Request to 10-11 Club Presidents from District Historian
To all Club Presidents :
In a few short days, your term as President will end and you will pass on the “Candle of your Guiding Light” over to your successor.
I send this personal note of thanks for all you have done for Rotary over the past year. As you hand over, you will retain many cherished memories which will go into your personal history of your contribution to the Life and Work of this great organization of ours.
However I would like to add one final but ongoing task to you.
In 1913 Rotary arrived in Atlantic Canada with the formation of the Halifax Club. Over the last 98 years Rotary has expanded across Atlantic Canada to the wonderful regional organization it is today. In May 2013, we will start the celebration of that 100 years of “Service above Self” in the region.
Our District logo is the Lighthouse, whose Light shows us the way ( fuelled by everyone from the R.I. President down to you as Club President), founded on the rock of stability, Rotary International, and lapped by the ocean which binds all three Provinces and Saint Pierre et Miquelon to each other.
From Halifax, the oldest, to the newest Rotary Club, you all have a memories and a history which should be preserved
Our original intent was to compile and publish a book “ Under the Eastern Lighthouses”, a story of 100 years of Rotary Service in Atlantic Canada, However the cost of production versus the projected sales makes it financially not feasible.
As an easier and cheaper alternative, we are to undertake placing that history on the District web site in a modified form, which will contain a link to each and every Club History. That way anyone interested both here and abroad can access and review our History of Service in Atlantic Canada and overseas in the Third World. The Internet now gives us the opportunity to include photographs of our past activities.
This is an exciting project - Anyone who has read the “Under the Northern Lights” . a history of Rotary Service across Canada, written and published for the Centennial of Rotary International back in 2005, will know what I mean
Your Task:
I ask that you undertake to ensure your Club history is written by appointing a committee of past Club Presidents to have this work done, plus anyone who has that special interest in composing. I know the History of the Halifax Club is well under way – sure they have the longest history,- and a number of Clubs do have histories which need to be updated. It’s not an easy project but it is a worth while one. With the digital age, the opportunities abound through the use of word processors etc.
Do you know what your club did during the wartime era of WWII , or how many countries where your club impacted the lives of the underprivileged and needy in the Third world. ??? Did you know the story line of the fourth object of Rotary, did you know how Rotary arrived in Australia and New Zealand ?? Yes D7820 members had an impact on the Rotary world.
I sincerely hope you will cooperate on this !!! . The guidelines of what we want for the District web site, will come out in the early Fall but the major work is compiling your own Club History , to which each and every Rotarian will have a link. The history will be your own club’s decision on content and format, as long as it can be easily accessed and read by others.
The time line for our requirements is a deadline of March 31st 2012 but you should set a deadline of Jan 31st , knowing what deadlines are all about and that volunteers are involved.
Thanking You
Murray Nicoll, PDG
District Historian.
