Presidential Address

Chris Finkle introduced the 2016/2017 Rotary Club of Belleville's President, Shannon Neely, the 97th president!  Shannon joined Rotary in 2007, participated on many committees, has spent 5 years on the Board, 2 years as Treasurer.  Shannon has been in financial planning for 20 years and has been very active in the community in other roles such as the Chamber of Commerce, Lion's Club, Quinte Estate Planning Council.  

 

Shannon is honoured to lead this great club with the support of family and friends (pictured back row left to right Ashley Wapshaw (Justin's girlfriend), eldest son Justin Neely, Shannon's mother Marcella Neely, Shannon the Pres, girlfriend Melanie Carter, Bradley Bonner (Melanie's oldest son); front row left to right Wesley Bonner (Melanie's middle child), Brie Bonner (Melanie's youngest), Addison Neely (Shannon's youngest), Ryan Neely (Shannon's third son), missing is Jacob Neely, Shannon's second son)  as well as the members of the Club, their friends and their family and referred to everyone as "His Rotary Family".  Shannon recognizes that our number one competitor as Rotarians is time.  Time away from families, our businesses, our personal interests and hobbies, all with the hope of making our world, our country and our city a better place to live in now and in the future.  This year's Rotary International theme is "Rotary Serving Humanity" and during his Presidential address at this year's Rotary International Convention in Seoul, South Korea, RI President John Germ said "we know that if we want to see Rotary Serving Humanity even better in the years ahead, we'll need more willing hands, more caring hearts and more bright minds to move our work forward.  We'll need clubs that are flexible, so that Rotary service will be attractive to younger members, recent retirees and working people.  We'll need to seek out new partnerships, opening ourselves up more to collaborative relationships with other organizations".

 

In order for us to survive in this tough business called "volunteerism", Shannon feels it is important for Rotarians to understand where we have been, where we are today and where we are headed in the future as a world class organization.  So where have we been?  Paul P. Harris, a Chicago attorney formed one of the world's first service organizations, the Rotary Club of Chicago, in February 1905 as a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships.  Rotary's name came from the group's early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member.  The Rotary Club of Belleville was established in 1920 shortly after WW I had ended using government borrowing which were called "victory loans" and from the help of a very active Toronto Rotarian who was in charge of the Belleville area at the time.  Through most of its history, a principal activity of the Rotary Club of Belleville has been the assistance to crippled children, first in co-operation with the Hospital for Sick Children and then in support of the founding of the Ontario Society for Crippled Children.

 

Today, Rotary is truly an international organization with 1.2 million members, forming over 33,000 clubs in 200 plus countries and we are working together from around the globe both digitally and in-person to solve some of our world's most challenging problems.  We began our fight against polio in 1979 with a project to immunize 6 million children in the Philippines and in 2015 there were only 74 cases of polio reported in only 2 countries.  Currently, the Rotary Club of Belleville has 122 members and our newly formed Satellite Club is getting started with approximately 25 new members.  Continuing on with our long history of helping children, our 14th annual Rotary Loves Kids Golf Tournament and Party in the Square is happening this week on July 15th.  Todate we have raised over $1.1 million dollars with 10% going directly to the Quinte Children's Fondation and the remainder of the funds raised supporting 40% of our annual charitable giving.

 

The traditional Rotary model of weekly meetings and meals may not be a viable proposition to the professionals of all ages we most need to attract.  Recognizing that "this isn't your grandfather's Rotary Club", Rotary International Council approved increased flexibility in how we meet and in the types of membership, giving clubs more autonomy to make choices that work for them.  This past year's Council made more progressive changes to our constitution than any other Council in history with an eye to a future in which the business of Rotary will be conducted on a level more ambitious than every before.

 

Where are we headed?  Here in the Rotary Club of Belleville, we will continue to build on the strong foundation that has been set out for us by our predessors and ensure that the 35 plus projects, committees and fundraising initiatives thrive, grow and prosper in the future.  As International Past President K. R. Ravindran said in his opening speech at the RI Conference "Rotary is a business, a business like no other.  Our business is literacy, it is health.  Our business is livelihood and it is hope.  Our business is life itself and to so many of those we help, our business is miracles.  And that's what I want to say to all of you.  That's what I ask you to understand.  That when we push for ambition in our service, when we push for productivity, for efficiency, for new ways to leverage our resources, it is so that we can make that business grow.  As Rotarians, we see our business as entrepreneurs.  We set our targets.  We measure our progress. We chart our course and we move forward, week after week, month after month, one Rotary year after the next".

 

Shannon promised to his Rotary Family that while serving as the Rotary Club of Belleville President in the coming year that he will approach running the Club as it is were his own business, striving to keep productivity high, our operations efficient and focus on increasing value to our members.  Vice President Tracy Bray thanked Shannon and his family for giving their time and commitment to our Club over the next year.