On this episode we talk with Rotary International's General Secretary and Chief Executive Officer John Hewko.
In our conversation we talk about the current state of Rotary, some key initiatives and Rotary's future. You will enjoy this insight from a Rotary leader.
On this episode we talk with Rotary International's General Secretary and Chief Executive Officer John Hewko.
In our conversation we talk about the current state of Rotary, some key initiatives and Rotary's future. You will enjoy this insight from a Rotary leader.
Welcome to this episode of talking Rotary. I'm Peter Tonge and I'm a member of the Rotary Club of Winnipeg Charleswood.
Mandy Kwasnica:And I am Mandy Kwasnica Past President and also a member of the Rotary Club of Winnipeg, Charleswood. We are so happy you joined us here and I are so excited for this new podcast and thankful to our many listeners, let's start talking Rotary.
Peter Tonge:Mandy, we just recorded an episode with John Hewko.
Mandy Kwasnica:John is an incredible individual with a huge background and various things. And it was very interesting to hear his take on so many different areas of rotary and just his experiences. And then just to hear where he kind of sees rotary going in the next in the future here in the near future. So it was very, very interesting to hear from him.
Peter Tonge:It was it was, it's not every day that we get to talk to the General Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of Rotary. So it was kind of a fun experience. And one of the things that I think that our listeners are gonna find very interesting, and I'm not going to give it away is how we got the job. Yeah, that was a really good story.
Mandy Kwasnica:Most interesting, and love his takes on that. And yeah, it's you got to stay tuned, though. That's right near the end of the episode, so you got to stay tuned to listen in on that one. But yeah, this was a fantastic interview. And we just really appreciate John spending the time with us tonight, we know how busy of an individual he is, and all the things that are on his plate. So just really, we thank him for his time and all the work that he is doing within Rotary.
Peter Tonge:So everyone enjoy this episode, you're gonna learn things that you hadn't thought about for rotary. Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Talking Rotary. I'm Peter Tonge.
Mandy Kwasnica:And I'm Mandy Kwasnica, and
Peter Tonge:We're here with John Hewko. He is the general secretary and Chief Executive Officer of Rotary International and the Rotary Foundation. John, thanks for joining us.
John Hewko:intergrate. Great to be with you.
Peter Tonge:Now, lots of our listeners probably don't know what the CEO of Rotary International does. So can you tell us a little bit about your role?
John Hewko:Well, as as you know, Peter, a Rotary International, our world headquarters are in Evanston, Illinois, which is a town that abuts Chicago. We own our own building, we have 18 storey building that we bought back in the 1980s, we use about half for rotary purposes, and the other half we lease out, which helps us mitigate some of our operating operating costs. And we have about 775 employees worldwide employed by Rotary International, by 575, are in world headquarters in Evanston. And we have another 200. Outside the United States that are seven offices outside of North America. And my job is the general secretary and CEO of Rotary, my primary obligate responsibility is to oversee the Rotary International professional staff, those 775 employees that I just mentioned. In addition, I'm a non voting member of the Rotary International Board and the Board of Trustees of the Rotary Foundation. So I'm employed full time by Rotary, and I'm in effect the senior staff person for Rotary
Peter Tonge:Right, now. Do you work directly with the Rotary International President, for example? And what are some of the other key linkages you have as part of that?
John Hewko:Right? As you know, Peter, who rotary every year has a present Rotarian who was elected as president for for one year, and it's one of the sort of the unique aspects of our leadership structure and rotary is that we are a volunteer organization and part of the sort of the value proposition of joining rotary is your ability to lead to to develop leadership skills. And so at the car club level, our president change every year the district governors change every year as the as the president of Rotary International, the President really serves as the top Officer of growth As chairman of the board of the Rotary International Board, and I work obviously extremely closely with, with the President. And in I've been fortunate to work with some really great, great rotary presidents during my now 11 year tenure as your general secretary.
Peter Tonge:Now, we often talk to, to sort of Rotarians at the club level, is what I'd like us to talk a little bit of sort of the current state of Rotary from an overall from a higher level.
John Hewko:Well, I think if we sort of step back and look at our organization from from a global from a global perspective, if we look at, say, from the operational perspective, you know, back in January of 2020, it became very clear to me that the this, the COVID pandemic, or COVID virus, which was beginning to circulate in Asia, was eventually going to, you know, spread across the world, and this thing was probably not going to end not going to end well. And so already in January of 2020, we put together in the Rotary International Secretariat, and that's what we call the, the, the sort of the sort of the management, body of Rotary, a task force to really begin monitoring and try to get our organization ready to move to a potential virtual online existence. In early March, I sent the entire secretary at all 700 and some employees home per day to practice what it will be like, working virtually, I'm glad we did that we got a lot of the kinks out of the kinks out of our systems. And then very early in the process, in early March, we, we moved to all of our operations to 100%. Virtual, and, you know, this transition went relatively smoothly. In fact, all, shortly thereafter, 1.2 million Rotarians around the world had to move to a virtual existence, virtual zoom club meetings, events, its training sessions, etc. And so I'd say that it's gone very smoothly, surprisingly smooth or pleasantly, you know, smoothly. Obviously, a few hiccups along the way. But I would say today from an operational perspective, in spite of this terrible pandemic, and the human and economic costs that it has brought to the world from an operational perspective, we are as strong as we were pre COVID. We continue in the Secretary to support the rotary world as we did before COVID act as some areas Secretary Dave busier, because our meetings team, which puts on our annual convention and the International assembly, which is our annual training event for district governors that we hold in January, you know, they've been extremely experienced and putting on in person significantly huge in person events, all of a sudden, in the blink of an eye, we had to pivot and begin putting together a virtual convention in Honolulu, a virtual convention in it was supposed to be in Taipei, a virtual assembly, etc, etc. So those areas are even busier than ever are like training materials now had to adapt it and change to an online training. Focus versus in person. So from an operational perspective, we're extremely in good shape and have weathered this pandemic very, very well. From a financial perspective. Again, we're in good shape rotary leadership, through the through the decades has been very prudent with both wrote Rotarians money. And both Rotary Foundation and Rotary International have significant reserves, more than adequate to weather, any sort of significant significant economic and membership downturn in our organization. So today, as I speak, from an operational perspective, very strong shape, as well as from a financial perspective.
Mandy Kwasnica:That's really great to hear. I wonder, when you talk about the whole pandemic, and everything and the changes that have had, like all rotary clubs have had to embrace Where do you see like, that has been an opportunity for Rotary?
John Hewko:Yeah, man, that's a that's a great point. I, you know, clearly for the for the world, this pandemic has been terrible in terms of human cost, economic cost, etc. But I do think for rotary, to your point, it does represent an opportunity where one membership, you know, we, our membership has been flat at about 1.2 million for the last 20 some years. And we've seen significant membership growth in certain parts of the world such as Asia, parts of Africa, parts of Eastern Europe, but we've seen some significant membership declines in US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK. And so I think this COVID that tragedy has given us really an opportunity to step back and say, okay, in those markets, where we're our traditional product, our traditional club model hasn't been as successful as it has been historically. How do we change that product? How do we step back and rethink it? How do we offer something slightly different to the marketplace that's perhaps a value proposition that people are looking for that we're currently not giving them and that Where this pandemic has really opened the door and certainly opened the eyes of many Rotarians that well, we can use technology, we can offer a different club experience from the traditional one, utilizing technology. And we've tried for last four or five, six years to really get Rotarians to embrace, technology has not been easy. We're an organization deeply rooted in great traditions. And all of a sudden, in one fell swoop, we had no choice, but to think differently and operate in a different way. So I do think this is a great opportunity for us to kind of rethink our product, without sacrificing our core values, and perhaps make it more attractive to potential new members in those markets where we've been losing members.
Mandy Kwasnica:Yeah, I totally agree with you, I can speak from experience within our own club. Because I was serving as Club President during that time when the the pandemic hit, and our meeting place was shut down. And within a week, we were able to convert over to zoom. So we kept our meetings, we didn't even meet miss a single meeting, we kept everything moving forward. But it was because we had had the ability to embrace technology within our club. So it was really good.
John Hewko:And sometimes, I think also, paradoxically, it's actually brought Rotarians even closer together. I mean, I spend a good part of my day meeting and speaking to Rotarians around the world doesn't cost anything, I click a button, I can sort of navigate the globe during the course of the course of the day. Rotarians can attend club meetings and all kinds of parts of the world with no cost. And here are some great speakers. I know my wife is currently the president of the Rotary Club of Chicago, the first Rotary Club, and she spends she attends rotary club meetings all around the world hears great speakers. And so even though yes, we may be sort of in a lockdown mode many places. I think it paradoxically in some ways we're more connected than perhaps we were pretty COVID.
Peter Tonge:And this podcast is another example of that it exists because we talk to people all around the world, using the technology.
Mandy Kwasnica:Absolutely.
Peter Tonge:So, John, we signed sort of new ways to meet what other ways do you think rotary will continue to change because of what we learned from the pandemic?
Unknown:Well, I think one is I think we it has, again opened our opportunities for us to refine, change, modify, our products make it more attractive. A second is I think it's also highlighted the importance of our rotaractors is, you know, we have a very robust Roadtrek program within Rotary. Young men and women passionate about our values, our ideals, give back, change the world. And yet, if we look at historically, worldwide at a global level, only five to maybe 10% of rotaractors actually come Rotarians and that's a shame, because these are again, people who have fully bought into the values and want to make a difference. And yet for some reason, we're not doing a good job of helping them transition to being Rotarians when they leave their, their Rotary Club. And so because now everything is so technology focused, and that generation is extraordinarily adept at using technology, I think it's allowed rotaractors and Rotarians to to sort of bridge that gap to to come closer to come closer together. In fact, as an organization, we're now in a very big push to elevate rotor Act, to, to help facilitate that trans transition from rotor act to to rotary, and I think this pandemic has opened up a whole slew of doors, you know, rotaractors, I urge Rotarians turn your events over to the rotaractors they know the space, they know technology, well, they know how to put on cool stuff in a digital medium district conferences, you're going to hold a district conference virtually turn it over to the rotaractors see what they come up with, particularly in those districts where you know, 10 minutes historically has been low at these at the district conferences. That's a that's a that's a second, that that's the second thing that we've that we've learned. And third, I think from a you know, again, from a from a cost management perspective, we've realized that there's a lot of things we can do now to increase our global decrease our global costs, utilizing technology to be able to reach a larger, larger number of people. So I think there's been great opportunities and great challenges, right? I mean, how, you know, fundraising, a lot of our fundraising is dependent on physical activities and physical events. Although last year I foundation set a record for, for for fundraising. How do we do projects in this new virtual environment? That's, that's another it's another challenge. I think we've weathered quite well. So a lot of opportunity, a lot of challenges as well that we're dealing with.
Peter Tonge:I have to say one of the things that I like, as a person with a disability I never attended an international conferences because of the travel and the size or whatever. I've never been to two because they were virtual. So if there's, if there's an effort to go back to the meeting team for B is, let's have at least some components of an international convention virtual. So we open the world up wider.
John Hewko:Yeah. And I think that's one of the lessons we've seen is that, you know, utilizing technology we can really, really broaden, broaden our scope. And the Holger Knaack was or Germany was a President, last Rotary year, his whole Presidency was during the, during the time of COVID. And, you know, so he was really limited in his ability to get out and, and motivate and speak to the rotary world, which is one of the primary price sort of sort of things that presidents do. And yet, he probably spoke to more Rotarians directly via these virtual tools than any president rotary history, and was able to inspire and work and see and deal with more returns anyone given this, this new technology? So I think this is a, this is a exciting time for for our organization, and we're learning quite a bit.
Mandy Kwasnica:Yeah, I absolutely see that, in any challenges that come our way they present opportunities for us. That's always how you have to look at these, these situations.
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Mandy Kwasnica:Okay, so I have to ask you, first of all, I'm super excited as a woman in Rotary to see that Jennifer Jones is an upcoming rotary president for us here really excited for that. Where do you kind of see Rotary, you know, in proving kind of in that area of, of improving women in leadership, like this is definitely an incredible, amazing first step. Where do you see kind of next steps happening?
Unknown:Well, I think obviously, Jennifer is great. She'll be fantastic present dynamic, I think for all of us really excited for for that for the fact that she's been elected as rotaries first, first, first female president, as an institution, we're now you know, sort of embarking on a very aggressive diversity equity inclusion program with the sort of global level we retained PWC, which has extensive experience in advising global organizations on these sorts of issues, the board is very putting together a fairly robust and aggressive DEI plan and program, it sort of set the tone, provide guidance, provide materials, etc. But at the end of the day, you know, Rotary is an association of clubs, all of the action happens at the club level of Rotary International, we can't recruit members, we can't ask members to join a club. And so it's really incumbent upon all rotary clubs to, to sort of embrace this, this attempt to broaden the scope for our membership, whether it be ethnicity, gender, diverse points of view, to sort of bring a more diverse membership to our organization. And obviously, you know, we women were permitted into rotary or joined, were able to join rotary in 1980. So we're, you know, we're, we've made some great strides, the board has set a goal of 30%, female membership by the next two or three years. And in terms of women in rotary leader leadership positions, it all begins with electing women as club presidents, which then makes them eligible to be district governors, which then allows them to be eligible to be directors of Rotary International, and then you head into the past rotary national director to be elected as president of Rotary. So and we're seeing a huge uptick in women beginning to are continuing to occupy leadership positions at the club and district and other levels. And we need to encourage that because the more women we get into these lower and middle level leadership positions, the more obviously bigger the pool is to then join the rotary national board and then be present. I think they should we've got six women, seven women on the Rotary International Board, I think, the largest number in our in our history. And so it's, you know, the the fruits of women joining and assuming leadership position is we're starting to see that. That's great.
Peter Tonge:I'm very glad that you mentioned the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy, because I'm very pleased to see that again, as a person with a disability. It was nice to see that Rotary had that focus. I was also very pleased that in The second version of the policy, it explicitly said disability because the first sort of language was kind of wishy washy, it said people of all abilities or, or something. And for those of us that live in the disability community, we always say, disability isn't too bad word u se it.
John Hewko:Right.
Peter Tonge:So it was very glad to see that. And I'm very pleased to see that rotary is showing leadership in that area. Where do you see that going?
John Hewko:Well, I think it's, you know, it, I think we, you know, we have to realize that, you know, the issues of diversity are gone. And the end the challenges, and the sort of solutions, or the sort of strategy will differ from country to country, from region to region. You know, there may be there are parts of the world where gender is more of an issue, there's other risks, where it may be ethnic ethnicities, others disabilities in some combination of all of the above. And so, I think we really, we from it from an international perspective, we highlight it, we put together a framework put together the policy, as you just Peter just pointed out, we try to make it the policy is diverse and broad and meaningful as possible. But then it's really incumbent on Rotarians in each of the various regions and parts of the world to say, Okay, well, how do we tackle this issue, given our reality, given our situation, and given what we're trying to accomplish in our given given area, so it's, it's a, there's a top down aspect to it, it's probably going to be 30% 25% of that effort. And then there's got to be a bottom up piece, because that's where the action is. It's all about the club level. It's about, you know, the club members, you know, taking this seriously and saying, Okay, we want to sort of increase the diversity and spectrum of our membership.
Peter Tonge:It's really going to make Rotary stronger.
John Hewko:No question about it. It's a big part of our big part of our future, I shudder to think what would be like if, if women had not had not joined? Our organization? It really I think, in one can say, in all honesty, it saved save Rotary. And it's really, really positioned us to, to catapult even further in the 21st century.
Peter Tonge:Absolutely. Now, I'm just wondering off the top my head, and I'm not sure I'm gonna get this question correctly. But the way I'm gonna start to say, What's Rotary doing next around the corner that maybe isn't on the radar?
John Hewko:Yeah, yeah. Well, I think, you know, our, as your worthy or global sort of initiative is eradication of polio. We started this back in 1985. And we're really down to just two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the wild polio virus is still circulating, and murine, miraculously, almost this calendar year, we've only had one case in Afghanistan and one in Pakistan. And that's despite of COVID, despite the fact that we have to suspend for a while the vaccination campaigns despite the conflict, issues that those two countries are facing, because you have to physically get to the children, and it's hard to do in conflict areas. So you know, I think goal number one has to we have to eradicate polio. Having said that, I do think we need to start thinking without obviously affecting negatively the polio effort. What will be our next corporate Global Initiative if we have one? And that's going to be a big question. Do we have one or not? Do we have a foundation distributes what we call global grants and seven areas of focus? Do we have a signature project in HR seven areas? Or do we not have one and go back? I personally feel we should have a significant global initiatives such as polio, I think our polio eradication effort put us on the map in certain circles. I mean, think of the partners that we're partnering with, in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the Gates Foundation, Gavi, who, UNICEF, CDC, really incredible brands in the international development, and public health space. And we're sitting there as equal partners with that with that august group, and it's really helped our profile, etc, etc. As I personally feel we need and should have won, the challenge will be, you know, 1.2 million Rotarians, you'll probably have 1.4 million points of view on what that should be given. You know, we do so much in so many. In so many areas, we have so many Rotarians passionate about so many things. But so looking forward, I think we will need to as we get closer to eradicating polio, to start thinking about what the next project will be. And the other is, is really, in my view, growing Rotary. In those countries where we're sort of seeing a decline in membership, as I mentioned earlier, through the creation of new innovative club models. You know, it's we have policies we have whatever but what's important for me is not adherence to all of the rules. It's probably shouldn't say this, but you know, there is no rotary police you You know, what's important is is the club vibrant? Is it growing? Is it attracting great members? Is it offering a product that people want to buy, and they buy it by joining rotary and they pay for it with their time and their money. And again, we're finding in Canada, US in certain parts, people aren't aren't buying the product that we've historically put out there. And so we got to change it, because the markets not going to change for us, we have to adapt to the, to the marketplace. And I think you do that by putting, you know, sort of new club models out there that are perhaps going to be more attractive nor technology based, or flexible, but we can never change our core values for we test, focus on ethics, making the world you know, it's that that's the essence of being a Rotarian are meeting formats and all that, that's just the vessel through which we, we deliver those, those values. And so flexibility, and new club models, in my view is another huge thing that we need to really tackle as we as we move forward.
Mandy Kwasnica:I love hearing that. Because that's been, I feel like one of the struggles I've had, like, just within Rotary is just some of the the traditions and the standards that we have kind of like within all these clubs, you know, and anytime I've brought in, like young people to to my club to introduce them to rotary, I've always had to kind of prepare them in advance. Okay, this is what your should expect. And, and then I'm like, why am I having to do that? You know, so that's a, that's a bit of a struggle for me. Like I, I understand that, you know, there's reasons to respect traditions and things like that. But I think we do have to think outside the box, I agree with you, we have to look at doing things differently. Or else we're not going to grow. We're not going to attract young people. And if we don't look at doing things differently, so yeah, I love what you're hearing what you're saying.
John Hewko:And again, it depends on the circumstance, if the traditional way of doing things is successful, you're growing, and there are parts of the world where the traditional model works extremely well done. Okay, go for it. But if it doesn't, who is it Einstein that doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result is that is the kind of definition of insanity or whatever that's, you know, maybe a little bit harsh in this context, but still, to your point, you know, if, you know, its traditions are great, if they work, and if not, then, you know, it's it's time it's time to change without, again, sacrificing those core values. Because that really is that really is important. Exactly.
Peter Tonge:Absolutely. And you can follow the core values of a very, without all being in the same room or reading on and exact regular schedule or any of that, if that's what works for you.
John Hewko:Yeah, I mean, there's clubs, for example, that is passport clubs are becoming very popular, and they take different permutations, the first one started out in California, and they, their model was they only meet six times a year, every other month, there's a formal club meeting. And then every other month, they have a social, so 12 meetings a year, that's it. And then that's you have to go to 12 things a year, six, electrician, socials. And then you either do 40 hours of service on projects with one or more clubs or nonprofits in your district, or you contribute $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation, not at all the traditional club model, very successful, huge growth in membership. And my point is, okay, they may not follow all the rules, but kind of who cares, it's attracting great people want to do good in the world. They're making a difference as a product that they want. And like, it worked in California, I suspect it may not work in certain parts of the world. But so what do I mean? You know, let's, let's let many many options flourish out there and try different things and see what works and see what doesn't. Because you're in a dying club, you got nothing to lose. Or if you're in an area where you're losing members, what do you have to lose? Let's experiment let's try something different. Of that.
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Peter Tonge:I love the model that was recently in in the rotary magazine from Plano Texas where they're doing seven or eight service projects a month using community volunteers. I think that was such a brilliant thing.
John Hewko:Yeah, and I just you know, there's all kinds there's, you know, it was not working but it was I give them credit for trying there was in India Leaving Mumbai, the they had to set up a club that met on the train commuting into work because everybody had like an hour and a half commute on the train or something. So they would meet on the train and they'd have the wireless stuff to communicate with each other, that the audience they can hear each other over the din of the train it as I understand it, it did want to fold it by giving this least a you know, let's give this give it a shot. Let's try, let's try some some different ways doing it that plane on the plane Oh club, I spoken to that club, it's a great club. And it was a great example of, of, you know, sort of thinking out of the box, how you can how you can really make a difference, and then create a very vibrant, growing experience for your for your members.
Peter Tonge:Absolutely. I like the train idea, though, because it's like, how can I make better use of this hour and a half?
Mandy Kwasnica:Right, brilliant.
John Hewko:No. And then there were there was apparently in one somewhere in the States, a group of it happened to be mothers with small children that wanted to definitely didn't have the ability to leave the house for for three hours to go to a meeting or some. So they created a club and a friend is a big waiting list where they kept it I think 25 members and then they, they would then rotate their club meetings among their homes, and everybody had to host one or two meetings a year, and you could bring your children. And, you know, again, not a traditional club model. But it's one that certainly worked and attracted a lot of mothers in this case who wanted to do something, but you know, because their childcare situations weren't, you know, that found that it be a useful model. So I think we just need to put our put aside our kind of limitations, think think creatively, ask the market what it wants, and then deliver what the market wants.
Peter Tonge:I love it. It's a really great idea. Let's do it differently.
Mandy Kwasnica:So if you were to look in your crystal ball, were Rotary going to be let's say, five years from now, where do you see it?
John Hewko:Well, I you know, I certainly like to, you know, we eradicate polio. I mean, that's just an extraordinary legacy we're going to leave for, you know, really, as long as mankind inhabits the earth, right? I mean, just the only one other diseases been eradicated at smallpox. And so it's just an incredible legacy we're leaving for, for mankind, I'd like to see a set, you know, 1.5 2 million members, I think there's no reason that shouldn't happen. If we really take seriously this, this kind of creativity and the flexibility, and really providing a product that people want, because younger people, every survey shows want to give back. They want to do good. But what they don't want to do is get tied into burdens and structures, they want to go in, they want to make a difference. They want to move out everyone's overscheduled everybody's got you know, and they don't have time very often for some of the stuff that historically has been part of joining giant joining Rotary. And, and on the other end of the spectrum, recently retired. I mean, there's just a massive pool of people who are generational wealth transfer, retiring, have the financial means the expertise, the passion, and the desire to do good to be great to be great Rotarians, and they may be looking for a different sort of product than than someone who's perhaps earlier on in their career. And so how do we create something that's attractive to both not easy, so perhaps we, you know, we focus on certain products, or certain type of persons and other products or another type of person, depending on the needs and where they are in their station in life. So, I'd like to see us at 1.5 2 million people, there's no excuse for us not to be there. Because we have the right mission for what many, many people in the world want to do across the generational spectrum, we just have to make it valuable for them and worth their while to join and why not because we can go around bragging now that we have 2 million people. For me, it's more look at what we've done with 1.2 million people, Rotarians, numbers, polio in the year and that's just tip of the iceberg Youth Exchange Rotaract interact, our you know, all our surface projects, local projects, global projects, you name it, it just goes on and on, right? Imagine what you do with 2 million or 3 million numbers. It's you know, just it's just it's astounding, and really, so that's why I really like to see us I'd like to see us more nimble. I'd like to see us more flexible. I'd like to see us larger, I'd like to see us having eradicated polio, I'd like to see us have really, really incorporated roe direct, and instead of 5% or 10%, we're getting 80% of rotaractors transitioning to Rotarians when it makes sense for them. And being the the premier organization, global platform to make a difference in the world. And certainly doable. It's in our power to do it. That's straightforward.
Peter Tonge:Absolutely,
Mandy Kwasnica:Absolutely. I believe you.
John Hewko:But again, it's no magic wand is going to come from Evanston or from World Headquarters. It's you know, this thing we it's all has to begin and end at that at that grassroots at the club level. That's what rotary is about. And that's what my message to Rotarians is that We will get there, we will do that, but it couldn't come in and every Rotarian to have that mindset. And to realize that it's not just sitting back and something happens. It's you got to make it happen at the local level, although it won't happen.
Peter Tonge:John, we only have one standard question that we asked all of our five guys guys, in, you've given a great deal of your life to Rotary and your family has why Rotary, there's lots of dinner, there's lots of organizations all around the world that you could do this for?
John Hewko:Well, you know, I had, I've had sort of sort of varied varied career as a partner in a large international law firm I did my whole career and in Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Russia, so the Soviet Union at the time. And so I, you know, been a sort of hardcore, corporate, international corporate and corporate lawyer. And then I was also had a senior position in the Bush administration, that George W. Bush and creating and setting up a, a new United States Government foreign assistance agency called the Millennium Challenge Corporation. And I found that that experience extraordinary to really, really distribute billions of dollars to developing countries and truly, you know, through what we were doing, making, making a difference. And so, when President Obama won the United States election back in 2008, I became in any political appointee, as they say, across the pond redundant. And sort of, you know, what I want to do, and I didn't really want to go back to practicing law, I sort of been there, done that and had a very successful law career, I really like this sort of doing good and giving back and my father has, he passed away last year, but it was a return for many, many years, very passionate, very active. And when I was working in Ukraine in the early 90s, practicing law at his club in Michigan, he's from their parents from Russia, from Detroit. His club in Michigan was one of the sponsoring clubs to set up the first Rotary Club in Ukraine and cave, the Capitol, after the fall of the Soviet Union. And so I sort of can can you give it can you give us a hand, John, your base there, you're working ourselves a charter member, that the first club when it was established in 1992, and so was a member while I was working in Ukraine. And so what do I do after my government service and my father, who's very, as I said, very active, returning also a very avid reader of the military magazine. He was reading it one day, and also trying to figure out what to do after government. And he sees an advertisement that rotary is looking for a new general secretary. And so he rips it out of the magazine and writes across the corner. John, you, you check this out, you seem to have the credentials, mails it to me, and I look at it, and I said, Oh, this is interesting. And I saw that the headhunting firm, the search firm was the same one we had used in the government. When we had established this agencies, they called the head of their DC office and said, Charlie, I just got this from my dad. What's this rotary thing all about? He's like, Oh, man, I hadn't thought about you. But I think you'd be great. Yeah, I think you got to take a bunch of some of your CV. And I did. And of course, it was, it rest is history. But as I like to say, there's sort of two two lessons I took away from that experience. One is, you know, always always listen to your dad. And, and the second is great things happen when you read the, what's called now the Rotary, the rotary magazine. So it was a it was a bit of, you know, parental influence, having been a Rotarian earlier, and then just the serendipity of my father having read that magazine. And and I couldn't imagine a better organization to land on to land to work to work with in terms of continuing to make a difference in the world. It's extraordinary.
Peter Tonge:I may not look at the rotary magazine the same way again.
Mandy Kwasnica:Amazing,
Peter Tonge:John, What haven't we talked about that you'd like to talk about?
John Hewko:Well, again, I just, I just wanted to again, just to reiterate that, you know, we're living through difficult times. But this is a moment for rotary. And we actually are at a crossroads. We're at a crossroads. And I think that the actions we take over the next three or four years are going to define our organization for decades to come, whether it be finishing polio and figuring out what we do next, whether it's coming up with these new models and being flexible to kind of STEM the drop in membership. And as I said, in North America, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, those places where we're losing membership, how we handle how we handle rotor act. And then also, you know, another initiative that we're sort of undertaking now is to revisit our global governance structure. We're currently working under a structure that was developed in 1905. It's 116 years old, and it's worked well. But I think, you know, if Paul Harris were alive today, the founder of Rotary, and we were whiteboarding, our governance structure would we operate the way we operate? Maybe we would, maybe we wouldn't. And so we're now looking pretty seriously at the international level of can we, you know, should we modify that that governance structure and so I think The decisions we make along those grounds are going to really affect the organization. Going going forward. But I'm very optimistic, very excited. And my message to everyone listening who's a Rotarian is the future is in your hands, you know, and what you do over the next couple of years, on some of these issues that we talked about in this program, I'm really going to affect our organization and in the lives of many, many people around the world for decades and generations to come.
Mandy Kwasnica:All said, I just personally want to thank you for your time here today and sharing with us it's been amazing to hear your stories get to know you get to know more about what Rotary International at a higher level does. Because so many of us are just only know about the club basis side of things. So it's been very interesting. And just thank you for all the work that you do. And I
John Hewko:think you made a good point there. Mandy, I probably should have mentioned is that very often, you know, you join a rotary club and you're very focused on your club. But rotary is this extraordinary international platform, you know, we have if you join rotary you have the opportunity not only do great stuff locally, but fantastic projects internationally whether you know, you have the convention, as you mentioned theater is is enormous is a fantastic event. We have Rotary, these fellowships, all kinds of fellowships, wine tasting caravanning you know, tennis, cigar smoke, I mean, you name it, there's, there's there's a aficionados of that issue all over the world and you can and you join me Rotary, you have access to this, all this incredible friends and people around the world, we have rotary action groups that focus around a particular issue, whether it be Alzheimer's, or cervical cancer, or a disease prevention treatment. So the the beauty of rotary is that you can join have a great local experience, if that's what you're interested in, but it also opens this entire world of activities and projects and, and friendships and travel opportunities, the you know, the that that very few organizations, very few organizations do.
Peter Tonge:John, thank you very much. We really appreciate your time. I think our listeners are gonna be very interested in what you have to say. It's certainly been great for us. Appreciate it a lot.
Unknown:Peter Mandy, thank you so much for having me and hope we can meet together in person one day once we're past this COVID Thank you, take care.
Mandy Kwasnica:Thank you so much for joining us on another great episode of Talking Rotary. We would love to hear from you. Please send us your comments and story ideas and you can share with us easily by sending us an email at feedback at talking rotary.org Let's keep Talking Rotary.