Dear Friends,
On August 11, 2025 Rotarians got another blow with the resignation of RIPE Sangkoo Yun as RI President for RY 2026-27 on health grounds. We all knew about his health issue since he made it known to Rotarians in April 2025. He has since been advised to concentrate on his health only. Let us wish him speedy recovery and good health.
Rtn Olayinka Hakeem Babalola, a member of the Rotary Club of Trans Amadi, Nigeria, has been selected by the Board of Directors to become Rotary International’s president for 2026-27.
On August 22, 2025 at the Pre-Leads organised in Chennai, I, along with all the 2025-26 District Governors of Zones 4,5,6 and 7 got the opportunity to meet RI President Francesco Arezzo for the first time. It surely was an inspiring moment for us. I have recorded his speech on my mobile and will try to share the audio shortly. He referred to Upanishads and also related to the movie Lagaan in his speech on ‘Joy of Giving’ – surely had done good homework.
Two months of this Rotary year have passed with lots of hectic activities, installations and launch of projects. I have completed one DG OCV in August and was very much excited to see the positivity in the Rotarians. I am looking forward to OCVs which would now commence from September 9th. Your Assistant Governors are eager to assist you in preparing for the OCV. Kindly concentrate on Compliances and Membership Retention strategies.
August was Membership month and we added 391 Members across the district. Well done Presidents and all the Member Sponsors.
On August 24, 2025 we had a very well organised Membership Seminar, which was attended by over 300 Members, with good topics and interactive sessions. We felicitated Clubs who took extra efforts to induct lady members and young members and initiative to change the billing cycle at the club level. We also felicitated our First Lady Rotarian Ms Usha Poonawalla of RCP Cantonment who joined Rotary way back in 1989 when Rotary allowed lady members in the organisation. Well done District Director Membership, PP Rtn Vivek Dixit and entire Membership Team. Thanks to the host Club RCPNIBM for splendid hosting.
Our PI team too has been doing great work. Thanks to PP Rtn Mahesh Ghorpade and RCP Lokmanyanagar, we got good PI exposure at Pune International Airport and the present Ganesh Festival. Our Environment Team has also been doing lots of good work. To name a few, we celebrated the Green Week at Civil Court Metro Station, 90,000 saplings being planted at Police Premises, workshop at Yerawada Prison for the Police recruits on recycling of waste and plantation at their open jail premises.
We are now in the third month of this year. September as you all know is designated for Basic Education and Literacy (BEL). Our BEL team lead by District Director PP Rtn Vasantrao Malunjkar is doing great work right from start of the year. We successfully launched the Ideal Study App and distributed it to 20,000 students across the district. At the membership Seminar we also launched the Teachers Training App.
With the initiative of RCP Koregaon Park led by President Shani and our Disease Prevention and Treatment Team lead by PP Rtn Sumedha Bhosle Child Obesity Awareness camps would be conducted in Schools for parents and teachers; in recently organised Zoom meeting with Presidents, it was decided that each Club would take up this activity in at least 2 schools.
We have scheduled our Zonal Meets on September 7, 14 and 28 on BEL and Club Administration. All our District Secretary Meets in coordination with the AGs are organising these meets and we have many enthusiastic Clubs who have offered to be Host and Co-Hosts.
Friends, we should not forget to generously contribute to the TRF. I would request each one of you to come forward with your contributions. Our Foundation Promotion Team lead by PP Rtn Rajesh Raut under the guidance of DRFC, PDG Pankaj Shah would approach you and guide you to achieve the targets. We have to cross the USD 1 million mark for Annual Fund with a total giving of USD 4 million.
Many Clubs have come forward to undertake Cervical Cancer Vaccination and Borewell Recharge projects and are working on Global Grants and CSR Grants and I would request all clubs to join hands with them for making an impact on the community. I would also urge all the come up with innovative projects in all 7 Focus areas.
Friends with only 10 months remaining of this year, let us all work hard to achieve our Goals and Targets – every day is important and when we achieve all this, we will have plenty of occasions to celebrate. Talking of celebrations, let us not forget to participate in the events planned just for us by the Fellowship and Cultural Teams.
With your support, we look forward to an eventful and encouraging September 2025.
Yours in Rotary,
Rtn.Santosh Marathe
District Governor RID 3131.
