100 Years of Doing Good: Into the Future

It’s a great pleasure to be in Atlanta, where Arch Klumph, pioneer of The Rotary Foundation, so clearly saw Rotary as a force for good in turbulent times.

With the world at war, late at night on a train trip from Cleveland to Chicago, he thought about Rotary’s future.

And at Rotary’s 1917 Convention, he threw out to his fellow Rotarians the following challenge:

If Rotary is entering a new era, then we have to ask ourselves: do we have ambitions for Rotary’s future or shall we impede its progress?

Because even then he realized that Rotary would always need to adapt, to innovate and to change with the times.

Now… that was Rotary 100 years ago.

Today we must ask ourselves the same questions Arch Klumph did, here in Atlanta, a century ago:

Think about it. How will we continue to provide value to our members and to our communities?

These are important questions.

Now, our founders, Arch Klumph and before him Paul Harris — were extraordinary visionaries, way, way ahead of their time.

In fact, they created the original social network to connect people and build professional contacts well over a century before anyone heard of LinkedIn or Facebook (networks which some of you in the audience are probably using right now!).

To Paul, this network was a space where leaders could find friendship, build trust, and do business.

And to Arch, it meant mobilizing people to help at a time of crisis.

And their vision is now more important than ever, as we think about serving humanity in the years ahead.

Because we face a world riddled with new conflicts and increasingly complex challenges, but also a world of extraordinary new opportunities.

Today we live in what some have called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, following the three previous revolutions of water and steam, electricity and digital power.

This Fourth revolution, characterized by a new fusion of technologies, has changed, and will continue to change, the way we live and work at an unprecedented rate and scale.

Technology is disrupting every industry in positive ways, sharing knowledge that previously was the domain of a few.

The era of big data is driving great advances in medicine, science, and services, with the potential to improve the quality of life for billions.

However, in many regions of the world, these positive changes are simply not being felt.

In fact, globally, economists are seeing growing inequality both between regions and within regions, leading to an increase in social tensions.

So can the Facebooks and the LinkedIns of the world — which we look at casually on our smartphones to distract us from the daily grind — can they alone deliver the transformative changes that the world demands?

Well, we know the answer to that question because:

We know there is another solution — a network of people with a conscience and a cause.

And that network is Rotary today, and just imagine what Rotary can and will become tomorrow.

Because:

We are the network for people who don’t want to be reduced to spectators and consumers.

With the Foundation as the engine of our compassion, we bring more ambitious projects to scale.

We give passion a purpose.

We create lifelong friendships by being part of a local club and Rotary’s global community.

We rebuild the trust and local accountability lost by civic disenchantment and social isolation.

We prevent conflicts before they happen.

We stop epidemics before they spread.

We give young girls an education before they are forced into degrading labor.

But we also recognize, as we live in the Fourth Industrial Revolution — this fusion of scientific advances — that technology is a powerful tool to connect us to a much larger audience and to make an even greater impact in our second century.

So now, we are fusing new technology with our unique human network.

Just think of the Google virtual reality experience which many of you joined yesterday.

Technology such as this has enormous potential to turn more individualists into compassionate volunteers and donors.

Now, to keep on making the changes we need in order to best serve our members and our communities, we are currently developing a new long-term vision for our organization.

And, the survey results we have gathered tell us we need to adapt in order to thrive.

They tell us that we need to be flexible to attract a new generation of leaders with a broad vision of service, who want opportunities that fit their schedules.

But, at the end of the day, the task of ensuring a ground-breaking second century is a responsibility for all of us.

As Rotary evolves, we know that there is no substitute for our greatest asset — YOU — our members.

There is no replacement for the power of your compassion because science alone would not have brought us to the cusp of changing mankind forever, as we close in on our 30-year goal of eradicating polio.

We use smartphones to bring people to health camps, but no smartphone can convince a fearful parent that they should accept the polio vaccine for their child.

No computer can build trust like a Rotary member who makes a commitment and keeps their word.

Because innovation without a cause will not serve those in need.

And a clear cause without innovation will also fall short of Rotary’s ideals and goals.

So you can shape Rotary’s future by embracing thoughtful, meaningful change; by offering a new mission to new generations; by using new technologies to enhance the reach and impact of your humanitarian service.

Because together, we can be the human face and conscience of innovative service.

Together we can deliver the connections between people that Paul dreamed of and the service that Arch imagined in Rotary’s bright future.

Together we can serve humanity and truly make a difference.

Thank you.

From remarks prepared for the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta, 14 June, 2017. Read the full speech, or watch the video.