I Am Not The Whole Difference

Dear Steve,

Thank you for your prompt reply to my yesterday’s mail. I am glad that both you and Nancy are keeping well.

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I have a concern about the item below in your email: "I resign from the Rotary at the end of August 2020".

Please explain what this means with regard to our planning for the possibility of a Global Grant application and an agriculture development project that would certainly require implementation well into year 2021.

Are you stepping back from Rotary and the plan for involvement with a Global Grant application?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Steve

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Yes, I will be resigning from the Rotary. Initially I had decided that I would only resign from the post of the Club’s Secretary. However, as I began to contemplate more, I realized that given my character, a total severing of the umbilical cord is the only way to go. If I still remain in the Rotary, I will be drawn into involvement, one way or the other. And given my level of commitment and passion, I will not be able to resist getting involved. Let me explain.

I should be actually resigning at the end of RI Year: June 30, 2020. However, since I am organizing a Rotary Conference in Thimphu during the last week of July, 2020 on behalf of the Club, I need to be around to tie up any loose ends. I am sure that the event will spill over into August.

I have been the Club Secretary since the last close to 5 years. I have put in 16-17 hours of work every single day - Saturdays, Sundays and holidays included. Such dedicated and passionate involvement became a norm with me - only for one single reason - the realization that the ROTARY world offers immense and bountiful possibilities to countries with limited resources, such as ours. So, I went head long into it - the Rotary Club of Thimphu was my world, my oxygen, my family my entire life’s focus, my very high note.

In other words, I ignored every thing else – my responsibilities and obligations elsewhere. Also I realized one thing: that I am not the SOLE INHERITOR of this wonderful country. I can make a difference – BUT I AM NOT THE WHOLE DIFFERENCE. There are over 500,000 capable adults that can share the burden. And it is important that I offer that opportunity to others who can be as adapt, if not more, than me.

I know your concern arises from the fact that your Club and ours are all primed to implement a GG project in the agriculture sector. Trust me, because of my imminent planned exit from the Club and the Rotary, I have been preparing for it.

You will be happy to know that on 3rd January, 2020 our Club had a meeting when we discussed your project and the need for appointment of a Chair for the same. On that day we appointed the Chair who will spearhead your project. The Rotarian’s name is Ms Kesang Tshomo and she is Project Director of Bhutan’s RDC, Yusipang. Currently she is working with the field agriculture offices to gather data that you need to discuss with your DRFC Chair.

Once she has the data and submits to you, please tell us to go ahead and I will walk the new Chair Tshomo through the GG application process. You will have no problem, I can assure you.

For your information, since its Charter on 24th April 2012, the Rotary Club of Thimphu has brought in over Nu.140.00 million worth of meaningful projects that benefitted the country and the people of Bhutan. No one in the Club is in any doubt as to how meaningful the Rotary is to the people of Bhutan. Thus I assure you that there are many in the Club who recognizes their responsibilities to the Club and, by default, to the country and the people of Bhutan.

I hope I have been able to reassure you that my departure will change nothing in the way the Rotary Club of Thimphu will function.

Bye and take care