NOTE: I will be travelling at the end of November/beginning of December and then will be busy with holiday activities, so I decided to combine my November and December President Letter. I will still be thinking about you in my travels!
Last month I reminded all of us about the mission, beliefs, strategies and primary objectives that were created through our strategic planning process last spring. I have participated and even led several strategic planning initiatives in my life and the strategic plan developed by all of you is one of the most rewarding plans I have seen in a long time. Our board uses this plan as our guidepost in making decisions, in determining options when we need to make choices and focuses our energy – all these things are confirmation of the relevance of the strategic plan. So in this letter, I want to focus on one area that all of us need to focus on in the coming months- our #3 priority:
We will build organizational capacity through membership growth and infrastructure to expand the club initiatives at the local level.
When I talk about our club to others, I get so energized and humbled as I describe the great people who are members. We have established a great foundation in our membership so thank you for your commitment to the cause and to this club. But to expand our influence in our local communities and in our global community it is important that we continue to grow-both in numbers and in engagement of our members. We established a goal that we would increase our membership by 24 members this year. That means that if each one of us brought in just one friend/colleague, we would exceed our goal! As we head into the holiday season, use this opportunity to connect with friends and invite them to join our efforts.
But joining the club is not enough. We have SO many opportunities to create strategic alliances with other clubs and organizations. We have 2 incredible websites that we have a goal to make them premiere websites. The Programs and Projects committee is currently evaluating organizations with the intent of giving recommendations to the board of organizations they believe we should partner with to implement programs in multiple communities. We have been asked to support other Rotary initiatives through providing funding to support Global Grants (an opportunity to increase our contribution by 9x!). All these will need your time and talent. So as you read this, please consider your skills and interests- are you interested in updating and refining a website? Do you enjoy fund raising? Are you good at writing proposals? We need all of these. Please feel free to reach out to me or to Michelle Seets if you have questions or have interest.
I am excited about what we can accomplish in the next several months and look forward to working with each of you to meet our goals!
Karen
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Service Above Self
Eden Prairie, MN
United States of America