University of Arizona Museum of Art Director James Burns will speak about transformational leadership and institutional change in 21^st century museums. He will discuss the need to make 21st century museums more pertinent, accessible, open, and essential to the public. Dr. Burns discovered his passion for working in museums here in Tucson 25 years ago and determined to forge a career as a museum professional. Recruited as a change agent, he has instituted changes at the UAMA to refocus the institution on audience engagement. Dr. Burns will present a brief history of the UAMA and elucidate his vision for the UAMA to be recognized as a leader alongside its world-class peer organizations at the University.  The transformation of the UAMA is based on The Road to Results: Effective Practices for Building Arts Audiences, a report by Bob Harlow published by the Wallace Foundation last year, and Magnetic: The Art and Science of Engagement, an American Alliance of Museums book by Anne Bergeron and Beth Tuttle, also published last year. The UAMA’s new strategic plan, Connect, Collaborate, Create, focus on forming mutually beneficial partnerships, building a network of allies, expanding the Museum’s outreach, and creating opportunities for cross-disciplinary research.

 

 

As you know, we have many guests and visiting Rotarians join our meetings throughout the year. This week we had a special guest, James Needham from England, where he has been the president of 3 different Rotary clubs during his Rotary career. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

 

Since our program this week focused on selecting the primary beneficiary for this year’s Car Show, we had a great introduction from JIM MURPHY that included a summary of some of the philanthropic highlights of RCOT. These include: (1) RCOT has, throughout the years, donated a total of ~ $1.7M to Rotary International; (2) within Tucson proper, RCOT has likewise donated a total of $1.3M to Literacy Connects, much of that money coming though all your hard work and effort involved with putting on the best Car Show in all of southern AZ! That’s a total of ~ $3M for these two efforts alone, and does not include the many additional fund raising efforts held throughout the years, such as the Ride to End Polio, the Scholarship Fund, etc. In fact, this year’s bell ringing efforts helped raise ~ $7500 for the Salvation Army! I’m sure these dollars have had an impact on many lives across the globe.

 

Speaking of which, as guests this week we had several local scholarship award winners join the meeting. Each gave a brief introduction which included letting us know what career they hoped to begin as a result of their educational experience. Regardless of their long term goals, what was evident from each was their appreciation of both the funds and support they each receive from RCOT!

 

As mentioned previously, we had presentations from two groups: Literacy Connects and Make Way For Books. Each group provided a presentation highlighting how a sizable donation from RCOT would help them improve literacy and the lives of both youth and adults in the Tucson community. The vote was held during the meeting. The results: Make Way For Books will be the primary beneficiary of the Car Show proceeds for 2016-2020!

 

In closing, I’ll share a joke from James, our visitor from England. “When the 3 Wise Men arrived in Bethlehem, one of them looked up and quipped – “Just our luck, a 1-star hotel…” Have a great week!

 

A persistent buzzword in the world of membership organizations is “engagement.” You’ve likely heard that the key to a long-term, productive relationship with a group that you join is for you to be engaged. It’s good for you as you gain something in return for your dues, your talent, and your time. It’s good for the non-profit as it continues to benefit from both your time as a volunteer as well as your dues payments.

 

But what constitutes engagement and how do we foster it? Too often it is over-simplified to being measured in terms of the number of committees the member actively serves on. This is a seriously narrow view that leads to far too many members leaving – or being incented to leave – the organization. Sure, we can tell prospects their obligations as far as meeting expectations, but we too often unnecessarily limit the list of reasonable expectations. That results in member attrition.

 

A much more expansive view of what constitutes engagement is sorely needed, even within some Rotary clubs. To be sure, Rotary has shown evolution in its measurement of member involvement. Attendance at club meetings used to be a primary standard by which to gauge commitment. It is now widely recognized that showing up to meetings each week does not, by itself, qualify one as a “good” Rotarian. (In fact, perfect home club attendance by a member of RCOT means as much as 96+% of the dues that person remits are paid out in incremental expense, leaving next to nothing to support the service that constitutes our mission, let along the overhead costs of running our operation.)

 

Consider that being active on committees, while possibly sufficient to constitute engagement, is far from necessary. There are more than a couple of ways for a member to successfully contribute to the mission of Rotary. We have to acknowledge the reality that not all members are capable of being active in the same way. Just as people have talents and skills they are good at, they have weaknesses and inability in other areas. (We are fortunate that the Rotary Club of Tucson has hundreds of members, collectively possessing a strong diversity of talent and knowledge.)

 

Over the next several weekly columns, let’s investigate this concept of member engagement. See if you will agree that there are (a minimum of) seven areas in which members can contribute – each person is expected to pick at least one.

 

Next week: Those who can contribute time.

 

New Member:  Jaimie Leopold

 

Classification:  Consulting:  Non Profits

 

Sponsor:  Ted Forsberg