Mysore: Rotarian Joseph Mathew will be installed as the new District Governor of Rotary District 3181 for the year 2019-20 at a ceremony to be held on June 29 at 6.30 pm at Hotel Rio Meridian on Sayyaji Rao Road in city. Rotary International (RI) Director Rtn. Dr. Bharat S. Pandya will be the Installing Officer.  District Governor 2018-19 Rtn. P. Rohinath will preside. 

Every year, at the stroke of midnight of June 30, the old Rotary Year ends, ushering in the new. Plans and preparations for change in leadership are undertaken well in advance. This year too, the process of change in Governorship began a couple of years ago to culminate with the installation of the new Governor — Rtn. Joseph Mathew of Rotary Club of Mysore West.

Rotary District 3181 comprises  four Revenue districts of Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Kodagu and Mangaluru. There are 85 Rotary Clubs with about 4,000 Rotarians in this District.

Every year, each Governor has special vision and plans for his District. This year, the new Governor has laid special emphasis on ‘Jeevan Sandhya’ and ‘Gift a Life’. The former extends healthcare to senior citizens, especially to those in Old Age Homes while the latter is a comprehensive programme aimed with the twin purposes of training people to render emergency assistance to those in need and spreading the message that cancer is curable, if detected early enough. The new Governor plans to encourage Clubs to conduct Cancer Detection Camps in rural areas where awareness about this is very low. 

Rtn. Joseph Mathew, a member of Rotary West since 20 years, has served the Club in various capacities. While as President, he won the Best Club Award by bagging a record number of 32 awards. As Assistant Governor, he was adjudged the ‘Best Assistant Governor.’ 

As Club President, Rtn. Joseph Mathew was instrumental in bringing late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, President of India, for the valedictory function of the Science Exhibition for school children conducted by Rotary Club of Mysore West. The laying of the foundation stone for Sneha Kirana Spastic Society was done by RI President-Elect Rtn. Kalyan Banerjee. This was a major project of the Club during his time.

Rtn. Joseph Mathew is married to Annie Joseph, Principal of Capitol Public School. The couple are blessed with two sons — Vishak and Tushar. Vishak is currently the Marketing Head at Greenroom, an advertising firm, and Tushar, a Software Engineer at Accenture.