Well, we are in the last stretch of the 2016-2017 term of my Presidency. I’ve learned a lot this past year about leadership, working and building together. We accomplished many things – all that we sought out to do we have nearly completed, with just a few tasks still left to be done, I’m confident that they will get done in these next 2 months. We lost some members, we added some and we are at a record of 115 as I write this message.
I am grateful to Molly Woodford who has done such a wonderful job as Membership Chair single handedly doing the job that a committee should do. One of my dreams is to have membership be a committee, and I hope this will become a reality in Denise Wadsworth’s year. We can do so much as a committee in gaining new members and being able to spend quality time with our members to make sure retention is part of our membership objectives.
In review we wanted to carry out hands-on projects and we did three. We wanted to do a 5 year vision plan to determine areas to grow and we’ve already achieved goals in one of the areas and that is membership. We wanted to reinvigorate the Interact Club at SMHS and we found the best duo to do that with Scott Kwong as a SMHS Grad and older brother to a current SMHS student and Courtney Rushing who is already a Rotarian at heart with all she’s done for the students’ business competitions at our club in years past. We wanted to raise $2600 towards ending polio and we’ve raised close to $3000 from the End Polio Walk at HMS and the weekly collection of change. We got amazing publicity by walking besides the float in the 129th Rose Parade https://www.tournamentofroses.com/events/roseparade. We wanted to feed the homeless and hungry and we packaged 10,000 meals for the hungry around the world. We wanted to upgrade our website to be easy to walk through and we owe this work to Chris Datwyler who spent tireless hours working on transferring the information from old to new. With the help of Len Therrien we figured out an easy way to upload photos and we got the expertise of Aaron Gil to help us connect our Facebook social media presence linked to our website and vice versa which will reap its benefits in the future. We wanted to provide stellar weekly programming and we did! We wanted to educate our youth about polio and Ed Tom’s talk did just that. We wanted to update our brochure – we are still working on that task! If you have designer talent in you, this is an opportunity for you to help us complete this task. We wanted to promote Rotarians’ businesses and we started that in February giving Rotarians 2 times per month an opportunity to tell us what they do in 3 minutes. We wanted more visibility by the local papers and we forged that relationship with the Tribune covering our stories so thoroughly and giving us front page mention in color with pictures as well as publicity through the Outlook as well. We wanted to share individuals AHA moments and we did that through weekly Rotary Moments being shared.
We did ALL this with your help. Your power of one helped us reach our goals as a club.
I’d like to dedicate this message to the work that our District 5300 does for us and the upcoming conference to celebrate the achievements of our clubs on May 19 – 21, 2017.
If you have not yet registered, I encourage you to do and join us in Palm Springs to not only enjoy the company of other Rotary clubs in our District but also to boast all that we’ve done. We will be recognizing 3 Foundation members who have a passion for the work they do. Shody Chow, for his tireless work with the International Projects Committee and his understanding of the grant process such that other clubs are knocking on our door to find out how they can tap into grant monies as we have. Aaron Gil will also be recognized as he has been a partner with Shody on doing the research for the international projects we’ve undertaken and finally Bill Payne for the work he’s done for the Global Scholars Program, having coordinated the interviews and approval process to send 2 students whom we sponsored to go to Capetown and Cambridge and always looking for an opportunity to honor these stellar academics in our community. To register for the conference, visit this link:
https://www.directory-online.com/Rotary/Register4/index.cfm?EventID=77304484
Kudos to the committee members who have turned in their job descriptions so that we are not “recreating the wheel” so to speak, if you have not turned yours in, please do so by sending your report to Will Bortz and Lee Mothershead. It will help us understand your role, how to fill it should you want to move on and how to help support you.
As we near the end of the year, think of organizations who need our help and what better way to encourage them to get tickets to our ONE AND ONLY Fundraiser, our Motor Classic. Encourage purchase of 50 tickets for the cost of $312.50 so they can sell tickets at face value of $25 and raise monies for their projects. We also encourage the sale of single tickets at $25. Send this link to potential ticket buyers and/or friends and invite them to this beautiful San Marino tradition: https://www.sanmarinomotorclassic.com/
Finally, I give gratitude to Lucille Norberg and her social committee for her work on the Rotary On The Town with the next one being at the home of Isaac Hung on May 4, where we welcome families to enjoy an outdoor meal catered by our own Fresh Gourmet.
Yours in Rotary Service,
Gilda Moshir
