Rotary eClub One Fellowship – A Pen Pal Comparison

By PP Chris Joscelyne

The 1964 – 1965 New York World’s Fair was the second World’s Fair to be held in that city. It opened on 22 April 1964, and ran for two six-month seasons, concluding on 17 October 1965. The Fair’s theme was PEACE THROUGH UNDERSTANDING dedicated to Man’s Achievement on a Shrinking Planet in an Expanding Universe.

One of the exhibitors was the Parker Pen Company who invited people to visit their pavilion to pick a pen pal.

Meanwhile, in faraway Launceston Tasmania, the island state of Australia, Birchalls Stationery Store was inviting young people to register their names and personal profiles to be matched by computer with young Americans at the Parker Pavilion in New York.

Birchalls Stationary Store had become famous when J A Birchall, in 1902, came up with the bright idea to glue several loose pages of paper together to avoid the writer having to carry loose sheets of paper around the place - and so we had the world’s first writing pad. The “Silvercity Writing Tablet” was a winner and was soon copied throughout the world.

I was one of the teenagers who registered my name at Birchalls in1964. Several weeks later I was matched (based on my profile and interests) with a teenage girl from Brooklyn. She had visited the Parker Pavilion at the World’s Fair and had submitted her profile. What followed has been a pen pal friendship that has continued for 43 years. What Sharon and I have learned is that distance does not hinder lasting friendships between likeminded people.

Having been a Rotarian for over 30 years, and President of three Rotary clubs, including Australia’s largest Rotary club, I am acutely aware of the importance of fellowship as the “glue” that keeps Rotarians engaged. Since I became a member of Rotary eClub One I have realized once again that distance does not hinder fellowship between likeminded Rotarians.

When I established my pen pal friendship in 1964, communication was by Parker pen and paper, sometimes accompanied by snapshot photographs and reel-to-reel tapes of voice recordings that took two weeks to travel between sender and receiver.  Members of Rotary eClub One enjoy fellowship and friendships with fellow Rotarians with much more sophisticated enablers including email, free internet voice connections, collaboration software, instant messaging, and teleconferencing.

When members of Rotary eClub One meet face-to-face, at our Annual Dinner or when we visit the home city of a fellow member, we greet each other as established friends who have already shared news of our individual lives, week by week and month by month, via the fast and highly effective technologies available today.

Some Rotarians who are members of terra clubs ask me: “How can a Rotary eClub operate when there is no fellowship?” My response is: “Fellowship between members is one of the best features of Rotary eClub One. We may be separated by distance, but from a friendship and fellowship perspective we are a close-knit bunch of Rotarians who enjoy keeping in close contact with each other while share the ideal of Service Above Self.”

I consider members of Rotary eClub One to be among my most trusted friends. They are great company … either face to face, or via the communication technologies that “shrink the globe”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Joscelyne is a Past President of Rotary eClub One. He is also a Past President of the Rotary Club of Sydney and a Past President of the Rotary Club of Grafton in Australia. He was a charter member of the Rotary Club of Kings Meadows in Tasmania. Chris is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow.