President's Message - June 13, 2014

Is it the truth?  Is it fair to all concerned?  Will it build good will and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?  These four questions make up our Rotary four way test.  We say them after every meeting to remind ourselves how we should be living.  I was recently in a small group setting when somebody presented a dilemma in his life and I came up with a pretty quick answer that to me was very obvious.  Somebody else in the room asked me how I came to such a quick answer and I told him I ran it through the four way test and at the end there could be no other answer. 
 
Whether we are dealing with our family, coworkers, clients, friends, the waiter, the dry cleaner owner etc. we must incorporate this four way test in all of our actions and decisions.  I am sure you can all relate at some point in your life to the person you met who was so kind and sweet only later to watch them be quite the opposite to a waiter or hostess in a restaurant.  I call this their “true character.”    
 
The motto of Rotary as you know is “Service above self.”  Some of the greatest Rotarians I have known do a lot of work behind the scenes with little or no recognition.  I try to point these out when I see them because the make-up of these people is usually one of humility and not one for the limelight.  I think they appreciate being recognized  (as they should)  but then they go back to doing what they were doing because they understand it’s the right thing to do.  Yes we do as a club promote ourselves for the many projects we do and we often find ourselves being praised in the newspaper and newsletters.  Done properly, this will help promote the image of the club and our mission which in turn  helps us when we are doing our fund raising.  It should never be used or seen as a “chest pumping” opportunity of saying “Hey look at me.  Look what a great person I am.”  That situation would tilt the saying to “Self above Service” and at least for me it’s pretty obvious when that happens.  Thank goodness we don’t have much of that in our club. 
 
Our club is an amazing group made up of so many great people its almost impossible to think how we could have formed this and grown it to where it is today.  When asked about the club make up all I can say is it seems to me that like-minded people attract like-minded people.  People who believe in the 4 Way Test and truly believe that to succeed we must live the motto of Service Above Self fill that room every Friday and for that I am extremely thankful.  I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of this club and how fortunate I am to have walked into a meeting 8 or 9 years ago and decide that maybe this was something I might like to get involved with and even more fortunate they actually let me in.  
 
Enjoy your week.  See you Friday.
 
Yours in Rotary,
  
Dan