Jim Dunny
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Program for Tuesday, August 12, 2014
The speaker for August 12, 2014 will be our own marketing guru, the Hat Man, Rob Weinberg. Rob will be speaking to us about what else? - Marketing and How Effective Marketing Helps our Businesses.
Meeting Assignments
Date
Who Am I
Cheering for Rotary
August 12, 2014
Martin Sheps
Paul Gorman
August 19, 2014
Bill Mortimer
Alison Farrin
The assignment for the Who Am I includes providing the positive thought at the beginning of the meeting and introducing guests and visiting Rotarians during the meeting.
Cheering for Rotary assignment includes selling opportunity drawing tickets.
Being a Rotarian gives us opportunities for service in areas that are often beyond what we might normally encounter. Kim Muslusky, a longtime Rotarian and recent transfer to RB Sunrise tell of her experience in her involvement in a recent Thousand Smiles Foundation Surgican Treatment weekend in Ensenada, Mexico.
Kim relates how she felt before the weekend. Although she has participated in numerous previous weekend clinics, she still was reluctant to go again. This is an experience we all have when we are faced with a challenge. As she tells her story, we can experience with her the special satisfaction she experienced during that weekend. The people that Thousand Smiles treats get world class treatment at no cost to themselves. We can count the cost in dollars of such a weekend. However there is no possible way to put a pricetag on the satisfaction Kim experienced or the gratefulness of the children and families that are helped each time Thousand Smiles Foundation holds a clinic weekend.
Do you have a Rotary story. The world wants to know your Rotary story. Because Rotary's mission is to Take Action to make the world a better place, Rotarians have the unique experience of getting to make a difference to change other people's lives, but also to have their own lives immeasurably enrisched in the process. In telling our Rotary stories, we use the most effective means of reaching the next generation of potential Rotarians. We can list facts and benefits when we tell others about Rotary, but our most effective tool is our own story about how Rotary has impacted us.
By Teree Bergman, an assistant regional Rotary Foundation coordinator
A new Rotary year began 1 July, and that means it’s time to begin a new effort to have our members participate in Rotary’s work by donating to the Annual Fund. Rotary’s Every Rotarian Every Year (EREY) initiative empowers every Rotary member to be part of the humanitarian accomplishments of The Rotary Foundation.
Let me share a number I find unbelievable. During the year that ended 30 June, only 44 of the 666 clubs in the southwest region of the United States where I serve as coordinator earned an EREY banner. That’s a whopping 6 percent! (And keep in mind, not every member has to give $100 to qualify for the banner; the banners go to clubs that achieve a $100 average per member with every member giving some amount, however small.)
It’s hard to understand why so few clubs earn these banners. What Rotarian doesn’t want to be able to say, “I helped improve health, alleviate poverty, and enhance education?” Why would a member attend a meeting every week and never give anything to the Annual Fund?
Surely we can do better. I do not know the reason that we have such a low percentage of donors, but I would guess that part of it is this: we fail to ask. The most common reason people say they joined Rotary is that someone they respected ASKED. It’s the same for the Foundation. If you want people to give, you have to ASK.
Think about it, a $100 annual gift, the benchmark for the initiative, comes out to roughly $2 a week. Who doesn’t spend at least that much each week on things they can’t even remember? That is about half the cost of a tall latte at Starbucks.
What can The Rotary Foundation do with your $2 a week ($100 annual gift)?
Provide three cataract surgeries in India
Buy 15 packets of teaching materials for a school in Costa Rica
Feed a family in India or Pakistan for six months
Bring clean water to 600 school kids in Africa
Not only do small contributions help do big things, but we, as Rotarians, have control over how the money is spent. Annual Fund contributions are divided between the World Fund and the District Designated Fund (DDF). Each district gets to decide how to use its DDF to participate in Foundation grants and activities, not just internationally but in your own local community if you choose.
Surely we can find a way to get every Rotarian to be a part of the Foundation’s wonderful work by giving. Let’s get more of those banners for Rotary year 2014-15.
In this story from Rotary Voices, Larry Goodwin, past president of the Rotary Club of Palm Desert tells of his experience when he had a heart attach on July 3, 2014 at Lake Arrowhead. Read his story and learn the lessons he learned from this life threatening experience.
