Rota-Sail

Calendar of Upcoming Programs/Events

Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008: Rotary Club

Meeting, 12:10PM. Speaker will be Shelia

Stewart Leech, Executive Director of the

Maritime & Yacht Museum.

Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008: Rotary Club

Meeting, 12:10PM. Business Meeting

Election Year and History: About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution in 1787, a Scottish history professor by the name of Alexander Tyler had this to say about “The Fall of the Athenian Republic” over 2,000 years previous to that date.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse (generous gifts) from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.” “The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back into bondage.”

If we don’t learn from past history we may have to relive it.

The Rotary Foundation, It was all Arch Klumph’s idea. As RI president in 1917, he told delegates to the delegates to the Atlanta convention, carrying on as we are, a miscellaneous community service, it seems eminently proper that we should accept endowments for the purpose of doing good in the world.’

As Klumph’s presidential term wound down, the Rotary Club of Kansas City, Missouri, collected contributions for a gift for the retiring association president. When the club closed out that account, they discovered a surplus of $26.50 and decided to donate that money to start the Rotary Endowment Fund.

In 1928, delegates to the Minneapolis convention changed the fund’s name to The Rotary Foundation.

In 1947, when Paul Harris died, RI asked that individuals and clubs wishing to honor the founder make gifts in his name to The Rotary Foundation, suggesting $10 per member. By 1957. a decade after Paul’s death, donations had begun to decline. The Trustees announced that anyone who contributed $1,000 to The Rotary Foundation would become a Paul Harris Fellow. In 1968 the Trustees added a category called Sustaining Member for those pledged to give $100 annually. When they attained $1,000, they became Paul Harris Fellows.

$1,000 in 1957 = $7,606.22 in 2008