Recently, Gen. Darrel Manning, founding member of the Rotary Club of Eagle/Garden City, wrote about the start of our club almost 22 years ago. We began with 25 members — a level we wanted to maintain — and that’s about where we are today. As Gen. Manning said, we take pride in being a small and nimble organization that can move quickly and get things accomplished efficiently. All of this is done with a great spirit of friendship, respect and collegiality. Now as we reflect on our past, we see opportunities for growth in the future. This is the first of several blogs I'll write about our plans and progress. Read more and check back soon!Over the past 22 years, we have focused our attention on a variety of projects:
- Working with youth in our community to instill confidence and pride in themselves and their accomplishments.
- Helping educate third-grade students to experience and understand resources of information like a good dictionary.
- Providing school supplies to needier students.
- Celebrating Christmas with less fortunate families and children.
- Beautifying our Eagle and Garden City communities with highway and leaf cleanups.
This is just some of the great service we have provided. But now it's time to take stock of our history and look to our future. We will continue to do these good works, but as all good organizations do, we need to look at our growth and ways to improve the Eagle/Garden City Rotary Club even more. We have already undertaken one very important task. This year, working with our Rotary District 5400 (encompassing all of southern Idaho and a small portion of eastern Oregon), we have activated and funded our own 501(c)(3) tax exempt structure. We will continue to grow it every year, which will give us even more resources with which to support our community.
Nine years ago, our club went through a visioning experience. Visioning is essentially a strategic planning exercise. We were aided by trained facilitators from our district to identify and define characteristics and goals of our club. We looked at things like how we could maintain our membership composition and levels; what the attributes of our club were; and where we should focus our resources. Working within the established avenues of Rotary service, we identified the types of projects that would best fit the personality of our club.I am excited to report that we will once again be undertaking the visioning exercise. Within the next month or so, club members who are interested in the visioning process will review where we have been, where we want to go and how we get there, all with the goal of better serving our communities. It should be a lively, creative and fun experience for our enthusiastic and committed club members.
I am writing this blog because I want you — whether you're a current, past or potential club member — to know that the Rotary Club of Eagle/Garden City, small though it might be (by some standards anyway), is looking forward and making what we do even better.