“The success of our Club relies not on the shoulders of the President alone, but on the collective strength and dedication of each member.” –President Satyan Israni
Today, I am acutely aware of the legacy I inherit.
To be elected President of this prestigious Club, with its rich history of service and fellowship, is an honour that humbles me. I am specially thankful to my mom and dad because of whom I have been exposed to the Rotary eco-system since my college days. And I am sure my dad is smiling and blessing me from up above seeing me standing here before you all today.
As we all know, our Club has an unwavering commitment to the Rotary motto – “Service Above Self” – which has played a vital role in shaping our beloved city of Mumbai and beyond. I am truly inspired by the countless stories of dedication and the life-changing projects undertaken by our club. It is this spirit of service that led me to join your ranks, and it continues to fuel my passion to contribute to humanity.
The success of our Club, however, relies not on the shoulders of the President alone, but on the collective strength and dedication of each member. I urge each of you to actively participate, share your ideas, contribute your skills and most importantly, loosen your purse strings. Recently, PP Vineet Bhatnagar came to me and said, “Satyan, fundraising is the toughest committee in this whole Club. I am unable to get money.” I asked him, “Why? What happened?” So he gave an example. He said that he approached a friend, a very successful and monied friend, for some donation. When Vineet went to his house, the friend welcomed him. Then he asked Vineet if he was aware that recently his brother had suffered a heart attack and lost his job. Vineet said no. Then he said his sister had a divorce and was without a home. Vineet said he wasn’t aware. Then he said his mother has dementia and needed money for treatment. Vineet was crestfallen. Then the businessman leaned in and said, “I have not given either of them a single rupee. What makes you think I will give you money for charity?” So, to help our fundraising team, we have planned a Fundraiser on August 29th at the NCPA. It is a musical evening with Ustad Shujaat Khan. We will share the details soon. Vineet you can smile now. The money that will be raised will be used for the projects being done by our Club.
While our Club is doing yeoman service, the world around us is constantly evolving with new challenges arising all the time. New challenges demand innovative solutions. This has influenced my thinking and vision for the club. I keep getting asked what is my vision or what’s going to be my plan.
Well, here is what I propose to focus on during my tenure:
LARGE
We have to dream big, think big, believe big and act big. We are constantly exploring options to scale up our projects for creating more reach and more impact. For example, when we started the Dialysis Centre project, we did one centre with two machines, now we are nearing 100 dialysis machines across 15 centres and this number will only increase. Similarly, five years ago, we started with one paediatric heart surgery. Soon we will soon be crossing 1,000 paediatric heart surgeries through our club alone.
EXTENT, REACH
We need to look at furthering our reach in various ways, including spreading our work in more areas and addressing the needs of a larger number of beneficiaries. The maps show our reach in both urban and rural areas and we are striving to do more.
GENERATE IMPACT
We have to focus on creating and maximising impact through the work that we do. We cannot be satisfied by doing a ‘tick mark’ project. I personally believe in quality over quantity. It doesn’t make sense doing 10 projects in seven days. Rather do one project over seven days to have a much deeper and long lasting impact. Polio eradication is one the best examples of the impact of Rotary. I remember as a Rotaractor, I myself had gone to Nagpada and Agripada during my college days, armed with a megaphone and a portable kit of polio vaccines and administered oral polio drops to infants and toddlers. In those days, polio was rampant and we had nearly half a million cases of polio in more than 100 countries, including India. With the consistent and concerted effort of Rotary by involving Rotary clubs and Rotaract clubs all over the world, we have managed to eradicate polio from almost every country in the world. India became polio free in 2014. Today, we are down to just a few cases of polio in only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. So this is the kind of impact that Rotary is known for and that is what we at the Rotary Club of Bombay strive to achieve through the work we do.
AADAPTABILITY
We have to constantly do needs assessment and impact assessment of our projects and then adapt accordingly, wherever required. This is something we have begun since the last couple of years, where we have engaged external agencies to carry out these assessments. For example, in Bhavishya Yaan, when we envisaged this program 15 years ago, it was to plug school dropouts and to empower kids to be employable. I am very happy to say that the initial goal has been achieved. Now, the feedback we are getting from parents and kids is that they want to be empowered for higher studies. So we have decided to adapt and are now introducing STEM, coding, machine learning and AI into the Bhavishya Yaan program.
CONTINUITY
I personally believe that when there is continuity, there is greater scale, greater reach, greater impact and our work becomes more meaningful. Continuity is the work culture of RCB. From the image you will observe that, at any given point of time, we have three presidents and an immediate past president, which is a robust and vibrant Club Leadership Plan. This ensures consistency and continuity in the thought process, the vision and the execution for not just the current year, but also for the following years. Today, also we have here IPP Manoj Patodia, President Elect Bimal Mehta and President Nominee Manish Reshamwala. I request all three of you to rise and be recognised.
YOUTHFUL SPIRIT AND ENGAGEMENT
We plan to enhance engagement with all stakeholders, including the youth and our own members. We are also looking at re-energising our youth service and deepening the bonds with Satellite, Rotaract and Interact clubs.
Once we have scale, reach, impact, adaptability, continuity and engagement, then it is a recipe for leaving behind a successful LEGACY. It is well said that “Today’s footprint is tomorrow’s LEGACY”. Our club has been around for 96 years and if it has to be around for another 96 years, then I strongly believe this is the recipe which will keep our club healthy and prosperous for a long time to come.
While we are committed to all the projects that are ongoing, to continue with this legacy, I have a few announcements to make for the Rotary year 2024-25:
• We are committed to enabling 250 paediatric heart surgeries during the year;
• We will be engaging further with Tata Actrec and have committed a further 5 High Flow Nasal Canula machines and 50 wheelchairs;
• We plan to start a new IT Innovation Lab at Boisar;
• We have developed a plan with the University of Mumbai to adopt Ayurveda Garden at their Kalina campus. Once we have a firm donor, this will be another multi-year project for RCB in Environment;
• We are seeing progress in the Rotary Clock Tower at Prempuri Junction, Hughes Road and hope to see some positive news on that front;
• We are in advanced discussion and planning for creating a new medical facility at Alibaug;
• I am happy to announce that Rtn. Yogesh Mahansaria has committed a sum of Rs. 50 lakhs for Bhavishya Yaan;
• I am also happy to announce that we have received firm commitments from our members to the tune of USD 100,000 for The Rotary Foundation.
• We are on a path of professionalism and transparency. I am happy to inform you that we have now engaged the prestigious rating agency CRISIL to grade our organisation. They will begin their independent assessment of our projects and our organisation shortly. We soon hope to be one of the few ngo’s in India to be a CRISIL graded NGO.
Friends, Rotary is built on two ideals – Service to the community and Fellowships. I have already given you an idea of the service we are doing for the community. Now let me give you a taste of the fellowships that are being planned in the coming year. Apart from several outstation fellowships, we are also planning a diverse range of speakers, activities, events, workshops and local fellowships throughout the year. I believe that stronger the bond of friendship, stronger the desire to work together for the cause of humanity.
Members will be kept informed in advance about all club events and announcements through our club app, Whatsapp group, weekly bulletin, weekly meeting, club social media and the RCB Events Google calendar.
While we have been doing wonderful work over the years, this has been possible thanks to the continuous support of our generous donors and contributors. We remain eternally grateful to all of them for their munificence and largesse. Finally, we must remember, even the smallest act of service, when multiplied by the collective spirit of this club, can create a wave of positive change. As I repeatedly say, when we work as a TEAM – Together Everyone Achieves More! So together, let us make this year a year of impactful service, meaningful fellowships, and lasting memories. Let’s Enjoy Rotary!
Thank you
President Satyan Israni