President's Monthly Report ~ 12/5/18

We are officially in the sprint to the end of the year, that period in between Thanksgiving and the Holidays where the pace picks up and the days fly by; and you struggle to get everything done.  However, I can’t turn to December without looking back to say that I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving; November gave us much to be thankful for, our families, our community, our faith, our work and at Rotary, especially El Tour de Tucson and our Ride for the Cure.

 

Gary Hirsch and Darrell Stewart again did an excellent job in leading the organization for the ride and the Friday Night Dinner.  This is a big job, and they have both led with distinction for the past eight years.  This includes working with other Clubs in Tucson, Clubs from District 5500 and with riders from around the country and the world.  It is a big effort that many members in our Club contribute to every year, both as riders and on the support team.

 

This year the Ride to End Polio again was successful.  It has been 10 Years since Mike Harris (Past President Charlotte Harris’s late husband) founded the Ride, and this year the total amount of money raised from this local Rotary effort, including the Gates Foundation match, has surpassed $50,000,000!  Amazing.  We are “this close” to eradicating Polio!  Congratulations to all the riders from our club this year and members that supported them in this effort with either their time or donations.

 

As we close in on the second half of the year in terms of membership, we are growing.  We are currently at 246 members (plus 5 members) and we are on track, but we still have work to do in growing membership.  Now that our events of the Fall are completed, let’s turn our focus to growing Membership!  Director Margaret Higgins is leading our effort on Membership growth, while Past President Bob Shaff is focused on Member Retention and maximizing our member experience, the value each member receives from our Club.  Remember, each of you has a FREE LUNCH to invite a prospective new member to the Club.  We had a very successful March Madness program earlier in the year; think about all the potential members you invited last March that had a great time but have not joined as of yet…invite them to lunch again!

 

At the beginning of the year we talked about growing our Club and that we needed to grow, not just for growth’s sake, but that we need to grow membership to accomplish ALL of the work we already do in Tucson AND to do more into the future.  We also said that there is a financial benefit to growth and that it can help to manage dues increases.  Our last dues increase was in 2014 and we have absorbed three price increases from the DoubleTree for our meals since then.  Knowing this, and baring a large increase in members, we planned for a mid-year dues of $10 per Quarter for active members and AE members.  These changes will allow us to catch up on costs and will be reflected in your upcoming 3^rd Quarter Statements.  If we successfully grow our Club at a faster pace in the second half of the year and beyond, we will be better positioned to manage future cost increases.

 

We only have two more meetings and our Holiday Mixer before the end of the year!  Join us for these meetings and at the Playground for our Holiday Mixer!  I recently attended a private event at the Playground and it was great, very good food, comfortable seating areas, a great bar, heaters if it is cold, easy parking and plenty of room to spend time in fellowship. We wanted to have a less formal, more relaxed event this time…and having the rooftop of the Playground to ourselves promises to deliver…thanks to Fonda for organizing.