Meet Peter Weiglin
Peter, with is wife Jeanne, is a member of the Batavia club.
Bio: Peter Weiglin, District Governor 2012-2013
A few thoughts on Rotary
Taken from Peter’s remarks after his induction as District Governor in June 2012:
What is a Rotary Club? What makes it successful? Every Rotary Club is a unit; every club is different. But what’s the common element?
Consider the amplifier. An amplifier takes an electronic signal, and makes it louder. More sound. The original source for any note may be just a barely audible peep — and then it goes through a few transistors, and comes out loud enough to vibrate the building.
Mechanically, a lever is an amplifier; it takes a relatively small effort and multiplies the effect, so that with a jack, you can lift a car. The jack is a kind of amplifier.
Not too long ago, scientists found out how to amplify light. They can take a low light source and run it through a device that converts energy into photons, and then adds those photons to the ones that enter it at one end ‑ and you have more light coming out of the other end.
So, amplifiers are quite useful; they can take a relatively small bit of energy and enlarge the effect that it has on its environment.
How Will You Put Good Ideas into Action?
Now, you encounter a different kind of amplifier every time you attend a Rotary meeting. No, not the building; not the furniture ‑ not the banners — it’s the people.
When we say that “the Rotary club is doing this,” or “the Rotary Club is helping that cause,” what are we really saying? We’re saying that some, or all, of the people in that club are helping to make something good happen. And the reason it’s an amplifier is that the net result of that collective effort is far more than any one person could do alone.
In June, Past District Governor Chuck Sweeting of the Rotary Club of Urbana (right) inducted Peter as our District Governor for 2012-2013.
The Rotary Club is the amplifier. No two clubs are alike, because the people are different. But the process is the same.
One person expresses an idea ‑ and one or more other people latch on to that idea, because they thought it was a good idea too. And the combined efforts of the Rotarians get far more done than any Rotarian could do alone.
That’s Rotary amplification. And it explains everything that has happened in your club. Ever. Everything that has happened in every Rotary club. Ever.
But there has to be a trigger to move beyond conversation to accomplishment. Somebody has to flip that metaphorical switch that moves us from the inert gas of conversation to action and accomplishment.
So the question is, are you going to be the trigger that moves us from the inert gas of conversation to the fruition of an idea in your club?
Why We Have a District
Similarly, Rotary International District 6670 exists as one of 532 districts worldwide, as an amplifier of the good things that happen in one club; I have often said that our progress comes in part from selective theft. It’s the adaptation of good ideas and successful projects to out own situations. The District committees’ purpose is to help clubs improve and achieve a greater fulfillment. We also work to encourage clubs to work together toward achievements that go beyond the local community borders of a given club — amplification works between Rotary clubs as well as within them.
The District also exists to ensure that Rotary International’s goals and policies are met and carried out in its member clubs; we work so that the things that distinguish a Rotary Club from an ordinary local group or organization are not lost.
If you’re interested in helping that effort at the district level, call or e-mail me. This is not a “closed corporation.”
