Introduction

We are very fortunate to have with us tonight, visiting us from the United States of America, a most distinguished Rotarian.

Rotarian of the Year, member of some of the organisation’s highest committees, and an old friend of Governor Ray Brand this man arrived in Australia for the first time today on a business trip and was able to join us this evening.

I won’t tell you too much about him because he has told me that he will do that in his speech, so will you please welcome from District 6440 in Chicago, Mr Randy Fulja.

Good evening everyone and thank you Governor Ray for having me here this evening and it is certainly good to see you again – we last got together in Singapore some three years ago. But that is as close as I had ever been to Australia before today.

Unfortunately due to business commitments I was unable to be at the Convention in Brisbane last year but I understand that there was over 17,000 Rotarians in attendance and that it was a great success. So, since I have finally made it to Australia for the first time, I am going to act like a local and say “geeday”.

Yes, I am excited to have made it to Australia at last and it is really great to be here down under. I just love that term, down under. I come from a town called Aprili just outside Chicago and I have to say that when I’m at home doesn’t feel like up over to me. I only flew into Brisbane this afternoon and after a few days getting over jetlag and relaxing here on your Golden Coast I am off to Sydney and Melbourne on some business.

But tonight, the one thing I want to do is have a Fosters and throw a shrimp on the BBQ because I am down under. Geeday!

So, let me introduce myself. My name is Randy Fulja, and my classification is Finance Executive. Specifically I am an investment banker and that is why I am in Australia - geeday - , to investigate an investment proposition that I will tell you more about a little later.

Since this is a congress of Rotarians I want to start by telling you a bit about me, my district and some of the exciting things we have coming up in the United States and with the Aprili club in particular.

In the fine state of Illinois which is in the north and centre of the USA, we have 6 districts with a total of 537 clubs. Chicago is in District 6440 which has 72 clubs of which 34 are in the windy city itself. I understand there are around 45 clubs in your District 9630 with about 20 in Brisbane, so you can see back home we have a pretty big district to deal with.

I do try to be modest but I have to confess to being very proud to have been awarded the title of American Rotarian of the Year. I give a lot of time and money to various community organisations and to be honest, I thought it would have to spend a lot more to receive such an accolade. But I have to be honest and tell you that an award such as this is really just the first step in my plan for ascendency in the organisation - but I will address that later.

As John alluded, I have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes at a high level with Rotary and perhaps that is why I was nominated as Rotarian of the Year.

For the last few years I have been an chair of Rotary Organisation Thinkers (ROT), a think tank set up by the executive of Rotary International. As a group we are commissioned to come up with innovative ideas to address various issues that are facing Rotary as an organisation that I am sure you are all aware.

In the United States there are around 8450 clubs with some 415,000 members. No doubt you have the same situation in Australia where in recent years membership numbers have been stagnant if not falling. Our group of thinkers and futurists was urged to look deeply at this matter and it went beyond the usual navel gazing and beer drinking. One Hundred years old next year, Rotary is an old organisation with a fixed set of rules that many people are reluctant to fiddle with. Some of the rules date back to the early 20th century and have served well for a long time. But times do change. In the 21st Century it is vital that we look at issues in a modern context – we have spent a lot of time considering changes to the membership issue and there has been some success.

Rotary Organisation Thinkers is the group that initially came up with the notion of model clubs which are allowed to create their own rules, within specific guidelines of course. As you can imagine there was a lot of resistance from the old school and a measure scepticism about whether or not it would succeed or mean the end of the world as we know it.

My club, the Aprili Rotary Club although nervous at first was one of the original 24 model clubs in the USA. I understand you have 16 model clubs in Australia including a few in District 9630, which is an extremely high proportion given the size of Australia. Could I please have a show of hands if your club is participating in the model club programme?

Thank you. Please keep your hand raised if you are happy with the way the experiment is going so far. As you can see there is a lot of support for the scheme and we have been receiving feedback and reports on what works for the model clubs and plan to put forward some legislation for the 100th Anniversary Convention which, coincidentally is being held in my district, in Chicago in 2005 and we are very excited and working hard on making the event unforgettable.

Are any of you going to be there, in Chicago for the convention next year? As part of our club initiative we are offering billeting, particularly for Australians as we figure you will be travelling the furthest to attend. If you would like to talk with me later I have a large housee with plenty of spare rooms

As you can imagine all these changes and proposed changes to the rules are ruffling a few feathers. The situation is not going to be helped by the fact that Rotary executive is also taking into account the things that don’t work about the current constitution and is proposing many changes to the constitution to bring Rotary into the 20th century. You are probably thinking “stupid American, he means the 21st century” but I choose my words very carefully folks. Some of the bylaws are so archaic that a move to the 20th century would be a good thing.

Let’s have a look at some. I have a copy of the Manual of Procedure which includes the constitutional documents. For example, 4.050.2 – holders of public office aren’t allowed to be members under the classification of that office. How absurd is that? Here you are in Australia having some sort of election today that might mean some of your most valuable members are excluded from participating. I mean I can understand that President Bush couldn’t be classified as “president´ because that would clash with an existing position, but honestly apart from him, can anyone give me a good reason why is such a problem? This is one by-law that will go (TEAR PAGE FROM BYLAWS)

Have you ever noticed that the bylaws do not actually have provision for the position of Sergeant-at-arms. How would the average club survive it wasn’t for the razor wit and eagle eye of the Sergeant at arms as well as his or her dexterity at extracting suitable bribes…errr…fines from members. You know, we have reached a new low in the American legal system One member recently took legal action against his club after he was fined $5 for failing to pay a fine of $1. The irony is that the lawyers cost him $10,000

The member…or should I say, former member used the Rotary constitution as his main legal argument. Fortunately the judge saw that it was a frivolous case and dismissed it, thus establishing a precedent for the activities of the Sergeant at Arms. But he did caution us to tighten the constitution so it was decided to take action. We will seek to enshrine the position and duties of the sergeant at arms in the RI constitution.

Proposed Item 6.060.4 will read A person may be appointed Sergeant at Arms for the duration of a meeting. The Sergeant at arms will be responsible for the enforcement of the by-laws of Rotary international and any club rules established for the duration of the meeting. The Sergeant at Arms has the right to create and enforce humorous ad hoc rules on the spur of the moment with the resulting fines being donated to a charity as decided by the club officers from time to time. The Sergeant at Arms will also be responsible for security for the Rotary meetings at which they are appointed.

So, as you can see, we are taking the position seriously and ensuring that it is enshrined in the constitution. Rotary International will be issuing security guidelines for the Sergeant at Arms

If you look at your bylaws section 8.060 is Election of representatives by mail ballot and 15.120 District ballot-by-mail. I know that female members have only been allowed since 1989 but following many complaints I agree that it is time we recognised them and moved to avoid gender confusion. Thus we are going to propose that in the bylaws, every occurrence of the word “mail” is replaced by the word “postal”.

Section 15.110 – the clause giving the president to remove a governor from office shall be removed. (TEAR PAGE FROM BYLAWS)

And so on. There are many, many changes to be made and I am sure that we will have your support at the time to push these changes through despite any opposition from well meaning but blinkered members.

Of course, if you are in a model club you may already have made some changes to the bylaws or even abandoned them in favour of your own constitution, which of course was your right as part of the experiment.

But therein lies a conundrum which we are facing back home. Prior to the Model Club programme inception Aprili was struggling along with only 150 members and an average attendance of a dismal 87%. Since we were only getting 130 attendees or so along each month the future certainly looked bleak for our club.

Being a dormitory suburb of Chicago most of our members are in finance and politics. Our members were not satisfied with the fact that their club faced imminent closure due to a lack of numbers and took action by using their contacts to research and draw up a new set of rules that we hoped would revitalise the club and make it relevant. It has worked in a spectacular fashion.

As part of the hosting committee of the centenary conference next year District 6440 will be sponsoring constitutional changes based on many of our successful initiatives and our legal eagles are busy wording the motions at the moment. First let me tell you about the results then I will explain what we did that worked and also some things that didn’t work.

The Aprili club was formed in 1942 as a response to World War II and the need for business people who stayed behind to meet regularly and network and undertake community work. The club grew strongly in its formative years and continued to grow as post-war Chicago expanded.

Our peak was in 1978 and like many clubs, since then there has been a steady decline in membership until we started participating in the model club scheme. We have been using active marketing to explain our new “look and feel” and have seen outstanding growth and corresponding outstanding attendance to the point where we are having trouble finding a venue that is suitable for our meetings and there is talk of splitting into two clubs, something I personally oppose. We have even had people defecting to us from other clubs in the district which has created a certain amount of friction, as you can imagine.

One of the things we had in our favour was that our Club is rated as number two in the USA for average income per member based on market valuation. That is, if everyone cashed in their share options we, as a group, could afford to buy some debt ridden 3rd world dictatorship. Of course I am not talking about Australia here. Geeday.

With such solid financial backing we quietly passed the hat and collected a considerable war chest that we used to drum up members. Billboards on the freeway, full page ads in the Chicago Tribune and radio spots on all the major stations along with extensive networking events over 6 months saw our membership skyrocket. In fact I think we have a record in that we doubled our membership in 2 months.

Imagine if you will the scene on a meeting night where almost 300 excited Rotarians plus guests met in the Grand Hilton. It was total chaos and bordered on a riot, especially when the hotel ran out of cold beer. But we survived the night and since then have split into two meetings A – K in one room and L – Z in another. We then all meet afterwards for some fellowship.

The membership increase is an incredible result produced by amazing people, but that is what Rotary is all about isn’t it? We join Rotary because we want to make a difference in our society. We see and want to rectify a problem in our community: whether that community is our neighbourhood, city, country or planet.

But let’s look to the future because if Rotary is to continue to do its good work it needs to survive as an organisation. I for one do not believe in evolution, particularly evolution of the human species. But in this case, perhaps it is an appropriate term to describe how we as Rotarians must advance to suit modern times.

If the organisational changes required are too rapid they will cause serious upset within the membership and be resisted at all levels. However it is possible to make these changes incrementally and have them not noticed.

I am reminded of a story about an innovative man in India where, like in most of the world, it is illegal to construct a dwelling just anywhere you like and also the authorities are not permitted to remove a temple. He found a place he wanted to live and one day came and put a table there. Then over a few weeks he built a modest roof, he added some flowers to the table, some candles, one at a time he included some idols of his Gods and then some walls. Over a period of several months he had constructed a temple with some living space in it and was set up for life.

Similarly we as progressive Rotarians need to bring in change by stealth if we are going to make it happen. And I know how to make it happen, take charge.

I know I can count on my convict cousins here in Australia to assist me in my bid to become president of Rotary International and make the changes that will allow Rotary to become the corporation it was destined to be.

Once I am in power I will have complete control and we, as a group can make any rules we want and to heck with those who don’t like it.

First thing I will do is change the Rotary logo to move it into the 21st Century. My brother is a graphics artist and I am keen to give him the contract to redesign the logo to make it look more punchy and attractive to our new demographic.

Speaking of demographics, how are we even going to know who our demographic is unless we get a marketing consultant in to revamp the organisation and look at our target market. My cousin has just graduated from Harvard with an MBA and I would be keen to bring him on board to map out a future that is strongly tied to the base beliefs of Rotary, after they have been modified to suit the new business plan of course.

The Rotary Head Office is tired and outdated. I will oversee the construction of an edifice that suits our ambitious vision of being the leading service group in the world. The Lions Clubs will quake in fear when they see us coming and will bend to our will.

Our fundraising will change. Have you noticed how much harder it is to shift those Christmas cakes these days? No one is really interested in Christmas puddings and cakes any more are they? When I am president, at Christmas time when you go door to door it is going to be Rotary branded Visa Card.

Speaking of fundraising, Back home we are having our first major new look fundraiser next week. I will be home just in time for our meeting on Thursday April 1st and the Aprili Club is proud to be hosting the first of many nude Rotary meetings. If that doesn’t attract a lot of people I don’t know what will.

Needless to say there are a few important rules for the Sergeant at Arms to enforce at nude meetings.
1. Get rid of the pins on the back of name badges…in fact for those with chest hair even sticky tape is a bit of a worry. It can be even worse for the men.
2. No coffee. I don’t think I have to elaborate on the problem of spilling a hot drink on your lap.
3. Not having a wallet in your pocket will be no excuse for not paying a fine
4. Rotary Art Shows will cease to have an award for “Best Dried Arrangement”

These are just some of my innovative ideas for when I am President of RotaryInternational. Do I have your vote?

I am surprised that there is so much support. I have had a rotten day today.

Apart from late planes and lost luggage I have had to put on this fake American accent and pretend to be from the USA.