments can me made on the RI web page under the Future Vision, New Grant
Model.
Visit www.rotary.org
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