Editor's Note: This is the text of the Thank You and recognition message that last year's President, Barb Bottitta, gave at the Change Over Dinner on Friday night, June 29th. There is also a link to the 6 pages of slides that Barb used for her talk.
Also, an update to the membership goal that Barb discussed Friday night. We checked ClubRunner after July 1st and our membership was reported to RI at year end as 65. We had a successful membership year with 9 new members. Since 8 members left the club for a variety of reasons, our net gain is 1, the first positive net growth in several years.
2017 - 2018 Highlights
Before I present the gavel to our new President, Marci, I'd like to take a few minutes to look at the progress our club has made in the past year. I came into the Presidency with several major goals and I'm pleased that we met or surpassed all of them:
- WE Updated the Strategic Plan for the Club
- WE Completed & Dedicated the Centennial Fountain
- WE Implemented the membership, newsletter, website and social media functions of Club Runner
Even in the area of membership, where we did not quite meet our growth goals, we were successful in many other ways. Our extra special recruiting events (esp. The Vault and our visit to Rolf's corporate headquarters) and our creation of new membership categories such as Spouse & "Under 40" resulted in many new, young and energetic members. Our membership challenges are not unique among Rotary Clubs, so the really good news is that for the first time in 4 years, we did not have a net loss for the year.I'd like to acknowledge Marci, Kati and Murtaza for the yeoman jobs they did in recruiting and orientation for new members this year.We are certainly have great momentum going into the new year, as evidenced by THREE new member pinnings in one meeting this month.I am optimistic that our efforts to grow the club and energize it with young professionals representing diverse nationalities and ethnicities will pay BIG dividends for the Club in years to come.
As we've said many times, growing the membership is everyone's responsibility, and I hope you'll take advantage of the weekly SMILE, the new website, our social media posts and just old fashioned WORD OF MOUTH to share our good news and "People of Action" stories across Allentown and the Lehigh Valley.Rotary International as given us the "People of Action" tools that emphasize verbs like Inspiring, Connecting and Transforming and that, to me, is the present and the future of Allentown Rotary.
In addition to our major goals and completing our usual, annual projects, we added the Tree Planting in Cedar Beach as an effort that could very well become an annual project. I'd like to acknowledge Gary Rohrbach, Asst Governor and Past Pres of Emmaus Rotary, who is here tonight, for his generous donation of the 65 saplings that we planted.
Financially, we invested over $146K in the community this past year though the Fountain, Dictionary, Tree planting and other projects. AND we had over 600 volunteers hours committed to Community Building "People of Action" projects. Those Volunteers Hours were through the efforts of the Rotarians in this room and those who were not able to be here with us tonight, SO GIVE YOURSELVES A ROUND OF APPLAUSE!
I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Ken Kirshner and his Program committee for the interesting and educational programs that they arranged for this year's meetings. I know I regularly received very positive comments about the high quality of our speakers and topics this year, so THANK YOU Ken and your committee members!
Next, I am pleased to announce that at last night's District Meeting, And, for the first time in many years, Allentown Rotary earned The Club Achievement Award from our District. This award is given to Clubs who developed a Strategic Plan and who achieved other 6 significant projects during the year. Our goal this past year was to complete at least 5 projects, we actually completed over 30.
Rotary is not and should not be about rewards and recognition, but this Achievement Award is well deserved and it is recognition from our fellow Rotarians, their Clubs and the District for the turn-around we have started to engineer this past year. We are becoming a Club that is more Project oriented and more a "People of Action"
Lastly, maybe the most important accomplishment of the year was putting in place a transition for presidents that gives the Club consistency and experienced leadership from one year to the next. Marci, Don and I worked so well together developing a new Strategic Plan, updating the Constitution and restructuring our committees that I am confident that the Club is in good hands for the future. The new "Triumvirate" is Marci, Don and Kati LaBuda and I will work with the 3 of them to give them whatever help and assistance I can to make their years HUGE successes.
Before I turn over the gavel to Marci, I'd like to ask all the past Allentown Rotary Presidents in the room to stand up for a round of applause -- Marci, Don, Kati and I are building on the foundations you put into place during your years as Presidents.
And here's a link to more change-over dinner photos on Facebook
