Rotary International District Governor, Jon Catlin
New Beginnings of Lemonade
July 1 – Happy Canada Day, July 4th Happy Independence Day, July 12 Happy Birthday to our very own rock star and Chief Administrative Officer, Kathy Hegedus and also Rotary International First Lady Susanne Knaack.
July 1st in the Rotary Year is a new year, a new start, and therefore a new beginning. Welcome to 2020-2021 Rotary Year where Rotary Opens Opportunities. I love the theme, it has personal meaning to me. As Rotary International President Holger Knaack stated “Everything we do opens another opportunity for someone, somewhere.” Through the many kind interactions, invitations, and friendships I am humbled to be the District Governor for this year.
RI President Knaack, has stated for this year he would love to see clubs take on three initiatives:
- Sometime this year to have a Strategic Meeting and determine what you would like your Club to look like in 3-5 years and then plan on how to get to that point.
- Engagement of Members- Instead of always looking at adding members to meet numbers, look at the current members and how do we engage them more with the Club. Also, anytime you add a new member make sure that they are a good fit for the Club and will be an engaged member!
- End Polio – We are so close (imagine my hand up with my thumb and pointer finger just a few millimeters away from each other). We have made a promise to the world and we must fulfill our promise of a Polio free world for the children of the world.
I agree with President Knaack and believe that he has Rotary’s short term and long term best interest at heart. We all need to look inwardly at the Club level from time to time and make sure we have a vision and purpose that we can get behind. We all want Club members that volunteer readily for the meetings, activities and projects and I believe that everyone would agree that getting rid of Polio would be a wonderful, historic opportunity for mankind!
This year in Rotary we are still reeling from the effect of COVID-19 in our daily lives. We have been given a bunch of lemons over the last four or five months. Our world has been turned upside down, we have been given a new normal, although we don’t know where that will end up yet. Rotarians have risen to the challenge. Or as my mom and dad taught me, have made lemonade out of lemons. I have been impressed in my few Governor visits so far of the people that while still practicing social distancing have been able to do projects in their communities, fundraising is still happening and Club meetings are slowly starting to return to in person meeting. Whether it is at a park, a pavilion, or back to the place where your Club normally meets, it was wonderful to see Rotarians sharing fellowship again. Not all Clubs are doing that yet, some are still in Zoom meetings and that is fine also! Everyone needs to feel comfortable in moving forward. I truly believe that for this Rotary year and behind most Clubs will have an in-person component as well as a virtual component. We have been able to remain engaged with our members that were snowbirds, that were housebound, that did not feel comfortable going outside.
I hope that all of you are able to spend time outside this summer enjoying the sunshine, the flowers, the beautiful nature and fresh water that surrounds us in a safe manner. This is a time for us to recharge our batteries and enjoy where we choose to live and volunteer to make a better place in the world. As for me I am going to go have a glass of lemonade. J