Rotary’s Council on Legislation (“COL”) was conducted March 13 – 17, 2022 in Evanston, Illinois at the Hyatt Regency Chicago Hotel. In years past, the event was conducted at Rotary International Headquarters. However, that building is still closed to visitors, due to the pandemic. I had the privilege of being the District 5750 Representative to this year’s COL.
The COL is Rotary’s Congress. Present were representatives from each of the 530 districts around the world, along with representatives from Rotary’s Board of Directors, Past Rotary International Presidents, the current Rotary leadership, and representatives of The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees. In this pandemic era, attendance was offered both in person and by virtually. 374 representatives attended in person while 150 attended via Zoom. Realize that for some representatives in parts of the world, this meant getting up in the middle of the night to participate in the COL which was conducted on Chicago time. For example, 9:00 a.m. Chicago time is 11:00 p.m. in Tokyo, Japan and 12:00 a.m. in Sydney, Australia. I took advantage of the Zoom option and spent a week in front of three computer screens. One was the feed of the COL proceedings. Another was the text of the actual resolutions being considered. A third screen was used with Microsoft Teams as part of our Zones 30-31 “caucus.” This was a “chat room” where COL representatives from our two paired zones discussed issues prior to voting. Finally, my cellphone was used for voting using an app called Lumi. I did miss the opportunity to meet face-to-face with dedicated Rotarians from around the world. However, virtual participation saved time and money and should be encouraged for future councils.
Since Rotary is international, many of the presentations were done in Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Korean, German and Italian and simultaneously translated for attendees. Those in person had headsets to hear the translations while we on Zoom had the translations available to our preferred language. The COL considered 92 items. There were more proposals made, many of which were vetted in earlier votes of the attendees, and several were “tabled” during the COL in response to request for additional information. In addition to resolutions dealing with clubs, districts and RI in general, there was a “hearing” or appeal from a ruling made by the Rotary Board of Directors prior to the COL on a rather serious matter from another country. In a particular district, a current District Governor manipulated the e-voting process for the new District Governor in favor of a candidate he supported. He interfered with the electronic voting process by changing club presidents’ email addresses in the Rotary membership database before the election so that the club’s e-voting link would be sent to an email address he established rather than to the club president. The votes of these clubs were subsequently cast by unknown persons rather than by the club president. A later audit confirmed that the votes of different clubs in different cities were submitted from the same IP address at the same time and date. The RI Election Review Committee concluded this voting fraud and deception “appears as one of the worst violations of Rotary’s Code of Conduct.” The RI Board had determined that the Governor should no longer be considered a past officer of Rotary International or be eligible for future RI appointments. The District appealed the decision to the COL, the matter was argued before the Council, and the appeal failed 455-29.
Although most of the COL determinations made during the four days of Council will not affect you or your Rotary club, one will. By a 285 to 205 vote, the COL voted to increase member dues. This was necessitated by the rather gloomy financial status of Rotary International presented by the Board showing it drifting into the red by 2025 if dues are not increased. The poor financial report resulted from a decrease in investment income, worldwide disaster situations and just rising costs. Rotary International dues will increase from its current level of $35.00 every six months to $37.50 in 2022-23 (next year), then to $39.25 in 2024-25 and $41.00 in 2025-26. Although there was a lot of vehement objections (some Districts in South America suggesting lowering dues, due to economic hardships), the Enactment passed and will become effective immediately.
I enjoyed serving as our District COL representative. According to information provided, 82% of those in attendance were first-time participants. That put us at a distinct disadvantage over those Districts whose representatives had prior experience serving on the Council. Serving on the Council was hard work. It was a three-year commitment that involved a tremendous amount of reading, training, meetings and consideration. Such an event is not for everyone. However, the COL is a necessary part of Rotary’s existence, and it was my honor to represent our District.
PDG Martin “Marty” Postic, Jr.
Governor 2007-08