Covered alot of ground today. Session opened up with a challenge....defining the upcoming Rotary year. What kind of year would I like, accomplishments, goals? The coming months will see me defining and refining the club's objectives. DG-Elect Bert Godin (District 7010) suggested putting the "i" in TEAM. As members, you will and should all have a role in setting our future course. In the weeks ahead I call on you to let me know how you would like YOUR club to take shape. Are there charitable causes that you would like to see us contribute to and / or events that you would like us to be involved with? What do you like about the club? What do you not like? How can we be better? How can our club make a difference in our community? This blog is an excellent venue for the sharing of your ideas.
Rotary Shares
A video of incoming RI President Wilf Wilkinson was played. In it he revealed the RI slogan for 2007-8, "Rotary Shares". It is a reminder of the mantra "service above self". It is also a call to spread the word about all the good that Rotary does in our community and around the globe. Further, it is a challenge to expose others to Rotary so that we may grow our clubs and continue to do the very valuable work that we do. Growth should also reflect the diversity of our community. This struck me as particularly important for our club. We are wonderful at coming up with ideas and running events. Where we lack is in the manpower to market our endeavours. We must continue to invite guests to our meetings and should create some process for promoting ourselves in the business community, especially the Argentia Business Park..our neighbours. Partnering with other clubs and charitable causes will also become increasingly more important. Members are also encouraged to learn more about Rotary by attending District Conference, attending other events and by exploring the many resources available to us such as the RI website.
Priorities
Planning, engaging members (engage / involve/ educate), leaving a legacy (ie. a long term plan / continuity), growth were all identified as being important. With respect to planning we were also encouraged to set goals that could be quantified and evaluated afterwards to ensure that our various projects "are working" and are meeting the communities needs. Further, it was suggested that we complete a needs analysis of our community's needs by engaging other local stakeholders.
Service Projects
Global priorities are in the areas of water, hunger / health, literacy, numeracy and Polio Plus. "Every Rotarian Every Year" encouraged. We should lead by example as a club and individuals. We should make RI our charity of choice.
There is much to be done in preparation for July and many valuable ideas were shared in a number of break out sessions. Some of these will be shared with you in July.
Tomorrow, promises to offer another full day of programming. In the meantime, I am looking forward to a fellowship dinner this evening with the Rotarians of District 7010. To date, they have been extremely warm and welcoming!!! I have made many wonderful contacts. Almost enough to make you want to move north........NOT!
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