DG Sunnil Mehra’s Official Club Visit To The Rotary Club Of Bombay
GOOD AFTERNOON TO EVERYBODY, VISIONARY PRESIDENT FRAMROZE MEHTA AND RTN. PTN. ZARINA, TRUSTEE GULAM VAHANVATY AND OF COURSE DGN SANDEEP AGARWALLA AND RTN. PTN. MALINI, SECRETARY SATYAN ISRANI, TREASURER KIRIT KAMDAR, PE SHERNAZ VAKIL, PN VINEET BHATNAGAR, IPP PREETI MEHTA, SERGEANT-ATARMS HOSHANG NAZIR AND THE ENTIRE BOARD.
A special mention of the backend office team, Eruch and other staff members, I know the commendable work you all do.
Congratulations and thank you for all the support! The District Secretary who is not able to join today Saurabh Sonawala, AG Riaz Nagree and District ET Rajesh Rao. District officers from your Club, Inner wheel President Swati and Rotractors. Good Afternoon to the entire Rotary Club of Bombay.
Let’s first congratulate the Past President of the Club laying the foundation of this institution ever since your charter May 8th, 1929. Truly commendable for Framroze and team for the phenomenal work even in this Covid. If I had to describe Framroze’s characteristics, besides all the great work, is his constant nature of smiling, his subtle sense of humour and endearing persona. Members of Bombay, he has been committed and dedicated, and is still humble, enthusiastic and responsible. That, ladies and gentlemen, is your President Framroze.
Visionary President Framroze, 78 days are left to conclude this Rotary year. Now, without details of the kind of projects that you have done, phenomenally, whoever said that due to the pandemic less work would be done, judged this Club incorrectly. So, in spite of the fact that last year Mr Covid sneaked into India and our lives, you have truly given this club a visionary gift of service.
President Framroze, it is probably dawning upon you now that the time shall arrive soon to hand over the charge, in 78 days. Honestly, Framroze, you have led by determination and are driving the Club and thereby contributing even to the District with your full-fledged commitment. The kind of work you have done, success is a measure decided by others, satisfaction is a measure decided by yourself and you are genuinely satisfied which I can see you are. You have done well. The satisfaction of serving the community is also the emotional quotient of being the President.
So, let the entire Rotary fraternity be proud of your achievements when you look back at 2020-21. This year has been a different year in the history of the Districts, Clubs and the world, too. But in 78 days, the history books can still be written with your enthusiasm and leadership which the entire Club has the faith that you will lead from the front.
Stay safe but execute, plan and find solutions and you will get the result. Most people perform when the going is easy, you have been performing when the going is tough. However, there are some responsibilities, I think you need to start pondering upon right away. Ensure a plan for member retention is in place, crux of Rotary is membership with, of course, incoming President Shernaz. May 15th onwards, focus on retaining all your members. Also start looking internally.
Have you done that extra bit to support the Rotary Foundation which has been supporting all clubs from time internals and mainly your Club too and it needs that extra bit of support now? They are going through a little turbulence and that is where you need to step in. Go for it, President Framroze because the canvas is still incomplete, create a masterpiece with your hand, of course, stay safe and sustain the momentum from the stimulus that you have provided through your leadership.
In this pandemic of all we are just the same: safe health, decent food to eat, we all managed and continue to do so for many months with the grace of God. This phase has made us realise the difference between need, want and desire and the extravaganza that we do that we think as need. In life, things will keep happening around us, what matters is how we choose to react and make out of it. Life is truly about learning adapting and converting all struggles that we experienced into something positive, into an opportunity.
“The wind does not blow to shake your branches; it blows to test your roots!”
Covid, too, came to test our roots and you, Framroze, have stood rock-solid, and you have truly excelled. So, go out there, 78 days more still left for you.
[Everyone together]
TOGETHER WE WILL.
TOGETHER WE SHALL.
MAKE OUR VISION REAL.
ROTARIANS ASK
I always tell people the need to contribute to Club projects and the TRF. Many people come to me and ask why they should contribute a single rupee towards TRF? Where does their money go? What would you want and Gulam sir like to say?
DG Sunnil Mehra: Before the year 2014, my Club was doing projects of lakhs, one year we did a paediatric heart surgery 2014-15, we did a Global Grant of US$ 32,000. When we did that and realised the power of multiplication factor, the power of the Grant, prior to 2014-15 our giving to the TRF must be US$ 10-15,000 per annum. When we realised this, we converted all our givings to TRF and today we are touching the US$ 200,000 mark per year. Why? Because currently we have about seven Global Grants running. Two of them are US$ 400,000 each. Our contribution must have been less that US$ 50,000. So, this is the power of giving the Foundation and using that when it comes back to the same quantum of money. There is hardly anything that you can’t do without Global Grant except maybe be constructing a building. DGN Sandip called us three years ago, we had one Grant left, he gave us US$ 75,000, we gave him 5000 which was an opportunity of 400,000. Because of the power of TRF and so, annual fund is extremely important.
Rtn. Gulam Vahanvaty: Each one of us has a commitment to a community but that might be limited. When I join Rotary, I say that I belong to an international organisation that has men and women from across the world. So, it is important to continue to give the charity which you have always been giving to, very important but also look at it as an international sphere.
What does the Foundation do? The Foundation takes your money, your contribution to the annual fund and then divides it between the district and the world fund. That world fund is now no longer in any one Rotarian’s control. That fund is used to match projects and Global Grants where they are most needed.
In India, we have some districts that are poor givers to the Foundation but their needs are grave and it is important that the world fund supports them. We are fortunate that in our district we have got RCB that gives tremendous amount to TRF in terms of commitment and Global Grants. But then there is also another commitment, the annual fund – that helps the world fund to grow. The rate over the last seven years has been a hundred per cent whereas the contribution to the annual fund has been 6%. For India it is more critical, we have increased global grants by five times and our contributions to the annual fund have remained exactly where we were. This is a great imbalance, if it continues the world fund may not be able to match the global grants anywhere and so, if we want to do good in the world, we must continue to raise funds too, global grants as well as the annual fund. That is what strengthens the TRF, world fund and that is what strengthens us to do good in the world.
The clubs have been doing projects month after month, can the DG compile, in monetary terms, all the investments or charitable contributions by all the clubs, if possible?
DG: Yes, we have already got that app ready. President Framroze is updating it. The entire projects of the District – club wise, project wise, vertical wise will be tabulated and yes we will be able to get at a glance the entire reports. Give it another month and this will become a kind of archive so someone can go back and see what was done. Collectively, we must have done thousands of projects a year. But that is not tabulated correctly, we don’t know how many manhours are really spent. So, what you are saying will happen.
GV: People have been asking what is the value of TRF? Are we only a 400-million-dollar foundation that only tallies the money given to The Rotary Foundation? We give out the money collected to different drives but two years ago, Rotary International took a lead with two universities in America because we said on one hand people are giving their time, talent and energy and we don’t compute it at all. Look at the man hours that the RCB gives to the various projects and so do the clubs across.
Rotarians contribute to club projects in which it doesn’t get into the Rotary tally unlike the TRF. So, Harvard University was asked to calculate the man hours that goes into the projects which is not computed. They came with a figure of 850 million dollars. That is the value of man hours. And the second part was given to the John Hopkins university, they came up with a model that computes the contribution that club makes and their model gave the figure of 1.2 billion dollars. So, you have got 1.2-billion-dollar cash contribution that the clubs make. 850 million dollar of manhours and 400 million-dollar to TRF, total that and Rotary is now a 2.5-billion-dollar organisation. That is what the total worldwide figures are.
