Setting the Standard

On March 25^th, 2008, the Rotary Club of Cayucos-Seaside officially joined the Rotary International's family as the 73^rd club in District 5240.  Our hard work had paid off!  We had our nervous moments as we strived to grow our membership base and thought we would not make it.  At P.E.T.S., I heard one club took two years to charter. As a new club with 80% of our members being brand-new Rotarians, we had no expectations. Now that we had arrived, we are just excited, and eager to serve in the community.

Emily Dickinson's poem reflected our club's initial obstacles aptly.  We faced strong opposition from local established clubs and resistance from fellow Rotarians, in a time when some clubs were losing members. Several Rotarians had been told that it would not be possible to form a club in the small town of Cayucos (Population: 3000).  So, when some members of the Morro Bay club decided to try, they were told the same story.  These members began meeting in Cayucos during August 2007, to form a breakfast club, to accommodate former Rotarians from the Morro Bay club who could not meet during lunch. Former Rotarians, members of the local community, friends and members of Rotarian families were approached. The initial meetings were mostly social. Potential members introduced and networked with each other. Some decided to commit to the new club. Committed members expressed what they knew about Rotary, why they were joining and forming a new club in Cayucos. Our small group of committed members kept going, but we could not get past the 10-12 committed members.  By January 2008, some of the initially committed members lost interest and left. 

When I was 'drafted' to the position of Charter President, I decided to focus on a membership drive. I said, "drafted" as it happened that the members decided to nominate me while I was away on vacation in December 2007.  When I returned and accepted the position in January of 2008, the initial task was to get organized. I prepared meeting agendas, similar to a formal club meeting format.  I realized our club programs needed to be interesting. Our members were eager to talk about themselves, what they did for a living and their life experiences. So, we conducted craft talks and fellowshipped at the same time. We also cultivated the press to receive positive coverage.  I read about the 'member-get-member' initiative in the Rotarian and decided to implement that in our club. It was and still is, timely, to stress that member recruitment is each member's responsibility.  Our membership drive became a campaign.

All the while, we also explained the significance of being a Charter member, and how each member needed only bring in one additional member to meet the minimum required by RI.  As a Charter president, it was important for me to set an example. So, I would email the members each week and provide them with a list of persons whom I had contacted and invited to the meetings. My belief is that every president should communicate with their members frequently.  I am fortunate that I do not have a big group presently. Other than 2 members who did not have email, I would email and sometimes call each and every of my member on a regular basis, and encouraged them to do their part.  Our efforts did bring in more members but not enough to charter our club.  We seemed to be going in different and all directions. So, we came up with a consolidated list of names and made sure that we doubled our efforts to talk to the same group of qualified contacts.  That strategy helped.

To generate visibility for our club and more community interest, we opted to get a community project going. We decided on a beach clean up on RI's 103^rd anniversary. Members contributed to producing T-shirts portraying Rotary's blue & yellow colors with words, "Rotarians at Work" on the T-shirts. Folks at the beach cheered and thanked us.  One of them stopped to ask what we were doing; decided to help, and we picked up a new member!  Another community involvement included the Four-Way Test essay contest among the students at Cayucos Middle School.  It was amazing to see how young minds embraced the concepts of the Four-Way Test. Their essays showed how the Four-Way Test influenced their thoughts, and how they felt each should behave and conduct themselves in and out of school. To inspire and motivate these students, we organized an award ceremony using personal contributions.  The event made a memorable impact. We knew we would have more participants in the following year's contest. Our club also started building our Cayucos' mountain of books, in collaboration with the Cayucos School. That mountain of books would be the backdrop at our Charter event, and forwarded to the RI Convention in Los Angeles, for the judging of RI's Mountain of Books and distribution to needy kids in the 7 districts. We gathered much momentum, as within February 2008, we acquired 22 members and were ready to charter. Our members were a diversified group: ranging from contractors, retirees, teachers, financiers to sales, insurance, IT personnel and a physician.

We are proud and honored to be able to say today we are counting down to celebrate our Charter on May 18^th. The menu is set.  Invitations have been mailed and emailed. Plans are underway to decorate the Cayucos Veterans Halls, pending the final, touches. Our program features PRID Sam Greene as our keynote speaker. Fellow Rotarians from the district, particularly, Zone 10, 11 and 12 had demonstrated their support.  While we look forward to our Charter, we are not slowing down on our activities. We are training our members through Rotary minutes, educational exchanges via mini-club assemblies, district assemblies and P.R.L.S.  Our club members continue to recruit.  We are thankful to the Morro Bay Club, particularly PDG & District Rep. Chungsam Doh and President Scott Beer, for sponsoring and supporting us, and giving our club members, an opportunity to serve. We have mapped our goals.  Our focus is on youth programs, more likely to be in collaboration with Cayucos School.  We would be working on how to achieve those goals in the upcoming year, to make dreams real for children in our community and elsewhere.

                                                         Sherry Sim, Charter President, March 25, 2008