Why I Blog.

Blogging for District 9650.

By Peter Shea District Chair 2005-2006 for Community Service.


In being appointed as District Chair I have felt a need to do some soul searching as to why I’ve taken on this role and my goals and vision for myself in this role.

I have considered a number of metaphors to help explain what I feel needs to be done in this role. I have a belief there is a need to do something practical and to define the role in my own mind for my own benefit, find best practice for the role and then lift the bar.

Two metaphors have been crystallizing in my mind. They are the metaphors of interfacing and ploughing. In watching the ABC ‘New Inventors” I was intrigued by a new plough that didn’t turn over the soil from top to bottom thus disturbing the mirco life in the sub soil but rotated in a horizontal fashion so leaving the substrata intact and in effect aerating the soil allowing a better flow of nutrients.

The other metaphor is that of interfacing as in computer sciences. To interface means to connect and to my understanding this is clearly demonstrated in the computer environment. The computer is made up of discreet units that need to be connected to perform the functions of computing. This was amply demonstrated at two recent Rotary meetings.

In the first meeting the ability to communicate with the audience was dependent on the correct interfacing of the PA system to project the speakers voice to her audience. There was a flurry of activity when the speaker could not be heard—numerous offers to help resulted in trying to get the correct interface between the speaker and audience with the flicking of switches, the dialing of knobs but in the end it was the classical problem—the power had not been turned on.

At the second meeting the program was dependent on a Power Point presentation and sophisticated modern technology but classically once again--the ability to get the message out to the audience failed again because the computer was not plugged into the mains power.

For any system to work efficiently it is critical that all subsystems are interfaced correctly. Rotary is a sophisticated organization that depends on the correct interfacing of all the systems that make up Rotary International.

In my role as District Chairperson I see my role being defined as one of promoting and checking the interfacing of all system in the Community Service portfolio. In a district as big and wide flung, as 9650 this is a daunting task. My dream world would be to have access to modern voice and image technology to promote Community Service. However, this is not likely to eventuated in the near future but then there are other aspects of modern communications mediums that can assist in my desire to ensure a complete, effective and efficient interface of all our available information, resources and ideas at all levels. This is not to say that Rotary is not engaged in this very activity but this is my effort to contribute to the to the promotion of the flow of Rotary power to all levels of the Rotary structure, or if you prefer the ploughing metaphor to promote a flow of intellectual nutrients to Community Service at a district level.

My thinking on the role of District Chair was married to my interested in blogging and the Internet. The Internet with Websites and Blogging are possibilities. Why blogging? An article written by Erin Biba in the Sydney Morning Herald, June 14, 2005, further captured my interest.

Biba’s article is based on the work of three others professionals that use and promote blogging. Albert Scoble, Richard Giles and Trevor Cook

Scoble a Mircosoft executive who is writing a blog posted on the company’s central database at blogs.msdn.com, “tells it as it is by not bowing to corporate PR language”.

Giles a Manager for Sun Micro Systems, Australia writes, “You get news a lot quicker even before it is picked up by the mainstream press. Giles again says, “reading corporate blogs gives him an insight into the ““hive mind”” of the corporate community. If you read enough bloggs … you get to understand what a community thinks rather than just what one person thinks.” .. “Blogs facilitate communities because they are not just corporate advertisements or corporate PR”.

Australia Blogger Trevor Cook says, “talking through blogs allows companies to show their customers a more personal side—one that has a unique voice separate from the tortured language of corporate speakers—who say things like our “solution focused attempts””.

“It also allows customers to post comments directly to the people in the company who make decisions. Companies that allow blogging give customers a different look at a company they thought they knew”.

Cook again, “Blogging makes company organizations more porous so people can drill down and find the person who works on the product instead of the hard outer shell”.

“Bogging is opening up the most elusive demographic of generation y. The 18-34 group are the most technological advanced generation to date. Company blogs help them create the belief, I see that I am aligned with this particular brand in the way they think and the way they talk”.

“If you can’t trust your employers to blog honestly about the company, then you had better look at the company”.

In reading this business related article on blogging I can see some parallels between business organizations and Rotary as a community organization. There are some lessons to be drawn here and I will leave it for you to make a basic judgments as to how closely Rotary follows business practices and principles.

Can blogging be used to interface between club members, between clubs, between local clubs and the general community?

Blogging like any other media instrument can be used to promote: -

٠ transparency with Rotary and the community.
٠ quick transition of Rotary culture into the community.
٠ to personalize Rotary into the community.
٠ to open dialogue between Rotarian to Rotarian and Rotarian to non-members.

It is not my desire to turn clubs and their traditions on their heads because as in my first visit as a guest speaker at the Woolgoolga Rotary Club I felt like I was taking coal to Newcastle because this club is a model club for showing the true Rotary spirit of Service Above Self. I have asked that the President’s response to my presentation be written up so that I can post it as an example of what a dynamic club is doing in Community Service. I’m sure that there are many other dynamic local clubs. My hope is that the membership will open up to the spirit of blogging and that this site will be a wealth, in fact a “common wealth”, of information and resources for clubs to better promote Community Service in their local community by allowing a flow of ideas from member to member and club to club.