International News

Rotary Fellowships Committee

 

 Mike Jackson (in distinctive IFCR GB&I red blazer) with RI President Wilf Wilkinson and RI Fellowships Committee

Mike Jackson, IFCR World Chairman, attended the meeting of the RI Fellowships Committee in Chicago in early January, and reported on it to the GB&I Committee in Glasgow on 13 January.  He found the visit to RI "very stimulating"  and later wrote to RI Fellowships Convenor Abe Gordon "It goes without saying that I found the whole experience very enjoyable and I thank you for all the work you did to make it happen. 

When I returned I then had to fly up to Glasgow for IFCR GB&I committee meeting. Within IFCR each country operates its own committee to run affairs. I was able to report on my visit and all the good things that may emerge. I clearly inspired my colleagues because I persuaded them to make a $10,000 contribution to Foundation.  It is being given to RIBI towards a National Immunisation Day in India in April.  I have checked that it will help towards the match on the $100million from the Gates Foundation. 

Having the whole picture on this helped me to make the link. India is the largest cricket playing country in the world and our start may well extract more money from our Indian colleagues." 

 

 

 

 

The following feature by Mike Jackson was published in RIBI Magazine Dec 2007 

"SURFACE ABOVE SELF” 

Next year’s Rotary slogan? No, it is the way that the Scuba Diving Fellowship describes itself.
 
What about “Flying High” for the Flying Fellowship? “Alcester Calling” for the Radio Fellowship?
 
“We Are Sailing” for the Yachting Fellowship? “A Hundred Not Out” for the Cricket Fellowship? 
 

There could be similar slogans for Fellowships of Golfers, Motor Cyclists, Musicians, Caravanners and Computer Users. Completing the Fellowships active in GB&I are Travel & Hosting, Stamps, Skiing, Scouts, Retro-Automobiles, Physicians, Cycling, Curling, and Genealogy and Heraldry.

Mike Jackson "meets" RI Founder Paul Harris

 
We know Rotary is based around the idea of Fellowship. That is what Paul Harris was looking for in 1905. But what are THE Fellowships. They are associations of like-minded Rotarians from around the world who get together to share their common interest.
 
There are over 80 of them in the Rotary world with 18 active in GB&I. Why aren’t the others active, you may ask? One reason is that Rotary does not actively promote them and the other is that the majority of Rotarians do not look much beyond their own club.
 
I can probably best illustrate that through my own experience. I joined Rotary in 1984 (I was very young!). I was Club President in 1989/90 but I was never driven to seek office in my District. But I was a keen cricketer. I joined the cricket Fellowship, IFCR in 1995. Since then I have been able to visit Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka and South Africa, among others. I have been home hosted, seen how Rotary works in other countries, made many friends and helped with many fundraising overseas projects. If you do nothing else look at the IFCR website www.rotarycricket.co.uk  It will show you how active the Fellowship is. 
 
As a result of my involvement with this Fellowship I was asked to sit on the RI Fellowship Committee for three years from July 2006. I found that the Committee did not meet, but gave its views, via email, to the RI Board on new applications for Fellowship approvals.  It did not really do much to promote the Fellowships.
 
But things are changing. RI President Wilf Wilkinson has recognised the hidden benefits of the Fellowships and has asked the Committee to meet. We are meeting in Chicago on 7th/8th of January. This could be the start of something big.
 
Just imagine if the Rotary Football Fellowship were actively promoted?  If you wanted to see a football match in another country you could join the football Fellowship, make contact with a fellow Rotary member in that country, be home hosted and shown around by a like-minded friend. The potential could be enormous.
 
So what can you do about it? You can visit the RI website www.rotary.org and follow the link to RI Programs and then Global Networking Groups. If you are particularly interested in the football Fellowship, then either follow the link on the website or contact me.
 
If you have any views on the Fellowships that you would like to bring to RI’s attention, then let me have them and I will take them to Chicago in January. 
 
Mike Jackson
Member RI Fellowship Committee 2006/2009
Fordingbridge Rotary Club District 1110
Mike @oldenterprise.co.uk
01425 656412 (W) 01425 653510 (H)
 

 

 A feature from www.rotaryinternational.org

Who doesn’t love cricket?

Mike Jackson is a Rotarian on a mission. The affable Brit is determined to enlighten his American colleagues about his favorite sport: cricket.

“I feel it is unfair that American Rotarians are being deprived of the pleasure,” says Jackson, secretary of the International Fellowship of Cricketing Rotarians and a member of the Rotary Club of Fordingbridge, England. “So I am going to devote my life to educating America about cricket.”

Sensing a tough sell, he sweetens the pot, vowing to donate $1 to The Rotary Foundation for every American Rotarian who joins the fellowship.

Like baseball, cricket involves bats, balls, runs, fielders, and umpires. But the player an American would call the pitcher is the “bowler,” and the term pitch itself refers to the center of the oval playing field.

Cricket’s origins go back at least to 14th-century England. As the British Empire expanded, cricket spread with it, and the game is now very popular in former British holdings such as Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.

Past RI Director Geoffrey Pike founded the fellowship in 1993. Since then, every few years the group holds a world festival, where Rotarian teams from the major cricketing countries engage in a week of friendly but spirited competition. Sri Lanka is set to host the fifth world festival this month.

The events also generate opportunities for volunteer service, bringing together Rotarians from nearly a dozen nations. For example, after the South Asian tsunami ravaged the Indian coastline in December 2004, clubs from Australia and the United Kingdom partnered with clubs in India on relief and recovery projects because of connections made through the cricket fellowship.

Now, says Jackson, it’s time for U.S. Rotarians to get in on the action.

“I personally invite you to our next world festival,” he says. “No previous experience needed, and we’ll even provide coaching from world-class players. Are you up to the challenge, America?”

And don’t forget the $1-per-head “bounty” for the Foundation.

 

 

  Farewell to NZ IFCR stalwart  Brian Morgan

We are sorry to report that one of the original driving forces of IFCR and President of NZIFCR, Brian "Stumbles" Morgan, died on the afternoon of 22 September.    IFCR sends its condolences

The opposition's appeal against the light has been upheld by the Third Umpire.  The man who played to win and accepted losses graciously whilst enjoying the camaraderie of cricket and all that our fellowship had to offer is back in the pavilion.

Our Tribute to Brian Morgan

 

 

 New IFCR Website

Welcome to the new IFCR website.  Building on the tremendous work by Richard Groom in developing the original site, the new Mk III version is being managed by Robert Lee in New Zealand, with Richard Groom continuing to handle all the Australian section, Euan Stirrat editing for GB&I, and John Dean for New Zealand.  Editors for the other countries are yet to be appointed.  Richard will also deal with most of the International input.

The new site can handle scores, statistics and databases, which will run on Robert Lee's systems.  It is a decision for each member country as to whether or not to publish detailed scores

The new website allows greater flexibility and will be extended to include more information than ever before.  However, we gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Rotarian Andrew Donald of www.motile.net in designing, developing and hosting earlier versions of the site, without which the new site might not exist.

It will also tie in with the Yahoo! Group (contact Ravi to join).  Members who wish to keep up to date are encouraged to join the group