From the Pen of our President......
Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,
Service Above Self and One Profits Most Who Serves Best,
Rotary’s official mottoes, can be traced back to the early days of the
organization.
In 1911, the second
Rotary convention, in Portland, Oregon, USA, approved ‘He Profits Most Who
Serves Best’ as the Rotary motto. The wording was adapted from a speech that
Rotarian Arthur Frederick Sheldon delivered to the first convention, held in Chicago
the previous year. Sheldon declared that “only the science of right conduct
toward others pays. Business is the science of human services. He profits most
who serves his fellows best.”
The Portland gathering also inspired the motto ‘Service
Above Self’. During an outing on the Columbia River, Ben Collins, president of
the Rotary Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, talked with Seattle Rotarian
J.E. Pinkham about the proper way to organize a Rotary club, offering the
principle his club had adopted: ‘Service, Not Self’. Pinkham invited Rotary
founder Paul Harris, who also was on the trip, to join their conversation.
Harris asked Collins to address the convention, and the phrase ‘Service, Not
Self’ was met with great enthusiasm.
At the 1950 Rotary International Convention in Detroit,
Michigan, USA, two slogans were formally approved as the official mottoes of
Rotary: ‘He Profits Most Who Serves Best’ and ‘Service Above Self’. The 1989
Council on Legislation established ‘Service Above Self’ as the principal motto
of Rotary because it best conveys the philosophy of unselfish volunteer
service. ‘He Profits Most Who Serves Best’ was modified to ‘They Profit Most
Who Serve Best’ in 2004 and to its current wording, ‘One Profits Most Who
Serves Best’, in 2010.
Looking forward so much to seeing you all on 26th March at
Wanderers.
Take great care.
Ann
Last Friday....
- Attendance: Pam Donaldson reports that in the last month the average attendance rate has gone up to 22.
- Membership: We are on track to meet our goal for this year. Two inductions and two new members in the offing. Sonja Hood's son Gareth will be joining as an e-member from China and PP Jean has introduced us to Rui Lopes who will be having his fireside chat soon.
- David, who also acts as our almoner tells us that Carol Lawrence has settled in well in her new abode, Peter Margolius has given him a lot of Rotary paraphernalia to hand over for the Rotary museum, Hugh Rix and Judy Powell are hoping to attend next week's "live" social meeting and it was great to welcome back Lyn after convalescing from her operation.
- Foundation: Both grants will be closed in the very near future and reports will be submitted.
- Youth: Our Interact Club at Highlands North High School for boys have appointed a President and a Treasurer. They are planning an event in honour of Cesare Vidulich and will get involved in the annual Blanket Drive.
- Hopefully we will be able to hold a youth leadership camp this year, maybe in a different format.
- Publicity: We are doing well on the publicity front as Sharon has been taking content published in our weekly Ramble for the Rotary Africa magazine. Ann and Jean attended a training session on social media, which they said was very interesting and helpful, with the aim of improving our Face Book page.
- Finance: The books are balancing and John reported on a welcome windfall in the form of an offshore investment in the Club's name that no one was aware of that will boost our coffers handsomely.
- Fundraising: On the 17th of April we are planning an afternoon soiree at the Moda Ristorante in Craighall, where will be entertained by Sergio Zampolli on the accordion and his partner Amarille Ackerman on the harp. This has been made possible by the very generous offer made by Richard Tonkin to sponsor these two artists. Please save the date.
- We have booked the Parkview Golf Club for Wednesday 20th October for our annual Quiz fundraiser, and will more than likely have a further online talk.
- We touched on the subject of the Art Festival and everyone agreed that it would be sad for this event to fade into the sunset and that in light of the ongoing pandemic to possible relocate it to a smaller venue: The Wanderers?
- Community Services: Jeannette's sewing project in Muldersdrift which was financed through a Covid Grant is proving to be very successful. The ladies have been mainly sewing masks and the Rotary Club of Morningside purchased 500 masks They have also very generously donated 3 sewing machines to the project. To enable these ladies to attempt more advanced sewing assignments they will ideally need an industrial sewing machine. Jeannette would also like to get the ladies involved in knitting projects. If anyone would like to get rid of spare wool, Jeannette would gratefully accept.
- A JoJo tank was purchased directly from the factory for the vegetable garden started by Charity Begins with Me. This was paid through a very generous donation made by David Bradshaw's daughter. We are hoping that we will be able to install the tank before the rainy season ends.
- Sybille was approached by a St Marist Brothers, Inanda teacher Claudio Marangonic, whose learners had made approximately 500 ecobricks, but did not know of a building project that might benefit from them. Khensani Collection in Diepsloot immediately sprung to mind, as they are planning to build another classroom. Melodene came up with a marvelous idea to take a group of the St Davids learners to Diepsloot to show them the Khensani ecobrick classroom and with that throw out a challenge to other Johannesburg schools to also start making ecobricks. The plan is to showcase this project and Rotary's involvement in the Killarney Gazette.
- Environment: A possible grant for Mandela Day in July is being discussed.
Phad Thai Momo-style .....
Getting down and dirty on World Water Day....
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