Women in Rotary

Your July Editor’s Page about getting to know the RI presidents reinforces the unfortunate perception that Rotary is an “old boys’ club.” Early in the editorial, you write, “These men are linked by their passion for Rotary, reaching the top of the Rotary world after many years of service.” Later, you write, “In each July issue, we try to present a more personal side to the Rotary president. Our goal is to let you see and get to know the man behind the title.”  

While it is true that, to date, every RI president has been male, one should not presume that will always be the case. As women become more involved with Rotary, we need to see and hear that there is a place for us at the table at every level. In the future, I hope you will consider your choice of language. It would have been just as effective to say that your goal was to let us see and get to know the person behind the title.

Laura Cordts
Potsdam, N.Y., USA 

Why promote Inner Wheel?

Attending the RI convention in Los Angeles reinforced my commitment to this organization that can uniquely serve and improve the world. However, I still am trying to understand why Rotary International would feature the Inner Wheel in a plenary session.

The Inner Wheel clearly served an important role in Rotary for many years, allowing women the chance to serve when Rotary’s doors were closed to them. But in 2008, at the very same conference when the first female RI director was introduced, it is completely unclear to me why Rotary would want to encourage the continued existence of the Inner Wheel. I fully realize that in many cultures (and some Rotary clubs) women are not granted equal acceptance or access. But Rotary should not in any way reinforce that inequality – and the Inner Wheel represents inequality. Rotary is better than this, and Rotary is better because of the equal participation and leadership of women.

Laura Kann
Decatur, Ga., USA

Follow the money

Your article “Door to a polio-free world” [July] that described the local work in Nigeria was very good. However, it did not include an accounting of where the money is spent.

Saddam Hussein stole $1.8 billion dollars through the oil-for-food program that was intended to feed hungry children, aided by oversights at the United Nations. 

Rotarians have contributed $850 million ($55 million in Nigeria), and there are four countries to address, including Nigeria. You request $1,000 per club from 32,814 clubs.  Since Rotarians provide the labor, where will the $32,814,000 be spent in the four countries?

Rick Berger
Elverson, Pa., USA

Editor’s note: While only four countries remain polio-endemic, supplementary immunization activities (SIA) continue in the reinfected and high-risk countries. The SIA plan for 2008 targets 24 countries. The funds provide operational support to get the vaccine to the child, surveillance to detect the disease, and social mobilization to increase awareness of the need to vaccinate children and where to go for immunization. Rotarians, plus thousands of other volunteers and health workers, provide the labor for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Hero every day, Marine always

The picture of Jim Kushner in the Up Front section of the August issue is terrific, as is his personal history. But the write-up contains one glaring error, as I am sure he would tell you. There is no such thing as an “ex-Marine.” As every Marine will tell you: “Once a Marine, always a Marine.”

Robert Hencken
Kalamazoo, Mich., USA

He sees the problem differently

I was especially interested in Rotary International’s involvement in the “Reading by 9” program [“Playing by the book,” February Up Front] and the literacy articles in the March issue. However, as a retired optometrist who had specialized in children’s vision problems, I was appalled at the lack of concern in all of the articles about whether these children with reading problems have a vision problem that causes their difficulties.

Rotary has done a terrific job helping kids around the world with many physical problems. Don’t you think that local school kids deserve the same kind of treatment? I would be happy to discuss a simple, quick, and thorough vision program that would give the community service and youth service committees at local clubs a worthwhile program.

Mel Schrier
Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., USA

North American-centric?

I notice The Rotarian continues the trend of including the state or province in only U.S. and Canadian addresses. But there are many federated nations in the world; for example, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Mexico. Why? Is this a “North American thing”?

Tim Dawe
West Perth, Australia

Editor’s note: The Rotarian’s readership is overwhelmingly North American (of the approximately 500,000 readers, 450,000 are in the United States and Canada). For space and readability, we abbreviate U.S. states and Canadian provinces. At www.rotary.org,where there is more space and a more geographically diverse readership, we list full Rotary club names.

Defining life

Rotarian Lennart Nilsson claims not to know when life begins [“Microview,” June]. Every schoolchild in America knows the difference between living and dead, and they have a little aquarium with a fish, or maybe a gerbil, and they know the difference between that living creature and a non-living rock, desk, etc. Life exists when there is respiration (inhale oxygen, exhale carbon dioxide), metabolism (eat and excrete), growth (cell replication), and movement. These are all items found in the dictionary definition of life. What Lennart means, I presume, is that it is up in the air as to when life is going to be protected. The tiny human beings that he photographs are not protected under U.S. law, although the egg of the Bald Eagle and other endangered species is protected.

John G. Arch
Pittsburgh, Pa., USA

More tech info please!

As the Webmaster for our site, www.wabashrotary.org, I’m always looking for fresh ways to communicate with our members. In the April issue, I devoured every word of the In Focus articles [“High hopes for high tech” and “Tech Talk”]. I loved the online meeting information and have added it as a make-up resource for our members. I tried to add the RI RSS feed and RI videos to the site; however, I just couldn’t make the code work – until I received the June issue, which explained the solution. You might consider adding this little gem to your RSS and YouTube instruction pages, as a large number of clubs utilize site templates. Please keep the technology information coming! 

DeAnne Clifton
Wabash, Ind., USA

Finding future Rotarians

District governors and RI presidents are continually urging us to recruit new members into Rotary. According to the latest statistics, we have 1.2 million members in some 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. In contrast to these figures, there are only about 200,000 youths, age 14 to 18, in 10,700 Interact clubs –  less than one-third the number of Rotary clubs – and a mere 7,000 Rotaract clubs, less than 25 percent of the number of Rotary clubs. Why have Rotarians not sponsored 32,000 Interact clubs and 32,000 Rotaract clubs? Surely they are our best source of future Rotarians. One goal in the Rotaract Statement of Policy is “To motivate young people for eventual membership in Rotary.” So, let’s get with it.

Terry Simms
Halifax, N.S., Canada

Correction

We misidentified Dick Pyle in the photo on page 39 of the August issue. Pyle is a member of the Rotary Club of Washington, D.C. Also, the correct e-mail address for John Strain, of the Malawi Children’s Village, is jwstrain@sbcglobal.net. We regret the errors.