Do what we do best: serve the community and return to our fellowship activities
As we move out of the past pandemic year, hopefully we will move into the 2021-2022 new year where Reno Centennial Sunset members can do what we do best: serve the community and return to our fellowship activities. I know you all must miss sharing time with your Rotary friends – I know I do. The only thing I can say is that the entire world has gone through this tough year and I know we are all capable of finding a greater strength from the experience.
I thought I might share my view of the next year as President of RCS. I must say, Rotary spends a considerable amount of time preparing Presidents-Elect for their year of leading their club and I hope I have absorbed what I need to help our club shine.
Inspired by the President-Elect training and my own desire to make a difference in my community, I have great plans and ideas for the upcoming year. I hope to be able to inspire you all to reach beyond simple weekly meetings and a few community projects to raising our club to great accomplishments - not in the amount of money we fundraise for our projects or actions for doing good in the neighborhood or the amount of money we raise and give to Rotary for long-term sustained support of the Avenues of Service. Rather, I envision that you as a Rotary member of our club find something in RCS that represents you. We are People of Action and mankind is our business. We each should love our club.
I know that can sound very idealistic and I have already been told that the ideas I shared in a recent meeting are ambitious. I agree completely. However, if we don’t reach beyond where we are, how do we progress? So, I want to present to you some ideas that I would like to bring to fruition this next year. I am fully aware that I may not see completion of some of these ideas but know that I will do my best – with your help – to accomplish these goals.
I know I can’t do it alone. May I ask that you help me reach new heights in our club as we all attain a greater sense of personal achievement. I truly believe that we as Rotarians want to achieve everything we can. Let us have a blatant disregard for the common, always seeking to be and to interact with the uncommon. We find success when we invest in each other’s success. I take my role to be that of a listener. I have ideas but will listen to you – hearing whether you love my ideas or want to change those ideas. We will come to a consensus and move forward in our goals together. [And there she is being all idealistic again.]
Mainly, I want to build on our club pride. And we have much to be proud about. We have as a small club done big club things. We have set goals and accomplished them and more. I am very proud of the The Rotary Club of Reno Centennial Sunset and am especially grateful to all the friends I have made through Rotary.
Some quick ideas I am working on:
- Each Committee will be co-chaired to limit the sometime heavy workload the chairs as volunteers can face. Please think of stepping up to a leadership position. I will share the Committee Chair list soon.
- My personal focus will be on projects that address issues and problems associated with homelessness. This focus is expressed through almost every one of the Areas of Service. Know that I am not planning on filling a backpack with necessities and passing out to homeless in the street. That is a band-aid with virtually no sustainability. Details later.
- Our newsletter will be a great vehicle to share the who of who each of us is. I don’t know enough about all of the members. We can remedy this through fellowship at the meetings (soon to become in-person events) and through information sharing in our newsletter:
- RCS Member Corner: each issue highlights one or two members and their personal and business experiences. A get-to-know you better section. Please think about what you would like to share with the club that we don’t know about you.
- RCS Members Know Corner: each issue of the newsletter will have a member sharing their vocational/avocational experiences in life. For instance, I am a web designer and Internet specialist. I’ll bet I could give you some ideas on how your Internet presence can be enhanced to your advantage. I’ll write an article.
- Business Partner Corner: I would like to partner with three local businesses. I believe we can help those selected businesses and they can help us with our community projects. More about this later, but for now, imagine that there is a mutual advantage to selecting some business partners to recognize. One has already been selected, so I would like you to be thinking of two other businesses who could use our support and who have proven to be good community partners.
I do not have enough room in this article to share all of my thoughts and ideas. But please know I am so excited about standing in front of you reciting the Four-Way Test and finding lots of ways to share our joy in Rotary and in doing good. Each of us will find our success when we invest in each other’s success.
I am a Native, card-carrying Okanagan Indian from British Columbia. My great-great-great-grandfather was Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. I have only one family member remaining, my brother Terry Joseph Harris, living in Canada. So, I am claiming you all as my Tribe now. Let’s move forward and achieve everything we can, not for just 2021-2022, but for generations into the future. It has to start somewhere.
