By Haresh Ramchandani, Rotary Club of LIFE, Montego Bay, Jamaica
Since I joined Rotary in 1997, we’ve had many presidential themes. There’s a new one every year, and they all focus on one or more aspects of our core values: service, fellowship, integrity, diversity, and leadership. But I would like to spotlight just one of those values – leadership – because I think it’s the most important and sometimes gets overlooked. It is by developing leaders that we change the world.
Continue readingBy Martin Postic Jr., Rotary Club of Oklahoma City Midtown, Oklahoma, USA
As Rotary members, we’re encouraged to apply The Four-Way Test to everything we think, say, or do. And yet many Rotarians fixate on just the first part of the test – “Is it the TRUTH?” – and stop there. It’s easy to see why. Truth is an absolute. But fairness, as embodied in the second part – “Is it FAIR to all concerned?” – is not.
In society today, the goal seems to be to win at all costs. Individuals sometimes seek to skew the truth to achieve an outcome “fair” to them but not necessarily fair to all concerned. Some people feel that if they win, it IS fair, but if they lose, it’s NOT. They’ll play fast and loose with the truth to achieve the result they deem “fair.” Which begs the question, “Which is more important – truth or fairness?”
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Temrah Okonski
By Temrah Okonski, assistant governor in District 7620 (D.C. & Maryland, USA)
Our district faced a critical decision on what to do about our annual speech contest on The Four-Way Test when the COVID-19 pandemic began to change the world last year. We decided to still hold one, but online. The results proved to be way better than we expected. And we’re convinced that with these few pointers, you can hold your own virtual competition. Continue reading
S.R. Yogananda
By S.R. Yogananda, past district governor, past regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, and a member of the Rotary Bangalore East, Bengaluru, India
The year was 1987. I had come back from the Sultanate of Oman and was running a consumer products distribution company in Bangalore, India, when a business executive came to my office one evening. He said “I have been watching the way you do business. You are not taking short cuts, you have asked your staff and accountants to follow all the government regulations. I would like to invite you to join my Rotary club.” Rotary, he said “amongst other things, stands for integrity” Continue reading
Martin Postic Jr.
By Martin “Marty” Postic Jr., past governor of District 5750 and a member of the Rotary Club of OKC Sunrise, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
In our contentious society, I see friends who are members of Rotary use The Four-Way Test to support opposing political and social arguments and to criticize the thoughts, statements, and actions of others. I see members with completely opposing viewpoints use the same Four-Way Test to both support their argument and demean others. Rotarians and others are using all forms of social media to share their opinions about perceived violations of The Four-Way Test, causing others to pile on additional comments and insults, all with little thought to how this affects our public image.
Which leads me to this basic premise: Continue reading
Rotary Voices 