Year: 2012

Congratulations to Rogers Rotary president-elect Chuck Christian, elected by the full membership upon recommendation by the board of directors.

Chuck joined Rogers Rotary in May 2007. He is an active meeting volunteer and event promoter. During his upcoming year as president and lead club ambassador, we can expect Rotary’s visibility to reach all-time highs in the community. Few in our club know as much Rogers history or have as many business contacts as Chuck does.

He will immediately jump into District 5950 training by attending the Presidents-Elect Training Seminar (PETS) from February 28-March 2. Thank you for accepting this leadership role, Chuck!

—RI News

We’re a young and jovial group, but I had trouble envisioning my infant blending in weekly. My concerns were unfounded; members’ welcome couldn’t have been warmer. Soon Wes had a better attendance record than many of the grown-ups. The wait staff started setting out a high chair for us in advance – near an exit, in case we needed to make a speedy departure. Rotarians joked that Wes was the founding member of a new club they called “Romperact.”

Rotarians often fret about the absence of 30-somethings. Some clubs have attempted to bridge the gap with less-frequent meetings or lower dues. Many others have worked to make Rotary more appealing to tot-toting families. Family-friendly clubs have reported success in gaining new members and keeping current ones.

Here are tips for making Rotary a family affair:

• Just bring ’em:  Jack, 7, has long been a visitor to club meetings. He puts on a name tag and even contributes “happy dollars” when he has something to share. “Kids get it, and they do listen.”
• Hire Help:  A Seattle club hired a sitter to help at its evening meetings. Parents and grandparents pay $5 per child and kids have a room of their own. At the start of each meeting, the children lead the Pledge of Allegiance.
• Think younger: Another key to the club’s success is child-oriented projects. Several times a year, the Rotarians and their families take a walk along a local bike path, picking up trash as they go. Last year, they installed swings for children with special needs at area playgrounds.
• Take a little vacation:  District 7600 (Virginia) hopes to attract Rotary families to its October conference by holding it at a ski resort. “This is the first time conference that’s really promoted bringing children,” says PDG Bill Pollard. “We’re getting younger people involved in leadership positions, and they don’t want to leave their families all the time for Rotary.”

Tim Buck emailed the 2013 golf flyer and 501c3 letter following the first planning meeting. There’s already one foursome registered!

 Now….Rotarians are needed to chair each of these tournament
features. Please volunteer to Peter Will or Tim Buck.

1.  Auction items packaging

2.  Spreadsheet of registrations,
     payments, auction donations

3.  Registration table at tournament

4.  Auction setup

5.  Auction checkout

6.  Sell mulligan cards

7.  Booze Pull promotion and packaging
     (Carol Hines will sell at the event.)

8.  Raffle tickets

We need everyone to be involve. Each Rotarian’s goal is to get one foursome, two Booze Pull bottles, an auction item(s) worth $100 or more, and a hole sponsor. Or just get a Corporate sponsor.

Rogers Rotary applied for and was accepted as a host club
for the GSE Team arriving from India in April.

Details:

• The team of 4-5 representatives will join us for three days,
  approx. April 16-19.
• We need one overall visit
  coordinator.
• Three or more hosts are  needed to house team members. Tim Buck has already volunteered his home.
• Other volunteers are needed
  to provide transportation and activity coordination during the three days. 

This is a wonderful opportunity to reach across cultural lines and make the team’s District 5950 exchange visit a life-altering event.

Please volunteer for a key role!

Rogers Rotarians worked at CROSS Food Shelf on November 14. Before leaving, President Lenny Kirscht (center left) made a $750 donation from the club. CROSS provides food and clothing to those in temporary need. It serves the Northwest Hennepin County communities of West Champlin, Corcoran, Dayton, Maple Grove, Osseo, & Rogers.

Congratulations to Pancake Breakfast raffle winner Doit Barth. He won the Kindle Fire HD donated by Mettle Computer Solutions.  Doit worked for many years in the technology support field and was happy to get a new Kindle!

Case Study:
Turkish Rotarians have provided 2,500 students in four schools in
Adana, Turkey, with new toilets and clean water facilities through a water and sanitation project supported by a Rotary Foundation global grant.

The project, sponsored by the Rotary clubs of Adana-Cukurova, Turkey, and Frutal, Minas Gerais, Brazil, demonstrates how Rotary’s new grant model can enable Rotarians to reach more people in need and make a larger and more lasting impact by involving the community, having a measurable outcome, and building in sustainability.

An article on the Rotary International website provides much more detail about this project. The case study demonstrates how these Future
Vision’s key features are applied to a large grant-funded project:

• Assess local needs      
• Ensure sustainability
• Implement the project        
• Measure outcome

Proving that you’re never too old to go back to school(!), these Rogers Rotarians completed Junior Achievement leaders’ training on Nov. 14. Two-person teams will volunteer in four different third grade classrooms.

On World Polio Day, October 24, people around the globe participated in the World’s Biggest Commercial, promoting the international effort to eradicate polio.

 The innovative, interactive online initiative gave everyone a chance to join Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bill Gates, Jackie Chan, Angelique Kidjo, and other world figures and celebrities who have already joined in Rotary’s This Close campaign in support of polio eradication. Participants could upload photos of themselves to Rotary’s polio eradication website, endpolionow.org, to be edited into the expanding promotional spot. They received an email with a direct link to their image and comment within the commercial.

Rotary is also releasing End Polio Now, an eclectic album of songs performed by its celebrity polio eradication ambassadors from the music industry. The lineup includes several polio survivors: violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman, folk rock musician Donovan, and Staff Benda Bilili,
a Congolese soukous band scheduled to launch its U.S. tour in Los
Angeles on World Polio Day. The End Polio Now album is available for download on iTunes, and soon as a CD, with all proceeds from sales going to PolioPlus.

Although new polio cases are at an all-time low — there were fewer than 180 worldwide as of October 16, 2012 — a funding gap has already curtailed scheduled immunization activities in polio-affected countries. If eradication fails and polio rebounds, up to 200,000 children per year could be paralyzed.