President
Hey, it’s July 1st so I guess that means officially Deborah is done, and I have the honor and privilege to lead this fantastic group of Rotarians.
I do not have the foresight to know how this year will go, but I do have the faith that our Board of Directors, our Avenues of Service Directors and our members will mentor and help lead us through this year, because after all being in Rotary is not about one person, but rather about a group of people seeking a common ground to do good and make peoples lives better for our efforts.
I am currently sitting in a Eurostar Station in Paris waiting to take the train back to London so that I can catch a flight back home tomorrow. I do miss home and I miss my Rotary Family very much. In my time in Rotary I’m not sure I’ve missed 4 meetings let alone 2 in a row and trust me I miss our meetings! I would like to thank the club for the opportunity to attend the convention in Birmingham. It was a fantastic opportunity to spend time with Rotarians and to become reinvigorated for the year to come.
Three people that I had the opportunity to hear were Mia Farrow, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Dr. Jane Gooddall, United Nations Messenger of Peace, and our own DGE Deepa Willingham. The thing that struck me the most is that each one of these people had very compelling issues that truly need to be addressed and resolved. Then you walk through the House of Friendship and look at the booth’s with other club’s projects addressing many, many different issues covering everything from malaria eradication, water purity, shelter, education … it becomes a bit overwhelming to think how can we help? How can we help these people and the thousand’s of other people with equally compelling issues? The answer I have come up with is as a club we can’t. But that is the true beauty of Rotary. Even though we may not be able to help, somewhere in the world there is a club that will take up their causes. What I have come to believe is that as a club we must focus our efforts and, whatever cause we decide to make a difference in, let’s do it. Let’s do it to the best of our ability. Let’s work as a group to continue to make a difference in our international projects, but we must make a difference locally too. We must do something to help people in need in our own community also.
These are trying times in our country. More and more people are in need on a daily basis. We saw that in our own club last year. We had numerous people leave our Rotary family because financially it became too difficult. We will be using some of the money generated from our Casino Night fundraiser to benefit FoodShare, but, one of the charges I will be putting before your board of directors is to determine what can we do in our own local community to make a meaningful and sustainable difference for those in need. We have a legacy of doing good work in Mexico and Nicaragua, but what projects do we do locally that will make a difference? We need to improve in this area.
My goals for this year are simple.
1.) If we are not having fun, it’s not worth doing. So let’s make sure if we do something we have fun.
a. 100% involvement and participation. You need to participate in our major fundraisers at least!
2.) We must grow our membership!
3.) We have $20,000 from Deborah’s year to use for our International and local projects. Let’s invest that money wisely and support the groups that can do the most good for our International and local communities.
4.) We must leave next year’s board with more money than we started this year with.
We have a long history of creating sustainable International Projects in Nicaragua and Mexico. Now more than ever we must make an impact in our local community. Too many of our friends and neighbors are suffering and we must do something to make a difference. I have issued a challenge to your board and now to you as club members. Before this Rotary year is over let’s find or make a project in our local community where we can make a difference in lives here! It’s time and it’s the right thing to do.
This year’s Rotary theme is a very appropriate one to me. “The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands.” I say this because I would like for our club to keep a lyric from a Supremes song on your mind this year. “Reach out and touch somebody’s hand, make this world a better place to be.” Let’s work as a group to make a difference in our community this year. Let’s all reach out and touch somebody’s hand and make THEIR world thus our world a better place to be.
Thank you for your trust and confidence and let’s have a fantastic year!
Yours in Rotary Service
Jeff
