Interact Celebrates World Rotary Day

Coral Gables Rotarians – Celebrate Rotary 108 Anniversary - February 23, 2013

Coral Gables Rotarians celebrated the 108th Anniversary of Rotary playing bingo with the Veterans at the Miami VA Hospital. We had a Rotary cake, ice cream and drinks and a great time! A great way of Celebrating Rotary’s Anniversary!



 

The Coral Gables Interact also celebrated Rotary’s 108th anniversary by lighting the Biltmore Hotel with “END POLIO NOW”

Preparing for the Future - Future Vision

The Rotary Foundation’s new grant model, Future Vision, took top billing at Rotary’s annual training event for incoming leaders, in preparation for its worldwide launch in July.This year’s International Assembly is focusing considerable resources on training incoming Rotary leaders in The Rotary Foundation’s new grant model, to pave the way for the worldwide launch of Future Vision in July.

The effort is designed to benefit all Rotarians by sending the governors-elect and district Rotary Foundation chairs-elect back to their districts with a wealth of knowledge about the grant model. “The Future Vision plan provides us with an opportunity to be a truly cutting-edge organization, on the same level as many other successful philanthropic organizations, like the [Bill & Melinda] Gates Foundation,” Past RI President and Future Vision Committee Chair Luis Vicente Giay told the incoming leaders. “To ensure the future of Rotary, we need a Foundation that is strong, vigorous, organized, agile, competent, international, and ready to meet the challenges and demands that society, Rotarians, and clubs present to us.”

Giay highlighted several advantages of the new grant model, including streamlining the system into three grant types that fund a variety of activities with fewer requirements. Placing district grants into the hands of a new district committee structure will give Rotary clubs and districts greater flexibility in meeting community needs both locally and internationally, he said. And by linking global grants to Rotary’s six areas of focus, the Foundation will be able to ensure that projects have a greater impact, as well as sustainability – an impact on the benefiting community that continues long after grant funds are expended.

The Future Vision plan has benefited from Rotary’s leadership in the effort to eradicate polio, which has relied on a strategic partnership with other organizations. Reflecting that lesson, packaged grants allow Rotarians to take part in predesigned projects funded entirely by Rotary’s World Fund and its strategic partners.

SE Group Study Exchange to India

The 2012 2013 Rotary District 6890 Group Study Exchange Team will be traveling to Rotary District 3080 in India on February 10,2013.

The Team will spend a month with local Rotarians visiting companies and places relating to their respective professions.

Michal Mayer from the Upper Keys Rotary Club will be leading the Team. The Team Members are Marissa Leichter,  sponsored by the Miami Brickell Rotary Club, Kyle Mullen, sponsored by the Miami Shores Rotary Club, Nadia Payan and Andy Navratil, sponsored  by the Rotary Club of  Coral Gables. We wish them a very successful trip!

LEGAL DISPUTES AND LEGAL FEES: PART I

By PP Frank Sexton
    
Let’s discuss an unpleasant subject, right up there with hemorrhoids, death and taxes: legal fees, particularly legal fees you can incur if you or your company files a legal action or, heaven forbid, are made a defendant in a legal proceeding.

As a litigator of 39 years (I know, it’s hard for you to believe!), my first piece of advice would be: avoid litigation if you can, preferably by first choosing good business partners (often tough for those of us not clairvoyant) and second, by preparing for the worst and utilizing well thought out contracts for your commercial endeavors which provide for alternative dispute mechanisms, such as mandatory pre-suit binding mediation or arbitration.

As you know from various craft talks we’ve had, a mediator is a paid independent third party who meets with the parties to the dispute informally, listens to both sides, and attempts to get the parties to agree to a resolution or settlement.  Once reduced to a written agreement, the settlement reached at mediation is a final resolution of the matter.  And, the beauty of a mediation is that if it fails, nothing that the parties said during it can be used in any subsequent court proceeding or arbitration.  If there is a lawsuit, don’t be afraid to suggest mediation early; many litigants think that such a suggestion is a sign of weakness or lack of resolve.  Both parties, however, typically become more mediation-minded after the first several monthly legal fee bills arrive in the mail….it’s amazing what a five or six-figure legal bill can do to a litigant who previously told his or her lawyer “I’d rather pay you every cent I have rather than pay that s.o.b. a dime…”  Never be afraid to ask counsel to maneuver the matter into the proper position for a good mediation, and above all……prepare for the mediation!  Don’t just go through the exercise without hope.

I’m not telling you to ignore wrongs done to you or your business, or to be a doormat, but, to the extent possible, try to retain a clear business judgment in such a circumstance and involve people you trust, business associates or counsel, in the decision because you yourself may be too close to the situation to think rationally.  Many commercial agreements contain provisions providing for meetings, first, and mediations second, prior to any legal action, in the event of a dispute.  Of course, the right mediator in such a situation is critical.  And, as in any other endeavor, there are numerous mediators around whose effectiveness varies widely.  In this community, they range from the grossly disinterested and ineffective chumps whose function seems to be to charge for time and to take in oxygen, to the tenacious, bright and creative solution-seekers who refuse to let the parties NOT settle. Seek the advice of those familiar with local mediators to separate the frogs from the princes. 

One alternative, of course, in lieu of filing a civil action, can be mandatory, binding arbitration, which is best provided for in the initial contract between the parties at the beginning of the relationship: in the event of a dispute, it will say, the parties agree to submit this matter to arbitration before the entity that will run the arbitration, such as the American Arbitration Association.   In our next column we will offer the good, bad and ugly, the pros and cons of arbitration, and suggestions for insuring a successful, least expensive, arbitration.

Stay tuned to this station!