Mark With Fellow Zone 8 DGes at IAIn January or February each year, Rotary holds a mini-international convention called the International Assembly. There are more than 1000 attendees, including The Rotary International Past Presidents, President, President-elect and President-nominee, current and incoming RI directors, RI Foundation Trustees, a large contingent of RI support staff, a team of speakers and facilitators, a contingent of observers and about 535 District Governors-elect and their partners.
At the International Assembly, the Rotary International President-elect reveals their priorities and focus for the coming year and we see a first reveal of the venue and vibe of the RI convention for the RI President-elect’s year. We also for the first time hear from the RI President-nominee and can start guessing about their priorities and focus.
This year, RIPE Mário César Martins de Camargo made it very clear that his focus for the year is membership. Noting how quickly the world changes, de Camargo urged members to innovate.
“Technology, social expectations, and economic conditions evolve constantly, and Rotary must evolve with them,” he said. “Innovation is how we adapt to this changing world.”
One important way to do this, de Camargo said, is by embracing and promoting a variety of club models. Satellite clubs, cause-based clubs, enterprise clubs, and passport clubs offer people different ways to experience Rotary. Noting that his wife helped charter a satellite club with nearly 50 members, he said, “Future Rotary members are out there. We must meet them where they are.”
< Mark With Mario and Denise de Camargo
One speaker from South Korea told us how he built a club from almost nothing to over 500 members simply by charting a series of much smaller satellite clubs.
For many years, the International Assembly has been where the incoming RI President reveals their theme. This year there was no theme. But there was something to reveal. Instead of presidential themes, from now on we are going to have “President’s Messages”. A President’s message is essentially a theme without the accompanying Logo. It can be viewed as catchcry, slogan or tagline for the year that does not contain a logo that competes for space with the Masterbrand and typically confuses the public because it constantly changes.
The first President’s Message for 2025-2026 will be “Unite for Good.” The intended meaning exhorts us to come together to promote goodness in the world, but at least in the English version, there is a subtext that we should unite for the long haul and build enduring partnerships. You will be hearing a lot of this message starting from July 1.
The most numerous attendees, even if not the most illustrious were the District Governors-elect. District Governors-elect (all 535 of them, including 19 from our Zone 8) and their partners are invited to the International Assembly to attend a series of 8 breakout trainings and workshops for DGEs and a similar number for their partners. Breakout sessions were centred on various elements of RI’s action plan and included topics like improving club experience, enhancing member engagement, keeping the faith with PolioPlus, making the Rotary experience more inclusive and much more. Personally I found these breakouts to be well-designed and very well-facilitated. I will be using some of them at the DLT retreat (15th March at Bostock House) and PETS (12th April in Caboolture and 26th April in Dalby and for our International PE on 26-28 March in Toowoomba).
For these breakouts alone, it was worth making the arduous journey to and from Orlando, Florida. I look forward to engaging with everyone on the topics presented at the International Assembly.
Mark Williams
District Governor-elect.
