First of all, a very big ‘Thank You’ to the clubs that have grown this year. 15 of you have made positive growth in the rosters of your clubs. You lead your communities, and your Rotary District, with determination. Thank you for your efforts.
A special note to Lake Ozark Daybreak (+13), Springfield Southeast (+8), Bolivar (+7), Thayer / Mammoth Spring (+6), Lebanon (+5) and Springfield (+5) for leading our District…way to go!
Let’s make sure we’re focused on a very strong finish to our year. April, May & June represent the 4th Quarter of the Rotary year. Let’s look at this as the finish line. It’s in site, but as in any race, it’s how you finish that determines the winners. My philosophy on membership is different than the norm. I don’t like ‘membership drives’, and no one else does either. So…let’s NOT have one. Let’s look at it like this…we are all service clubs. We exist to help those less fortunate than us. Now…let’s scratch the work ‘membership’ from our vocabularies, and replace it with ‘help’. Let’s all put together a short list of prospects that could ‘help’ us do a greater work than we already have. Isn’t that what this really is…finding more great help for our club’s work in our communities? It doesn’t matter where we are, the need continues to grow. We need additional help just to match the growth in need.
Here is my request of each member in the District…please put together a short list of five (5) business people that you admire…high character, high integrity people that would make your club better. Invite them…one or two at a time…to your next meeting. Make sure you’ve completed this by the end of April. We’ll then have the months of May and June to get them on board for the new Rotary year. This will also serve as a positive and fitting finish to this year for our Governor, Mark Pearce. Mark is a wonderful man, with a heritage of membership development. Let’s honor Mark’s amazing work this year with a strong and positive push to the finish line. We owe that to Mark, but more importantly, we owe that to our communities.
As a closing thought, I would like to ask each of you to look deep inside your heart and ask yourself…am I doing every single, possible thing I can to better my club every day? Be honest with yourself…are you? Remember…its Service Above Self. That means we occasionally put the work of Rotary in front of everything else. That’s acceptable, and appropriate. If you need reassurance that it is, go to your local food bank and ask them if they have all the food they need for distribution. Go to your local thrift shop and ask them if everyone has the shoes and socks they need, the clothes they need, coats, gloves, etc. You get the picture. Now…once again…look deep inside your heart and ask yourself one more time…am I really…honestly, doing everything I can to help my neighbors in need? The answer for every one of us is…no. I fully realize we each have our limits, and that is fine. What we need is more help. So…are you doing everything you possibly can to find more great help for the work of your club? Please be honest with yourself. Please make a strong push to the finish line. Let’s do this for Governor Pearce, but more importantly, let’s do this for the needy in our communities. Wanna’ feel extra good about yourself tomorrow? Do something amazing for someone else…today!
Yours in Rotary Service
John Adam Caran
District Membership Chair
[email protected]
573-473-7033