Brian Stoyel - president Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland

Question: You are the new President of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland. What does this involve?

Brian Stoyel:This is a very challenging and exciting role leading a membership of business men and women in more than 1800 Rotary Clubs throughout these islands.

Rotary is the largest international humanitarian service organisation and as volunteers our members implement projects that meet community needs at home and abroad, build goodwill and peace, and encourage high ethical standards in all vocations.

My role is one of public relations, identifying needs, setting priorities and developing new programmes to meet these needs. Then I have to encourage clubs to participate in these programmes. An important part of the role is being an ambassador for Rotary and creating awareness of the contribution Rotarians make to society.

Question: What is your background and how did you get involved with Rotary?

Brian Stoyel: I was a teacher for 14 years and head of a small independent school. I then moved down to the west country to start up our own education business where we look after children from overseas - we act as guardians for them, from the age of 7 up to when they finish university.

We do all the things that a parent would do if they were taking their children down the road to school. It's a 24/7 business. They come from Nigeria, Hong Kong, China, Japan and other African countries.

When we started the business I joined the local Chamber of Commerce and then someone suggested I might be interested in joining the local Rotary Club. I found this was an excellent way to meet people and I enjoyed the fellowship and fun and working on community projects.

With my background in education I have always been involved in youth projects and I looked after Rotaract, a branch of Rotary for 18-30 year olds, in my District for three years, and then became District Governor in 1992. I have worked throughout the world on Rotaract and have led 10 Rotaract overseas projects.

Question: How many members of Rotary are there in Britain?

Brian Stoyel: We have 59,000 members, and we are the largest service organisation in Great Britain and Ireland. Membership has increased in recent years, bucking a national trend for declining membership in service organisations.

I think the reason for this is two fold we have had a major drive internationally for new members. Secondly we have adapted to the modern business world and clubs now meet at breakfast time or after work. In addition business women are playing an increasingly important role and now make up more than five per cent of membership in Great Britain and Ireland, and is growing fast.

The more we evolve and the more young people we get involved means that it will go from strength to strength.

Question: How exactly do you join Rotary?

Brian Stoyel:Membership is by invitation and ideally we have all vocations represented in a club. When Paul Harris started it all off in 1905 he was really, what we'd call today networking. It is good to meet like-minded people who wish to put something back into their communities. Anyone interested should contact their local Rotary Club.

Question: As president, what are your main priorities?

Brian Stoyel: Within Rotary itself, it's got to be membership. Its not that we want more members for its own sake, it's because the demands on Rotary are far greater these days than what they were a few years ago. There are more people out there who are looking for our support, therefore we have to have more members to provide the service and generate more funds.

Within the Rotary family Rotaract remains very important. I want to make sure young people are taken care of - I think there is a great need in this area. From an education point of view, I know that 18 to 30 year olds can go along an academic path or they can go along a drifting path. We want to show them that they can do something more than playing computer games or going to the pub.

New programmes this year include the Association of Children's Hospices. I hope that all the Rotary Clubs are going to support the 43 Hospices in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. When I got involved it was in its infancy. I was one of the instigators in getting a children's hospice funded in Devon. A hospice is a retreat to which the whole family can go and the sick child can be looked after by trained nurses.

But I'm not only interested in the fund raising side; I'm interested in the man-hours that Rotarians can devote as well. In some cases families live many hours from their nearest hospice perhaps with difficult transport problems. Rotarians can provide a valuable transportation service and I am confident many Rotarians will bring their vocational expertise to the hospice situation.

A hospice is a retreat for the whole family where the sick child can be cared for by trained personnel whilst other members of the family can have a little time together without the minute to minute concern of every day life - a 'weekend break' if you like! To recharge the batteries

In addition we shall be launching the third CD ROM in the Coping with Life series on the topic of bereavement. This will complement our work with children's hospices and will be made available to schools through local Rotary Clubs.

As a business organisation we have good contacts with the business world and I would like to acknowledge the support given by Vauxhall Motors. They have supplied me with a car for my Presidential travels in the next twelve months, as well as providing two cars for a fund raising raffle, which will benefit the Association of Children's Hospices, Rotaract Overseas Projects and Rotarians Eliminating Malaria in Tanzania.

Question: What about international projects?

Brian Stoyel: This year we shall be giving special emphasis to two projects in Tanzania. Firstly Rotarians are aiming to eliminate malaria in Tanzania. This stems back from the time I started doing overseas trips back in 1992 to various parts of Africa and Eastern Europe.

I'd take a team over to build much needed buildings like orphanages, hospitals, classrooms and so on. These would all use local labour. The idea is that each would be a self help project so when we leave if anything goes wrong with it, the locals can deal with it.

All our projects are still on going now. But the underlying problem is malaria. It affects workers and their families and very often all it comes down to is a lack of bed nets. Bed nets would reduce malaria by a huge percentage and they only cost about £2. But when you're only earning £5 per month, it is quite expensive.

We want to raise sufficient funds so we can flood a particular area with bed nets - that's the aim.

Secondly as part of the Rotaract Overseas Projects, we're taking a team to Tanzania this August where we aim to build a community centre. At the end of our fortnight there we are going to organize a health symposium. We're calling in all the village elders and local health workers and we'll stage some lectures and talks all about malaria.

Question: What is your relationship like with government? Shouldn't they be responsible for these sorts of causes?

Brian Stoyel: Rotary International is a non-government organisation and we work with government departments both here and abroad. Rotary has been a key partner for more than 20 years with the United Nations and the World Health Organisation in the Polio Eradication Campaign. Rotary has contributed more than £300 million to the polio campaign. In the last twelve months alone Rotarians in Great Britain and Ireland contributed £3 million.

After all, Rotary is non political, it is non-religious - and if we are seen to be on one particular side, then we risk losing our credibility. But we need to make politicians aware of our work. That is the essential thing, to be visible.

Our role is to bring issues to attention, where Rotary can motivate governments. We don't lobby - that is not our role. We create awareness of issues and encourage partnerships. Then organisations like the United Nations can put pressure on governments.

Malaria for example is a World Health Organisation problem. We are targeting one particular area - Tanzania. By having success in one region this will foster success in others.

Many politicians will have links with their local Rotary Clubs and support the work of Rotary in their constituencies. Leading politicians have received recognition from Rotary. Tony Blair, Baroness Thatcher, Sir Edward Heath, Baroness Chalker, for example, have all been awarded Paul Harris Fellows.

Question: What is the Rotary Foundation?

Brian Stoyel:The Rotary Foundation is Rotary's own charity, which is dedicated to furthering international understanding, goodwill and peace and gives more than £30 million every year to educational and humanitarian programmes. The Rotary Foundation is the world's largest private charity.On the international scene the Foundation sponsors a wide range of programmes such as: Preserve Planet Earth which focuses on critical ecological issues; Youth Exchange, an international exchange programme for school children; and the Rotary Volunteers programme which matches individual Rotarian volunteers with community projects world-wide. The Rotary Foundation provides humanitarian grants to improve the quality of life throughout the world. It supports international exchanges of students and teachers as well as business and professional people to further international understanding and friendly relations.

The Rotary Foundation funds the Ambassadorial Scholarships Programme, the world's largest privately funded international scholarships programme. Currently in Great Britain and Ireland there are 165 scholars at Universities, on scholarships totalling £2.25 million.

A recent initiative funded by the Rotary Foundation is Rotary Centres for International Peace Studies located at seven prestigious universities around the world including the University of Bradford, each with ten scholars a year. The students at each centre are selected to participate in two-year graduate programs related to peace and conflict resolution. A major Rotary Peace Studies Conference is planned at the University of Bradford in November 2003.

Question: Your term as president lasts until July 2004. What do you want to have accomplished as president by that time?

I'd like to see an increase in membership of the Rotary family, including Interact, Rotaract and Inner Wheel. I would hope that there is greater awareness of our projects at home and abroad and more people being aware of the millions of man-hours given by Rotarians to community projects.

I want to see the two overseas projects succeed and the lives of the people of Tanzania improved as a result of our work. I hope to see the Polio Eradication Programme come closer to fruition as the aim is to rid the world of polio by 2005.

Having had my background in education, I've got a big drive on youth programmes and I would hope that by the end of my year in office schools and young people are much more aware of the many opportunities offered them by Rotary. I've asked every Rotary Club to build a link with local schools and colleges. I want teachers to be aware of the opportunities that are available for their students with Rotary because a lot don't realise the potential there. Ideally I'd like to address a head teacher's conference and local authority Directors of Education to let them know. It's just not widely enough known yet.

We're also going to be focusing on our centenary. The centenary year starts in July 2004 so its important to get set for that. The actual centenary day is 23 February 2005. We are launching a centenary poster competition for young people as well as planning numerous ways to celebrate a hundred years of Rotary in every community.

Finally I want to re-position the Rotary brand so that when people see the Rotary wheel they associate it with a forward thinking, thriving organization, which has adapted to the 21st century, simply endeavouring to have - Fun with a purpose.