Training Speech
Rotary is an organisation of volunteers that has stood the test of time, actually 113 years, because it signified the triumph of co-operation and creativity.
Life of members within a Rotary Club is not about being competitive with each other but within themselves and to become change agents who can create a new world where they live.
Serving humanity isn’t something that most of us are born knowing how to do. We learn it. We learn it from others. We learn it from life in Rotary.
The more we learn the better we get at it. This is why training sessions of Rotary are handled by eminent persons who have excelled in kindness and service to humanity.
The essence of life is exuberance. That is what service through Rotary is all about. The training you receive in Rotary maximizes your aliveness.
To improve yourself in what you do needs training. Every sportsperson, every artist and every expert in a field has undergone strenuous training for days if not for years before they really excelled.
While sportspersons train to win over others, the singer, the artist and people who innovate things train to win over their limitations and eventually win over the hearts of those who hear them or see their works of art or use the inventions that are produced.
This training is not to demolish others but they raise the bar in their chosen field and make others who follow try harder to go higher. This training is what we call as a Win-Win Training where there are only winners all around.
In Rotary we have the President’s elect training seminar, Secretary-elects training seminar, district team training seminar, District Training Assembly, TRF training seminar, public image building training seminar, membership development training seminar and the International Assembly for incoming district governors. Probably there are many more also.
Why are so many training seminars held in Rotary and what purpose do they serve?
The main reason is because Rotarians work with human beings wherever they are and this needs to be understood as the basis of your membership in a Rotary Club.
Whatever be the training seminar, they are all meant to train you to do the one main purpose for which Rotary was conceived – Service Above Self. When you train your mind to serve and do it properly, it becomes your way of life. You then become Rotarian and the lapel pin on your suit will assume more significance.
When you want to become a Rotarian in the true sense of the word, the training sessions, if designed properly, will help you to stop meddling in the lives of others in your club and help you to get busy for pursing the big goals for which Rotary was formed.
Training will help you to decide what one big dream you want to accomplish this year and create a plan for accomplishing it. Then set the wheels in motion.
You’ll not only start playing a bigger game, you’ll become a bigger person in the process. Training will make you improve your quality of life within Rotary and make you help others outside who are dependent on Rotary for help.
Training is a choice you willingly undertake when you join Rotary. It shows what you truly are and how much more you can achieve with your abilities.
There are many NGOs and service organisations in this world. While most of the members in these organisations see what is and ask why, you as a Rotarian see what could be and ask why not.
When a person is invited to join a Rotary Club, we assume that he or she has the ability and desire right now to be trained to serve humanity.
This member is then trained in the club and later in the various seminars that I have outlined to reach their full potential. Training then helps them to develop clarity, focus and concentration in the big service projects they undertake.
The most important basis of any training programme is discipline.
The training programme in Rotary has an overdose of ethics mixed with discipline as ethics is what our organisation stands for.
To be true to oneself is the hardest test of life and the training programmes of Rotary are designed to help you to be true to yourself – your conscience.
It is not how much you do in Rotary but how you do it is what makes life beautiful in Rotary.
For example if you have a disjointed club with members pulling in different directions, then any amount of money you spend on a project will not stand out or bring that satisfaction to the club.
Training seminars help you to build a team for every action. That is one of the basic aims of training sessions in Rotary. Remember we rise by lifting others. With training to work in TRF, for example, you will find that you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself and you will find that you derive more energy. That is the beauty of training which helps you to serve others.
They say that there is a difference between doing things right and doing the right things.
Training sessions of Rotary are aimed to help you do the right things and do it right. Uncertainty is a daily reality. Although we cannot control everything, training helps us to control our response to the fear that holds us back from undertaking huge community service projects such a polio eradication.
To be a Rotarian, you should first ensure that every action of yours, from the time you wake up and go back to sleep, is ethical in all respects.
You cannot be partially good or selectively helpful.
The training sessions that make leaders in Rotary are two. First it is the International Assembly where DGEs are trained and at the district level it is the President elects training seminar (PETS).
It is sometimes painful to see that those coming out of these hallowed portals do things exactly opposite of what they have been trained.
This negates the very purpose of going to the training sessions. How else can you explain frequent stewardship issues cropping up, clubs breaking up and court battles in a voluntary organisation?
The training programmes basically aims to eliminate your ego that stops you from becoming a Rotarian and a human being. Rotarians are not born. They are made. What’s more? They are self-made when they attend the training programmes on various topics.
This means that anyone can become a Rotarian as long as they put in the time and effort. Train yourself to be movers and shakers. Train yourself to be change-agents in this world. Train yourself to be a leader. But remember, you must first train yourself to be a Rotarian – a good human being.