From 1^st. July, Rolf will be able to relax and begin to forget the great responsibility and work load of being your District Governor. I feel that we all owe him a huge debt for steering 1270 through a really challenging year, and creating great strength in depth in your District Executive and District Committees. I am very lucky to be fully supported by such a first-class group of committed Rotarians, and hope that I can do as well as Rolf has in this new Rotary year.

It is important that you all understand my style. I believe in corporate responsibility. When your Council, which is your Parliament, makes a decision, let’s all just accept and support it whatever our own personal feelings may be, and just get on with our Rotary. At Council meetings, there will be no "any other business" items that have not been received and accepted for inclusion at least seven days before the meeting, unless there is a major emergency. Your Council must not be bounced into decision making.

I believe in honesty, integrity, and transparency, no hidden agendas and with all Rotarians being up-front and treating each other even-handedly and with courtesy. Robust, honest, fair, and open dialogue is fine for Council meetings providing we show respect for each other, but I shall try to ensure that the atmosphere encourages the silent majority to have their fair say: Rotary is not about politicking or point-scoring. People issues are too important to be settled by serial letters and serial "e mails": instead, solutions will be sought and settled by phone or in face-to-face meetings. Rotary is all about we as ordinary people doing extraordinary things together through our teamwork, which is why all people issues will remain paramount.

The EMPHASES for 2007/8 are Water, Health & Hunger, Literacy, and The Family of Rotary. Of these, I believe that the most significant is WATER. Without water, there is nothing……there is no life…. which is why I support Water Aid, Aqua Boxes, and Life Straws. Health and Hunger suggests issues of HIV Aids, Polio, Malaria, Shelter Boxes, Mercy Ships, and Cancer Research. Literacy suggests issues of adult reading, talking books, and wind-up radios. The Family of Rotary involves both Rotoract and Interact, Joint service projects with many clubs working together, Youth, Family, and Friendship Exchanges, and above all increasing the diversity of our membership. Your District Committees are there to help you and your Clubs in working together on joint ventures, and also in coordinating activities with you around district. The goals of the individual committees are on your 1270 website.

There is a demographic time bomb in this District. Whilst 1270 is one of the few districts whose numbers have not significantly declined in the last ten years, the average age over the last 30 years has increased by some ten years. If all Rotarians over 65 had to retire, we would lose 30% of our members. A pandemic would devastate us. Most of our clubs are single gender, which means that we are turning our backs on a major resource and source of members, and a majority of our clubs therefore lack real diversity. Sadly, our gender and ethnic balance does not remotely reflect our communities. These are lost opportunities. Any club in serious or terminal decline that does not actively support diversity by actively recruiting women and ethnic minorities will not be supported by District. In that case, the District Extension Team will also actively target the club’s catchments area to establish a new club with no such restrictions on membership.

Rotary in the 21^st century is more relevant than ever before. In the UK, we have the worst record amongst the G8 nations for teenage pregnancies, teenage abortions, and poverty amongst children: the life expectancy of a male in Glasgow East is 54……about the same as some sub-Saharan nations. Internationally, there are children living on rubbish dumps in Asia, Brazilian street orphans, child soldiers in equatorial Africa, and 12 year old prostitutes in Haiti who offer unprotected sex to older men believing that contracting HIV Aids will take years to kill them whilst without their immediate earnings their families will starve to death in weeks.

My goals for our District 1270 are:-

• All clubs to grow by at least one member
• All clubs to become effective dual gender by having both male and female members
• Formation of at least 2 new clubs
• Most clubs achieving their Presidential Citation
• Most Rotarians achieving Foundation giving of $100 each (after gift aid) and the majority through becoming Sustaining members.
• Every club to provide one Shelter Box, two Aqua Boxes, and fifty Life Straws.

The THEME for 2007/8 is "ROTARY SHARES". Rotarians share their time, their talents, their kindness, and their love………because Rotarians care, Rotarians know the needs, and Rotarians give "Service above Self". As Rotarians, you are members of one of the most significant person-to-person networks in the world, with a long tradition of helping others. You, Rotarians, honour your pledges. The 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami in S and SE Asia killed 230,000 people, and displaced hundreds of thousands of others. China pledged aid of £400M….China has delivered £1M. The USA pledged £500M…The USA has delivered £100M. France pledged £80M…France has delivered £1M. Rotarians in the UK, volunteers working together, pledged their immediate help, delivered £15M in aid, and also helped to reconstruct villages and lives.