The two primary focuses of Rotary at the international level continues to be membership and the eradication of polio.  In both of these efforts, there is good news to report.

                As of the writing of this newsletter, Rotary membership worldwide is up.  How much up depends on how you count (not enough space here to explain), but the net increase is somewhere between 28,000 and 47,000, an increase somewhere in the range of 2.3 to 4 percent.  This is only a modest increase and short of President Gary Huang’s goal of increasing membership by 100,000 this year, which was an ambitious goal.  We continue to struggle with what has come to be called as “closing the back door,” i.e. retention.  But there are areas of the world where Rotary is extremely vibrant and growing (unfortunately not including most parts of the United States; more about our own district below).  Membership has been a big focus of President Gary this year, and President Ravi will continue that focus, especially focusing on the value proposition of Rotary in providing great business networking opportunities on top of the all-important service that Rotarians are known for.  With the Rotary efforts to focus its brand image and hone its message, I believe good things are in store for Rotary worldwide, and our image will be further enhanced when we can finally make “the big announcement” – when polio has been eradicated from the world, thanks to the efforts of Rotary and its partners.  So let’s move on to polio eradication.   

                Here the news is hopeful, although obviously work remains.  Here are some specific numbers comparing reported cases of wild poliovirus paralysis from 2014 and 2015 in the remaining three endemic countries (figures as of June 17, 2015):

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                The most hopeful news there is that “0” in Nigeria for 2015.  In fact, the last case of wild poliovirus in Nigeria was on July 24, 2014, so it has been almost a year.  And that is also the last case of polio reported anywhere in Africa.  Exciting to think that soon we may be able to declare all of Africa polio free! 

                And although polio is the most visible Rotary project worldwide, you know that in fact The Rotary Foundation has six areas of focus which are being addressed through global grants from TRF but also through many club projects not connected with TRF grants.  I have reviewed these areas in previous newsletters, but the list deserves repeating:

                As I wrote this newsletter, originally I had planned to have one section on the district and one on our clubs.  I then realized that this was inconsistent with the message that I have been bringing to clubs all year long, which is that our district IS our clubs, nothing more and nothing less.  The district organization exists for one purpose and that is to support and strengthen clubs, enhance our public image, and focus and increase our clubs’ humanitarian service – the by-now familiar Rotary strategic plan.  So this section will review how are clubs are doing and how that translates to our district-wide results.

I am happy to report that the state of our district is strong! 

                Of course we have challenges, but most of our clubs are “firing on all cylinders,” and truly lighting up Rotary around the world.  Let’s start with the biggest challenge:

It is probably no surprise that membership continues to be a challenge.  Our clubs face the inevitable – deaths, job relocations, changes in family situations, and so on.  Recruitment of new members is required just to stay even.  Achieving a net gain requires even more effort.

 We have some notable success stories in our clubs this year, some of which were called out specifically  in the February, 2015, newsletter.  There are others.  Some clubs have lost members, too, which has been a North American trend.  However, with the addition of a new club and some success stories in existing clubs, I believe we will end up the year slightly ahead of last year’s membership count, or at least even.

                The new club I mentioned is the Eagan Kick-Start Rotary Club, which has its charter application pending at RI, and will be chartered with 21 members.  These are all new Rotarians (although 4 had previously been members in other clubs).  We welcome them to our ranks and know they will be a great addition to Eagan, which already has one strong noon club.  Many thanks go to various members of the Eagan Noon Rotary Club for their sponsorship of this new club, and special mention must be made of Egan Rotarians Scott Swenson and president Tom Wilson for their critical support.  Also thanks go to Steve Solbrack, our district club extension chair, for his work with the new club. 

                Our district also saw the completion – effective July 1, 2015 – of the merger of two clubs to make one larger and more impactful club – the Rotary Club of Sartell has merged with and into the Rotary Club of Great River, which will continue to operate under the charter of the latter club.  These two clubs went through a year-long , thoughtful process  to assure a successful  merger, under the leadership of club presidents April Meyers (Great River) and Jason Bernick (Sartell), with substantial assistance and counsel  from Assistant Governor Mark Devore.  I believe this merger will be one in which 1 + 1 = 3! 

                Our clubs continue to innovate in many ways to attract and retain members.  Some clubs have moved into different meeting formats.  We have two clubs that are exclusively evening clubs, but we also have some clubs which are meeting at least once a month in the evenings, or substituting a “one and done” service project for a traditional meeting.  My own club (Minneapolis City of Lakes) has started a “Rotary After Dark” meeting twice a month to complement its regular breakfast meeting, and the club is attracting new (and returning) members who cannot make regular Wednesday morning meetings, and I know some other clubs are exploring the “satellite club” concept.  All of these are experiments at this point, and some will fail; but we must continue to work at it. 

                One of our challenges in membership continues to be attracting and retaining younger members, the future of our organization.  Younger people are interested in community service, we know that, but they are often not in a position, what with their work and family life, to commit the time to weekly meetings.  Added to that is the challenge of the workforce today – people change jobs, get transferred, get laid off, etc., and an unstable job situation often leads to unstable Rotary membership.  This seems to hit the most the very people we are targeting, the young business and professional person.  There  is nothing we can do about this societal trend other than roll with the punches, and again keep working at it.  And it is important that we recruit for Rotary , not just our own club.   Today’s member of the Brooklyn Park Rotary Club may be tomorrow’s member of the Bloomington Rotary Club.  Let’s keep everyone engaged so that Rotary becomes too important a part of their lives to leave behind just because of a job change.             

                An integral part of our district’s membership support is visioning.    This process helps clubs come together to define who they want to be and how they will get to it.  This is a great recruitment and retention tool.   In my travels around the district, I have heard only good things about the effects of visioning in clubs. 

                Our thanks go out especially to our membership chair Russ Michaletz, club extension chair Steve Solbrack, and visioning chair Gayle Noakes for their invaluable service this year, as well as to the many other district Rotarians who have assisted them; not to mention the membership chairs of all the clubs who work hard to recruit and retain our Rotarians.  

 

                Our District continues to be one of the most active and generous districts in the world when it comes to fundraising.  This year we will see an increase in TRF annual fund giving of at least 8% over the previous excellent year, and will break $730,000!  Our per capita giving will exceed $255, which is still short of  our goal of averaging $365 per Rotarian per year, but heading in the right direction. 

                There remains a significant percentage of Rotarians in our district who give nothing to The Rotary Foundation.  Although we do not have final numbers yet, as the year isn’t over and analyzed, my general sense is that we did not succeed in getting the non-givers to give; rather the increase in giving came from those who were already giving at a high level – higher, in fact than our aspiration of $365 per year.  I am really at a loss of understand how someone could be part of Rotary and not give anything toward The Rotary Foundation, which is the engine of our global service and what we are all about.  If we can just get these Rotarians to give even $100 per year – 30 cents a day!  -- we would see our district contributions to the annual fund top $1,000,000 annually.  We must continue to work on this, and I know we will. 

                We have been blessed with some great leaders at the district level who have encouraged and helped club foundation chairs do their job.   PDG Sandy Schley deserves immense credit for putting together a dedicated and talented team whose mission is to raise contributions to TRF.  Bob Halagan spearheads the entire fundraising effort and Jim Dwyer has led the annual fund efforts for the district.  A key component of our success as a district has been the increase in Paul Harris Society members with the leadership of Carolyn  Pratt.  The Paul Harris Society consists of Rotarians who have committed to give $1,000 per year to TRF as long as they are able.  We started the year at 109, and ended it at 178 – an increase of over 60%!  This is a fantastic start toward our goal of eventually getting to 300 PHS members.  

                Following the lead of Rotary International, our efforts in raising funds for polio eradication have centered on the clubs rather than individual Rotarians.  We asked each club to commit to giving $1500, and if we obtained that we would arrive at  $94,500 as a district.  Not all clubs could or were willing to contribute that much, but most did, and some clubs gave much more.  We also got a huge donation from an individual Rotarians and used $10,000 of our District Designated Fund to apply to PolioPlus in honor of PolioPlus Chair Tim Mulcrone..  As a result, we will end of year having raised more than $110,000 toward polio eradication! 

                Is there anyone in the district who does not know Tim Mulcrone?  Tim has been our PolioPlus chair for three years now, and has done a fantastic job!  Tim has spoken at numerous clubs (not just in District 5950) on the cause about which he is most passionate, having seen polio affect his own family.  He comes prepared to talk to clubs for 5 minutes or 25 minutes, or anything in between depending on the club’s agenda, whatever it takes to get his message across.  He was Count Dracula at Halloween season, a leprechaun during St. Patrick’s season, and a cabaret singer at our Zone Institute last fall.  There is nothing he won’t do to raise money to finally eradicate this disease.  He has made our district a very successful participant in this historic effort.  Rotarians, if Tim has not spoken to your club yet, go to your club president and program chair and insist that he be put on your schedule.  You will not be disappointed.  

              

  

As a district, we not only know how to raise money, we know how to spend it to do good in the world.  The funds we raise for and spend through TRF is really only the tip of the iceberg.  We spend countless hours raising funds for local projects, mentoring kids in our schools and teaching them about ethics and entrepreneurship, passing out dictionaries and other books to promote literacy, stocking food shelves, building park shelters, cleaning roads, and the list goes on.  If I were to comprehensively describe the projects our clubs have undertaken this year, I would need a book rather than a newsletter.  So in place of that book, I’ve included a few random pictures of our wonderful Rotarians working in their communities and around the world, sprinkled throughout this newsletter.  The pictures tell the story better than I can.  

 

2014-15 has been a good year for our clubs.  I have been so inspired to visit each of our clubs and see the great work the clubs are doing, and the energy in so many of our clubs.  We get better every year, and I know that DG Tim will carry us to new heights in 2015-2016!