As Natural As Taking A Breath

 
January is Vocational Service Month.  We have all heard the term a lot in Rotary but do we really know what it means to provide Vocational Service? 
 
We should know…Vocational Service is the very essence of Rotary, the foundation on which the organization was built, and the thing that sets us apart from other service organizations.  In my experience, Vocational Service is the one Avenue of Service we all sort of hedge around because we aren’t really too sure what to do about it. Youth Service seems easy enough, as does International, Club and Community Services.  They are all words we know the meaning of and we can easily correlate the things we do with those words to say we performed that service.  (ie. we engaged the young people from UMaine to help us build a float and do fall clean up out at Pickerel Pond so that was Youth Service; we scooped out free ice cream to the community at Riverfest.  Obviously that was Community Service!  You get the idea.)
 
But what do we do that is Vocational Service?  Do we do anything?  Maybe we do…and just maybe we don’t even realize that we provide vocational service on a fairly regular basis.
 
Vocation is defined my Merriam-Webster as:
  1. a summons or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action; especially :  a divine call to the religious life.
  2. the work in which a person is employed.
  3. the special function of an individual or group.
A vocation can be a calling to do something you feel a passion for or it can be your occupation, and for those of us lucky enough to have found one in the other, it can be both. 
 
So how do we perform Vocational Service?  It’s probably easier than you think.  Clint did it a couple weeks ago when he told us all about his work in aerial refueling in a craft talk.  Bugsy does it every time he builds something new out at Pickerel Pond for MYFGA.  And the scholarships we award each year are certainly Vocational Service.  Sometimes our Avenues of Service overlap and we don’t even realize that we have slipped into another Avenue.  It was Youth Service when we had the kids from the college help us build the float….BUT it was also Vocational Service when Doug sought out the engineering majors to help in the box construction during the float building. 
 
Why? Because in each of these instances Rotarians used something they are passionate about and/or their professional skills and knowledge to serve others in some capacity.  See...it really is pretty easy.  It is stuff we do all the time without giving it a thought; like being fair and honest in our business dealings, inspiring those we do business with to act likewise.
  • Talk about your vocation in your club, and take time to learn about fellow members’ vocations.
  • Use your professional skills to serve a community.
  • Practice your profession with integrity, and inspire others to behave ethically through your own words and actions.
  • Help a young person achieve his or her career aspirations.
  • Guide and encourage others in their professional development.
 
Doing any of these things means we are performing Vocational Service and we do it all the time.  It isn’t the "hard" Avenue of Service at all.  For Rotarians who are called to service and guided by the Four Way Test, Vocational Service is as natural as taking a breath.