Most Rotary clubs have orientation programs that clearly state expectations for new members. Are we as effective at communicating our expectations for existing, longer-term members? 

Our typical focus has been exclusively on perfect attendance. What would happen if all our members came every week but no one ever stepped up to the plate to do the work of the club?

During his recent visit to our District, John Hewko (Rotary International General Secretary) shared a story about an Ohio-based club that has taken a unique approach to encourage member engagement. The club is Coshocton Rotary. Instead of focusing exclusively on club attendance, they have structured an "Engagement Award" that recognizes members who go above and beyond. After all, being a Rotarian should be about much more than simply showing up for a breakfast or lunch.

The club designed a points-based program with multiple levels of recognition. By participating in various aspects of the club (e.g. committee work, volunteering at service project, updating social media), members earn points and once they achieve designated level, their name badge is customized to make a clear, visual statement that this is someone that goes over and above the call of duty. Sound interesting? Continue reading!

Does your club struggle with foundation fundraising? 

"No Benefit" benefit events are an easy way to generate funds.

Rotarians donate the cost of attending a club meeting or special event to The Rotary Foundation instead of actually hosting the event.

As example, clubs often cancel at least one meeting around the year-end holidays. If you have fifty club members and your meal cost is $15, you have $750 of income that won't be an expense at your meeting venue. Why not turn that into a donation?

Over seventy District 6290 Rotarians from 29 clubs attended the January 31st District Training Assembly in Elk Rapids. The seven, facilitated breakout tracks provided focused discussion on the topics of officer responsibilities (President, Secretary, Treasurer) as well as as best practice sharing for Foundation, Membership, Leadership Development and Public Image.

Meeting with other Rotarians to learn and share challenges and best practices is ALWAYS a productive investment of time. It isn't too late to sign up for the February 14th (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) or February 21st (Cedar Springs) District Training Assembly.

It's an outstanding way to engage your current club leaders while providing a wonderful opportunity for new members to learn more about Rotary International.

Those that have attended often cite this as being the best training forum we have!

The purpose of the Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) is to assist in improving the Rotary knowledge and leadership skills of the future leaders of our Rotary clubs.

The RLI program consists of three full-day programs, six sessions each, presented over time. The programs are presented using the facilitated discussion method, rather than lecture. The $75 fee includes breakfast, lunch and training materials. 

In District 6290 we feel so strongly about the quality and impact of this program that we have budgeted funds that are available as matching scholarship funds -- Clubs send one member and the District will fund a second. All you need to do is notify Kathy Hegedus at the District Office and she'll make it happen for you!

Learn more about Rotary Leadership Institute.

In 2013 Rotary International launched it's updated identity which included a complete overhaul of the rotary.org website, a new 'voice' which is clear and action-oriented and, most importantly, the logo was modified.

We continue to see many of our clubs using the former logo. Here is an overview of the correct usage.

Do NOT continue to use this logo with blue inner rim. It has been replaced	If you only have space for one logo - this is the one to use. Rotary "Masterbrand Signature"	If you have room for two logos, this one-color rendition ("Mark of Excellence") may be used but it must be 4x the size of the "Masterbrand Signature"

The logo for Rotary Foundation has also changed so it conforms with the new look and feel.

The most frequently used Rotary graphics are available for download at the District website under Public Image > Resource Center.

Every six to eight weeks, the Rotary Club of Manistee turns their regularly scheduled meeting into a service project by hosting Community Table, a free meal assistance program in their area. Local churches and organizations take turns hosting the once a week meal program, which is held at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Manistee. The program not only helps feed their neighbors, it provides for wonderful fellowship and a chance to make new friends.

The Manistee Community Kitchen procures and cooks the food that’s provided at the meal, while the Rotary Club pays for the food. The cost to the Club for each meal is approximately $350, which serves on average, 160 people of all ages. Club members also prepare and donate homemade desserts for each event.

Ten to fifteen Rotarians assist with each meal, which includes food preparation at the direction of Community Kitchen chefs, set-up of the dining hall, service and clean up. The Community Kitchen sources as much local, fresh food as possible for each meal, which not only adds nutritional value to the meal, it promotes the vibrancy of the local food economy.

For more information on the Rotary Club of Manistee’s service project, contact Leann Burger at leannburger@sbcglobal.net.

Each January over 530 District Governor Elects from over 200 countries convene at the International Assembly--a training forum for their year as District Governor.

We are so proud to have been represented on the main stage during one of the plenary sessions!

Marilyn Ann Fitzgerald, Ph.D., is a past-president of the Rotary Club of Traverse City, Michigan. Within District 6290, Marilyn has served as an Assistant Governor, Chairperson of the District World Community Service Committee, and she is currently the District Microcredit Advisor and the District Economic and Community Development Coordinator.

At the International level, Marilyn serves as Research and Social Business Director on the Microfinance & Community Development Rotarian Action Group and it is in that capacity that she shared her experiences on the main stage at the International Assembly.

Well done Marilyn! We are so proud.

Using their talents, expertise, and leadership, Rotary members worldwide are asked to be gifts to the world this upcoming 2015-16 Rotary year.

Rotary International President-elect K.R. "Ravi" Ravindran called Sunday's address to incoming district governors the "most significant moment of my life."

"All of you have been given so many gifts. And you have now been given this great gift: one year to take all your talents, all your gifts, everything that you are and can become -- and Be a Gift to the World," said Ravindran, revealing his presidential theme at the annual five-day training meeting in San Diego, California, USA. "You have one year to take that potential and turn it into reality. One year to lead the clubs in your district and transform the lives of others. The time is so short, yet there is so much to be done."

The president-elect closed his speech emphasizing that now is the time to make real change.

Watch his speech

The three Traverse City-based Rotary Clubs have a joint committee to support the youth exchange program. The committee has different point-people to support the many facets of the program e.g. host family recruiting, host family support, inbound student counselors, outbound student recruiting, support etc. One important role is identifying and providing opportunities for the students to be engaged in the clubs and to serve the community.

On January 28th, Traverse City-based youth exchange students served dinner to the residents of Munson Manor. Nicole (Philippines) and Natalia (Colombia) made delicious desserts enjoyed by all, and outbounds Zach and Gio'annah were on hand to help make the guests feel welcomed. Blaise Masserant, former outbound (Rotex) was also on hand to assist. This service opportunity was organized by Sharron Zimmerman and Adele Wunsch (former outbound exchange student), both members of TC Noon.

Well done to all!

Turn off your lights if you are leaving a room for more than 4 seconds. Little habit – big dividend over a year.

Send $10 to the Foundation and feel good about it!

rotary.org/give

Do it right now or you’ll forget.

On October 23rd, 2014 the three Traverse City Rotary Clubs joined forces to provide a public viewing of the award-winning documentary "The Shot Felt ‘Round The World.” The event was organized in 16 days, had an audience of 307 people, mostly non Rotarians, and the free-will offering brought in $710 which was sent to PolioPlus.

We hope that their success will inspire others to organize similar viewings either as a stand-alone club or with a coalition of neighboring clubs.  If you click on the following link, “Directions”, you can read more about how you can order and mobilize this type of event.  Thank you to the Traverse City Clubs for developing the test model for this type of awareness event and congratulations on your success!

We hope that you will consider how you could raise awareness and funding for this important cause through this type of event. You too can make a difference by spreading this important message!

Click on image to view trailer

On Saturday, March 28th our Interact members and advisors are encouraged to attend the Second Annual Interact Conference at North Muskegon High School. Registration begins at 8:30 am. The program kicks off at 9:00 am and adjourns at 3:30 pm. 

ALL officers, members, advisors and a representative of the sponsoring Rotary Club are asked to be present. Representatives from ALL Rotary Clubs that are contemplating starting up an Interact Club in September should also plan to be present. 

This event is hosted by the North Muskegon Interact Club with an assist by the Mona Shores Interact Club, both of which are sponsored by the Muskegon Rotary Club.​

Greeting Rotarian Friends,

Our year is just whizzing by, don’t you find it true? Seems like it was just yesterday I was writing to you about using our last six months productively, and here we are at the beginning of February already.

Everyone knows that our most important challenge this year, Membership, has two parts: Retention of our existing members and Recruitment of new members. Most clubs are working very hard to insure positive growth numbers for this year and many are having some real successes using both effective Recruitment tools and realistic Retention strategies.

Congratulations.

There is another issue that we need to be thinking seriously about, too: Sustainability.  Sustainability is a membership issue too, because it will be the membership mix in 2040 that determines if your club, our district or even Rotary International itself is the kind of organization we want to leave to our children.

Today we have all three generations making up our membership: Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials. We are stronger and more productive because we have a mix of all three. Generally speaking the Boomers are the leaders, the Gen Xers are the up and comers and the Millennials are the newbies – generally speaking. Will those descriptions be the same in 2040? Probably not. Will the membership mix of the generations in your club and in Rotary be a productive mix in 25 years to insure there are enough leaders and enough members to get the work done? Maybe, maybe not.

You may be like me that you know something is wrong that we are not as attractive to the young professionals as we would like, but, like me, you don’t know why or how to fix it. You may also have noted that within your sphere, Rotary is not the only organization grappling with these issues of membership growth and sustainability.

What we can all agree is if we do not start attracting the younger generations in larger quantities, as the Boomers continue to age and become increasingly less productive, the productive strength that we all enjoy today will erode, and the sustainability of Rotary will become threatened. I don’t think any of us want that.

I watched a very interesting video this morning over early coffee that I found helpful as I thought about these questions. http://youtu.be/5xdum8MO6LY. This 10 minute video discusses the difference between the three generations and offers some way to think about creating a balance between them. Check it out. It is a place to start, anyway.

Rotary International has a group of people on staff called the Young Professionals Campaign and they are doing some substantive work to research and document how Young Professionals think about Rotary, and how Rotary can become more attractive to Young Professionals. You can find out more about what the Young Professionals Campaign (YPC) is doing by searching for "Young Professionals," or just look at this 4 minute view of the YP Summit they held last September. https://vimeo.com/109619516. I think you will like the encouraging message.

This issue is so important that the District Conference in May will focus a half day on Friday on the topic of attracting Young Professionals. Our keynote speaker for the opening session will be a member from the YPC department at RI, followed by a series of interactive breakouts discussing elements of her presentation and how your club can use her points effectively to become more attractive to the Young Professionals in your community. I am very excited about this program and hope you will want to be part of these groundbreaking discussions. Complete information about the conference and registration forms is now available at www.ridistrict6290.org. Check it out and Come Join Us in Traverse City, May 1 – 3.

Good luck as you continues to Light up Rotary in our world by changing lives and helping those just a bit less fortunate than ourselves. Thanks for all you do. I hope to see you at one of the upcoming District Training Assemblies in February and certainly at the District Conference in May.

Yours in Rotary Service,

* All numbers reported through January 31, 2015

During the upcoming  year, the District newsletter will be released on the 1st of each month. The deadline to submit materials is the 20th of each month. If you have an example of a 'best practice' or have other great news to share, please complete our 'Club News' submission form (found at www.ridistrict6290.org under Public Image, or in the FAQ section in our monthly newsletter). Electronic photos are encouraged. Please try to limit your submission to 300 words or less.