September 26, 2017
Group Study Exchange 2017-18 – Chile – Important – Date Sensitive
Rotarians are invited to be a part of the district Group Study Exchange (GSE) to Chile in 2017-18. Rotarians have all air flights, food and lodging expenses paid and will be traveling from April 7, - April 27, 2018. The study exchange focuses on developing humanitarian service projects as well as vocational and cultural experiences. The team will include three team members and one team leader. Non-Rotarians are also invited to apply. There are no age restrictions. All participants will be asked to continue their contributions to Group Study Exchange in the future by hosting future exchange participants and participating in humanitarian service projects that are developed from the exchange. The team member and team leader positions are all open. Applications are due October 2.
Pars for Polio:
We still need your support for Pars for Polio Month! Please pledge and ask some non-Rotarian friends to pledge!
Strategic Planning
Our discussion at the 9/19 meeting was very beneficial. It was great beginning! Here are some of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that we discussed!
Strengths:
- Mentorship – One member noted that the mentorship he received when he joined the club was of significant personal benefit!
- Business Help – another member mentioned that whenever they had needed some help with an issue, challenge of a problem in their business, they were always able to contact another Rotarian for help.
- We have good weekly programs!
- We have an outstanding History as a club.
- We have a very financially generous club!
- We support youth development and scholarships.
Weaknesses:
- Some felt that we don’t have a strong Club identity. (What are we known for in our community?)
- We are not very active in services provided in our community.
- We can sometimes be considered the “check writing club” rather than a service club!
Opportunities:
- We need to develop a membership recruitment plan.
- We need to develop a plan for increasing both membership retention in the club and participation (only about 33% of our members show up on any given Tuesday!
- We need to explore alternative and/or additional meeting times (create an evening satellite club?)!
- Let’s be deliberate about contacting downtown businesses as prospective members since we meet downtown!
Threats:
- Businesses reducing support for employees to be members of service clubs.
- Many opportunities to serve in other clubs.
We welcome more contributions to this discussion. ALSO we need your input to this long-range question:
What are 2 – 3 characteristics you would like our club to have in five years?
Feel free to email me at lane@missouriwestern with any additional ideas or answers to that questions. All responses will be confidential but will be shared anonymously with club members through future messages and meetings! Thank you for your support!