Comments by Anyone Interested

I had the great opportunity to attend a Rotary Club President-Elect Training Seminar (PETS) in Nashville, TN, last weekend.  Rotary, like many other service/civic and non-profit special interest groups are designed to tap into local individuals through a club or chapter while all the while supporting a more broad-thinking and influential  national or international body of work.  In the case of Rotary, our world-wide humanitarian goal is the eradication of polio from the planet.  You might be interested to know we are almost there.  There are only a few hundred cases of Polio known to exist at this time.  We press on.

At PETS I was astonished to find a discussion group titled “My Club Doesn’t Care About Rotary International (RI)”.  What?!!! Unbelievable!  But then I began to recall comments, rolling of eyes, etc. when RI was mentioned on the local level.  “They just want money!  What have they done for us?”  You know the drill.

I want to encourage you to make yourself aware of the goals and work of the NRHS and its ability to do things that individual chapters like ours cannot possibly  accomplish.  As one of my seminar leaders put so well, “Like a tree, grow your roots locally, but branch out and think globally.

One way to stay connected to our national work is to read The Bulletin, published four or five times a year by our National Office.  I hope your have taken time to read through the last couple of issues.  I especially would point you in the direction of the Fall 2010 issue with a great article “Temples to a Forgotten Religion: The American Railway Depot” By Alexander B. Craghead.  It is deep reading, but excellent in its ability to draw the big picture in regard to the birth, life, and near death of the subject and the depot’s relationship to our society and culture.  Read on and know what’s up!

Your editor, Bill Thomas
(Your short articles are needed.  Email them to me 2 weeks before each monthly meeting.)