Next year will be my final Rotary calendar as Rotaractor. I am now thinking of how to plan on becoming a Rotarian. I don’t know yet of any guide on how Rotaractors should gracefully prepare in turning into Rotarians.
So far, I can hear and see challenging situations like:
- Dealing with child rearing issues (especially in my case as soon to be wife and mother) and meetings and events attendance
- Financial stability
I just feel that I should be that “rich” or “accomplished” to be worthy be called as “Rotarian”. This is especially gloomy this year due to global economic recessions. Likewise, my financial management book calculations resulted that I will have my first million (in Pesos only) by age 40. I projected to have my first own major business engagement by age 35.
-So much attachment in Rotaract
I see nothing’s wrong with still being active in Rotaract but my attendance should be more in attending / organizing Rotary events by that time.
-What Rotary Club to Join
My sponsoring Rotary Club of Cubao is an all Male Rotary Club. I might be looking forward for the same kind of fellowships.
-Living up with Higher Ethics Standard
Indeed, this year is faced again with more ethics critics. The last years were lambasted with national and district Rotary icons involving in moral and financial cases.
For now, below are my rough possible solutions / plans:
-Try to apply time and family management techniques or join internet Rotary projects
-Grab the legal 1 year extension of age 31 so I can prepare more! :)
-Join Rotary at age 31 even not that ready
Maybe I should take the challenge of being worthy to be called a Rotarian starting the age 31.
-Or not to become a Rotarian yet until I feel worthy to be called one. However, while doing so, I should do the following:
o Become an active senior Rotaractor as Adviser and Resource Speaker
o Contribute more in fund raising
o Develop and train more young Rotaractors to become responsible leaders
o Become an “accomplished” individual at work or community
o Slowly but rightly build wealth
-Establish an “all former Rotaractors” Rotary Club
-I should be challenged to do more good to outweigh the bad ones
I guess, there will always be bad samples in any good organizations. It is just a matter of trying and resisting at all means not to become like them
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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3 comments:
I think the transition from Rotaract to Rotary is much easier for guys, especially when it comes to trying to balance family commitments.
I chose not to stay on in Rotaract until I was 31, for a few reasons. First, my club was too reliant on me, and even with succession planning and handing over as much responsibility and giving as much training as possible, they still weren't standing on their own two feet. Another year wouldn't have changed that. Plus, I had 2 children by then, and balancing commitments was getting hard. So I left the year I turned 30 and had a 6 month break from it all, which was very helpful!
We went down the route of helping form a new club rather than joining an established club. It has been an incredible amount of work (especially since I am counted amongst the more "experienced" of the Rotarians in our club!), and while our meetings are much cheaper than other clubs, the issue of what to do with my children during all the meetings has been quite an issue, which is still not really resolved.
Rotary is far more time intensive than Rotaract, and I have to admit I am struggling, and quite often question whether I have done the right thing in moving into Rotary so soon. Looking back, I would have preferred a longer break between leaving Rotaract and moving on to Rotary, but I did miss the fellowship side - even being in touch with Rotaract and Rotary friends regularly through Facebook, it felt wrong not to be active in Rotary circles still. I often wonder now whether I should resign from Rotary and wait until my children are a bit older before joining again, to take some of the pressure off!
Devie, I salute you for giving so much thought to what you will do. I have seen some decide to move on into Rotary before they turn 30, and others take a break for several years before joining Rotary. Ultimately your decision needs to be based on what works best for you, and also what is fair to your Rotaract club and the Rotary club you are looking at joining.
Good luck with your decision, whatever it ends up being!
Another factor to consider with your becoming a Rotarian is the Annual Dues and the occasional sponsorships or pledges - in short, finances...
Simone,
Thanks Simone for sharing your experiences. So far, I can now feel the priority issue. With all the wedding preparations needed and still trying to assist and guide MDIO and the Club, schedule conflicts frequently.
In terms of Rotaract roles, I’m just so lucky that I was able to partly contribute in training the successors that really are performing to their oath positions. They are likewise responsible enough but there are critical times and issues which I cannot escape from. So far, my strategies are save time on regular activities and selectively attend to critical ones. This way, the younger leaders will also be able to apply leadership and management on regular activities like frequent meetings and activities on their own. However, there are times when one group will raise this issue on why I only attended the other group’s activity / meeting or why I have not attended some events :). This is really challenging to justify since its like having 3 groups within the Rotaract organization, my club, the District and MDIO Pilipinas (each has its own cycle!). Likewise, most of our PPs and PDRRs are still single. Sometimes, it also seems like breaking the “curse”!:).
PCO Webmaster,
Is this PDRR Gary? :)…Yes, thanks for actually including this factor in the list.
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