Kathye, Nate, Nelson and Yours Truly [resented the program today and took the training program used to orient new members and narrowed it down to about 25% of the typical presentation and shared the information with members today.Kathye addressed the topic of “What is Rotary” explaining that it is an organization – Join Leaders, Exchange Ideas and Take Action. She spoke about the elevator speech which the PR Committee was still working on and shared one that the district had developed when she attended the PETS training. She then spoke about how Rotary began in 1905 by founder. Rotary got its name, she said, from rotating from one location to the next to meet. Kathye concluded her presentation by saying that Rotary is 1.2 million members strong across 200 countries and 38,000 clubs. One of their first projects was to provide toilets in downtown Chicago.
Nate took the podium next to talk about what the many benefits were to being a Rotarian: Making difference in peoples’ lives, developing skills that can be applied to one’s career, and networking with other professionals, gives purpose to our lives among others. The official Rotary Motto, Nate said was SERVICE ABOVE SELF and coined in 1089. The Object of Rotary, he said was to encourage and foster the ideals of service as the basis of worthy enterprise. He went on to say that Rotary’s “Object” is implemented through RI’s five Avenues of Service: Club Service - Community Service – Vocational Service – International Service – Youth Services. Nate showed the breakdown of these and other committees and the members who serve on each and requested this be sent to each member.
PE Nelson stepped up next to speak about The 4-Way Test which was developed by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor in 1932 which is every member’s yardstick to measure one’s level of integrity and ethical standards, he said. He then spoke about we, as Rotarians, are all about including: Digging wells to provide fresh drinking water around the world, Vaccinating children against polio; Restoring eyesight, Build housing, and Educating children among many others. Nelson reported that our club has 59 members currently and we are among 49 other clubs within District 6400 with Paul Sincock as our current District Governor. Next year’s Governor will be John Chambers whose theme will be “Do the Right Thing”. Nelson reminded members that we will celebrate our 100th anniversary as a club in April of 2021. He went over the standard requirements of all Rotarians including attending meetings, joining a committee, paying dues on time, etc.
Yours Truly spoke last and briefly mentioned the dues structure which appears at the bottom of the formal application in the club brochure for prospects the different sites that we use to post club information. They include our club website at www.adrianrotary.org, RI’s website at www.myrotary.org on which club presidents announce their goals for the coming year and track progress and where members can create their own username and password and sign up to have donations to the RI Foundation deducted automatically. Also mentioned was the district website at www.district6400.org, and lastly our club’s official Facebook page at www.facebook.com/adriannoonrotaryclub. Our club tracks membership and creates our weekly bulletin using Clubrunner as opposed to DaCdb which other clubs in the district use.