IF WISHES WERE HORSES...
If Wishes Were Horses:
A Rotarian's Observations on Club Membership
By Erva A. Denham
Rotary Club of St. Thomas II
District 7020, Club 6795
To begin, I love being a Rotarian because this organization, above all of the others with which I have been and am currently affiliated (many of them), has given me the best chance to give back, with a sense of immediacy, to a community that has been very good to me.
There are, I am sure, a few other Rotarians who gained entrance to the wonderful world of Rotary before actually becoming a member of a Rotary Club. In my case, the incoming Treasurer of my Club was the General Manager at a Public Television Station where I was the accounting department. From the beginning of his year as Treasurer, I became the "Treasurer's treasurer" and even attended a few Rotary Board meetings with him. To make a long story short, both he and the Club President that year (1995-96) became my sponsors and I was inducted in September of 1996.
Since my official induction into the Club until now, I have held just about every office and position there is in the Club. I am a Past President, am currently serving the Club as Public Relations Chair, Chair the Scholarship and Literacy Committees, and hold a District level position as Alumni Chair.
So why am I describing myself (VERY BRIEFLY) and not yet getting to the titled topic? Only for this reason: as in any organization, and you already know that I'm involved with quite a few of them, I can say that many members of our organization can be described as various types of horses all of which have special characteristics, and act in the name of Rotary on various levels.
The easiest way to describe our Rotary horses is to base it on age and/or activity level within a Club. The youngest group is "the foals." These are the colts and fillies who, typically, have been Club members for three years or less. They have lots of energy, are very anxious to get involved, but because they don't yet know how a Rotary Club functions, they also don't know quite how to do what they would like to do because the older members haven't yet let them know how to channel that "young colt and filly" energy. The foals also have either not taken or had the time to read and absorb the Club Constitution, the Club Bylaws or the overawing Manual of Procedures. They also have not been in the Club long enough to understand its traditions and practices. The foals are often looked upon somewhat suspiciously as they can seem to be an unstated threat to a Club's comfortable status quo. There are some, however, who remain in the "foal" category throughout their Rotary lives because they haven't taken the time to read and understand the Rotary "rules," or bothered to learn the Club's essential procedures, either. Those in the older foal category are often left to wonder why they don't get elected to Board level positions or get asked to serve as major committee chairs.
At the opposite end of the foals in a Club's membership is the group that has literally put itself "out to pasture." These are usually the most senior members of the Club who have not only "been there and done that," but also figure that because they've already been there and done that so many times, they aren't required to do anything more. They bless us with their presence at meetings, but do not bless the younger members, the foals in particular, with their knowledge. The real challenge is to get these two groups together - the one with the energy and the other with the experience. Those in the "out to pasture" group are not RINO's (Rotarians In Name Only), but have more of the tendency to become ROMEO's (and since the ladies can fall into this category, I have to change the acronym to Retired Old Members Eating Out). The "out to pasture" group still has plenty of ideas and opinions that are voiced forcefully at regular Club meetings, but getting them to act on these ideas and opinions is often very difficult.
There are three more basic types of Rotary horses and these are the ones who actually make the Club function.
The first of these is the quarter horse. This is a glorious, shining member who literally explodes by performing spectacularly, but for only one program or project. This Club member is only happy doing this one job for the Club which he does extremely well, and a smart Club administration will keep the various quarter horses happy and the Club looking good by encouraging them to continue their projects. By the same token, many quarter horses are also very jealous of their "territory," and while they are great leaders in their areas of special interest, they are often unwilling to share their savvy with any of the other horses in the Club, most particularly with the foals. (Poor foals - how are they ever to learn anything)? Some quarter horses are glory seekers, which can be very good for the Club, while others do their wonderfully flashy work solely for the sheer joy of doing it while the benefits of those efforts pay off for the Club and community as well.
Second among Club functionaries is the "work horse" group. These are the Club members who have not only "been there and done that," but continue to "go there and do that." These are the people who keep getting elected to serve on Board after Board, head committee after committee, plan event after event, take on new task after new task, and generally can never say "no" until the Club has so overburdened them that they almost completely fall apart. A work horse, first of all, truly loves being a Club member, and will do anything to help or promote the Club's larger program. While the work horse plods along very methodically, that very practice makes the work horse a good, but not very flashy leader. This is the person who, almost silently, sees to it that the Club does all that is expected of it, as painlessly and as all inclusively as possible, to the ultimate surprise of the membership. With the work horse, all happens so quietly that the Club hardly knows that it has achieved great things until it has been presented with every award there is for that year's Rotary projects. The work horse is generally not subject to burn out, but often wonders why other members of the Club are not as willing to put out the same level of effort toward the larger work of the Club. A good work horse is very willing to train a foal if that colt or filly is smart enough to figure out which work horse is doing the work the foal wants to do. Generally speaking, a work horse is too busy doing the work of the Club to solicit the help of the foals, but will work with them, and train them, if they have the sense to ask. Most work horses are the ones who, when they finally do get tired, put themselves "out to pasture," but a smart Club administration will continue to ask an "out to pasture" work horse's advice.
The last in the Club's working group is just as essential as the quarter horse and the work horse. This is the basic saddle horse. By definition, this is a reliable, but rather plain horse. A saddle horse is not flashy, like a quarter horse, nor is he as big, slow, long suffering and patient as the work horse, but is the steady committee member who makes the work of the quarter horse and the work horse possible. The quarter horse will probably overlook the saddle horse's work as he looks out only for the desired outcome of the project. The work horse will be forever grateful for the help the saddle horse has given to make a project successful. A saddle horse is smart enough to understand who the leader is and is also willing to accept either a seeming lack of or an overabundance of praise from the quarter horse or the work horse, respectively, because he, too, is there for the purpose of achieving a Club goal. A saddle horse is not much of a leader, but is a very desired follower and worker as he, too, will do whatever it takes to get his portion of a project done, but really doesn't quite have it in him to organize the overall work project. He's essential to a project's completion, is loyal to the Club, and will work hard at his task. He prefers to do his job with work horses, but also enjoys the show and pizzazz the quarter horse can provide.
Whatever the category - foal, out to pasture, quarter horse, work horse or saddle horse, good Rotarians are, in the final analysis, all thoroughbreds.
Erva A. Denham
340-775-5147 (home)
340-690-0309 (cell)