Rogers Rotary

STRIVE gains speed as students discover results

Charlene — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:46:07 +0000

“Attendance is holding strong,” says STRIVE coordinator Ben McEachern. “Some of the kids who had been checked out are starting to engage.”

These are the remaining STRIVE topics. It’s not too late to increase your
involvement as a presenter or table facilitator this year, or to check out the
program and volunteer regularly next year. Contact Ben with questions.

Hewko outlines priorities for strengthening Rotary

Charlene — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:40:23 +0000

—RI News

Addressing the RI International Assembly,
General Secretary John Hewko spelled out five
priorities for strengthening the organization.

Eradicating polio, Rotary’s signature global initiative since 1985, will save hundreds of thousands of children from suffering from the disease and save the world between $40 billion – $50 billion
in health care costs over the next 20 years.

Future Vision, The Rotary Foundation’s new grant making model, will lead to projects and programs in the six areas of
focus that are better designed and more sustainable and scalable, and that will lead to greater impact,” he said. “This, in turn, will increase
our profile, reputation, and public image and will make Rotary more attractive to outside funding sources.

Rotary Club Central is a new tool that will help Rotary place a value on the thousands of service projects clubs do each year. The online resource will help clubs maintain a record of past activities; set and track strategic goals and initiatives; and allow reporting of the global, collective impact of club, district, and zone activities.

Membership’s priority is to make Rotary more appealing and relevant
to younger members. The RI Board has launched an initiative to develop three-year regional membership plans tailored to specific regional needs and challenges. Achieving this priority will also require revamping the website to improve performance and make it more user friendly, increasing use of social media, looking at expanding e-clubs, and giving clubs greater flexibility with attendance requirements.

Positioning Rotary more fully as a major player in global humanitarian assistance and development is the fifth priority. “Here we have Rotary, with its incredible platform of 1.2 million engaged, active, and motivated members, drawn from the business and professional networks of
tens of thousands of communities,” Hewko said. “In short, a private-sector platform that is unmatched in the world today.”

These “New Generations” programs are well established

Charlene — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:31:50 +0000

Every year, thousands of talented and dedicated young people, ages
12-30, have an incredible experience in a New Generations program.

As Rotaractors and Interactors, they serve in communities at home and abroad. Through Rotary Youth
Exchange, they explore new cultures. And as Rotary Youth Leadership Awards participants, they learn skills that will help them succeed as future community leaders.

Chat ‘n Chug Invites Prospective Members

Charlene — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:24:15 +0000

Chat ‘n Chug was wonderful! What a great way to meet prospective members, relax, eat, play games, and socialize.

Thanks to Jack & Carol Hines for hosting the event, and to Dino Buege and Cheryl Helwig for organizing it.

Sandy Hillsdale (Spectacle Shoppe) provided door prizes and Healthsource Chiropractic gave free chair massages.

New Members Join Rogers Rotary

Charlene — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:10:42 +0000

Rogers Rotary welcomes Jana Hennen-Burr (Elk River Area Schools), Claire Reeve (Walgreeens), and Skip Walsoer (Walgreens) as new members.

H2Optimist featured on RI Website

Charlene — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:15:20 +0000

Meet Val Johnson, a member of
the Rotary Club of New Brighton/Mounds View, Minnesota who cofounded the
nonprofit H2O for Life, which gets students involved in fundraisers for clean water. During a presentation at a recent club meeting, Johnson saw one Rotarian nudge his neighbor and whisper, “We’ve been outdone by a bunch of eighth graders.” Johnson chuckles as she recounts the story because those students were talking about a nonprofit she’d cofounded in 2007.

H2O for Life matches schools in
the United States with schools in developing nations without clean water and sanitation facilities. The students from Highview Middle

School in New Brighton, MN raised $13,000 to build a dam in the Kwa Kasolo region of Kenya.
The nonprofit helps students hold fundraisers such as water walks, which simulate the chore of fetching water, sometimes from miles away, that many children around the world perform every day.

So far, students have raised more than $1 million for projects at schools in 26 countries. Each effort requires a dollar-for-dollar match from the non-governmental organization responsible for implementing it.
In May, H2O for Life launched a pilot project with the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group, Procter & Gamble, and Africare. The organization also provides resources to help teachers talk about water, conduct experiments, and teach students about the culture of the recipient country.

“We went into this thinking we were doing great things for people in developing nations,” says Johnson. “What we saw was how it was developing and changing our U.S. students – that middle school kids could say, ‘I made a difference and saved a life.’ They will grow up to be great philanthropists and great Rotarians.”

What is Rotary’s Future Vision Plan?

Charlene — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:02:59 +0000

…..from RI News

The Rotary Foundation Future Vision Pilot is a three-year test of the new grant structure offered in the Foundation’s Future Vision Plan. One hundred pilot districts have a unique opportunity to help refine the new grant structure by providing input and receiving specialized Foundation support and service. Pilot districts will work with Rotary Foundation District Grants and Rotary Foundation Global Grants for three years of the pilot.

RI Foundation District Grants

District grants are block grants made to districts for up to 50% of their District Designated Fund (DDF). District grants offer the flexibility to respond quickly to
immediate needs or to plan projects with clubs locally or in other countries.
RI Foundation Global Grants

Global grants support large international projects with sustainable, high-impact
outcomes in the six Areas of Focus (see list at left) that correspond to the Foundation’s mission.
Areas of Focus

1. Peace and conflict prevention/ resolution

2. Disease prevention and treatment

3. Water and sanitation

4. Maternal and child health

5. Basic education and literacy

6. Economic and community development

To see a power point of Rotary’s Future Plan click here.

Business Integrity

Charlene — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:57:50 +0000

Vocational Service promotes business integrity, professional development –RI News

Through vocational service, Rotarians contribute their professional expertise and skills to address societal problems and needs, and to promote high ethical standards in the workplace.
Rotarians can support vocational service by: Strengthening the emphasis on professional diversity in member recruitment; Identifying ways to emphasize professions in club activities; Placing a stronger emphasis on business networking with integrity at the club and district level — also is a means of attracting and mentoring the next generation

Emphasizing the connection between The Four-Way Test and the Declaration of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions, and their importance to the
values of Rotary.

5 Top Rotary Stories

Charlene — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:47:14 +0000

from RI News

1. Tsunami strikes Japan

Rotary clubs and districts worldwide mobilized to bring aid to victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on 11 March. The Rotary Foundation established the Rotary Japan 2011 Disaster Recovery Fund, which has raised almost US$6 million for long-term recovery projects.

2. Rotary International theme

RI President Kalyan Banerjee unveiled the 2011-12 RI theme

Reach Within to Embrace Humanity, during the International Assembly in January. He urged Rotary leaders to harness their inner strength to achieve success in Rotary.

3. The fight against polio

India made great strides toward polio eradication in 2011, with only one case of the virus reported. Rotarians helped administer bivalent oral polio vaccine to more than 35 million children in India during a Subnational Immunization Day, and a team of Rotarians immunized children in a health camp in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Rotarians also worked to get out the mes-sage about polio eradication for World Polio Day in October.

4. 2011 Rotary International Convention

More than 16,000 Rotarians from around the world converged in May in New Orleans for the 2011 RI Convention. Rotaractors, Rotarians, and Rotary Foundation alumni participated in service projects to help families still recovering from damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

5. Strategic partnerships

The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees approved four strategic partner-ships to help Rotary broaden its impact by offering service opportunities to Rotarians through packaged global grants.

New Year’s message from RI President Banerjee

Charlene — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:44:31 +0000

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “The Polio Endgame” outlined a strategy for a post-polio era, including managing post-eradication risks. Thirty years ago, such an article could never have been published. Today, it is a testament to the power of dedication, of persis-tence, and of combined effort.

My friends, the day that polio will be eradicated is close at hand. We have to be ready for it with a powerful Rotary – a Rotary of enthusiasm and confidence, of bold vision and clear ambitions.

It is time for us to prepare by taking an honest look at our clubs. Are our projects meaningful, sustainable, and relevant? Are our meetings productive and enjoyable? Are our clubs welcoming to new members, and are our schedules and events friendly to young families? Once people join us, do we welcome them properly and involve them enough? Do we make them a part of the family of Rotary quickly enough?

Now is the time to focus our energies on our clubs and on the way people see them. It is time to show our communities that the Rotary of today is not the Rotary of their preconceptions. Rotary is a way to connect, to do more, to be more – it is a way to take our idealism and our vision, and turn them into reality.

Kalyan
Banerjee, RI
President 2011-12