DRA: We learn, We Interact and That’s it?

Contributed by PE Lee Hui Hui

I remembered my first District Rotaract Assembly (DRA) in HolidayVilla, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur in year 2005. That was few months after my club obtained its charter. The venue was near to my place of work. So it was a blessing. But, it turned out that I had to return to office in the morning because of an urgent deadline.

And because of that, I missed my first group photo session after the opening ceremony.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself getting to know new faces from different club (although I feel odd at first fitting in)

Did I learn something there? Yes, I admit I did learn a lot about rotaract. For my first DRA, I attended the President/ President Elect/ Vice President Workshop with my club chartered president.

I remembered brainstorming solutions during the case study session. It is a norm for Rotaract club leaders to face problems like:

1) Inactive members and lack of participation in projects (Very common)
2) In ability to retain current members. (So common)
3) Difficulty in finding new members to ensure club continuity. (Common)

In DRA in Penang few weeks back, I attended the President/ President Elect workshop for the second time (because I did not hold any club office position for year 2006).

This time round, there was no case studies session (thank you GDL DRR Chandra and GDL DRRE Dinesh). What I had was more of an opinion sharing session by the incoming club presidents, president elects and vice presidents.

They do share the same doubts and fears like me. I would not know whether my fellow incoming board that went to the DRA training with me learned about such issues.

The common topics raised were lack of active members to commit and take up projects

I also listened to complaints by the respective district officers (who are also leaders in their club too) who raised issue like lack of participation in organized district projects and other interpersonal relationship problems.

What I can summarise is this = the survival of rotaract clubs purely depends on common factor – degree of interpersonal relationship among its members.

I was given the opportunity to be a panelist speaker in the morning plenary session led by PDG Dato Dr Low Teong. Title was how to build effective rotaract club. I spoke about from my club’s perspective on effective rotaract club based on email input from RAC Port Klang members.

All in all, it turned out that all the panelist speakers (IPDRR Jamie, DRC and incoming DRC and myself) got the feedback from the audience what we have presented does not match with the current situation faced by the district rotaract clubs.
(I don’t have to mention this, but I am sure readers will know what I mean)

In a nutshell, it ain’t a blue sky picture! And it is a reality.

And this case, why are we attending the DRA? Is there a common solution to solve human relationship issue?

Problems will never get solved if there is continuous bickering. Projects will never be executed if members don’t want to do it.

In this case, the DRA is just a platform for us to gather, learn, have fun and that’s it?

I had to make this sweeping statement => Have anyone ponder to put the knowledge to good use by serving well and building relationships?

In essence, joining a non profit organization like rotaract is actually one of the ways to learn to build relationships, formed new friendships and be a better person and leaders in our own field.

We have to learn to give and accommodate with members that come from different background, age group, financial standing, personality, beliefs, attitude and culture.

It is never easy building and strengthening human relationships. It is never easy being a leader because being human, leaders can make grave mistakes.

As I am writing this article I realized I am still learning.

I will bear in mind to learn how to adapt to difficult situations and face potential setbacks.
Nevertheless we as rotaractors must always strive to be a better person and hoping someday we are able to see the blue sky picture i.e. strong and effective rotaract clubs.