Rotary International Theme 2024-2025	THE ROWEL Rotary Club of Durham		Rotary International President: Gordon McInally Rotary District 5160 Governor: Clair Roberts Durham Rotary President: Glenn Pulliam _____________ Editor: Phil Price Publisher:  Jen Liu
	February 18, 2025	Harvest Festival  2025 will be held on September 21, 2025

The Meeting Opening We met at the Memorial Hall in Durham. The meeting was called to order by President Peggi.  Peggi asked Imogene Hinds to lead the pledge, which she did.  Peggi then recited the 4 Way Test, from memory. Since Jim Patterson was not here, Peggi asked Ravi Saip to present the invocation, which he did, very well. Peggi asked Larry Bradley to lead us in a song.  He led us in singing God Bless America.

Announcements

Peggi reminded us of the Durham Community Foundation fund raiser on February 27^th at the Durham Memorial Hall.  They are hoping to get 100 guests, each donating $100.  If interested you can contactthem at durhamcommunityfoundationca@gmail.com or 530 864 1381.

She also announced that Camp Royal will be held June 9-14. 

Camp Venture will be held on June 11-15 at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. 

We may not get as many applicants because not only are these two events overlapping, but they are also overlapping other events, including Silver Dollar Fair and the animal events many of the students may want to participate in.

 Introduction of Visitors

We had a whole lot of visitors because the meeting was about the schools, Interactand 2 students of the month.

Steve Plume was asked to introduce those at his table, but he asked each to introducethemselves.  They were:  Susan Ladd and Marty Wilkes, the High School Principal. 

Tom Knoles introduce Ryan and Carrie Vanella and the son, Student of the Month, Ryley Vanella.  He also introduced Denny Rudd.

Jessica Thorpe intoduced her daughter, Jennele Thorp.  She also introduced Erica and Fred Montgomery and ther son, Marcas Montgomer, also a Student of the Month.

Our Next Meeting

Our next meeting, on March 4^th at the BCCC.  I will present Walt Schafer, who will up date us on the Covered Bridge rebuilding,which, according to the newspaper has been completed.

There will be a Board meeting at 5:00 pm, before the meeting.

Students of the Month

We had two Students of the Month.  Larry Bradley introduced Riley Vanella, Student of the Month for January

He then introduced Marty Montgomery, Student of the Month for February.

Tonight’s Meeting Program

Tonight’s meeting was a discussion of various matters relating to the Durham Schools.

Marty Wilks, Principal of Durham High School, talked primarily about the various sports teams and their successes.

Susan Ladd, librarian who has had advisor added to her responsibilities, talked about the various scholarships and the application that has been developed for all of the scholarships, except ours.  This application is different from our application for Rotary Scholarships.

John Bohannan talked about the various improvements already constructed and those planned.  He said it will take about6 years to complete.

Diana Selland and Jessica Thorpe talked about the scholarships from our Club.  $20,000 has been budgeted.  Applications maybe submitted between February 5^th and April 5^th.  Our annual Scholarship Bar-B-Q will be held in April 29^th in the Park.

Membership

Bring guests who you think you can interest in becoming a member.  Your dinner and your guest’s dinner will be paid for by the Club.  Also, bring a guest to one of our occasional social gatherings.

District 5160 Governor, Dan Geraldi is asking each club member to bring at least one guest toa meeting this year.

Go to the following Rotary International web site for information on membership development:  https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/learn-topic/membership .  From this website there is access to membership development and other related information.

The Rotary Foundation Donations

You can make a difference in this world by helping people in need. Your gift can do some great things, from supplying filters that cleanpeople’s drinking water to empowering local entrepreneurs to grow through business development training.

The Rotary Foundation will use your gift to fund the life-changing work of Rotary members who provide sustainable solutions to  ’ most pressing needs. But we need help from people like you who will take action and give the gift of Rotary to make these projects possible.

When every Rotarian gives every year, no challenge is too great for us to make a difference. The minimum gift to The Rotary Foundation is $25.00.   An annual $100.00 gift is a sustaining member.  Once your donations accumulate to $1,000 you become a Paul Harris Fellow.

If you have any questions, ask Steve Heithecker.

It is possible to learn more about The Rotary Foundation on the Rotary web site. 

Your gift can be made online or by sending Jessica Thorpe a check made out to The Rotary Foundation to Durham Rotary, P.O. Box 383, Durham, California 95958.

From District 5160

Candidates for District Governor

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From Rotary International’s News and Features Website

{Note that the following may not be the complete article.  See the complete articleon Rotary International’s web page.

Light a fire under your club

Members say they thrive with clear, specific goals and the continuity they provide

By Arnold R. Grahl

A rainbow of colors brightens the scorecards Hilda Addah shows members of the Rotary Clubof Accra-South in Ghana. The activity is a monthly exercise to let members know how the club is doing on its goals.

Red on the homemade scorecards means a goal is behind schedule, while yellow reflects progress on track and green indicates a pace ahead of schedule. The system has been in place for about five years, and Addah, the club president, says it’s helping to reveal achievement gaps and drive improvement. Committee members are motivated to keep their goals out of the red.

Many successful clubs have one thing in common: goal setting. When club leaders plan for the future, they provide their club with direction and purpose. Setting goals in areas such as membership growth, service projects, and club experience motivates members and inspires them to work together with a common purpose.

Rotary Club Central makes it simple. Accra-South club leaders set and track their goals in this online goal-setting tool for Rotary and Rotaract clubs. “Rotary Club Central is a very simple and user-friendly tool,” Addah says. “It helps meas a leader follow and track progress.”

While club leaders can use Rotary Club Central to set goals and record accomplishments, members can use it to view the club’s progress. New club leaders can use previous goals to make informed decisions about the club’s future and set up to three years’ worth of goals. They can adjust goals as needed, always planning three years ahead.

Planning for multiple years is important to ensure continuity and ease transitions in leadership.

“Some things that come out of strategic planning, you can’t do in a short period oftime,” says Tony Winter, secretary and past president of the Rotary Club of Batavia, Illinois. “We also deliberately wanted some goals to stretch out longer to span different leadership teams and instill consistency in our club.” To start setting goals in Rotary Club Central, club leaders can use the club’s current situation as the baseline and its strategic plan as a guide for the next three years. Clubs should make sure incoming leaders have a My Rotary account and report their role in My Rotary to ensure they have access to the online tool.

The Batavia club learned there’s no such thing as too much communication. It decided in 2021 to use Rotary’s Club Health Check to kick-start the goal-setting process. The club sought input from the dozen new members who had joined during the COVID-19 pandemic and was thrilled when most of them took part in a visioning session, Winter says. The club used the feedback to set goals, create a strategy, and develop an action plan.

“The information we got from that session was vital in telling us, in combination with the health check, what we needed to start doing, what we needed to keep doing, and what we needed to change,” says Winter. “It was something we had never done before. It was a big step forward and gave us maybe a dozen items to work on over the next three years.”

Quantifying goals and regularly reporting progress to members can light a fire under a club, Winter says. “There’s a big difference between saying, this year let’s do some social events, and this year we are going to do six social events,” he says. “Once you put that number on it, it becomes somebody’s responsibility to get that done. When you don’t quantify it, it’s just a statement.”

Club President Margaret Perreault instituted a quarterly assembly this year to report to members on the club’s progress, complementing the updates featured in the club newsletter.

“Overcommunicating is a healthy strategy for a club,” Perreault says.

The Batavia club also uses Rotary’s Member Satisfaction Survey at least once a yearto fine-tune objectives and identify new needs.

“It’s an ongoing challenge. People evolve, things evolve,” Winter says. “You need toget out in front of things. You have to constantly communicate back to the club. It’s the only way to plan.”

— February 2025

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