May 18, 2015 Meeting
Posted by A Todd
on May 20, 2015
Past District Governor Mike Yesner
and Club President Wendy Morgan
Kathy Nowicki, Alex Todd
Wendy Morgan and Bret Fahnstrom
We had a buffet of speakers today, which gave us many guests to welcome! Past District Governor Mike Yesner, Steve Love from Harper Community College, Peter Glon from the Schaumburg Rotary Club, Diane Berry and Rebecca Harris all joined us for our meeting.
Steve Love thanked the club for our support of Harper's vocational training efforts. They offer more than fifty different licenses which are determined by the needs of local businesses. Our scholarship will help ensure another student will reach their dreams.
Diane and Rebecca talked to us about Mobility Awareness Month. There is a national contest to win one of four specially designed vehicles for a family with need. There will be four winners overall, one for a caregiver, one vehicle for a senior citizen, one smaller, electric vehicle to help the winner easily get around town and one 'general' winner. Of course there is a link where we can go to help Diane's family win and of course I've misplaced it. When I track it down, I will update this post.
Finally, Mike Yesner talked to us about membership and challenged each member to bring a prospective member to a meeting before the end of June. More importantly than getting people to join Rotary, though, is keeping them. Most new members do not last twelve months with their club. To reverse this trend, clubs must take steps to ensure the new members are welcomed, listened to and made to feel wanted. Each new member should have a mentor. They should be assigned to committees and given work to do. In general, the club needs to examine its practices to see if changes might be needed to attract younger members who are increasingly more interested in doing community service than attending weekly meetings.
Our District is starting to do better in retaining our members. Last year was the first time in several that our membership grew from the previous year. Granted it was by just 14 people, but hey, the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.