A Very Special Ceremony

... took place in Finland`s capital Helsinki October 8, 2005. An influential team of Rotarians took action to plant a new tree on the exact spot where Paul Harris planted his tree of friendship August 22, 1932 on his first visit to Finland. The tree Paul Harris planted fell to the winter storms in 2005 and quick action was taken to replace it. The moment came when the Zone Institute 15/16 brought Rotarian celebrities to Helsinki. DG Börje Thorström invited the Chairman of the Helsinki City Council, Mrs Rakel Hiltunen to join in the ceremony to replace the tree. The site remained the same, Helsinki`s most prestigious coastline facing the Suomenlinna castle of the 1750s and the Gulf of Finland.

Paul Harris planting the Rotary Tree of Friendship on August 22, 1932

73 years later, on October 8, 2005, the same spot: President-elect William B. Boyd, past RI-President Frank Devlyn and the Chairman of the Helsinki City Council Mrs Rakel Hiltunen repeat the ceremony

A sweet moment, William B. Boyd and Frank Devlyn meet Käthe Klärich, wife of the late Rolf Klärich, RI President from Finland 1980-81.

Europe´s First Virtual RC Rotary eClub of Verkkorotary.fi

The first Rotary Cyber club in Europe was charted in Finland on June 22, 2004, just before Midsummer and the close of the 2003-2004 Rotary Year. The Finnish club participated in the RI cyber club pilot project from the very beginning and is one of the first four in the world to receive its charter.

The charter diploma was handed over to the President of the new club, Matti Keijola, by DG 2003-2004 Jaakko Castrén, himself one of the pioneers behind Rotary Finland´s Internet-development. RI:s congratulations were forwarded by past RI Board Member Jorma Lampén, who sat on the RI Board when the cyber project was initiated based on a proposal put to the Council of Legislation. DG1420 2004-2005 Matti Kivinen addressed the new club with some thoughts and reflections for its first rotary year.

Matti Keijola, President of eClub of Verkkorotary.fi holds up the charter diploma. Kari Tallberg, chairman of Rotary Finland, witnesses a job well done.

The startup of the new club received the backing of five Finnish Rotary Clubs: Lauttasaari, Finlandia Hall, Kluuvi, Ruoholahti and Tapiola. Their support provided the technical platform for the new club that now faces the challenge of applying the principles and objectives of rotary in an entirely new operating environment, on the information highway.

A solid technical platform

eClub of Verkkorotary.fi has physical meetings once a month while the rest of its activities are supported by the web. Establishing the new club therefore required more preparation than normally. The technical infrastructure needed to be set up and the operating principles built around a functioning platform. The core members of the eClub have worked at this for over two years until now under the dedicated leadership of Matti Keijola.

- Many challenges and expectations face the new club, said Jaakko Castrén in his charter speech:

* The club must prove to those who doubt the principle, and such people are always around, that rotary work can be successful in the new cyber environment.
* The club is expected to develop operating principles that make rotary interesting for the generation living in today´s web environment. My belief is that this is absolutely necessary for the future of Rotary.
* A special challenge is that the club should avoid being marked as a forum for computer freaks. It is important to have a broad recruitment base and the current membership roster proves that this can be done.

Rotary eClub of Verkkorotary.fi introduced 15 new members at its charter celebration. Fourteen are grouped here around Matti Keijola, President. Of the club members Elina Helenius is based in Singapore, Jyrki Hämäläinen in Chicago and the newly re-elected EU-parlamentarian Piia-Noora Kauppi in Brussels. The total membership of the cyber club is now 25 including the “old rotarians” who participated in building up the club and decided to stay in the cyber environment.

Text and pictures: Håkan Nordqvist, Rotary Norden