Dear Fellow Rotarians,

President Nirav Shah

Dear Fellow Rotarians,

I am honoured to serve as your President for the year 2013-14. I want to thank IPP Nowroze for his stellar leadership for making it a great Rotary Year 2012-13.

The Rotary Club of Bombay is the second oldest club in India, and one of the best Social Service clubs of Bombay. Rotary teaches us a lot of things and to gain this knowledge we need to ‘Engage Rotary, Change Lives’. This is our Rotary International theme for the year. This is possible only with the three Ts of Rotary — Treasure, Time and Talent. By giving our Treasure, Time and Talent to Rotary, each one of us can ‘Make the World a Better Place’. This is the theme for my year for the Rotary Club of Bombay.

I wish to set out a few important and measurable goals in the Rotary’s Six Areas of Focus: Peace and Conflict Prevention and Resolution

Disease Prevention and Treatment
Water and Sanitation
Maternal and Child Health
Basic Education and Literacy
Economic and Community Development

Every quarter I wish to update the Club with the progress we make in each area of focus and internal goals, which I have stated above for our Club. Along with my Board, my Chairmen and the Committee members, I wish to set out my vision for the year.

Attendance is critical for a vibrant club. We wish to see a significant increase in our attendance, whether it is in our regular meetings or Fellowships, or by giving some time for helping in our community services. Our Club runs various projects and each one of them is a flagship project of our Club. To name a few: our oldest ‘Kohinoor’ projects are The Hasanali Tobaccowala Eye Centre and the outstanding Ajit Deshpande Medical Centre, which offers dental care, a TB unit, path lab and pediatrics department. Both of these are in Talwada. At Bhavishya Yaan, which is one of our prestigious projects, we teach computers, English and Life Skills to 600 underprivileged children of municipal schools. Old-age homes, and many more such projects are praised and have earned laurels for our Club in the Rotary world. We have to jointly work towards the sustainable and measurable side of these projects.

We should increase members and new members to make a vibrant club.

I am sure our large-hearted Rotary members will participate in a fundraiser, to help us raise money for sustaining our ongoing and new projects that have an impact and make a difference.

Another very important aspect of our Rotary is the Fellowship. It is a vital part of our Club, keeping the Rotary spirit alive. By getting involved and attending these Fellowships, one will not only gain in making new friends, but many new ideas can also be created. I plan to have these Fellowships where each one of us enjoys and develops new friends.

Our regular Tuesday meetings have been another big strength of our Club. This year, we encourage members to bring ideas for interesting speakers to make each member get a take home value by attending the meetings. Diversity of speakers in all fields is the key to the success of our regular club meetings. Measurable impact and keeping costs low are essentials for good governance of projects. The Office Bearers will keep a check on all the projects quarterly or monthly so that justice is done to the old projects and we can take up new projects and reach out and help others.

Ours is an old, venerable Club. We respect tradition and also welcome change. Again, I thank the 325 Rotarians for reposing their faith in me. I thank all the Office Bearers and the Board of Directors for your support in the coming year.

At the Installation we will showcase an ancient Indian story called Prince Rama’s squirrel. In the story, even a little squirrel with its enthusiasm and dedication helped build a mighty bridge, showing that every person can ‘Make the World a Better Place’.

My dear friends, we can achieve all this and more together. I look forward to the support of each one of you to reach out and ‘Make the world a Better Place’.

JAI HO!

Yours Sincerely,
NIRAV SHAH
President, Rotary Club of Bombay
2013-14