Governor's August Message
While official Governor’s visits don’t start until August, I attended many clubs in July, each different, all somewhat the same.
It started in Manhattan Beach where all were subjected to President Roger Cox singing the National Anthem. The New Zealand anthem. While wearing a purple suit. Hollywood President Melody St. John’s meeting started with a call to stand and applaud, for no apparent reason, but the energy it generated was contagious. Two new members were also inducted and having that honor was quite a thrill. A week later with President Esperanza Galvan at South Gate I again had the thrill of inducting two new members. The introduced me as Don Baker, in spite of the very professional agendas at each table. They also had the most unusual speaker gift. Salmon. In a jar. A glass jar.
All three meetings were different. Yet all had the same undertone- “jocularity”. It is, as you’ve heard me say so many times the genesis of Rotary, the very purpose of our creation. This is also Membership Month. We started our first month by bringing in 10-15 new members, a great beginning. Obviously new members are important, but perhaps not as much as keeping our current members engaged. It’s easy to do: have some fun at each meeting and have a moment of Rotary pride. This was done at South Gate by having a member share an article from the Rotarian magazine. Keep them involved as every club has dozens of ways to make each member feel important by asking for their help. SAG Membership Dean Reuter has more to say on this elsewhere in the superbly-edited newsletter by Marc Leeka.
San Pedro offered a different sort of program-Speed Dating! Imagine in your club-passion, dating, charm and cunning-all part of a regular meeting. True, no one really got to hit the town with a new flame, at least not in the traditional way. Here’s what they did: Board members representing each of the 5 Avenues of Service moved from table to table to try and woe members into chairing or joining various committees, projects, etc. After 5 minutes a bell would ring and the “daters” would quickly move onto the next table. It’s a lot more fun and far more successful as well, than the usual endless stream of pleas from behind the podium. It’s also a lot harder to say no when someone is asking face-to-face! President Caroline Brady-Sinco had a great idea here!
As we head into Membership Month, ratchet up the jocularity, bring on some pride and do not fear doing something different!
-Doug Baker, District Governor
* The Governor's Message is an excerpt from the Rotary District August 2010 Newsletter. Read the entire newsletter here.