Why am I a Rotarian? It’s a social club with a conscience
This is the story of a square peg in a round hole. Or so you might think. Gemma Kiddy is 25. She likes going to comedy gigs, having a drink, visiting her friends in London and, um, overturning preconceptions.
How so? Because smart, sassy, fun to talk to Gemma is the youngest Rotarian in Leicestershire, possibly in the East Midlands, maybe even in the UK.
And, well, be honest, the Rotary Club’s image isn’t exactly synonymous with go-getting, fun-grabbing youth, is it?
Let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment.
Rotary is white, male, middle-aged and insufferably middle-class; what semi-retired businessmen do after golf if they lack the imagination for wife-swapping.
It’s the Masons with stiffer handshakes, somewhere to go if you like lots of long, dreary conversations about the relative merits of Rover motor cars.
Which just shows how much you (or perhaps it’s just me?) know.
“I don’t like golf and I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation about it,” says Gemma. “I do play the cornet in a brass band, which probably doesn’t help my cause, but I’m not a middle-aged bore.”
There’s a pause. “Honestly, I’m not!” she laughs.
So why does she want to be in a club with lots of men who, in the nicest possible way, are old enough to be her dad or grandad? Because her club, the Rotary Club of Leicester Novus, isn’t like that.
“My club is the newest club in Leicester,” she explains. “We’ve got all ages and cultures and professions. Our oldest member is 89 and the youngest is me.
“It’s about equal between men and women and we have Sikhs, Hindus and Christians.
“I won’t pretend Rotary isn’t biased towards an older generation, but it’s not full of old farts. The people are great.”
Gemma, who works as an arts development co-ordinator for Belgrave Mela, got involved after attending a recruitment evening at the Mem Saab restaurant, in the Highcross.
“I’d never heard of Rotary. I didn’t have a clue what it was,” she says. “I basically went because Mem Saab was doing a buffet for £5. It was a chance to have a nice meal and do a bit of networking.”
So she came to scoff and went away converted. How come?
“Because it was really good,” says Gemma. “Someone described Rotary as a social club with a conscience and that’s what it is.”
Rotary might conjure up images of Middle England, but the organisation was, in fact, formed by Chicago lawyer Paul P Harris and three friends in 1905. Their idea was to create a club that would encourage fellowship among members of the business community. Word soon spread and others were invited to join.
The name Rotary derived from the early practice of rotating meetings between members’ offices.
Nowadays, there are Rotary clubs on every continent, with hundreds of thousands of members worldwide. India, in particular, has been an enthusiastic adopter of the brand.
Once upon a time, you had to be in business to join and membership was strictly by invitation only. In recent years, as the organisation sought to modernise and broaden its base, those rules have been somewhat relaxed.
“We’ve got all sorts in ours – head teachers and doctors, people who work in education on the council and restaurant owners – we’ve got lots of those,” says Gemma.
“Oh, and a couple of textiles people and some property developers as well. We’re quite a mixed bag.”
So what does this mixed bag do every week?
They have social events, network and organise events for various good causes.
Charities helped by Rotary include Age UK and Vista. It also supports projects to provide clean drinking water for people in developing countries and raises funds to buy E-Ranger motorcycles and sidecars for countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Afghanistan.
These are used to take the sick and expectant mothers living in rural areas into hospital.
Gemma is the foundation chairman for Leicester Novus. It’s her job to make sure every member raises £75 a year. This cash goes into the big Rotary pot and is then redistributed.
“If we’re doing a project and raise £200, but we need £400, we can apply for district or international funds to double it,” she says. “That’s how it works.”
Gemma’s next task is to establish something called a Rotaract Club. That’s why she’s here, correcting the ill-informed ideas, and laughing off the leg-pulling of a Mercury hack. She wants a plug.
Rotaract, for those aged 18 to 30, is Rotary’s latest initiative to bring in more members who don’t have their meals on wheels.
New blood is the aim – and it’s her job to deliver it.
Rotarians are generally well established professionals, says Gemma. Rotaractors will be students or young people just starting to forge a career in business, the arts or other areas.
Sign up and you’ll get plenty of opportunities to make new contacts, build relationships, do training courses, raise money for charity and have fun. The idea is for it to be a feeder into Rotary, but be slightly less formal.
So far, Gemma has 10 “definites” to commit and five interested “possibles”. She wants more.
The first “official interest meeting” will be held at a venue, yet to be decided, on November 9.
“Me and a few potential Rotaractors are going on a mini bar crawl to find somewhere suitable,” says Gemma.
On Wednesday, November 30, the club will have its first social event. Members will decide what charities they want to support. After that, they’ll go 10-pin bowling.
“It’s going to be good,” says Gemma. “When I tell people my age that I’m in Rotary, they nearly always go ‘what’s that?’
“They either don’t know a lot about it or think it’s an old man’s business club. It doesn’t have to be like that. Rotaract will be a group of young people having fun and doing a bit of good. There’s no secret handshakes or initiation ceremonies. That’s not what we’re about at all.”
E-mail Gemma to find out more or visit Leicester Rotaract’s Facebook page: gemmakiddy@yahoo.co.uk
This article appeared in the Leicester Mercury on Monday, October 17, 2011 - http://tiny.cc/z4yrh
Why am I a Rotarian? It’s a social club with a conscience follow up…
The article below appeared in the Leicester Mercury on Friday, October 21, 2011
