“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry” – Robert BurnsAnd that Burns' quote best characterizes my year as president of the Eagle-Garden City Rotary Club! We had challenges that we have overcome or are overcoming, and yet we committed to exemplifying "service above self," making the most of our 25th birthday and meeting our goals.
To start this year as president, I carefully laid out an annual calendar with all our meetings, events and goals so everyone could plan ahead. Then, in August, our club secretary informed me that he was relocating to the Midwest in September. With much help from club members, we covered the secretary duties as best we could. During that time, the school we celebrate Christmas with asked us to change our support to a completely new plan, which we needed to develop. We did come up with a successful program that guides children to give to others and helps families in need during the holidays.
Good news — club member Natalie Chavez volunteered to take on the secretary position starting in January. Bad news — the River Club where we've held our meetings for more than 24 years informed us it's renovating the kitchen beginning in January, so we needed to find a new place until at least April.
We tried a couple of places over the next few months — the Idaho Pizza Co. and Barrelhouse Pub & Grill, both on Glenwood — and settled on one, voting to make it our permanent home. We’re set, right?
In April, with one week’s notice, we were informed the new location couldn't accommodate us anymore. We pivoted again and decided to move to our second choice. That location allowed us to meet there the following week but informed us that, per the corporate offices, no group reservations were to be taken between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. effective May 1.
After a quick, but unsuccessful search for a restaurant, one of our members let us use the conference room in her office. We can bring our own lunches or our treasurer, Doug Leeds, orders lunches through DoorDash. For our first meeting in May, the speaker was from CATCH, a nonprofit working to end homelessness. We relate!
So amid all this turmoil, how did we do as a club? What happened to our goals?
Well, we successfully completed ALL our goals and then some. Club membership, service participation, new member sponsorship, district conference attendance, Annual Fund and Polio Plus contributions, Interact club support, socials, online presence and media — we "knocked them outta the park"! We're especially proud of celebrating our club's 25th birthday, exceeding the number of service projects planned — from five to eight — and more than doubling the goal we set to raise for Polio Plus.
Check out our blogs to read more about our service projects, including making birthday kits for children who might otherwise not get a party, collecting food for St. Vincent de Paul and the Eagle Community Foodbank, awarding small grants to deserving local nonprofits, and organizing supplies at the Women's and Children's Alliance.
Plans may go awry, but that didn't deter us from succeeding and even surpassing our goals. We may be homeless, but we are resilient. We are Rotarians!