by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
The Rotary Club of Jacksonville began the 2011-12 Rotary year when club President Howard Dale rang the bell at precisely 12:30 p.m. to call the gathering to order.
This year will mark the 100th anniversary of the club, which met for the first time on Feb. 12, 1912, in the Windsor Hotel at Hemming Park.
Dale graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1967 from Yale University and three years later from the University of Pennsylvania law school.
He is the principal shareholder in the law firm of Dale, Bald, Showalter, Mercier & Green, where he has practiced business and commercial real estate law since 1987.
Dale served on the Jacksonville City Council from 1994-99. He joined Rotary in 1998.
As is the custom for new presidents, Dale outlined his initiatives for the club during the next 12 months. He said the club will celebrate its century of service to the local and international communities.
“We’re all here to make the pie bigger and make the city a better place and the world a better place,” he said.
The club will continue its contribution to the effort by Rotary International in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate polio.
Dale said the disease is reported in only four countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nigeria – and when it is eliminated, polio will join smallpox as the only disease in the history of mankind to be eliminated.
Dale also announced local initiatives for the club’s centennial year.
“After 100 years, it’s time to look back and be proud but also plan for the future,” he said.
Club members will form three committees to explore ways to bring the younger generation into Rotary, said Dale.
The committees will explore the viability of creating another Rotaract Club in Jacksonville for 18-30-year-olds, possibly based at Florida State College at Jacksonville.
FSCJ President Steve Wallace is the club’s president-elect and will succeed Dale for the 2012-13 club year.
Another committee will explore the possibility of chartering another Interact Club for high school students, while a third group will study ways to use social media to expand the club’s service to the community and share the Rotary experience with the next generation.
“Social media is the way a lot of people communicate. It could potentially make us more efficient and effective,” said Dale.
He promised club members an exciting year with a few surprises and concluded his first meeting as president.
“We can pay respect to the 100-year legacy we have inherited by seizing the present,” he said.
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