by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
One of the duties of a Rotary Club district governor is to visit each club in the district and deliver a message about Rotary International’s initiatives for the year and report about projects undertaken by the clubs as a group.
That’s what 2010-2011 Rotary District 6970 Gov. Cynde Covington did Monday at the meeting of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville.
Covington began by congratulating the club’s members on being part of the oldest Rotary Club in Florida, founded in 1912. It was also the 41st Rotary Club in the world, and now one of 33,836 worldwide.
“In another year, you will celebrate 100 years. That is extraordinary,” said Covington of 2011-12.
She also said that for the next year, every club president and the 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide have been charged with thinking “bigger, better and bolder.” Covington said what that means is that each club should “take a look at its traditions” and implement ways to be more exciting to new members.
She said the Rotary International theme for 2010-2011 is “Building communities and bridging continents.”
The international membership has remained steady at 1.2 million for seven years and Covington said the 66 clubs in District 6970 have matched that trend, with as many members leaving the clubs as having joined in that period.
“We’re doing a great job inviting them in the door, but we must retain those new members,” she said.
One of Rotary International’s goals for the next year is to “attract young, vibrant members to the club,” said Covington. “The new generation doesn’t communicate the way we did, the Internet for example, and we have to take that into consideration.”
In her report on the progress toward eliminating polio worldwide, Covington shared the progress made since the Rotary International Foundation received $355 million in grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“Foundations don’t usually make grants to other foundations, but they believed that 1.2 million Rotarians could get the job done,” said Covington.
When she addressed the club last November as District Governor-elect, Covington said that in 1988, a year after Rotary International pledged to work to eradicate the disease from all countries, there were 350,000 cases of polio in the world. Nine months ago, 1,247 were known to
exist.
As of June, she said, only 561 cases were reported worldwide and more than 400 of the cases were in Tajikistan, a country in central Asia bordered by Afghanistan and China. Covington said the outbreak was started by one child who had polio but no symptoms.
“We almost had a similar outbreak in the U.S. a few years ago. If people stop vaccinating their children, one infected child can transmit the disease, even if the child has no symptoms,” she said.
Covington was asked when polio could be considered eliminated around the world.
“It will be three years after the last case before we will be able to declare that polio has been eradicated,” she said.
Fewer that 20 years ago, a Rotary Cub in California had its charter revoked for deciding to accept a female as a member, a decision later ruled illegal in court. Covington was asked before the meeting if she considered it significant that District 6970 has a female governor and that the Rotary of Club of Jacksonville is led by a woman this year. Cindy Stover is the club president.
“I don’t think of it that way. I always think of myself as a Rotarian,” said Covington, who was a charter member of the Southpoint Rotary Club founded in 1999.
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