District governor visits the Franklin Rotary Club

Franklin Rotary Club was visited Tuesday by its district governor and assistant district governor, Harold Domingue and Danny Cavell.
Domingue gave the luncheon address which was a mixture of advice, notifications and instruction.
He began with a citation of Rotary International’s membership numbers.
“For years, I have heard that Rotary is a great international organization, Domingue said. “We boast 1.2 million members around the globe in 200 countries in over 530 districts of 35,000 clubs.
“I have listened to Rotary say that for the past 10 years, and what I have finally realized is that Rotary has not grown in 10 years. Our membership has been stagnant at that 1.2 million (members) level worldwide for quite some time.”
Domingue added that he didn’t think Rotary’s frozen membership statistics are due to any fault of Rotary itself, but is symptomatic of a wider phenomenon experienced by many civic organizations these days.
He went on to say, “Our Rotary International President this year is Mark Maloney. He hails from Decatur, Alabama… his emphasis on Rotary? Two words: Grow Rotary.”
According to Domingue, Maloney’s push to “Grow Rotary,” is multi-faceted with a singular goal: Increase the potential for Rotary’s effect by increasing Rotary’s service, impact and membership.
He urged attendees to donate to the Rotary Foundation, saying, “It is how Rotary does all of its humanitarian projects around the world.”
He expressed that one of his favorite RF-funded causes is Polio Plus, Rotary’s polio eradication initiative.
“To date, Rotary has given $2 billion to the polio eradication effort,” Domingue said. “We have immunized 2.5 billion children around the globe.”
He also reported that the global list of polio-effected countries is now down to three countries, one of which, Nigeria, will be off the list by October, having gone without a polio case for the requisite three years necessary to be considered polio-free.
The other two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Domingue admitted are the two most troublesome countries to help due to political unrest and terrorism.
“Rotary’s goal: By 2023, to be a polio-free world,” he said. “Rotary announced last year that there will not be another large-scale project launched until we live in a polio-free world.”
Domingue closed with the news that Rotary had adopted a new mission statement as of last year.
He said, “That mission statement is: Together we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.”