Message from DG Vance for October 2012

With the passing of September, we are now into the fourth month of this Rotary year. In the past 3 months, Monica and I have visited Rotary, Rotaract, Interact and EarlyAct Clubs in Anguilla, St Martin/St Maarten & St Barths, the USVI(N & S) and Jamaica.  We have been enthusiastically received and have witnessed the great work that is being done by Clubs in all communities.  Needless to say, we feel humbled by the stories and the projects that we have heard and seen.

October is Vocational Service month; those of you who have read President Tanaka’s message for this month will I hope, excuse me for using a part of his message here, but I think there is a message here for all of us, (here he is talking of his first experiences as a new member of Rotary) and I quote “for the first two years, we didn’t do much. Every week, I came to my meeting, I ate lunch, and I listened to a speaker. I paid my dues, and I gave money to The Rotary Foundation. But I wasn’t involved in any service. I didn’t know what Rotary service was supposed to be. That all changed one week, when we had a speaker who talked about vocational service.  This was a new idea to me. Until then, I had never thought much about the purpose of my life, or why I was in business. I was too busy working. I was always focused on my business, and on how to make it larger and better. I never stopped to consider any deeper purpose of my work.”

Step back and take a few moments to reflect on this. Can you see yourself here? Or maybe you experienced a “Rotary moment” when a light came on and you came to understand the true purpose of being a Rotarian.

So what is Vocational Service? To get a full perspective on this I went to the RI web site. I learnt that Vocational Service provides the opportunity for Rotarians to help those less fortunate in the world, in our communities, to escape poverty and regain a measure of self respect. As Rotarians, we have a responsibility to promote high ethical standards through our vocations, and we use our professional skills and expertise to address problems and needs in our societies. One way we can promote high ethical standards is to quote Rotary’s Four Way test at every opportunity.

Vocational Service is one way that sets Rotary apart from other service and humanitarian organisations as it is unique to Rotary. Through our Classifications lists, we ensure that Club membership properly represents the professional vocations within our communities.  So how can your clubs do your part in promoting Vocational Service? Here are some suggestions:

• Ask members to speak about their vocations at Club meetings
• Extend this to presentations to Rotaract, Interact and EarlyAct Clubs, and also to students in local secondary schools
• Invite young persons to your place of work, explain what you do and emphasise the high ethical standards that exist
• Promote the Four Way Test, by including on business cards, posters displayed in the work place, in schools
• Promote the Declaration of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions (for more detail on this go to http://www.rotary.org/RIdocuments/en_pdf/255en.pdf
• Promote an essay competition where participants describe how the Four Way Test has impacted their lives

Vocational Service is one of the 5 Avenues of Service within Rotary. It demonstrates how by using our skills and expertise we make the lives of others better, which leads to a better, kinder world, where citizens can live in Peace, not fear, can live with dignity, not desperation. Its just another way Rotarians can exemplify our Motto for 2012/13 – Peace though Service.

Good luck to you all! I look forward to hearing about all the great and imaginative activities that you engage in this month of Vocational Service as Monica and I continue our visits to Clubs in Haiti, seeing at first hand further evidence of the great work we all continue to do.