Posted by Bonnie Black, on Apr 12, 2016

Sunday, April 10, 2016

This week, I have the honor of representing almost 2,000 of us from District 7040 along with 509 others from Districts around the world.
 
Sunday afternoon at 3pm, we gathered for our Opening session.  President Ravi welcomed us along with the RI Board of Directors and all of the Past RI Presidents.  This Council has its roots in 1934, when the first Council on Legislation gathered for the responsibility of acting as the trustees of both the tradition of Rotary and its future.  We were told the philosophy of Service of Self was to guide us in every question on which we vote this week.
We are remembering that the decisions we are making will ripple across the world for generations and were reminded that we are to rise to the challenge before us to truly be a gift to the world!
 
We were told that we are the first class of Council on Legislation representatives to not only take our initial training at the previous RI Convention and Zone Institute, but to complete training online as well as through webinars.  We are following in the footsteps of Paul Harris who noted at the 7th convention of the International Association of Rotary Clubs (as we were known at the time): ‘the democratic principle…is the very life spark of Rotary.’  We have representatives from 510 or the 530 districts in the world – from Andorra to Zambia.
 
We were reminded that we need to focus on what is best for Rotary, for districts and for clubs – while keeping an open mind as we listen to each other presenting the pros and the cons on adopting the proposed enactments and resolutions.  As Paul Harris said, “Tolerance is the element that holds Rotary together.”
 
We have 158 items to consider as 23 proposals have already been withdrawn.  Today we voted to accept the Rules of Procedure for the rest of the week.
 
I feel very comfortable with those around me as 75% of us are attending the Council for the first time.  I hope these daily updates will bring the triennial Council on Legislation to life for you!