DGE Mike Dutra and PE Liz Alves at the President Elects Training Seminar in Los Angeles.
Dear Past Presidents of the Rotary Club of Santa Barbara Sunrise,
Thank you for inviting me to serve as our club's president for the 2025-2026 Rotary year. You have made a huge mistake.
As I've been thinking about next year, I've been feeling a lot of fear, but I have also been quietly feeling some big excitement for the coming year. This weekend at SW PETS made the excitement bigger. Much bigger.
In every session--whether we were talking about ways to have impact in our communities or around the world, how to attract members, how to take a club to the next level, or lagniappe--my awareness of the possibilities grew. It was like someone had cleaned my windshield, and I could more clearly see the potential of our club, and I want all of our members to share that feeling!
So, past presidents, if you think you found someone to take the reins and let you sit back ... oops. Getting to hear from other Rotary leaders from CA, NV, UT, HI, and MT made it clear how much you've done to make this club exceptional--WAY above average. So I know that if we "unite for good" (cough, RI 2025-26 theme, cough), we can build on our incredibly strong foundation and have even more impact.
Speaker Roger Crawford said, "We rarely perform better than we believe we can." Whatever you currently think we can do, I invite you to expand it. How many members do you think we can add? Add a few more to that number. How much money do you think we can raise? What's stopping that from being double? Most importantly, how many lives can one club improve? Believe that it's more.
One standout topic throughout the weekend was fire relief for the Palisades and Eaton fires. I spoke with the PE of the Rotary Club of Altadena, Brad Roeber. He said at least 15 of his club's members lost their homes completely. He and his family have not yet been able to return to live in their home because of the smoke damage and water quality. But still their club was a mobilizing force for support. The club's Eaton Fire Recovery Fund was even featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live! They have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars that will go directly to helping the community bounce back from the fire. And SW PETS attendees alone had donated nearly $80,000 by Saturday afternoon toward fire relief that ShelterBox USA committed to match. It's easy to imagine a disaster like the L.A. fires affecting our community and members. What do you believe we could do?
I hope my enthusiasm (and not the stomach bug I succumbed to on Saturday) is contagious. We've been hearing about it from Ellen this year, but it was wonderful to be reminded of "The Magic of Rotary" this weekend. Thank you for the opportunity.
Photos: Liz Alves