In lieu of our regular meeting, please join us at 6:00pm this Wednesday at member Jenny Parker's home* for our club Christmas party! There will be yummy pot-luck food, the famous rotary bar, a white elephant gift exchange, and more! Don't forget to bring your pot-luck item (if you didn't already sign up for something with Craig or Sarah, please note the current list of food below and bring something you feel is lacking). Also, make sure to bring an item for our white elephant gift exchange - this should be a wrapped gift of no more than $20ish dollars in value. It can be a gag gift, something unusual, or just a really awesome gift you'd want yourself. Bring one gift per person in your party that wishes to participate. At the party, we'll draw names to see who gets to pick from the gift pile first and then take turns after that. The beauty of the white elephant is your ability to steal gifts from other people - it can get pretty competitive!
*The gate code for Jenny's complex is 1776, though if parking inside her complex is full you may need to park on the outside street and walk through the gate.
Current pot-luck items:
Falafel & Hummus
Veggies & Dip
Chips & Dip
Eggrolls
Manicotti
Sausage & Meatballs
Shrimp
Casserole
Mac n Cheese
Baklava
Krispy Kreme Donuts
Jelly Shooters
Chocolate Dessert
PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT IS FOR MEMBERS PLUS ONE GUEST EACH, ONLY.
Questions or want to add something to the agenda? Reach out to Craig Hothem, Club President.
While not official club sanctioned service projects, if you're looking to volunteer a bit more this holiday season, here are a few events worth checking out:
Saturday, Dec 16 10:30am-12pm: Serve Lunch at the San Diego Rescue Mission. The SDRM houses many homeless families going through their transitional program, as well as serves hundreds of thousands of meals to other homeless people throughout the year. They need help serving lunch on a weekly basis. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1549268115135360/ for more information and to register.
Friday, Dec 15 - Sunday Dec 17: Holiday Baskets with the CRC (Community Resource Center). This large annual event is a "free shopping experience" for many San Diego low-income families. They receive baskets of staple items along with a few fun gifts, and the CRC needs volunteers to help create and distribute the baskets. See http://crcncc.org/integrative-services/holiday-baskets/ for more information.
If you know of any more volunteer events you want to see on this calendar, please email Sarah D. at Sarah.E.Davis@Thrivent.com.
Many of you have asked how exactly a white elephant gift exchange works, so we wanted to lay out the rules:
1. Each player brings one wrapped gift to contribute to a common pool. ~for our game, the gift should be no more than $20ish in value and should aim to be gender neutral (i.e.: no makeup or beard trimmers).
2. Players draw names to determine what order they will go in.
3. Players sit in a circle or line where they can see the gift pile.
~To make things easier, everyone should sit in the order in which they will take their turns.
4. The first player selects a gift from the pool and opens it to make sure everyone can see the gift.
5. The following players can choose to either pick an unwrapped gift from the pool or steal a previous player’s gift. Anyone who gets their gift stolen in this way can do the same – choose a new gift or steal from someone else.
~To keep things moving along, there are a couple of limits on gift swapping:
A present can only be stolen once per turn, which means players who have a gift stolen from them have to wait to get it back.
After three swaps, the turn automatically comes to an end (otherwise things could drag on for a long time).
6. After all players have had a turn, the first player gets a chance to swap the gift he or she is holding for any other opened gift. Anyone who’s gift is stolen may steal from someone else (as long as that person hasn’t been stolen from yet). When someone declines to steal a gift, the game comes to an end.
Friends, Romans, and Rotarians, lend me your ear... The time to face reality is now. Despite Sarah and Craig urging all club members to step up to the plate to volunteer for a board position, more than half of all club members have said no. This leaves a hole in the very heart that is our club. We simply cannot function efficiently without certain roles. If we have no treasurer, who will balance our budget, cut checks, settle accounting errors, file necessary tax paperwork? Without a service chair, the very reason we all joined rotary (serving others) may fall to the wayside. Without a fundraising chair, how will we raise money for any of the worthy projects our club looks to support? Without a PR chair, how would any of us know the schedule, location, and times of events (and who would be there to guilt you into doing the right thing with their witty bulletin)? And, with no leader for 2019, what hope is there for the future of a club that is simply 'too busy'.
What does the 2018-2019 year look like without those key board positions? Imagine a rotary club that does no volunteer work, raises no funds for the disadvantaged, collects no dues, and has no future leader - essentially everything that rotary is dissolves because... 'I'm too busy'. If service above self is really our motto, how can trivial things get in the way of that all too righteous pursuit? Are we really too busy or is it that rotary just isn't a priority anymore? If the latter, why?
The positions that need to be filled are:
President Elect (who's term will begin July 1, 2019)
Treasurer
Public Relations
Fundraiser
Service
And so, due to the lack of enthusiasm for sitting on the board and the general listless feeling some club members currently have toward our meetings, we thought it would be good to have a deeply raw and structured Club Assembly meeting in January (date to be announced soon). Mari Pullen has offered to facilitate said meeting so we can gain feedback from members about what is working, what we should stop immediately, and ideas to explore. Our goal is to make this club a priority for all and to reignite your passion and enthusiasm for Rotary. We want to see better attendance, which will only happen when every feels they get value out of being there. We want to see more engaged members, willing to commit time to serve, and we know to get that, we may have to restructure certain board roles and their associated duties. We recognize that there are things that do need to change if our club is to continue on, and we are very willing to do what it takes to make it work. Please be on the lookout for that assembly date, and please try your best to attend. The future of our club depends on it.
We're so happy that you're interested in our club and want you to have all the latest details of our upcoming events!
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