Join Rotary Four Times

Join Rotary four times

Kim Lisagor, Rotary Club of the Central Coast-Passport, D5240, Calif.

The first time I joined Rotary, it was love at first sight. That famous wheel – the logo I had seen on service projects all over the world – hung on the wall of the restaurant where I sat in on my first Tuesday morning meeting. It sparked immediate feelings of allegiance to an organization I didn’t even know well yet. 

The club president was a woman in her 30s. She cracked jokes and discussed club business in equal amounts. Committee members planned a meeting at a local wine shop. I knew this was the service club for me. 

In the years that followed, the Rotary Club of San Luis Obispo Daybreak and I had so many adventures together: taking a dental chair to Guatemala, building an exercise structure at a local park, working through matching grant applications. Good times. 

My husband, Scott, joined soon after I did, and when our son was born, the club welcomed him as an unofficial member. We were an active Rotary family for his first five years. 

Then, kindergarten happened. Our son’s school schedule conflicted with morning meetings, and one of us had to leave the club. I volunteered. It was sad, as breakups always are. But Rotary and I promised to keep in touch. 

I am hardly the first Rotarian to have life get in the way of service. Even Past RI President Ron Burton once dropped out of the organization. “I had little kids, a full-time job, and you do the things you think are important,” he told The Rotarian in a 2014 interview about how to attract and engage members. 

Rotary membership has grown in some parts of the world and declined in others, leaving the overall number hovering around 1.2 million. Many a Rotarian has puzzled over this trend. 

My theory: Today’s Rotarians are different from those of generations past. We are just as passionate about serving our communities, but we are more likely to live in two-working-parent households, more likely to be connected to the office around the clock because of “advances” in communication technology – and less likely to find time for weekday meetings. 

In 2014, the RI Board of Directors voted to give local Rotary leaders more flexibility in how they run their clubs. Since then, Rotarians have been experimenting with new models that aim to accommodate the needs of modern members without abandoning Rotary’s core values. 

In my effort to stay connected to Rotary, I’ve sampled a few of those models. 

The second time I joined, I became a member of an e-club. Once a week, I logged on to the club’s web page, registered my attendance, read or watched the program, and posted a comment. Members shared service opportunities and posted photos from their events. I became part of an international group of Rotarians who used this platform to establish a strong digital rapport, and I enjoyed that twist on traditional Rotary fellowship. 

Alas, I spend most of my workdays staring at a computer screen. After a while, I just couldn’t get excited about logging on after hours. 

The third time I joined Rotary was more of a piggybacking than a joining. I registered as a Rotary spouse with my original club, where my husband was still a member. That status allowed us to share attendance responsibilities: Scott was the official member, but I could go to meetings in his place. What a happy reunion it was! 

Sadly, it was short-lived. A change in job and school schedules meant morning meetings became impossible. My husband and I both had to leave our beloved club. We resigned ourselves to the apparent fact that our lives were simply no longer compatible with Rotary. 

When I was asked to join Rotary the fourth time, I had no intention of doing so. 

A friend invited us to a planning meeting for what he billed as an entirely new kind of Rotary club, and I politely declined. This “passport” club, he explained, was designed for Rotarians like us whose lives had forced them to give up their memberships. This club would meet less frequently than a traditional club and have lower dues and a minimum service hours requirement that we could fulfill in any way we chose. And when we could return to a traditional club, we would be encouraged to do so. 

I was tempted, but I held firm. My husband went to the meeting and signed on immediately. I stayed home. 

But here’s the thing about Rotary. If you’re the sort of person who is drawn to its unique attributes as a service club – its global mission, its ability to connect and inspire, its adherence to the principles in The Four-Way Test – then you are a Rotarian for life. 

I can’t quit you, Rotary. That’s why I ended up joining my husband in becoming founding members of the Rotary Club of the Central Coast-Passport, D5240. 

Two months in, our club’s 21 members have logged nearly 1,000 volunteer hours in our community. We have picked up trash at local beaches, raised money for the food bank, and served on our city’s advisory bodies, nonprofit boards, and PTAs. We have leveraged our collective ability to conduct service in a way that connects us with other Rotarians and accommodates our schedules. I’ll return to a traditional club someday, but right now, I’m just happy to be a Rotarian again. 

I feel more connected to Rotary than I have in years. And I feel certain that we’ll remain connected this time, happily ever after.

Here is the link to The Rotarian Magazine.... To find this article scroll down to middle of page............  https://www.rotary.org/en/rotarian-stories-2017