Committed to returning the Rotary Club of Temple City to active status I attended the inaugural meeting a couple days ago. One prospective member inquired of the current district governor what is Rotary. He provided a fairly concise answer about what we do in community and international service; an answer that seemed to meet the needs of our prospective member.
Since I was the speaker for the day, it fell on me to expand on that concise answer for that prospective member and all of the others in attendance. I take great pride in my ability to speak to groups about things like Rotary; some say I am a legend in my own mind on this topic. At the time, I thought I did an admirable job in not only describing what we do in Rotary, but expanded into how we do some of these things. I expanded on how we deal with youth by describing many of our youth programs and followed that up with a great description about eliminating polio throughout the world.
At the time, it seemed that the description of what Rotary does and how we do it was a well-organized, thoughtful presentation of what and how. Five of the eight people in attendance submitted applications to join the re-chartered Rotary Club of Temple City, so I was confident we were off to a great start and felt my speech was sufficiently motivational to be considered a success.
Upon reflection, it occurred to me that I may have missed the opportunity to tell the eight prospective members in attendance why we do these things. I wonder if the other three would have signed up on the spot if I had remembered that what we do is very important and how we do it is relevant, but why we do it is the crux of the success of Rotary.
The why of Rotary may be a personal thing to each and every Rotarian. For some it is the expansion of a network for fellowship and business while others want to make their community and world a better place for themselves and those who follow. To simplify the answer though is to realize how much you add to your life and self-satisfaction when you get involved in something bigger than your limited world. The why is a real life manifestation of what Professor Abraham Maslow called self-actualization.
Next time I will remember that you can’t buy the inner feeling of self- actualization at the most expensive store, you can’t find it, no matter how diligently your travel the world. It is something that is only available when you make the effort to be of service to others. The payoff of why we do what we do and how we do it is the why we do it. Encouraging and fostering the ideal of service is the object of Rotary; you can achieve all of that great satisfaction without being a part of Rotary, but being a part of Rotary makes it easier to be successful at doing it.