As you all know, the story of RLI first started in the Northwestern part of the USA in 1992. It was established and nurtured by great leaders like David Linett, Michael Rabaska, Knut Johnson, Frank Wargo, Tam Mustapha and many others.
The Rotary Leadership Institute is a grassroots, multi-district leadership development programme whose mission is to strengthen Rotary clubs through quality leadership education.
Poor leadership is the primary cause of membership losses. The leader needs quality Rotary education combined with the acquisition of basic leadership skills. A good Rotary leader also must have the perspective of where Rotary has been, where it is now going and a vision of what Rotary can be.
RLI came to India through the hard work and dedication of Rtn. Binod Khaitan and PDG Subash Saraf. Through these towering personalities and others, RLI grew all over India. It became a very strong programme in the Eastern and Western parts of India. It was struggling a bit to take roots in Southern India.
PDG Rekha Shetty, as Southern India Chair, took special interest in the leadership programme and started conducting rewarding programmes in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Sri Lanka.
Though I had done my RLI programmes in 2008 at Cochin, my interest was kindled only after my governorship in 2016. PDG Rekha Shetty made me the Zone 5 Southern India Chair in 2017 and helped me with the programmes conducted thereafter.
The events conducted at Dharapuram, Payyanur and Tambaram were the pioneering efforts of a great success story.
With the advice, guidance and support of leaders like Rtn. Binod, PDG Frank Wargo and Rtn. Mohankumar, and of course with the constant monitoring by my wife Rtn. Dr. Priscilla Sundararaj, Zone 5 started shining bright.
We started conducting RLI programmes in all the Districts of the Zone, adhering to strict timings and utilising the services of the best facilitators.
We followed certain rules like doing only Parts 1 and 2 together on Saturdays and Sundays. Part 3 was kept for one full day later on. Every session was allocated a minimum of one hour.
Our programmes became very popular all over India and Sri Lanka. We started going to other Zones in India and countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
COVID-19 struck India in early 2020. We had just completed physical sessions in Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Hyderabad and were heading back to Chennai for physical sessions when a nationwide curfew was announced.
We had to cancel the Chennai meet, which was a huge blow and challenge to all of us. But I did not give up and, with the help of our RLI leaders, we devised a proper online RLI programme.
We made each session 90 minutes long and conducted two sessions a day.
We conducted extended weekend online sessions for three hours a day from Friday to Sunday, from 6.00 P.M. to 9.00 P.M.
We completed Part 1 over one weekend and took up Part 2 for another extended weekend a month later. This created a huge impact and was welcomed by all the leaders.
The online RLI programme enabled leadership education to continue even during the challenging COVID-19 period.
After COVID-19, from 2022, we started conducting physical sessions in full swing and were appreciated by everyone. We also had online sessions when the Districts and clubs wanted them.
Part 3 became a regular feature after this and a big number of RLI graduates emerged.
Faculty Orientation Training was given to Rotarians who were selected by the Zonal leaders. We had set certain standards to become a Facilitator.
These great leaders were handpicked and were ready to be worthy volunteers, giving their time, resources and energy.
Now we have more than 80 facilitators willing to serve the Zone and outside.
Zone 5 Southern India Division functions like a well-oiled machine now under the leadership of PDGs Subu, Chandra Bob and Raja Govindasamy as Advisor, Chairman and Secretary.
Our efforts have been duly recognised by Rotary Leadership Institute International. I became one of the Directors of the International Board and now I serve as the Vice Chair of RLI International.
It was extremely heartening for me to receive the highest honour of RLI, the David Linett Award, for all the hard work, innovation and improvisation.
The RI Convention Breakfast at Singapore was conducted by our Zone and recognised as one of the best events done thus far.
The RLI annual certification fees are being paid by all the Districts of the Zone without a break for the past three years and our Division is recognised as one of the best in the world.
Zone 5 Southern India Division continues to strengthen Rotary leadership through quality education, trained facilitators and innovative RLI programmes.
Our interest and performance extended to Pakistan from last year, thanks to the efforts of Rotary International President’s Special Advisor PDG Pubudu De Zoysa.
We have conducted Parts 1, 2 and 3 there online and the programmes were as good as those conducted at home.
We have also successfully conducted the “Train the Trainers” meet there.
The Governor of the newly revived District 3272 in Pakistan is also an RLI trainer, Dr. Shaheena Asif.
We will be continuing our RLI online sessions this year too.
Now we have about two programmes per District on an average and, as a Division, we conduct about 30 events a year.
We even find it difficult to allocate weekends for the super-active districts in our Southern Division.
We have devised the new idea of conducting a Regional RLI.
This will be a six-hour Part 1 programme on a Sunday for the members of the clubs in a region of the District. It will be conducted solely by the local facilitators of the District, led by an experienced senior faculty member.
This is cost-effective too and does not exceed Rs. 800/- (about 8 dollars), including lunch, tea and snacks and stationery.
The feather in the cap of this fantastic transformation of the Southern India Division was the celebration of the Annual Day of RLI, Graduates and Syllabus Meet and the Train the Trainers Meet in November 2023.
All the leaders of RLI from India, led by PRID Kamal Sanghvi, along with leaders from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, participated in the gala meet.
PDG Frank Wargo and Rtn. Binod Khaitan added colour and substance to the well-conducted meet at Chennai.
The long-felt need for a website by the Division is nearing completion.
This website will have all the details of our training events.
It will have a database of Rotarians who have completed Parts 1, 2 and 3 from various centres.
The website will publish interesting articles on Rotary and RLI, both here and abroad.
The world news of Rotary will have a prominent place on the site.
We would welcome quality articles written by RLI leaders from all over South Asia.
PDG Dr. George Sundararaj