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| Message from RI President |
Rtn. Ray Klinginsmith RI President’s Message, Dear Rotarian, What is Rotary? What does a Rotary club do? These questions are often asked of Rotarians by prospective members and other interested people, and they are difficult to answer effectively in a few short minutes. Although our primary motto Service Above Self highlights our altruistic nature, it fails to answer the two questions. Therefore, I decided to search for a briefly stated theme that would fulfill two objectives: The first to explain the purpose of Rotary to non-Rotarians and the second to confirm and validate the importance of our principles to Rotarians. In my search for the right words, I reviewed the four Avenues of Service and noted that Club Service and Vocational Service both help us to enjoy life and to be good citizens. Community Service and Vocational Service combine to make our local communities better places for us to live and work. And International Service permits us to partner with clubs in other countries and on different continents to make the world a better place to live with an improved opportunity for world understanding, goodwill, and peace. It is important to remember that Rotary is a “spirit of service” as well as an organization of Rotary clubs, and we need to share our core values of service, fellowship, diversity, integrity, and leadership with other people and organizations. I considered many words and phrases to capture the essence of Rotary, and the words I finally selected to describe Rotary’s current mission and to highlight our achievements are what we do best: We are a unique and a premier organization — certainly one of the best in the world. We build the spirit and resources of our local communities in an important way, and we are the best in the world at linking people of goodwill around the globe and then gaining their cooperation and support to make the world a much better place to live and work. In the words of Ed Cadman, “Rotary is unity without uniformity.” We are indeed fortunate to be Rotarians! Ray Klinginsmith President,
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| About RI President Rtn. Ray Klinginsmith . . . . | |
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Ray Klinginsmith, a retired attorney from Kirksville, Missouri, USA, served as general counsel and professor of business administration for Truman State University (formerly Northeast Missouri State University) for more than 20 years. From 2001 to 2004, he served as a county commissioner for Adair County. Ray has served as a director of the Macon-Atlanta State Bank in Macon, Missouri, since 1971, and he was one of the initial trustees for the Missouri Family Trust, which the Missouri legislature created in 1989. He was the president of Chariton Valley Association for Handicapped Citizens since its inception in 1982 until 2009, and is now president emeritus. He received the 1988 Parent/Caretaker Award from the Missouri Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities. He is a former member of the executive board for the Great Rivers Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the holder of its Silver Beaver Award for adult volunteers. He is a member of the First United Methodist Church in Kirksville and a former lay speaker for the church.
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