What does Rotary do?

Eight little words give us the answer.
 
This is a letter found in the Rotarian magazine, November 2017 issue. 
Written by Joseph J. Kovarik, Cottage Grove, Minn.
 
RI President Ian H.S. Riseley expressed his concern, in the August president's message, that we have "had a difficult time conveying the scope of our work."  Later he asks, "What does Rotary do?"  I'd like to offer an answer in just eight words.  The compact response is derived from posing three questions: What do we do? Where do we do it? How do we do it?
 
Consider:
What do we do? Improve people's lives.
Where do we do it? Locally and globally.
How do we do it? Through service.
 
Such a mission-minded claim underscores our action orientation.  We just observe that we are a leadership organization with a deceptively singular force: Improve peoples lives, locally and globally, through service.  We can reduce our statement to six words if we adopt the portmanteau word used by Atlanta's mayor, Kasim Reed, in his speech at the Rotary International Convention: "glocal".  Our alternate six-word definition of Rotary could read: Improve peoples lives glocally, through service.  
 
Your choice - eight or six words - in our continuing effort to assert the essence of Rotary.