Perspectives from the Chair Emeritus
Karen Swaim Babin was 1997-1998 Governor of Rotary District 7930, Boston MA, and held many senior positions within Rotary. She started the NORTHEAST LINK scholar orientation in 1999 and chaired it until 2010, after which she relocated to New Orleans, LA. Karen is a Major Donor to the Rotary Foundation and among many honors is recipient of the Rotary Foundation's "Citation for Meritorious Service" and has been awarded Rotary International's highest honor - the "Service above Self" Award.
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL began as a NETWORKING organization, in 1905! Soon "community service" got added, and world wars came and went. "International service" evolved into a major focus on promoting peace.
In 1947, the first program of The Rotary Foundation, Rotary International’s charitable arm, began with sending 18 graduate students to study in a country other than their own, charged with the objective of "building bridges of understanding and friendship" between the sponsor and host communities. By 1999, the number of Ambassadorial Scholars annually reached its peak of almost 1,500. However, many of the Scholars through those 50+ years are "whereabouts unknown" – we have lost contact with them.
NORTHEAST LINK, the Regional Orientation Seminar for Rotary scholarship and grant recipients largely in the northeast USA, started in 1999 to increase the effectiveness of the Ambassadorial Scholarship Program. Scholars, Rotarians and district leaders learned about their respective roles and responsibilities – including keeping in touch!
Later NORTHEAST LINK expanded to include Group Study Exchange teams, and Rotary Peace Fellows. It grew out of the desire for more and more participants in all three of Rotary’s Educational Programs, "Foundation Alumni," to be actively engaged in Rotary’s mission to promote peace and goodwill throughout the world – throughout their lifetime.
These are exciting times!!!!
- Rotary has taken a place on the world stage with: (1) the extraordinary efforts since 1985 toward the Eradication of Polio; and (2) the Rotary Peace Centers and their graduates working in peace and conflict resolution areas in governments and NGOs around the world since 2002.
- Rotary is an organic organization, evolving and adapting throughout its 106 year history!
This is an important time of transition:
- PDG Alan Hurst, District 7980, has taken over the NORTHEAST LINK leadership.
- The Rotary Foundation is starting the implementation of the Future Vision Plan which will bring some big program changes, and strategic partnerships, aimed at increased impact on major world problems.
Now in 2011, we have come full circle, back to where Rotary began – NETWORKING – while still maintaining Rotary's focus on promoting peace through a variety of avenues! "Keeping in touch" is critical for leveraging individual goals for being part of the solution, with the good intentions and efforts of other Foundation Alumni, and Rotarians, too.
In NORTHEAST LINK’s 13th year (October 1-2, 2011, in Boxborough, MA), and as social media is gaining in prominence, we have an opportunity to bring together Foundation Alumni, and former participants in NORTHEAST LINK, for an Alumni Association – and lots of NETWORKING – for valuable personal, career, and charitable/humanitarian contacts.
Together, so much more can be accomplished!!!
PLEASE join us on Saturday, October 1, 2011 at the Boxborough Holiday Inn in Boxborough, MA, for an Alumni Dinner and Alumni Award presentation!
Linked in Rotary,
PDG Karen Swaim Babin, NORTHEAST LINK Chair (1999-2010)
ksbabin@gmail.com
