Gordon McInally - Rotary International

Question: You are celebrating a 100 years of Rotary Fellowship and service which is a great cause for celebration. In that time how much has Rotary changed from its evolution?

 

Gordon McInally: I think it has changed a great deal since its beginnings. The important thing to remember is that Rotary was established to reflect the business community in which it operated. The business community in 2005 is very different to how it was in 1905, and so Rotary has had to change to reflect those changes.

 

For example, women didn’t feature terribly largely in business in 1905, women now have a very prominent place in the business community and this is reflected in the increasing prominence of women in Rotary. I think business was conducted in an altogether more formal manner in 1905, whereas in 2005 business is now less formal and likewise Rotary probably is too.

 

Question: A recent Mori poll you conducted confirmed that a quiet revolution has occurred within the organisation. What else did the Mori poll highlight?

 

Gordon McInally: The Mori poll highlighted a lot of things, one of the things we were particularly pleased about was the 45 per cent level of public recognition of the Rotary logo, which is a very high figure. It is very satisfying to know that the public are aware of and recognise Rotary.

 

I was also very pleased to read that only about 16 per cent of the population thinks Rotary is an all male organisation, which by extension means that a great many people know that it is not and are aware that we are an organisation open to both men and women.

 

The final thing is that 14 per cent of the respondents saw Rotary solely as a lunch club, which of course it is not. It is very much more than that and it is a vital organisation with a very important role to play within the voluntary sector.

 

Question: Why did you have the Mori poll conducted?

 

Gordon McInally: We had the poll conducted to set a bench mark so that we can begin to measure where Rotary is going in the future.

 

We have had a lot of research done and have carried out our own internal research, but we felt that we need a benchmark. What better time to do that than in our centenary year, so that we can say “this is where we are now” and then begin to think about where we are going in the future.

 

Question: Are you going to use the results from the Mori poll to guide you forwards in improving the image of rotary to encourage more people to join, especially women and young people?

 

Gordon McInally:  Absolutely. I think the thing to remember is that Rotary is for all age groups. Rotary was established by a 37-year-old. There is a perception that Rotary is for older people. One of club presidents this year in the Yorkshire area is a 24-year-old business woman.

 

I am the youngest ever president of Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland at 47. I joined Rotary at 26 and there are a lot of people who joined Rotary in their mid 20s and early 30s. I think what we have to do now is to focus on the people in that sort of age group, that may be minded to do the sort of work that Rotary does, and then encourage them to become part of Rotary.

 

Question: Was there anything that Mori highlighted that you weren’t pleased about?

 

Gordon McInally: Yes, inevitably,  there were certain things that Mori highlighted about which we were less than pleased. We have been very active over the last 20 years in a worldwide campaign to eradicate polio. Along with the World Health Organisation and some other partners, we started in 1985 to try and vaccinate the children of the world against polio with the intention of completing that campaign around about our centenary time.

 

This we have done, but one of the disappointments of Mori was that only three per cent of the public are aware of Rotary’s role in that campaign.

 

Over the 20 years we have been involved, we have raised more than £300 million for the programme and we have contributed hundreds of thousands of man hours, whereby individuals go out to Africa, India, and other parts of the world to carry out the vaccination campaign.

 

It is a little bit disappointing that only three per cent of the public are aware of our role within that campaign.

 

Question: Will you now be looking for ways to improve the promotion of your campaigns?

 

Gordon McInally: There is most definitely a lesson to be learned for any future campaigns, in terms of letting people know what we are doing.

 

Question: Rotary were also active in raising tsunami relief funds following the  disaster. How much money has been raised and how was this done?

 

Gordon McInally: Our best estimates are that within Great Britain and Ireland we have raised a total of £6.5 million for tsunami relief. Rotarians have gone out and at very short notice have collected in shopping centres, outside sport stadiums, on street corners, wherever. A great deal of money has come in from that direction. We have also had concerts arranged and so forth which has brought in some of the funding.

 

For me, the exciting thing about the tsunami response is the confidence that the public has in Rotary as an organisation, in that they are prepared to trust us with these sorts of sums of money.

 

A variety of people have told us they give to Rotary because they know that Rotary will make good use of the funds. They know that Rotary won't be deducting anything for administration, advertising, or anything like that.

 

Question: How has/is Rotary using this money?

 

Gordon McInally: One of the thrilling things is that we have used a lot of this money already. We were able to provide emergency relief very quickly into areas. We have a very successful scheme known as Rotary ShelterBox where ready-made boxes of supplies are sent to disaster areas. These contain a ten man tent, ten sleeping bags, cooking facilities, and water purification facilities.

 

Several hundred of these shelter boxes were sent to Sri Lanka within a few days of the tsunami striking. Since then we have sent out almost 4,000 shelter boxes, which will be providing shelter for 40,000 people in the region.

 

In addition to that we have another project known as Rotary AquaBoxes, which enables people to produce pure water by way of water purification tablets which can be sent out very quickly. We have sent more than 5,000 of those out to the area as well. So a lot of our aid has been immediate and has been delivered.

 

We know we have to look at the long term situation. We are looking at rebuilding and refurbishing villages in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and India. We are also considering the possibility of helping in the refurbishment or replacement of some of the fishing vessels which were damaged. Whilst people need somewhere to live, they also need a way to get their livelihood back as well.

 

Question: What is your reaction to the claims that too much money has now been raised for the disaster and that money should be going to other charities?

 

Gordon McInally: I think it is very important that we don’t forget other charities. We can’t forget that in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of deaths over a period of four days equals the total number of deaths that occurred in the tsunami. Their’s is a need that we must help meet.

 

Whilst it is not for me to comment on other organisations, in terms of Rotary we feel that the money we have raised is not too much because we as an organisation will use that money wisely. We have to remember that there is life post-tsunami.

 

The tsunami disaster has done a lot in raising the public consciousness as to the need for supporting those less fortunate than ourselves. I would like to think, and would like to hope, that other needs and causes will get more support in future because the public have been made more aware of the importance of providing aid.

 

Question: What do you believe should be the new challenges and goals for the next hundred years?

 

Gordon McInally: I think the goals are to continue our plan to expand and to become more inclusive; we are always going to need new members in Rotary because there are more and more demands placed on us each year that passes.

 

We certainly want to increase the number of women in our organisation, and encourage ethnic minorities to join us – there are no barriers to Rotary membership and I would certainly like to see that side of Rotary expanding.

 

The overriding thing is that, over the next hundred years, I would like to see Rotary doing  is exactly what it has done over the last hundred years: making a difference to the communities it is operating in; making a difference to the countries that it is operating in; and making a difference around the world.

 

There are a lot of sceptics who would tell you that in this so-called enlightened age in which we live there isn’t a need for an organisation like Rotary because all the work it does can be picked up on by governments and welfare states and so forth. I don’t believe that is the case. I want to see Rotary continuing to flourish, and to be recognised for the work it does.