Regional Membership Coordinator

We were pleased to have two visiting Rotarians last week. Gail Nebeo from the Ft. Collins Downtown Club visited as did Dick Griffith from the Ft. Collins Breakfast Club. The Squicquero’s brought their granddaughter Haley as a guest. We were pleased to induct JaNelle Wamsley as our newest member.

President Susan Van Deren reported on behalf of Dave Thiemann that the newspaper poll found that 60% of the respondents requested unspecified financial assistance, 16% requested yard clean up and 8% sought counseling.

PROGRAM:

Diane Kessel-Knight was our presenter. She is a member of the Ft. Collins Breakfast Club but has been a member of three other clubs and is the PDG of District 5450 (Denver). She is also the Regional Membership Coordinator and is an accomplished singer.

Diane told us how the number of Rotary clubs is increasing, but the number of members is decreasing. There are 465,000 Rotarians in North America. She shared some District and local statistics. Our club, for instance went from 9 members to 33 members in 5 years. He District has grown by 1.35% in the last year.

Diane urged us to “Get your ASK in gear.” Ask guests to come and select guests that would become good Rotarians. She said a membership team includes several factors:

-More than a “one man band”

-Clear goal and action plan

-Clear roles and responsibilities

-Meeting regularity

-Report back to the club

She said there are numerous ways to find new members. Check new business licenses. Check with the Chamber of Commerce. Make contact with any Newcomers Club. She also urged us to consider spouses, speakers, and news makers. Some clubs advertise by posting a “Rotarian Works Here” sign in their business window. She said some clubs use a business card size invitation to ask people to come as guests. She also said the Red Badge Program has worked well in some clubs. This allows new members to go through a kind of orientation process in their first six months so that they have a better understand of what Rotary is and what is expected of the member.

Quiz: At 30 to 35 degrees north and south of the equator is an area called the Horse latitudes. It got this name when many sailing ships jettisoned their horses to lighten the load when they were becalmed. Next question: Who was the first president to have a telephone on his desk?

District Governor Visits

DG Palmer, Pres. Susan Van Deren, and Susie Palmer

We were pleased to welcome District Governor Stuart Palmer and his wife Susie to the club last week for his official visit. In addition to the Palmers, John Roberts, Assistant District Governor from Ft. Collins was present as was PDG Charlie Peterson. Charlie was also there to sell peaches.

DG Palmer said he saw energy and perspective in the club and announced that he would work on PR for the Windsor Tornado Recovery. Before the meeting, the Board of Directors met with DG Palmer and laid out the club plans for the year.

DG Palmer reiterated RI’s commitment to defeating polio worldwide. It is still a daunting task. He cited for instance the fact that India has 25 million births per year. Each of those children must be immunized. To date 99% of polio has been eliminated in the world. Two billion children have been immunized.

DG Palmer also talked about other focuses of Rotary. Since 2002, 250 World Peace Scholarships have been awarded. He pointed out the Rhode’s Scholarship program awards 30 scholarships a year world wide. Rotary sponsors 520 or more Ambassadorial Scholars per year at $25,000 each.

Other information includes:

• To date, over one million Rotarians have become Paul Harris Fellows.
• In April, a GSE team from Southern Chile (Patagonia Region) will be visiting the District.
• The District Conference will be the last of April/first of May in Jackson Hole to avoid conflict with summer visitors.
• The District is planning on chartering buses to carry area Rotarians to the District Conference.
• The District Goal is to enroll 216 new members in the next year.

Before departing, DG Palmer awarded “The Quiet Rotarian Award” to Karen Kunz for all she has done for the club over the years.

DG Palmer says Rotary is “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”

Quiz: Surprisingly, Denver has more park land than any other major City with over 10,000 acres of parks (consider the vast Denver Mountain Parks system. There are 24 of them.) Next question: At 30 to 35 degrees north and south of the equator, these areas are notorious for their calm winds…so calm in fact that sailing ships were often forced to jettison excess weight to lighten their ships. What are these areas called?

Club Committee Meetings

We are pleased to welcome our District Governor Stuart Palmer for his annual visit. DG Palmer is with the Jackson Hole Rotary Club (Lunch Club).

LAST WEEK
We were pleased to have as our guest JaNelle Wamsley of New Frontier Bank who we hope will be replacing Beth Clarken whose schedule has prevented her from attending many meetings recently. In addition, we were visited by Mark Linnel who has been a Rotarian off and on since 1981. He started in California and later moved to Longmont. He recently moved to Windsor and is interested in continuing his commitment to Rotary.

COMMITTEE MEETINGS
President Susan Van Deren tried something new for our club last week. We held committee meetings during the regular meeting time. Three committees met including Fund Raising, Community Service, and Youth.

Fund Raising reported that in the next few months we will go to the Rockies game on August 13 where we will pass out gifts, and in return, the attendees will get to see the game and the club receives $500. Our big fund raiser of the year is the beer sales at Harvest Fest where we expect to clear $5000-$6000. We will also have a Dinner social in September which is an internal club find raiser.

Community service announced that for the time being we will continue to concentrate on Tornado relief for the community. Dave Thiemann said he would conduct a needs survey through the Windsor Now newspaper and we will work with the Town’s Unmet Needs Committee to see where we can best use our finds ($12,700 to date).

Youth Committee reported that they will concentrate on the Interact club in hopes of assisting with the RYLA program and Student Exchange. Karen Trussler agreed to serve as Club Protection Officer as she deals with many of the same issues in the schools.

QUIZ
“Of Thee I Sing” was the musical that poked fun at the election process. Next question: What city has the largest city park system in the US?