So why did he join Rotary? “This may sound frivolous, but because I was asked.”

He was invited to speak at a Rotary club, “they seemed like nice people”, and then when they approached him a couple of weeks later saying that a new club was being chartered, and would he like to join, “I asked Juliet for her opinion. She was happy with the concept that it broadens our acquaintance levels.” At the ‘interest meeting’, he found “all the business and community leaders of the suburb where we lived were present. We had fun, enjoyed ourselves and when the structure of what Rotary does was explained, I thought why would I not want to be involved in this group which had the crème de le crème of that area?”

On his priorities as RI President, Riseley says, “I’ll be very happy if at the end of my year of Rotary leadership, the world knows more about Rotary than it does now.” Ian is urging Rotarians to keep account of the hours of community work they complete. This, he says, comes also from “my professional curiosity” to keep an account of the number of hours Rotarians put in as volunteers. Till now, the Rotary world has no clue about this collective figure, which when available would give Rotary image coordinators something specific to talk about.

Riseley is also very passionate about the environment and asks all Rotary leaders to ensure that at least one tree per member is planted per club; this would make our planet greener by at least 1.2 million trees in the coming year.

Want to learn more about our incoming RI President? Click here!