History tells us that the first project undertaken by our founding fathers in Chicago in 1906 was to build a toilet for the local community.
Although this would be deemed a community project in today's Rotary world, there is little doubt that Paul Harris and his small team would have used a lot of their business skills to get this scheme off the ground. Did they need planning permission, an architect, an accountant, or a health & safety expert? We can only guess, but except for the latter it seems fair to presume the answer is yes.
We do not need to guess however that Paul Harris, when setting up our organisation realised from day one how important it was to have people in it with a wide spread of vocational skills. After all, despite modern thinking the "classification" legacy is still alive in today Rotary.
Take for example the Polio Project. It all started with a few Rotarian Doctors identifying a very serious international health disaster, going out the Philippines and showing the Worlds Health Authorities that their vaccination project really could rid a country of this dreaded disease.
Now that is using Rotarians vocational skills to give service.
At club level there may not be the opportunity for such grandiose schemes but here have in D1100 plenty of Rotarians giving our vocational skills as a service e.g. Mock Interviews, Monitoring, Prison Visiting etc.
After looked at our TV screens last year and watching the riots that affected our city centres, did any Rotarians ask themselves, can nothing be done to stop this happening again?
Your District Vocational team think the answer is yes, although perhaps in a small way. They would like you to support the NEW ENTERPRISE ALLOWANCE SCHEME. This is a government initiative to give unemployed people who would be budding business entrepreneurs a chance to start their own oration.
The role of the Rotarian in this would be as a Mentor to the project, providing business skill help for 1 hour per week for 8 weeks. We think this is an ideal project for those who want to "DO SOMETHING". We hope you will take up the challenge.
See also the "How Can You Help" page on this site. This will open in a new window, so closing down that page should keep you on your District 1100 site and return you to this page.
Ken Corrigan Vocational Chair