DGs Monthly Message

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AUGUST 2010 

My dear Rotarian colleagues: Can you believe it? August is upon us! I hope, by now all you Presidents are feeling a little more comfortable in your new role as your club’s leader. Yours and my journey together has begun and I have to tell you that it is scary and yet fabulously exhilarating as I dream of the possibilities that our collective efforts can produce!

August is an exciting Rotary month for me as it is designated by RI to be the Membership Month. Those of you who know me well, know, how much Rotary means to me and how it is my mission to spread the Rotary “message” to as many people as I can, particularly during my year as your Governor. So, of course, I don’t have to tell how delighted I was when, one of my idols PRID Sam Greene, RI’s Centennial Year’s Membership Chair, agreed to serve as the 2010-2011 Membership Committee Advisor. I hope all of you, who were there at the District Assembly, were as thrilled as I was listening to Sam, his rich 50+ years of Rotary experience is fascinating and his commitment and dedication to bringing the Rotary message to all the world is awe inspiring. I hope you felt inspired and have decided to accept Sam’s challenge of achieving the goal of 4000 members for the district by June of 2011. Sam, thank you for your continued contribution to Rotary…we are fortunate to have you in our district!

We are also blessed to have PP Nick Frankle (RC/WLV Sunrise) as the Chair of the Membership

Committee, PP David Saint-Amand (RC/China Lake) as the Chair of Public Relations and immediate PP

John Weiss (RC/Morro Bay) as the Club Extension Chair for this year. Membership and Public Relations go hand in hand and Nick, David and John are fully committed to be your resource persons helping your club’s Membership and PR Chairs in these areas. Nick is particularly committed to retention issues and he

is absolutely right! Retention is almost more important than recruitment! We recruit them and then we find that members are leaving…why? Because we have failed to engage them…we have failed make them feel welcome…we have failed to offer value for their time…and we have failed to make Rotary relevant in their lives! Please seek Nick’s advice (nfrankle@earthlink.net) and shore up your retention program and contact EAG David Saint-Amand (david_saintamand@yahoo.com) for club publicity needs.

We are also fortunate to have immediate PP John Weiss as the Club Extension Chair. John knows recruitment…the net gain for his club was 8 new members in 2009- 2010. John knows recruitment and his messages about Rotary are inspiring... he speaks from his heart and people listen. I have asked John to serve as this year’s Extension Chair helping some of you, who may be interested, to establish at least one new Eco-club (PDG Jock Mackenzie’s suggestion) and with the help of EAG Terry Schaeffer establish one new New Generations club and a few community-based Rotaract Clubs. Please contact John (jweiss@infostations.com) and Terry (wxbs@pacbell.net) if you are interested about these ideas.

Finally, by now you may be asking, “Deepa, why are you so hung up about bringing in new members?”

My answer is this; I came from a country where I have seen firsthand how poverty, hunger and ignorance can rob human beings of all that is good and decent ending up with hatred, anger and fear. For example, in 1998 there were 877,000,000 human beings illiterate in the world…that was 1/6th of the human population and yet literacy creates opportunities, improves people’s lives, spawns hope and contributes to world peace. There is a direct correlation between humanitarian services, which Rotary is all about, and peace. So it is natural for me to want to spread the word about Rotary and recruit more like-minded people who are committed to making our world a better place. So please use my club visits as a day for fun, day for inviting guests (our friends, our neighbors, our families, and our coworkers) and make it a day of media blitz!

Remember that membership matters because…“Never in the history of the world have the principles,

For which Rotary stands, been needed as they are today, and when we have carried the message of Rotary to the entire world, we will have made a great contribution to modern times.” - Albert S. Adams, RI President, 1919-20

Deepa