'Projecting' Thoughts

Hello Rotarians,

Welcome,

Let me welcome Dhananjay Kulkarni with his family and Sridhar Bharadwaj with his family. They are going to be inducted as members today. Dhananjay is a techie and Sridhar is HR professional – so it is a techie + touchie combination today. 

And I welcome all Rotarians, their family members and other guests.

My thoughts

I am presenting some thoughts for your consideration. I have been a Rotarian and I have also interacted with other Rotarians. It was with a sense of pride that I accepted the position of President of our club.

I have been watching the work of our club as also that of other clubs. I read with interest the quick posts on WhatsApp groups of Rotarians. A question that remained at the top of my mind was: How should Rotarians invest time, energy and money in various types of what is called ‘projects?’ How should we prioritise these projects?

I am taking opportunity to share my thoughts. I am placing my thoughts before you so that we can generate a healthy discussion, and find a strategy for our Club.

I reviewed the projects we have done in recent past. We do some projects regularly: Medical camps, RYLA, Vocational Excellence Awards, Rangoli competition for Balakashram at Angaon, Some project for the Old Age home there, We also have interaction with Nirmala Niketan in every Navaratri, We organise a day out for senior citizens in the winter.

This year we have done a major project which is of gifting an e-learning product.

Let me now return to the question I raised: How should Rotarians invest time, energy and money in various types of what is called ‘projects?’ How should we prioritise these projects?

If we look at the projects which I just counted, they fall in two different areas:

1.    The People Projects: In these projects people or a group of people is the focus of our projects. To my mind projects like Narmada Niketan, Senior Citizen picnic, RYLA fall in this category

2.    The Institutions Projects: In these projects institutions for example schools, are the focus of our projects. Falling in this category will be e-learning project.

When we look at the impact short or long term we see that four types emerge:

	Short Term	Long Term
People	Celebrations, Lunch, Giving shawls or bags to senior citizens, Medical camps,	Providing tools or vehicles, appliances, Skill building, Prolonged counselling, RYLA, Free surgeries, Check dams, Bore well
Institutions	Sponsoring Games, Arranging Rangoli competition, Essay competition	Solar Power, Closed Circuit TV, E-learning solutions,

We must understand that the time required to execute these projects, Number of people benefited, Degree of difficulty involved and Funds required are four factors which can help us understand the differences and help us prioritise.

People/Short Term: Time Short, Money not very sizeable, Degree of difficulty in arranging is low

People/Long Term: Planning required- Long time, Good amount of funds, High degree of difficulty – Govt permissions etc.

Institutions/Short Term: Time Short, Money not very sizeable, Degree of difficulty in arranging is low

Institutions/Long Term: Planning required- Long time, Good amount of funds, High degree of difficulty – Govt permissions etc.

The issue is what should be focus of our club?

Shall we manage within available resources or shall we garner resources to do the dream projects?

Shall we go for maximum impact in terms of number of people touched like holding painting competitions OR shall we go for in-depth impact like offering parent-child relations counselling?

These are the dilemmas. There is no easy answer. Perhaps the answer is that we should do projects in all areas, and raise funds to do it - not decide projects based on funds available.

My point is that every Board must debate these issues and arrive at the plan for the year. In final analysis such conversations add to richness of Rotary experience.

Best wishes to the new members and welcome again,

Vivek S Patwardhan