Letter from our President
This is the very first ‘Letter From the President’, which the club plans to publish as a quarterly event. I see this letter to be a rehash of the previous 3 months, visions of the months to come, various thoughts and hopes, and several anecdotes. I do not believe this letter should be a sounding board for the president to push her/his own opinions and agendas. This first letter is in conjunction with the beginnings of our new website, which is right now; normally the letter will be published in January, April, July, and October. Also I don’t believe there will be an objection to publish a letter if an important matter arises. So, here it is.
When I addressed the club at our last club assembly on February 4th, I wanted to give an assessment of my first half of my tenure as club president. I started by saying, “one very important fact, we still have a club….may I get an Amen?” What did I mean, or more precisely, how tongue in cheek was this statement? The answer was about 30-70. I was 30% amazed and grateful that in this time of Covid, I could wake up in the morning and there still be a club of 45 plus members. At the same time, knowing the strength of our members, I was 70% sure that “you”, the members, understood the meaning and necessity of Rotary and would push forward and continue with the vision of making the world a better place. What do I mean by “this time of Covid” and why would this affect a club? You all know this already, but here goes: We cannot meet together as a club. When we meet together, eye to eye contact, a pat on the back, a nod, a smile, and casual conversations are all ingredients that add to the camaraderie of Rotary and we cannot do that. Yes we are Service Above Self but we are also a tight knit group of friends. Zoom helps but cannot replace the real thing. We cannot have certain fund raisers. This, of course, is due to safety reasons. These fundraisers are Service Above Self moments that help define us. And finally, it seems that certain committees are reluctant to initiate Zoom meetings. This may be because, like the ‘not meeting as a club’ issue, key but subtle communication markers like a nod of the head, a shrug, the furrow of the brow, or a smile are lost; these are all the necessary ingredients for committee planning; we can’t do it, yet we continue on. What we have achieved was a successful “virtual” Hunger Walk, breaking records and expectations by bringing in $45,000 while, at the same time, utilizing a completely different approach for the raising of money; a successful Polio Plus campaign called Purple Pinkie Day brought in $2,125 yielding in matching funds $19,125; yes, that’s right, our club helped generate $19,125! and a Heart 2 Heart participation in a project called PAZo a PAZito, which is was working in conjunction with Rotary and Rotoract clubs in Mexico by helping young students with the emotional battles of school which has resulted in a abnormally high number of suicides. There are a couple of District Grants in the works. And finally, a number of members were very generous with their time by providing Thanksgiving and Christmas meals to stranded international university students. I do think people see the good over the bad, and that is why we are holding together as a club.
What happens in the months to come? We have vaccinations occurring. Will that allow for some of us to meet in person again? Will wonderful springtime weather have us eating breakfast outdoors at the Monteagle Inn? We shall see.
As I conclude this letter, I want to point out that it is being published on our new website. This website is crowning achievement in itself. It will contain all the information our members need, plus all the news, event links, project links, and website blog links for our connected clubs such as Rotaract and Interact. It will contain more photos than ever before, and generally be a platform to reflect the greatness of our club to the outside world.
Until next time,
Best Always,
Woody