To be an RI Director is a big deal. I mean a REALLY big deal. These are the committed, really smart, highly motivated Rotarians who fly close to the sun, meeting with the RI President and forming RI’s Board of Directors for a two-year term. Their mission is to figure out small matters like world peace. This is in addition to running a couple of Zones comprised of thousands of Rotary clubs and tens of thousands of Rotary members.
But this article isn’t about RI Directors. As we all know, they get their own page on their respective Zone website so their stories are well known. This post is about the nineteen stellar, courageous, informed, committed, highly evolved and highly professional Rotarians who elect the RI Directors. Yes…this unsung crowd goes about their task in relative obscurity, neither needing or asking to be recognized. But today we are going to explore, courtesy of your intrepid Ready, Fire, Aim reporter, how these brave souls go about electing a RI Director.
The first thing you need to know is that not just anyone gets to cast such an important vote. Each Rotary District must elect their representative to the committee, and in order to be eligible you must meet several criteria, including being a Past District Governor and attending a minimum number of Zone Institutes and International Conventions. Once elected by your District, you become a member of the selection committee. I should probably note that my DG class of 2015-16 had the biggest representation on the committee, with my friends Terry Weaver (7750), Newman Aguiar (7710), Rob Hemmen (7630), and Bob Pippen (7720), all making the cut. (Objectively speaking, we are a superior DG class who were privileged to serve with Past President, Ravi Ravindran, in Being A Gift To The World.) (But I digress.)
From left: Terry Weaver, Newman Aguiar, LInda Fisher Bruce, Terry Wike, Vanessa Ervin, Lou Mello (Patty Meehan standing)
Another interesting factoid about this year’s selection committee challenge was that due to the recent global realignment of Zones, our Zone will have two directors on the RI Board in the 2020/21 Rotary year. Our committee had to consider that the candidate we were selecting would be asked to co-convene the Zone Institute as a first-year Director in 2020. In our “committee speak,” this meant that the candidate had to “play well in the sandbox.” The other result of the Zone realignment is that we had several representatives on the committee that were newbies to our Zone. I’m pleased to report that Patty Meehan, 7280, Linda Fischer Bruce, 7300, Mary Berge, 7330, and Kelly Wike, 7360, proudly represented their Districts and seemed properly awed to be new members of the AMAZING Zone 33.
From left: Ranjit Mjumber, Rob Hemmen, Vivian Crymble, Patrick Eakes, Mary Berge, Gary Dills.
Our committee was convened by Chuck Arnason, PDG 13-14, from District 7600 on Saturday, September 22nd at the Hyatt Place Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. Chuck’s job was essentially to “herd the cats,” and he did, by everyone’s account, a great job of keeping the committee organized, on-task, and on-time. In fact, Chuck had to be elected by us as the Chair of the committee, which was the first order of business on Saturday morning. Since no one else knew what the heck we were supposed to do, Chuck won in a landslide.
Chairman Chuck Arnason with Patty Meehan desperately trying to keep some order to the proceedings.
The next item on the agenda was for everyone to declare that we hadn’t been contacted by, or on behalf of, any candidate, or was aware of any effort to influence members of the nominating committee, either directly or indirectly, and, if so to bring these to the attention of the committee. This declaration was my biggest personal test of the day since, as my readers know, I am far too immature to let an opportunity like this for a wisecrack and an easy laugh pass by. However, I’m pleased to report that the gravity of the moment was so serious that even I managed to keep my mouth shut. I simply didn’t mention that I received several offers of Rotary stock options from multiple candidates in exchange for my vote. (THIS IS A JOKE. THIS IS A JOKE. THIS IS A JOKE.)
Our next order of business was to agree on the questions we were going to ask the candidates. The committee wanted to ask questions that required the candidates to explain their experience of accomplishments both inside and outside of Rotary. The process of getting down to a total of five questions was difficult since there were so many interesting topics to explore. We could come up with hardball or softball questions. We could ask about membership, PR, training, vision, challenges, strategy, etc. In fact, Rotary International provides suggested questions for the interview but our committee members quickly ascertained that our questions were superior in every way to Rotary International’s suggestions. This was a natural outcome of ours being a superior selection committee.
From left: Juanita Cawley and Patty Meehan deciphering hanging chads as they tally the vote.
Official RI descriptions for hanging chads. (NOTE: There weren’t really any hanging chads. This is just another failed attempt to be humorous.)
The last order of business before we began torturing the applicants was to agree on the interview process. The most important item on the process agenda was fairness. In order to be fair, each applicant was to be asked the exact same question, word for word, in the exact same order of questions. Each committee member was given the honor of asking (reading) one of the questions to the candidates and we took turns throughout the day. To be honest, I thought some committee members added more drama than others in reading the questions, but I don’t think it impacted the outcome. No follow up questions were allowed as that was deemed to be unfair. Just my opinion (and mine is the only one that counts because this is my blog) the process does a better job of being fair than it does selecting the best candidate. Imagine hiring someone in your business without asking them incisive and penetrating follow-up questions about their past experience and future vision for the firm? However, as we all know, this isn’t a business…it’s Rotary. And sometimes common sense is sacrificed in the best interests of all concerned.
And so it began. One by one the candidates and their spouse took their seat at the front of the room and began their interviews. For thirty minutes the candidates answered our questions to the best of their ability. They were are all amazing, but as I said earlier, this post isn’t about them.
The deliberations about the candidates were reasoned, civil, and informed. The voting process itself was interesting as there was a series of votes and each round eliminated one candidate. By the end we had elected the next Director and an alternate Director.
White smoke at Hyatt Place Mary Washington indicating that we had elected a new Zone Director.
The last line in my written instructions for being on the committee under Section C. Subsequent to the Meeting, #4, says “Members of the committee are not to discuss with anyone their deliberations within the committee at any time or reveal the names of the nominee until after all candidates have been notified.” I’m guessing it would be OK to reveal the name of our new Director, but I’m too terrified that I’m going to break another RI rule. In fact, I’m sure this post already breaks several rules, policies, and procedures, but I will claim ignorance and pray that I can still be a Rotarian.
(Unrelated Note: Rotary International does not reimburse expenses incurred to be on the selection committee. However, Chuck Arnason did say we could keep the white notebook that held the meeting information. Hey..it’s a nice notebook for those of us who will never go paperless. Thanks, Chuck! )
Thanks to all of my fellow committee members for an amazing Rotary experience. You did our Zone proud!
IMPORTANT NOTE: I see where Peter Kyle from District 7620 has been announced as the new Director Nominee subject to challenge by December 1. I must have been sleeping when they voted for this guy. Congratulations, Peter.
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