Rotary District Governor Dr. Paul Brown, speaking at Rotary Club of St. Thomas Sunrise on Tuesday morning, said after his brief visit to the island’s clubs, he found Rotary “alive and well in St. Thomas.”
Which he could not say was how he found all of the Rotary clubs he has recently been visiting.
Brown is from Kingston, Jamaica, where he teaches surgery at the University Hospital of the West Indies and is a consulting surgeon at a number of Kingston hospitals. He joined Rotary in 1992 and has served in a variety of capacities before becoming the director of district 7020, the Caribbean region, which includes 80 clubs in 10 different countries or territories.
Brown and his wife, Kay, have just finished a visit to many of those clubs. Though Brown praised the St. Thomas clubs, he had words of caution for Rotary in the district. He said two issues stood out after his visits to the region’s clubs.
“The first,” he said, “is the static membership that we have had for the last 10 years and more, and that is worrisome. The second is we continue to experience recognition and varying misconceptions of Rotary.”
Brown stressed that Rotary needs to attract a young and vibrant membership from the current technology-driven workforce. “The shift from participation in associations to supporting causes changes the profile of prospective and younger Rotarians,” he said. “We need to understand these issues and think of strategies to overcome them.”
Again emphasizing that on St. Thomas, he did not find the troubles and declining membership as he did on other islands, the district governor told Rotary Sunrise members “We need viable, vibrant and growing clubs as they represent Rotary’s future.”
“We want to be known in the community for service, leadership, integrity, diversity, fun and fellowship,” he said.
“We must address the negative perceptions of Rotary and seek to redefine our membership model so that it becomes more relevant to contemporary needs,” Brown continued.
One such strategy he witnessed Tuesday was a joint venture between Rotary Club of St. Thomas Sunrise and AARP VI to donate digital AARP RealPad tablets to the teachers at the SeaView Adolescent Center.
Rotary Sunrise has been an ongoing sponsor of activities conducted with the students at the SeaView Adolescent Center for a number of years. The Sunrise group regularly looks for ways it can support the center’s efforts to provide the best educational and social environment possible for these special students, according to a statement from the club.
The RealPads are WIFI connected tablets that come with a wealth of preloaded apps, including email and calendars. Aiming to help prepare students for the digital world, the RealPads will allow students to gain valuable computer experience, go online, take and send pictures and videos, play games, store important documents, and connect with friends and family.
And since the AARP RealPads were developed for people who found technology to be confusing and difficult, these tablets are easy to use and will help inexperienced students benefit from technology.
“The students at SeaView have enough challenges,” said Rotary Sunrise President Shaun Pennington. “Being able to use these tablets right out-of-the-box is one less thing they will need to worry about.”
Pennington said, “Rotary Sunrise is happy to provide a meaningful item that will help these students with their academic endeavors while also giving them access the Internet, social media and much more.”
AARP VI State Director Denyce Singleton said she “is delighted that the AARP RealPads are an intergenerational device that will be able to provide valuable services to seniors and young adults alike.”
AARP VI executive council member Dave Barber was also at the special presentation.
At the meeting with Rotary Sunrise members, the district governor said, “Our challenge in this Rotary year is to ‘Light Up Rotary,’” referring to this year’s theme, “in reaching our goal of 1.3 million Rotarians worldwide. We are being challenged to pay particular attention to women and the new generations.”
Brown said, “There are many Rotary clubs in our district that are doing just fine, with a growing membership, productive service and engaged Rotarians. But there are many more that are standing still or going in the opposite direction.”
Adding some sobering statistics, he said district 7020 has decreased in size during the last two years, having lost more than 100 members since 2013. “Part of our job as district leaders will be to identify those clubs and help them turn things around.”
Brown spoke of the many ways to “Light up Rotary,” highlighting the club’s motto for 2104-15 and its remarkably successful Global Polio Eradication Initiative. “This is a job we set ourselves over a quarter of a century ago. … Our goal is to complete the eradication of polio by 2018.”
“There is light at the end of the tunnel and as we stand now,” Paul said. “We can say we are 99 percent there. But that does not make the job complete,” he added, “until we can say 100 percent complete.”
Sunrise Rotary did its part in the polio campaign, recently entering a team of runners in the second annual M2M run — from Montessori School to Magens Bay. Pennington said the club doesn’t have the final figure yet, but the November race raised around $1,000.
Brown will next visit St. Croix and then head home for the holidays in Jamaica.
