Club Assembly with New President Cindy Gillespie
Our meeting for Thursday, July 11, 2024, was the Club Assembly chaired by our new President, Cindy Gillespie. Cindy provided us with valuable information about the new RI President, the new District Governor, and her own goals. She also introduced the new or returning section chairpersons for Philanthropy (Steve Herron), Service (Paul O’Rear), Events (Stacy Rucker-Andress) and International (John Jones).
The new Rotary International President is Stephanie Urchik, a career educator from Pennsylvania. President Urchik’s theme for 2024-2025 is “Celebrate the Magic of Rotary.” Cindy also detailed the Rotary Action Plan, which includes: 1) increasing our impact; 2) expanding our reach; 3) enhancing participant engagement; 4) and increasing our ability to adapt. Cindy also acknowledged our new District Governor, Jim O’Grady, from the Petaluma Valley club. Jim’s theme for this year is “Building Better Friendships.” The DG’s visit to Sunrise will take place on September 5.
Cindy’s presidential theme is “Build Community, Have Impact, and Love our Club.” Her goals are closely aligned with the Rotary Action Plan: increasing the number and impact of our service projects (Impact), continuing to grow our club and building a strong broad and succession (Reach), increasing engagement by building community and increasing opportunities to get involved (Engage), and running effective meetings that are inclusive and FUN (Adapt). Another goal is to increase the club’s membership by 3-5 new members. She also mentioned that there will be more changes of venue meeting this year than in the past, and that we can keep abreast of the club calendar by utilizing the Club Runner app!
Shauna Lorenzen will be the club’s “recognition” czar this year and will continue the grand tradition of ensuring that we happily pay for our birthdays, anniversaries, and trips. She advised us to come to the weekly meetings with a couple of five-dollar bills! Steve Herron spoke briefly about Philanthropy and noted that he will attempt to create a project fund for our next large project. He asked us to make suggestions about new projects for the Board’s consideration. Cindy spoke about Fundraising (no chair yet) and mentioned that our next annual fundraiser has not yet been determined but a team is being assembled to address this issue. Paul O’Rear talked about his plans for Service this year, including his goals of having at least one service plan each month and asking each member to participate in at least one service project. Paul also mentioned that Sunrise received the District Governor’s citation for our 50% club-wide participation in the plastics study! We are now officially the Environmental Club! John Jones gave a status report on Nicaragua and SRKSEP: he’s hopeful that we can cut through the Nicaraguan red tape and have a January 2025 mission to Nicaragua. SRKSEP is now fully staffed with drivers. John is now considering whether the Club should develop a new project in Costa Rica, currently a more hospitable environment than Nicaragua.
Thank you, President Cindy, for this well-prepared, organized, and informative Club Assembly. You passed the Club Assembly test on your first meeting! Great job.
