In doing our club visits, Lynne and I have heard from several clubs that they have been forced to seek new venues due to COVID having placed businesses (mostly restaurants and hotels) in a state of flux or completely out of business. Some clubs are now using temporary venues (churches or community centers) until a new permanent venue is found. The one thing we share is resilience in making our meetings work for all concerned. Making Rotary meaningful and memorable and projects measurable and sustainable is what we do!
August is Membership and New Club Development month. Craig Loughery and Ashley Hall are our District Co-Chairs for Membership and Ashley will be concentrating her efforts more with new club development. Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta has a goal of growing Rotary from 1.2 million to 1.3 million Rotarians in this Rotary year! He reasons that with more people to Serve to Change Lives it impacts us to grow more to do more. Shekhar refers to each of us as his changemakers and that we need to begin by developing our membership. District 5580 Membership Chair Craig Loughery will be working with Co-Chair Ashley Hall and the membership committee this year to develop strategies to gain new members throughout District 5580. Shekhar is also asking all 538 districts worldwide to form 2 new clubs in Rotary Year 2021-22. At the University of Jamestown, ND, a new Rotaract Club was chartered with 21 new members in late July!
Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta is asking all Rotary Clubs worldwide to plan a Rotary Day of Service in this current Rotary year. I encourage all clubs to meet with their members to determine what their club feels would be the best community project the club could do to benefit their community. Please share your club project with our D5580 Public Image Committee (Co-Chairs Scott Soderberg and Stephen Margarit).
District 5580 has a lot to be proud of in the projects we have done in our communities and around the world, so I have selected Celebrate Rotary as the District theme for Rotary Year 2021-22. When Lynne and I visit your club this year, we hope to inspire you by showing all the good works of District 5580. As the Vision statement of Rotary declares: “Together we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves!”