I’ve finally made the determination that if I don’t make this letter a priority I won’t get my July newsletter out in July! So here comes my first newsletter.
It is an incredible honor to be able to serve as your District Governor. Thank you for placing your trust in me. I hope I will live up to your expectations and while enjoying the wonderful Rotarians of our District. The experience of the Club visits I have already completed so far has been very gratifying. I look forward to the others. Our fellow Rotarians of this District are People of Action who are Making a Difference in their communities and all over the world. In my August letter I will try to share with you some of what I have learned and experienced in some of these visits.
The last few months have been a whirlwind for Carol and me. Preparation for the last year has also been extensive, from Zone training in Cleveland last fall to the International Assembly in San Diego in January to District Conference at Crystal Mountain in May to the International Convention in Atlanta last month. When we take the time and make the effort to see what Rotary is beyond our individual Clubs our eyes and minds are opened to truly a wide, wide world. In future newsletters I hope to share with you some of what I have learned from Rotarians from other Clubs and Districts that have changed what I want to do to Make a Difference.
Are you a person with leadership skills? Do you share your ideas in your Rotary Club? Are you a person of action? Then you should come to One Rotary Summit (ORS) on Saturday, October 14th in Roscommon, Michigan. You will learn how membership, public image, humanitarian service, and supporting your Rotary Foundation work together in Making a Difference in your local community.
You will meet fellow Rotarians who have similar interests in being a "Person of Action" -- which is an exciting phrase to use in sharing about your Rotary efforts. You will take home ideas that have worked or will be worthy of trying in this and in in future years. Don't miss this event. Lunch is included. Dinner and lodging packages are available.
Signup for our free webinar, First Impressions Matter: The Membership Experience, and learn valuable best practices and resources to help you improve your first impressions with prospective and new members. The webinar takes place Thursday, 31 August, at 12:30 Chicago time (UTC-5).
The new and improved Rotary Club Central is finally here. Navigate more easily with our modern interface, and use this essential planning tool on you mobile phone or tablet. You can also quickly track service activity and see your past and current club data in easy-to-read charts and graphs. Additional features include:
Inputting Rotary Foundation goals in local currency
Easy-to-read charts and graphs make it easy to set goals and plan for the future
A simpler way to track service activities and volunteer hours
Plus, you can plan and track membership initiatives, service activities, and Foundation giving, as well as complete Rotary Citation goals.
Rotary Club Central is also a great tool for succession planning. As club leadership changes, having a historical record of goals and achievements can make the transition between leaders seamless.
To learn more, watch The Improved Rotary Club Central video. If you need assistance navigating the new platform, go to the Rotary Learning Center and search for Rotary Club Central to access any of the several guides. There's also a webinar on August 8th!
Rotary International President-elect Sam F. Owori died unexpectedly on 13 July due to complications from surgery. Sam was a member of the Rotary Club Kampala, Uganda, for 38 years.
“Rotary has become a way of life for me – with the intrinsic value and core belief in mutual responsibility and concern for one another as a cornerstone,” Sam said when he was nominated last year. “I feel immense satisfaction knowing that through Rotary, I’ve helped someone live better.”
Sam's term as Rotary’s 108th president would have begun on 1 July 2018.
This is the first time in Rotary's long history that we have lost an incoming President. The Bylaws provide for an appointment by the nominating committee.
The Rotary International Convention will travel to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where there’s Inspiration Around Every Corner, 23-27 June. Toronto is a diverse city with lots to offer, including vibrant cultural, art, entertainment, and culinary scenes. You’ll learn about new ideas, hear different perspectives, and gain new skills through engaging speakers, breakout sessions, and exhibits in the House of Friendship.
Don’t miss out on the most inspiring convention yet!
Register Now and Save
To take advantage of early registration savings, be sure to register before 15 December at riconvention.org.
Straight-forward idea from the Membership Best Practices Discussion Group at rotary.org
"We have a yearly Pancake Day fundraiser. We solicit advertisements from area businesses and publish them in a newspaper we distribute at the event. Months later, in order to thank the advertisers, we hold a Meet 'n Greet at a restaurant. We use a private room, set out a display of our Club brochures, magnets and banners, run a continuous loop slide show of our activities the previous year, and offer hors douvres and non-alcoholic beverages. We also offer a cash bar if some want to purchase an alcoholic beverage.We ask people to RSVP and we issue name tags upon entrance. We invite all our members and usually get about 20 members and 20 guests. From this casual, after-work event, we foster conversations and relationships and often exchange business cards and phone numbers. From these events, we gain about 4 new members each year.It also provides a fellowship event for our members."
Does your club have an annual fundraiser and if so, how do you thank your sponsors?
Do you host an annual event where you highlight the impact your club has on the community?
Do you have current "fresh" materials that present your club in its best light? Use the 'create your own' brochure template in the Brand Center at Rotary.org
If you do something like this in private, why not take it public? Honor your community supporters at a Chamber event, at a community festival, at a large community sporting event, a major school event . . . go where your target audience is and find a way to get in front of them!
Club President proactively tackles challenge of active/inactive members - this approach was outlined in a post in Membership Best Practices Discussion Group at Rotary.org
"One activity that we did in our Club this Rotary year was we divided our members into teams. As club president, I confidentially classified our members into four types: senior-active, senior-not-so-active; non-senior-active and non-senior-not-so-active. The idea was for the teams to have a considerable number of active members to get the not-so-active members to active status. Each team was assigned to handle the program and physical set-up as well as drum up the attendance of the entire club to every meeting. And it worked. Our weekly meetings became more lively and more interesting. We awarded the best team every month and every quarter. Our members became more engaged and they looked forward to every meeting."
If you're having troubles lining up speakers, this is a pretty creative solution
It's a great way to get members to work with people they might not otherwise connect with
Recognizing a monthly 'winner' is a great way of keeping things fun
Have you taken on a new role at your club and are you feeling a little overwhelmed?
Custom courses are available to support club presidents, secretaries, treasurers, and committee chairs throughout the year. To find a course in theLearning Center, select the category “Your Role,” or enter “club” in the catalog search line. Then scroll down to the appropriate course.
Electronic versions of club officer manuals are included in each course.Lead Your Club: President manuals will also be mailed to district governors-elect this month to distribute.
In explaining why he selected the theme Rotary: Making a Difference, President Ian Riseley says, “It seems to me that it represents what Rotary is and what Rotary does, every day and in many ways. All those people who benefit from our great programs appreciate that Rotary exists to make a difference.”
Riseley will require Rotary clubs that wish to earn this year’s Rotary Citation to:
Pay July 2017 and January 2018 club invoices on time
Report volunteer hours and service project contributions in Rotary Club Central
At least four other goals must be achieved in each of the categories of support and strengthen clubs, focus and increase humanitarian service, and enhance Rotary’s public image and awareness. Download your copy of the 2017-18 Presidential Theme & Citation to see the goals.
Throughout our District there are countless Rotarians who have crossed paths with Violet Rohrer. She makes quite an impression!
A tireless advocate for Rotary, she has been an enthusiastic supporter of Interact and Rotary's youth programs, and has served multiple years & terms as Assistant Governor.
These days Violet is inspiring us in new ways which never cease to amaze us. We have both she and John in our thoughts. If each of us had just a fraction of her grit, imagine what we might accomplish!
Baldwin Rotary is happy to present the proceeds from the 2017 Stroll for Health 5K Fun Run to the Bread of Life Food Pantry. The annual event was able to raise $4600 and provide a fun day for 75+ walkers and runners.
Judge Tyler of Big Rapids Rotary was one of countless die hard volunteers who braved questionable weather reports to make sure the annual Rotary BBQ at the Fairgrounds didn't disappoint!
Rotary Club of Cheboygan dedicated the new T-Ball Park for Cheboygan youth !
The day after the Relay for Life Event, some of the members who participated in that event showed up to work at Chippewa County Sunrise Rotary Club Soup Kitchen event! Some brought family members and we love that. Rotary is family
East Jordan Rotary Club sent out a huge thank you to the community of East Jordan for their overwhelming response to the Brew Fest.
It was a huge success and a good time for everyone!! The weather was great, beer was cold, music was fabulous, and the food was delicious!
It was a Fun, Fellowship, Fremont Rotary, Fremont Lions and Fremont Police Dept Day. Together the three clubs had a bike safety day for kids 4 to 12 at the Fremont Middle School. A great project for 3 great groups. The Fremont Baby Food Festival 'Queens' were the cars.
Grayling Rotary was spotted at their annual Chicken BBQ event.
Learn how Rotary Club of Grand Haven worked with other area groups to make the Grand Haven Splash Pad a reality for our families and kids.
Grand Rapids Rotary enjoyed a beautiful morning well spent - volunteering with #RotaryGR for Disability Advocates to help GR with their ADA compliance.
Greenville Rotary Club is out and about with their Rotary food trailer at all the happening places this summer!
Ludington Rotary Club's Briefcase Brigade in the annual 4th of July parade
Perfect night for Montague-Whitehall Rotary Social Gathering at Buzz' Lakeside Inn tonight!!! We were excited to be joined by Jake McClouth and his wife Veronika. Jake was an outbound Rotary Youth Exchange Student to Mexico 2003-2004 and now is active in his Ypsilanti Rotary Club w their YEP program which has 4 outbounds this year. We're looking forward to getting him to come give a program to our club sometime soon.
Roscommon Rotary held their annual Great Ausable Duck Race.
Rotary Club of Sault Ste Marie ON, once again, blew the doors off with their annual RotaryFEST event. For the second time in history they maxed out with 16,000 tickets sold for the raffle. WOW.
Traverse Bay Twilight Rotarians spotted promoting their Born to Read Ambassadors.
The Rotary Club float that participated in the First Blessing of the Blossoms Festival Parade in Traverse City, May 22, 1925, just five short years after the Club was founded. It was a decorated truck with children riding in the back with the Rotary wheel and the words "He Profits Most Who Serves Best" on the side.
The Big Rapids Rotary Club donated $2,250 to the Big Rapids Department of Public Safety Fire Division. The donation allowed the department to purchase three new fire hose nozzles. They are more light weight and have a water flow rate of up to 200 gallons per minute. More importantly, this new purchase will allow them to put out fires faster and more efficiently.
This is the time of year clubs are ramping up all their youth programs. Interact and Rotaract Clubs and their Rotarian sponsors are getting ready for the upcoming year. Youth Exchange committees are getting ready for their in-school recruiting activities. Do you want a great tool that will help make your promotion efforts 'POP'?
DId you know there's a template in the online Brand Center at rotary.org that allows you to quickly customized a rack card for your clubs' youth programs e.g. Interact, Rotaract, Youth Exchange, Life Leadership (RYLA). Select from list of programs and it swaps out program logo and provides suggested text as default. There's a library of images you can select from to tweak front/back. The text on front and back is customizable. If you must have local images, those with Adobe Acrobat edit permissions can swap out the images after download. Unless you have great, high quality images, the options made available should get the job done. The output is in rack card format and can easily be tweaked to be graphic suitable for social media/websites.
Keep reading for a quick tutorial of how to find and customize the materials.
This year marks 50 years since the founding of the first Rotaract club and we’re celebrating all year long! 50 years of taking action, leading our communities, and changing the world deserves a big celebration. How will you celebrate this historic milestone? Visit the hub for all things Rotaract 50 to get ideas to plan a service project, reconnect with alumni, and show your community the global impact of Rotaract. Download the Rotaract 50 graphic and social media photo frames to promote your 50th anniversary events and invite others to join the celebration!
Benzie Sunrise Rotary's Michelle Russell awards a $1,250 STRIVE Scholarship to Benzie Central grad Devin Neihardt. Devin is headed to the University of Northwestern Ohio to study diesel technology.
Hart Rotary bid farewell to their exchange student Valentina . . . a scene that was repeated throughout the District!
Holland Rotary Club inbound and outbound exchange students: Lindsey; Alexa; Tate; Sid; Natalie and Kady.
These 5 wonderful exchange students and future leaders joined Montague-Whitehall Rotary today for a program on Rotary Youth Exchange. Four have returned from their year exchange and one will be leaving any day now!
Left to right: Andie Bolles - Brazil '16-17, Ed Kaminski, Jaeven Aylor - Germany '15-16, Megan Kraus- Slovakia '11-12, Sarah DeBrot - Poland 15-16, Louis Hosticka - Sweden '17-18
Our Club looks forward to hosting 3 exchange students during the 17-18 year representing their countries of Spain, Japan and Indonesia. They will arrive in August.
We’re excited to offer a convenient way to complete the Foundation Grant Management Seminar (GMS)—a required program for clubs interested in applying for Foundation Matching Grants in 2017- 2018 (and beyond!)
An on-line, on-demand course is now available at the Rotary Learning Center at Rotary.org. It comes in three, 30-45 minute modules. You can take part of it, save your work, and return later to do some more. Each module includes downloadable materials, a video and brief quiz. All three modules must be completed for the course to be completed successfully.
Clubs should meet their requirement for one or two Rotarians to complete the GMS by October 15 or whenever they submit an application, whichever is earlier. The application should state the names of the qualifying Rotarians for that Club, so they can be easily cross-checked.
Clubs and districts can now use global grants to build low-cost shelters and simple schools, under a pilot program effective through 2019. The construction needs to be part of a comprehensive project related to an area of focus. Projects that involve construction alone are still not eligible for global grants. Low-cost shelters are intended to provide housing for the poor or homeless. Simple schools provide modest facilities in areas that previously had none; they aren’t intended to enhance current schools. To get started, see the guidelines and application appendix for low-cost shelters and simple schools.
If your club is interested in applying for a grant which requires using Rotary International's online grant management tool, you might want to check out this webinar which took place a few months ago.
The grant center has been completely re-vamped, and this webinar will walk you through all the important details.
The 2016–17 RI Board of directors held its fourth and final meeting on 5–8 June 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The 2017–18 RI Board held its first meeting on 16 June 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. At these meetings the Board reviewed reports from 16 committees and recorded 76 decisions.
The Manistee Rotary Club was honored last month to present a Paul Harris fellow award to Cindy Swan-Eagan, retired longtime band director at MAPS, in recognition of her significant contributions to community. Cindy is truly the embodiment of what 'Service Above Self' means!
President Elect, Randy Thompson (and our Grayling Rotary Club) was honored to present outgoing President, William McNamara with the Paul Harris Award. Congratulations, Bill, and thank you for a lifetime of service to our community!
Paul Harris presentations at Petoskey Rotary. Pictured from left to right is John Emley presenting a Paul Harris Fellow to his son Scott Emley who resides in Texas and he is in the process of becoming a Rotarian. The next presentation is Ashley Whitney and the presenter at the podium is our new Foundation Chair Liz Ahrens.
Mike Allen of Shelby Rotary was presented the Paul Harris award by district Governor Ed Swart
Thank you to all D6290 Rotarians that helped us raise $6,640 for the Rotary Foundation Annual Fund through our 2016/2017 Raffle.
This was a true 50:50 raffle. A total of 664 tickets were sold for $13,280, allowing 50% ($6,640) for our prize pool and the remaining portion will be directed to the Annual Fund which will generate matching funds for future grants.
Pakistan and Afghanistan programs continue coordination at the national and sub-national levels, with special focus on improving the quality of program implementation (supplementary immunization activities & surveillance) in the southern corridor (Quetta Block – Greater Kandahar) with ongoing WPV1 transmission.
Summary of newly-reported viruses this week: Pakistan – one new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1)-positive environmental samples. See country-specific section below, for more details.
Keep Reading for an Endemic Country Summary (as of August 2, 2017 )
Fellow Rotarians of District 6290:
Signup for our free webinar, First Impressions Matter: The Membership Experience, and learn valuable best practices and resources to help you improve your first impressions with prospective and new members. The webinar takes place Thursday, 31 August, at 12:30 Chicago time (UTC-5).
Rotary International President-elect Sam F. Owori died unexpectedly on 13 July due to complications from surgery. Sam was a member of the Rotary Club Kampala, Uganda, for 38 years.
The Rotary International Convention will travel to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where there’s Inspiration Around Every Corner, 23-27 June. Toronto is a diverse city with lots to offer, including vibrant cultural, art, entertainment, and culinary scenes. You’ll learn about new ideas, hear different perspectives, and gain new skills through engaging speakers, breakout sessions, and exhibits in the House of Friendship.
Straight-forward idea from the Membership Best Practices Discussion Group at rotary.org
Club President proactively tackles challenge of active/inactive members - this approach was outlined in a post in Membership Best Practices Discussion Group at Rotary.org
Have you taken on a new role at your club and are you feeling a little overwhelmed?
In explaining why he selected the theme Rotary: Making a Difference, President Ian Riseley says, “It seems to me that it represents what Rotary is and what Rotary does, every day and in many ways. All those people who benefit from our great programs appreciate that Rotary exists to make a difference.”
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This year marks 50 years since the founding of the first Rotaract club and we’re celebrating all year long! 50 years of taking action, leading our communities, and changing the world deserves a big celebration. How will you celebrate this historic milestone? Visit the 
We’re excited to offer a convenient way to complete the Foundation Grant Management Seminar (GMS)—a 
Clubs and districts can now use global grants to build low-cost shelters and simple schools, under a pilot program effective through 2019. The construction needs to be part of a comprehensive project related to an area of focus. Projects that involve construction alone are still not eligible for global grants. Low-cost shelters are intended to provide housing for the poor or homeless. Simple schools provide modest facilities in areas that previously had none; they aren’t intended to enhance current schools. To get started, see the 
The 2016–17 RI Board of directors held its fourth and final meeting on 5–8 June 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The 2017–18 RI Board held its first meeting on 16 June 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. At these meetings the Board reviewed reports from 16 committees and recorded 76 decisions.
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