District 7980 Installation, June 26, 2019-How to Publicize Rotary

It has been said that Rotary is a best kept secret.
The District 7980 Installation was held at St. Clements Castle in Portland, CT on June 26 and about 160 Rotarians and guests came. Tari Marshall Day made a Facebook post with lots of pictures.

Tari's post on the District Installation

But that's not what this post is about. This is about how one person can help publicize Rotary to the World. But also about how can we use the awareness we generate during the Installation season to make more people aware of what we do.

Barbara Moore of the East Hampton Rotary club decided that Jack Solomon becoming Governor of our Rotary District was a notable event which should be recognized. So what did she do.
1. She went to the East Hampton Town Council and got them to declare June 26, 2019 Jack Solomon Day. In my view it's really Rotary Day but in any case great publicity.

2. She contacted the General Assembly

And they wrote a  proclamation on Rotary Governor

3. And she contacted our US Senator Chris Murphy( I talked with him during his walk across Connecticut) and he wrote a Certificate of Accomplishment.

Pretty Remarkable what one Rotarian, Barbara Moore, can do to get recognition for Rotary. The East Hampton Town Council, The Connecticut General Assembly and a US Senator all endorsing Rotary.
Thanks Barbara. But we don't need to stop there, we can use this recognition to raise the level of awareness of Rotary. That's what we need to do.

At an Installation in East Haven, they too got their Representative to get a General Assembly Official Citation. Rotary is very well recognized in Connecticut.

Trumbull Rotary Club-An Installation June 25, 2019

Here's Vince just after being installed. Note that great
Empowered by Rotary Banner. 

The new Rotary Year began at Trumbull on June 25 with the Installation of Vince Fini as President Willie Costello as President Elect and a full slate of officers and Board Members. Lots of fellowship and celebration of Rotary success.

The outgoing Trumbull President Bob Dzurenda led off the proceedings

They have a large group of officers who help the President run
this dynamic club

The incoming and outgoing Presidents 

If you are outgoing President, it's relax time

Trumbull has a neat tradition. At the end all the Past Presidents gather and one at a time in order of their Presidencies they ring the bell. Trumbull's past Presidents are very much involved with their club.

Devon Rotary Club Installation and Connecticut Shore Rotaract Club

Devon has a neat tradition. The incoming President-Elect of the club plans and hosts the Installation of the President. On June 20, 2019 that was Albert May who will be President in 2020-21.
At this very vibrant and exciting installation conducted by PDG Henry Scoop, Erika Shea was installed as President.

Here is Al May and PDG Henry Scoop installing Erika Shea as President

They have a lot of officers and Directors, here is Erika's team

And ;they gave out some Paul Harris Fellows
and also honored a singing group the Rum Runners

A highlight of the evening was the Installation of the new Shoreline Rotaract Club which Devon, Milford and Stratford all helped create, but Devon was certainly the key. John Kuehnle, the outgoing President of Devon, was instrumental and the President of the new club is his daughter. 
Five officers of the Rotaract club were present and they are now a club in Rotary. Be on the lookout they will do great things. 

Wallingford Rotary Club-An Installation at a Vibrant Club

On June 19.2019 Wallingford Rotary Club did it's Installation with great Charm.

The Library Wine and Bistro has a nice private room where the Rotarians could celebrate the start of the new year.

The Club Secretary, John Mattingly, shared this story. The first Club President was
in 1927 and in the 1940s they gave him this poster of his service.
Notice the cartoons all around commemorating
the founding members of the club. Great, right.
Well this wonderful poster was lost for 50 years.
The Club Secretary received a call, out of the blue. from
a person who found it in her cellar and wondered if
the club would like it back. And back it came.

Wallingford Rotary Club has a great tradition of a member who
owns a limo driving the incoming President to the Installation.
Here is Greg Allen the incoming President and his wife, Melissa
with their driver

Daryl Porto the outgoing President reviewing his year

And here he is again in action

And the incoming President Greg Allen gave a
great talk on his and the clubs' ;plans

A Pavilion and an Installation at New London Rotary Club

It is a big deal. New London Rotary Club did everything necessary to put a Pavilion on Ocean Beach in New London(said to be the nicest beach on the southeast Connecticut shore). And on June 13 it was opened.

So this was an event to celebrate the opening of the Pavilion.
The Rotary Club got full credit for the work they did

A terrible picture but.
a bunch of notables showed up to honor the opening and the Rotary Club
The Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut
The local State Senator
the local State Representative
the Mayor
and many others.

Also was the changing of the Guard. PDG Gerry O'Shannon inducted Reid Burdick
and his team for the New London Club. Victoria Mueller the current President is on the left and
new President Reid is in the middle. Gerry is mapping out her strategy.

Hamburg Rotary International Convention

The Rotary International Convention draws a lot of people who want to get to know each other.

Every Rotary conference has memorable stories, Hamburg has two for me.

In a session on trafficking a mother told the story of her daughter who was trafficked while she was living at home. A gang threatened the family and the daughter felt she had to do what they said. Later after it became obvious that something was wrong, she was asked, Why didn't you say anything? She said, because nobody asked. A very sad story but Rotary is working on it. The above picture shows the mother on the left and three other speakers.

An optimistic story is that of a young lady, in Africa, who saw that many children could not do well in school because at night they had no light. She was able to make a system using solar energy that gave light at night to even very poor families. And it was made partially with used garbage bags. She urged us all to talk to people about what they need and then work to do it. 

There are a lot of people at the International Convention. Here is the home
country welcome reception. A great chance to meet other people

A very moving moment in the opening ceremony is the parade of flags. Flags
from all the countries where Rotary is. Youth Exchange, Rotaractors and other young
people brought the flags into the arena and announced the country

There were some talks and some entertainment

Zones 24 and 32 have a dinner called "Beyond the Borders" at each International Convention
This year it was at the St. Pauli soccer stadium. 

The St. Pauli team and stadium have an interesting history. From a
nothing team they have become a powerhouse with a great stadium.
All owned by the members. Here is a mural at the stadium

There is a museum which describes the history of the stadium, the team and the local area
This is an old scoreboard, remember before electronics when people would actually change the numbers

Here is the team symbol. The Museum goes over how it evolved over the years
As for everything with the team. the local people were involved

Steve Farber talked about the use of "love" in business. Here is
a comment by a practitioner of it and the results

Steve went to talk to a company for whom he was giving a speech
the next day. They already practiced love of their customers
And this applies to Rotary.

There was a breakout session on the use of video cameras on your smart phone
Here is the speaker doing a smartphone video interview. She also
educated us on editing

At the Convention individual Districts get together to talk and review the day(s)
Here is our District 7980 enjoying some time together

Ending Polio is still our most important major initiative
Here is a discussion of it. In 1988, before Rotary took up the fight, there
were 350,000 cases of polio per year. The fellow on the right
who is a technical expert on the effort said in just a few years it will be gone
If we keep up the effort

A Japanese district talked about engagement. At the end
they showed how they can create messages which engage

Some Comments by various speakers
1. Rotary is not an organization we are a family
2. Rotary allows us to live beyond ourselves
3. To engage others, let them suggest ideas on what to do
4. If you do what you've always done you'll get what you've always gotten
5. The best way to predict the future is to create it
6. Friendship is the glue that binds us together

Missouri RYLA is a multi-district RYLA. They have several real good ideas.
For their RYLA challenge they ask the participants to prepare a budget and timeline on the project
They put their presentations of RYLA challenge projects on their website
During the RYLA they have pretend emergencies that the participants have to deal with
Their review of the RYLA challenge projects is a "Shark Tank" approach
The participants take a personality profile called True Colors

Chris Wells, a Rotaract District Representative gave a very active presentation
on the importance of Fellowship and Friendship

Do Goodery Video

There is a Fellowship for Rotary Builds Business
There are many Rotary Action Groups and Fellowships to participate in

Mark Malone introduced his family
He talked about Rotary Connecting the World and our Communities
and his four focii  Membership, Family, Rotary Leadership and the UN

And Barry Rassin reviewed his year. Again he emphasized the
importance of Rotaract to Rotary and vice versa
He mentioned many projects from around the world which
"Have done good for the World"

#rotary19