Greetings Rotarians,

The countdown continues as we are now inside of 2 weeks until.....Club Assembly day on August 28th!   Perhaps you thought I was referring to opening weekend for K State football?  Both events are exciting and worth looking forward to.  The Club Assembly is a worthwhile endeavor,  e specially if everyone participates and gets involved.  If you currently serve on a committee, this will be your opportunity to meet as a committee and identify items that will need to be accomplished. Committee chairs, this is your notice to contact your members!  If you are not currently serving on a committee I invite you to meet with me and discuss the club's future.  I want to hear from you if you have ideas and opinions regarding our club.  If we are doing something you appreciate and want to continue as a club, please share those thoughts with myself or board members.  If you have ideas and suggestions for items we should consider doing that we aren't doing, I want to hear from you as well.  This will be your opportunity, as non "Yellow Tag" members (see below),  to share with me ideas on how we can be a better club.

For those members who have belonged to our club for less than a year,  we have formed a group for new members to provide insight as to what appeals to them about our Rotary Club and to provide a "wish list" of things we might consider doing.  As new members join our club, they are given a yellow name tag for the first year, so we can identify them as relatively new members.  As such, we have named the new group the "Yellow Tag Committee."  Our hope is to give them a voice in ways we can improve our club and continue to appeal to a new generation of Rotarians.  Board member, Megan Loftin, has agreed to coordinate this group and provide feedback to the board for consideration.  All "yellow tag" members are encouraged to meet with Megan during the assembly. 

Regardless of whether you have a blue name tag or a yellow name tag, your participation is wanted and needed.  The board continues to evaluate how we do things and  I am encouraging all of us on the board  to get out of the box and "shake up" Rotary.  Rotary membership in District 5710 has declined 8 out of the last 10 years.  We must broaden our appeal and recruit a younger generation.  A few changes you will notice in the near future include a bar code scanner for attendance.  This will eliminate the need for Secretary George to manually enter member attendance from the sign in sheets.  Instead, you will scan your bar code from the attendance sheet and we c an then download attendance each week.   We are also  in the process of implementing electronic payment modules to Club Runner which will allow you to pay your dues and other fees (golf tournament entry fees, etc.) electronically by credit card and PayPal.   This will greatly lighten the workload of George and Treasurer Gil Sabatka in processing, recording and depositing membership dues each year. Not to mention many fewer trips to check the PO Box for mail.

Last week Dale Bradley gave a meaningful Moment of Inspiration in which he shared reasons he will always support our RI Foundation.  Another way we can continue our club's long history of supporting the RI Foundation, and at the same time make the process more automated, is to consider doing your annual giving electronically through ACH.  By doing so, we could free Foundation Chair Mike Mayo from recording and forwarding checks to RI as they come in.  

As we continue to find new ways to ensure our club's relevance and viability well into the future, please embrace these changes and offer other ways we can continue to grow our club.  If you want to be more involved, we have many areas of opportunity for you to serve your Rotary Club. 

This week's program is Todd Holmberg with an overview of the 2014 McCain Series.   I hope you will join me this Thursday for lunch.  


Scott Emley
Rotary Club of Manhattan

 
 
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