The Fellowship Advancer
A Quarterly Publication of the Rotary International Fellowship Committee
Issue 5. July. 2009

July Report (PDF) - Link

Welcome the fifth issue of the Advancer which is the first one for the 2009 – 2010 Rotary International Year. As ever Rotarian knows, the Rotary Club of Winnipeg was the Club that made Rotary “International”. I hope that all Fellowships will have booths in Montreal. (If you haven't guessed already, I am a proud member of the Winnipeg Club)

Under Abe's Chairmanship last year, we began to explore ways and means to bring all the Fellowships to the fore in the “Family of Rotary”. Firstly, we culled a number of Fellowships that were not active and/or not providing reports when required. About two dozen were dropped.

The Committee decided that there had to be an all encompassing newsletter that would be informational for the “Family”. And, by the way, there is no budget/money. So, for content, we ask each Fellowship to provide us short articles and only one picture for each Advancer. This issue has 24 Fellowships reporting out of the 61 total.

While we can't provide the Advancer in all of the official languages, we can insert a translation by a Fellowship in the Advancer. We have had 6 languages and, in this issue, an Esperanto Report.

In the area of getting the Advancer to the “Family of Rotary”, we send a copy to each Fellowship with the intent that they will send a copy to each of their members. We have asked the District Governors to appoint a district Rotary Fellowships chairperson, and one of their duties will be to forward the Advancer to their clubs and those members. And the best part, there is no cost.

We have been discussing how to bring in new Fellowships. As you know, we could have dozens of Fellowships, but what are the chances of three Rotarians from 3 different districts in 3 different countries? We are setting up a “Bulletin Board” where Rotarians can go to the R.I. Fellowship web-site (www.rotary.org/fellowships) to see if others are interested in forming up a new Fellowship.

Lots in the works, Committee Chair/Editor Cam King