Rotary welcomes new President

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 28 June 2017, 12:00AM

The Apia Rotary has a new President.

Last weekend, Louise Main was officially welcomed as Rotary’s President for 2017 and 2018. She takes over from outgoing President Susan Faoagali.

The welcome was extended during the Club’s Change Over dinner to welcome their new officers.

Louise Main said she is delighted to have been appointed President.

But she was more excited about the welcoming 11 new members as well as three associate members. 

“It’s not often that we get that number of people so we’re going to induct 14 new members and only four are males which mean ladies rule the world of Rotary,” she said.

Mrs. Main acknowledged the work of Ms. Faoagali during the past 12 months.

As for the future, she said there is a lot of work to be done.

 “First of all is to get new members in and that starts tonight,” she said.

“My long term aim is that we have a lot of ongoing projects that we have to develop and I’ve also got few projects in the pipeline from overseas clubs that we are looking at.”

Education is a big focus for Rotary.

“I want to work more on scholarships for the entry level at the university. I want to try to find more overseas partners for that because I think it’s really important for us to have our young ones go through higher education.”

“Books have always been my passion so we will continue with that. We’ve still got thousands of books to be stamped and delivered.”

“I am also working on dictionaries because I want support from our overseas Rotary Clubs on dictionaries because they are very expensive here and not everyone can afford close to a $100tala dictionary in Samoan and English.”

The new President said she would work hard to strengthen the Club.

“I want to build a vibrant club and strengthen our membership and also our projects in the community.”

She knows it’s not going to be easy.

“There are always challenges. One of them is the fact this is a volunteer organization so work has to give to way to family sometimes and so it’s balancing our time.

“I think that is one of the big challenges for us as professionals and through that the membership level fluctuates a lot. It goes up and down and so tonight I’m happy that we’ve got some new members and so its fresh hands and feet that will do the work for Rotary

The Apia Rotary Club started in 1970 and Mrs. Main has been involved for the past 10 years.

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 28 June 2017, 12:00AM
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