PDG Margie and Ron Kersey

The Council on Legislation meets every three years in Chicago to consider and vote on changes to the governing documents of Rotary International and runs under strict Parliamentary procedure. Every district in the world (currently 538 of them) selects a representative to attend and cast their votes. I am grateful to have been selected to represent our district at the 2019 COL. It was amazing and educational. Different districts around the world have different issues and part of the challenge of deciding on the legislation was determining whether every district in the world should be impacted by a change designed to solve a problem in a single, or a few districts. It certainly required a great deal of study, contacting resources and listening with an open mind to debate from both sides of every issue. And I want to thank all of the Rotarians in our district that shared their opinion and knowledge with me as I prepared for the COL – you were all a great help!

The 2019 COL representatives reviewed 117 proposed changes:

• 17 to change the Avenues of Service, Object of Rotary or Core Values
• 16 to change Club or District Administration (board members, committees)
• 7 to change meeting or attendance requirements
• 3 to change club membership requirements
• 16 to change election processes (RI President, RI Directors or DGs)
• 11 to change the power of the RI Board
• 5 to change RI committee or convention processes
• 14 to change dues
• 19 to change the Council on Legislation
• 2 to update document language without content change
• 2 to change membership to Rotary International
• 1 to change the tax status of Rotary International

If you would like to see the exact wording of the proposed enactments, log into My Rotary and go to Learning & Reference / Councils on Resolutions & Council on Legislation. Under Archive at the bottom, you can find all of the proposals as well as the voting results.

The representatives this year approved 48 enactments, rejected 56 and 13 were withdrawn before consideration (mostly because they weren’t needed after another enactment was approved). Just as a point of information, all 17 of the proposed changes to the Avenues of Service, Object of Rotary or Core Values were rejected.

One of the big things that happened at this Council was rejecting all attempts to reverse changes made in the 2016 COL. Clubs will continue to have control over meetings, attendance and membership. This Council upheld the autonomy of the clubs, and I am very proud of that.

We also approved a $1 a year increase in dues for the next three years and passed legislation to require transparency from the Rotary International Board regarding actions on Resolutions. One controversial enactment called for a reduced number of Board members, past RI Presidents and others attending the COL. The action was taken to reduce the expenses of conducting the COL.

There were also a couple of very big changes that could change the face of Rotary (in a good way). The first is that Rotaract Clubs will now be members of Rotary International. No, they won’t be equal to Rotary Clubs or pay dues. But, they will be entered into the RI database allowing us to maintain contact with them and them to contact each other. Now, Rotarians who are traveling can go to Rotary.org and find a nearby club to visit. Rotaractors have not had this available to them – once they are in the system, they will have the ability to find and interact with each other.

The other big change was the authorization to change Rotary International to a 501(c)3. This will allow them to accept donations from people who want to support the recovery of the Paul Harris home or businesses that want to be sponsors for the International Convention. In the long run, this could reduce dues increases for Rotarians!

Look for the new Manual of Procedures to be published in October, but all of the approved changes will take effect on July 1. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to represent you – and I hope you provide the same level of support to our next COL representative, Bob Hagan. If you have questions or would like to talk to me about the COL results, please contact me. I am glad to share!