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| July 2008 |
| by Incoming President Terry Reed |
| President's Address |
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Fellow Rotarians,
It is an honor and a privilege for me to serve as President of the West Reading Wyomissing Rotary Club. And I thank you so much for this honor.
As my first official act as President, I want to recognize the truly exceptional service and leadership that has been provided to our club by President David Meas.
As a member of the Board of Directors, I had the opportunity to observe first hand the hard work, dedication, and leadership that Dave provided. Let me assure you, Dave has left this club in a great position.
So it is my pleasure to honor Dave with the presentation of a Past Presidents pin and plaque honoring his service to Rotary and to our club.
Last night Terri Simmons and I attended the District Changeover Dinner in Macungie. Outgoing District Governor Gerry Long presented to our club the 2007 08 Star Award , an honor bestowed to clubs that have contributed at least $100 per member to The Rotary Foundation.
I am strongly aware of this clubs proud tradition of Rotary service to the community. I want to thank each of you for your dedication to Rotary.
This is a very successful and quite remarkable club. Our Club has a well respected and accomplished past that we can be proud of and can build on. We do many great things in our community and also support Rotary International projects. We live the Rotary motto of Service above Self .
This club was founded in 1947, so that would make me the 49th person to have been inducted as the President of this club. A number of our past presidents are here today, so as an illustration of our clubs legacy, I would like to ask all the past presidents of our club stand and be recognized?
In May we held a club planning meeting at which time I asked you what you liked about our club. Here is what you said.
" Great members; love the wide diversity of people and their respective input.
" Many members, not just a few, are involved.
" The club has a positive attitude and a lot of energy.
" We are ambitious. We provide lots of opportunities to be involved.
" The projects we do, the awards we give, and the help we provide, whether monetary or sweat equity covers a wide spectrum.
" Friendly people who are tolerant and show respect for everyones individuality and their personal passions of serving.
" Our club has spirit.
" We share the spirit of service to others.
" Friendly welcoming atmosphere at meetings; very upbeat vibe with high energy.
" Love the fellowship.
" Great programs.
" Our meeting place is superior to that in the past.
" To serve we look outside the box.
Isn't that great! You said those things. What a story we have to tell. This is a tribute to you, and to the leadership we have had. Our Club was blessed by many committed members. Nowhere have I encountered such hard-working members of a volunteer organization.
This is my second Rotary Club. I was a member of the Spring-Ford Rotary Club in the early 90s. I left that club when I started working here in Reading. Im the first to admit that my reason for joining Rotary was because I thought it would benefit our business.
When I joined this club 6 years ago, I became a member for a different reason. I wanted to be involved in doing community and international projects. So Im one of the statistics people join Rotary Clubs, but they become Rotarians. I feel that over the past 6 years I am on my way to becoming a Rotarian.
Every year each Rotary Club decides how to use its time, its skills and talents, and its funds. We are asked to follow the theme established for the year by the president of Rotary International. I am very fortunate to have had quite a few Past Club Presidents help put in place a number of programs and initiatives that I will continue or expand upon in the upcoming year.
The incoming President of Rotary International is D. K. Lee of South Korea. While preparing for his year as president, Mr. Lee observed that every day, some 30,000 children under the age of five die from preventable causes. When he heard this figure, he initially thought that this cannot possibly be the case. Every day, around the world children die needlessly from pneumonia, measles, and malaria. Thousands die from the lack of clean water. And many more die from a combination of factors, in which malnutrition and poverty play major roles. Mr. Lee has asked that reducing the child mortality rate become a key goal of club service and district service projects in the year ahead.
Food and water, health care and schooling, the chance at a long and full life. This is the unrealized dream of too many children.
So D. K. Lee asks us to Make Dreams Real for children and their families and to work toward the Rotary dream of a happier, healthier, and more peaceful world.
For the last few years Rotary has chosen to continue a consistent set of service emphases, focusing every year on projects in health and hunger, water, and literacy. This year we will keep that focus, but will place a special emphasis on projects that will make a difference in the lives of children.
Last night incoming District Governor Bill Weber outlined for us his goals for our District for the coming year.
His goals, like RI President D. K. Lee are:
" infant mortality
" the fight against polio
" boosting membership in each club
I would like to commit the club to meeting District Governor Bill Webers goals, as well as add some of our own.
New members are the life-blood of our organization. We have had great success in the past few years attracting new members. Terri Simmons as Membership Chair has done an exemplary job at developing a plan to boost membership. As we look around the room we see many new faces that were not here 1 or 2 years ago.
But we have also lost an equal number of members. Which goes to prove that we need to continue our push for new members. After all, if you are not growing, youre shrinking.
And so I would like to challenge each of you to bring a prospective new member to the club.
Please invite your friends, acquaintances, colleagues, neighbors and relatives to a meeting. Lets share our enthusiasm with potential members. Keep inviting them as guests. Follow up with an invitation to become a member. I ask all of you to help us succeed with Membership recruitment so we can end this Rotary year with a net increase of 10 members.
You know there are a lot of dynamic young people out there who are starting in business and the professions. These are the tomorrows leaders in our community. Seek them out. Talk to them about Rotary and the good things we do.
Nick Kuric is working on a promotional brochure for prospective members. That will be coming out in the coming months.
We must also focus on our current members and on retention. We have to make sure that each member is fully engaged and involved in the areas that are rewarding and self-fulfilling.
Why do people join Rotary?
In order:
1. networking
2. fellowship
3. service
They join for networking and fellowship. They become Rotarians when they serve .
One way to create Rotarians out of our members is to expand their knowledge of Rotary.
Many of you have said that you just dont understand enough about Rotary. Members need a better understanding of how Rotary works, how it is organized, and how they can be more involved. We also need to see examples of Rotary at work in our community, in other communities in the U. S. and around the world.
We have an amazing amount of Rotary knowledge amongst our members and we need to tap into that knowledge even more than we have in the past and get it all in writing and posted on our website so that it is there and added to each year, so new members see it as they come into our club.
We have to recognize that there are those who like variety and newness. And then there are those who need the familiar, and like tradition. We need to recognize and respect our differences. There are those who thrive on organization and structure and committees, and there are those who just want to roll up their sleeves, dig in, get the job done, and move onto the next job. You know who you are. There needs to be room in our club for both types, and we need to encourage and foster members involvement in their own ways.
To help everyone have a better understanding of Rotary, in the coming year, we will hold two Club Assemblies to help us understand the Rotary world and what our club does. Also, at least one of our weekly programs each month will have a Rotary orientation. Each week in addition to our program, we will continue to have announcements or reports about a club activity or project.
To help you understand what our club does, thanks to Karen Dewalt we have a new brochure that lists our club activities and projects. Get it out every now and then and read it.
Tracy Hoffman has done a marvelous job with our website. We are going to continue using the website to communicate and inform, but I would like to add more content in the coming months.
We are going to be more active in recognizing when a members meeting attendance and participation in activities are starting to slip. We will be reaching out to them to make sure that everything is OK.
Many of you mentioned that you would like to have more club social activities so you can get to know each other better, and we can bring our families into the Rotary family.
In the coming year, we will see to it that we organize a variety of activities that are more social in nature. Some of them will be after-work happy hours, while others will be trips and special events. I know that offering a variety of social opportunities will create a stronger club.
Additionally, we will be sharing the clubs financials with members on a more frequent basis so that you know our financial position.
I think our meetings have a great format. I love the combination of education, fellowship, and camaraderie during our meetings, and I know you do, too. Well probably do some tweaking throughout the year to make the meetings even better.
Well have some new faces in the meeting lineup. Bryan Minner is going to be handling the money at the meetings. We will be asking a number of people to help Brian in the greeting of members and guests, collecting lunch money, and selling raffle tickets. Our new Sergeant-at-Arms will be Deb Evans.
As our new President Elect, I look forward to working with Hilda Letman. She and I have become close in the past year working on club and District projects, and I know I can count on her insight and enthusiasm for Rotary.
Brittany Tranquillo has led our Community Service Committee with panache. Her energy and dedication are to be commended. I so very much look forward to working with her as our new vice president as she chairs our programs.
Our club is very well served by Norm Bailey who chairs our Club Service Committee, our secretary Kit Fegley, assistant secretary Bob Besecker, and treasurer Rodger Krause. I thank them for their dedication to our club and I look forward to their continued guidance and direction in the coming year.
In 2008 and 2009 we will continue our support of all the projects that fall under the areas of vocational service, community service, and international service. Under the leadership of Jim Huber, Tom Schreck, and Pat Veleckei, respectively, these committees will continue to do good things and thrive. These three gentlemen are dedicated Rotarians and model leaders. Of course, they are always looking for more help on their committees. Just look at all the great things we do, listed in the new brochure. Several areas that I would like to highlight are the following.
Our Leadership and Ethics Conference and the New Generations Program have been a wonderful educational experience for the young people in Berks County. Len Marrella and Kit Fegley and many others have led this successful program for years and it has gained a reputation as providing quality ethics and leadership training for middle, junior, and senior high school students. I would like to explore how we can expand this program to include more schools and perhaps go beyond our immediate area.
We have been very successful winning District Simplified Grants to do local community projects. Brittany Tranquillo has a perfect record of obtaining a grant each of the past 4 years. Under Brittanys leadership, were going to try for an award again this year.
For several years Karen Dewalt has led our International Service Committee and in the past year has chaired the Districts World Community Service initiative. She has pushed the District and our club into new international project territory and has done an amazing job. There is now a ton of work going on in the international front. In the coming year, I would like our club to champion another international project in which we can leverage Matching Grant funds.
Our 3-H project under the watchful eye of Sanjay Deshpande is going to require a lot of work and we look forward to giving Sanjay the clubs support to help with that project.
Also, under the leadership of Sandy Scheetz and Laurie Kercher we had a successful Youth Exchange this past year. In the coming year we will host a student from France who will attend Wilson High School.
Another international initiative that requires our support is the Shelter Box Program. Due to several recent natural disasters, Shelter Box has been stretched to the limit. I would like to see us support the program in a bigger way. So if there is someone who has interest in the program, I can put you in touch with District people who can use your help.
I encourage you to follow your passions. Help to get Rotary involved in the areas where you see a need. Look for the opportunities where Rotary can serve. All of the things we do started with a need and a club member who was passionate about solving a problem, bringing comfort or relief, honoring or awarding someone. That is the spirit of Rotary. Lets all look for new ways to help.
And you know, not all projects require funds. Many projects we currently do have no funding at all, they just require someone with a passion and a willingness to work to make it happen. Think of things that need done, and bring Rotary into that world.
RotoPlast has been such an important part of who we are as a club. I want to continue our support of RotoPlast. This program has been a passion of Lew Hill and Don Moll and I want our club to continue our support.
Just 25 years ago, believe it or not, 1,000 children were infected by polio every day in 125 countries. To fight the disease, in the 1980s, Rotarians raised $240 million to immunize the children of the world. Rotary provided and still provides an army of volunteers to assist at national immunization days in polio-endemic countries. Two billion children have been immunized.
Today, polio cases have declined by 99 percent, with fewer than 1000 cases each year, and the disease has now been reduced to 4 countries.
We have made great strides, but the work is not yet done. Rotary International made a commitment over 25 years ago to wipe out polio.
By now most of you have heard about the challenge to Rotary from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Foundation has committed $100 million to Rotarys PolioPlus program, if we raise another $100 million. And just in the past week, the leaders of 3 organizations, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and UNICEF have agreed to work together and with Rotary to immunize children in areas of the world where polio is most threatening.
Here is how we can help raise Rotarys share. Once again, District 7430 will hold an on-air auction on WFMZ. The proceeds will go to PolioPlus, Rotaplast and a share will come back to the clubs. Our share will be based on the value of the items contributed by our club.
So I am committing the club to help with the auction, so that we can meet the Districts PolioPlus goal, and so that money comes back into our club.
As many of you know, my future son in law, Captain Michael Urso is serving in the U. S. Army. He returned from his second tour in Iraq on Sunday. I would like us to work with Mike and his unit at Hunter Army Air Field in Savannah and perhaps other units that you know of through family and friends to do something during the holiday season for the Troops serving outside the U. S.
I would like to develop a long-term project for our club, a project that takes more than one year to complete. In the business world, it is known as a BHAG, a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. A project that goes on for several years is something that our club members and our community can rally round. At this point, I have no idea what it would be. But in the coming months, I want to get it rolling. I have asked our past presidents to give it some thought to think about a major need in our community. Well be talking to community leaders, educators, and health care professionals to help us find that need.
So in the coming year, a goal of our club is to begin this long-term project.
Well, I think we can all agree that all these vocational, community, and international projects great. The community needs to know who we are and what we do. We need to help generate better community understanding of Rotary. We need a solid local PR program to brag about the good things we do. We need to brand our club. We need to be known for something. We need more media coverage of our projects and programs. We need to tell the Rotary stories to our members and in the community. And we need to tell it constantly, not just once in a while.
So I want to make sure that a small piece of the story is told every week in our meetings. And our Public Relations Committee under Tom Plasket and Nick Kuric will be working on spreading the word.
Have you ever realized that as you drive into our community, we dont see Rotary signs along the roads and streets? I dont think I noticed their absence until the past year or two. It just never occurred to me. Ive had discussions with the incoming president of the Spring Township Centennial Club and were going to work together on signage for our geographic footprint.
We need to continue to strengthen the relationships we have with our neighboring clubs. I have already reached out to the incoming presidents of the Rotary Clubs in Reading, Spring Township Centennial, Muhlenberg, and Birdsboro, and Ill be talking with other local clubs as well. The presidents will be meeting monthly to exchange ideas, communicate our goals, and find ways to work together in an effort to better serve the Greater Reading area.
We cant do much unless we have the funds to do it. As you have heard we are doing quite well financially. But you all know we can do better. There are many that raise 2 and 3 times the money we raise on their fundraising activities.
Dave Meas has stepped up and expressed his interest in heading a fundraising team. To which I said, Ka-ching! Dave has an interest and a special talent in raising money. And we want to make Dave happy, so we are going to encourage him to do what he loves to do. Raise money! Dave will be exploring ways to bring in additional funds from current fundraising activities and develop new ways.
The funds for our projects come from 2 sources. In addition to the money we raise, funding of our projects come from The Rotary Foundation. Your contributions to The Rotary Foundation have made it possible for our club to purchase a washer and dryer for Family Promise. It has enabled us to purchase childrens books for Opportunity House.
Some of the money for these projects came from The Rotary Foundation in the form of a District Simplified Grant. Your contributions to The Rotary Foundation have made it possible for us to secure a Matching Grant to bring fresh water to villagers in India.
And through our newly-awarded 3-H Grant (funds from The Rotary Foundation) we will make a difference in the lives of 7000 people in 15 villages in India.
I am committing the club to support the Every Member, Every Year program, thats at least a $100 contribution from each member to The Rotary Foundation. Norm Bailey and his committee will be working to make sure that we meet that commitment.
So let me summarize our goals for the year.
1. Increase membership by a net of 10 members.
2. We will ensure that all members are involved.
3. Develop new ways to expand our members understanding of Rotary.
4. We will find new ways to create fellowship and ownership of the club amongst all members through more social activities.
5. Continue, and where we can expand, our current vocational, community, and international programs.
6. Win a District Simplified Grant to do a community project focused on children.
7. Win a Matching Grant to do an international project focused on children.
8. Project to support our troops around holiday time.
9. Develop and begin working on a multi-year community project.
10. Develop ways to promote and inform other about our club and Rotary.
11. Contribute a minimum of $100 per member to The Rotary Foundation.
12. Continue our support of and contribution to PolioPlus.
I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve you as your President. I invite each of you to call me if you wish to discuss anything that you believe will make us a better club. And I commit to you that I will take this responsibility seriously, but I wont take myself too seriously. I will do everything possible to build on our success. And together, we can continue to add to the shared legacy created by all who have come before us.
D. K. Lee said, In 2008-09, I will ask Rotarians everywhere to focus on the most precious resource in every community: our children . I look forward to working with each of you, so that together, for people in this community and around the world, we can Make Dreams Real .
At the President Elect Training Seminar (PETS) that I attended in February, Rotary International President Wilf Wilkinson said, The magic of Rotary is that it allows ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
What are the things that need done? Now lets go do them.
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