August is Membership Month in Rotary.  The life-blood of our club and Rotary International is our members.  It’s important our club make an asserted ongoing effort to attract and recruit new quality members to our Rotary family while also focusing on retention, engagement, and education of our current members.  As Director of Membership, Luz Maria has done an outstanding job creating and implementing a new Action Plan for this year, attracting additional members to the committee, and managing the team with the goal of accomplishing these four primary goals.  That said, I would like to remind you that every member in our club has the important responsibility to identify and recruit new members to our club on an ongoing basis.  Although a number of members have resigned from our club in the last few years, I’m very confident our collective focus and asserted effort on new member recruitment will result in increasing our membership numbers to historic levels.

 

Read President Chris' full message here.

 

 

Save the date of Wednesday, October 12, 5:30-7 pm at the Santa Barbara Club for our next Prospective Member Mixer! Begin thinking of those friends, neighbors, colleagues, and members of the community who you would like to share in Rotary service and fellowship. Contact LuzMaria Ortiz, Membership Director, for more information.

 

For the past 15-plus years, Judith McCaffrey has been hosting Sunrise Rotarians on her pink blankets at Concerts in the Park. If you've ever been one of the 3,000+ attendees at one of the city's popular summer concerts at Chase Palm Park you know how valuable having a place to sit is! Judith sets out her pink blankies for Rotarians and friends early so she gets a prime spot. Over the years, Sunrisers have enjoyed dozens of wonderful bands, good food, lively conversation, and the fellowship of good friends. Thank you, Judith!

 

DG Nick Frankle invites District 5240 Rotarians to join him at the District Conference on October 14-16, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in beautiful Westlake Village. This year is all about fun, inspiration, and making your dreams come true!

 

Click here for information and here to register.

Was Paul Harris the first president of a Rotary club? No.

 

Was Paul Harris the first president of Rotary International? Yes.

 

There is an easy explanation to this apparent contradiction. Although Paul Harris was the founder and organizer of the first Rotary club in Chicago in 1905, the man selected to be the first president was one of the other founding members, Silvester Schiele.

 

By the year 1910, there were 16 Rotary clubs, which linked up as an organization called the National Association of Rotary Clubs. Two years later, the name was changed to the International Association of Rotary Clubs, as Rotary was organized in Winnipeg, Canada, and then in England, Ireland, and Scotland. In 1922, the name was shortened to Rotary International.

 

When the first organization of Rotary clubs was created in 1910, Paul Harris was selected as the first president. He served in this position for two years, from 1910 until 1912. Thus, the founder of the Rotary idea, who declined to be president of the first club, became the first president of the worldwide organization, Rotary International.