PE Rod will be officially taking the reigns over from President Bob on July 1! He wanted us to know what his plans are for the 2026-27 Rotary year. He titled his presentation "The Rotary Reset - Values, Integrity and Commitment".
He started by thanking us for giving him this opportunity again this next year (Rod's 3rd time as President) and reflecting on the ANR in past years.
He was club president in 2001 when we met at the Centre' where 3DPT is now when we had 30-40 members attending. He was president again in 2018 where he said he was noticing a shift in attendance and participation and then COVID hit.
Rod said he firmly believes that if we want to stay strong, we have to grow our numbers! This may mean taking some risks and doing things we've never done before or for a while. Rod asked us each to think about "what would make what we do as a club more meaningful. It's a different day and time he said. Life is different.
This is the time to ask "what's not working, what is, what do we need to change?" We'd like to have new energy. Rod said he pictures a clib where we feel connected, where what we do to serve is meaningful, inviting people to join, etc. He suggested we all start to get out of our comfort zones and think of someone we could invite to join out club. Rod then shared with us his 4 main areas of focus for the coming year:
1. More engaged meetings encouraging more conversations and more invlovement from our members. He wants everyone who attends our meetings to feel good that they came. Rod distributed a sample letter he is proposing be sent out to everyone the club donated money to this past year to ask them to consider a representative who could join our club.
2. Stronger fellowship and more friendship. He said that statistics show that people join organizations is for friendship. The regular club socials that Michele, Londa and Grace have scheduled go a long way to accomplish that, Rod said.
3. Meaningful service projects. This is the very essence of being a "service" club, he said. This is done, once again, with friends who have a common goal and that is to "serve". Rod suggested that we re-engage Launch Lenawee. We have the Pickleball Pavilion project coming up to be named after Greg to look forward to. Yet another example of a meaningful project.
4. Roll with purpose. Again, he suggested we get out of our comfort zones as new members bring new ideas and momentum to our club. If we're not growing, we're dying. We need to just stay focused, he said. Rod said that he has generated over 200 names of people we need to contact about Rotary. He'll run tghat by our members who will select those they know personally so they can contact directly to join our club!
Great job, Rod! It's going to be another great year!
