President's Monthly Report 1-2-19

I hope you all had a great Holiday, a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year.  I remember back to other President’s holiday wrap up emails and noting that they have all related how fast the first half of the year has gone by…it has been no exception for me!  It has been an exciting and fast paced start to the Rotary Year and I am enjoying it very much.

 

If I turn to our goals for the year, it is always good to check in at the mid-year to measure progress.  Our biggest initiative for the year is to focus on Membership growth and Retention.  By the numbers, we are on track with our budget to grow the Club by 10 members this year, as we are at 246 members, +5 from the start of the year.  New Membership numbers are up at an average rate and Retention is better than average.  We are doing well, but can do better.

 

When I think of our Rotary year, I look to the first half of the year as “What We Do”.  Specifically, we work hard on executing our Car Show and quickly turn our focus to the Ride to End Polio and the work surrounding El Tour.  I believe the second half of the year is for “Building the Club.”  To me, that means working behind the scenes to build the TCCS & Club committees, work on finalizing the goals of the current year and start planning for the upcoming year.

 

For Membership, Margaret Higgins and for Retention, Bob Shaff are working hard to set up the organizations we need to deliver consistent year in and year out Membership growth.  One element of that are the Free Lunches you all have to invite prospective members to the Club.  We had a great push last March where we brought in 170 prospective members.  With our new initiative we have taken away the “deadline of a month” and really want each of you to think about who you think would be a good member…and invite them to the Club.  We will be talking in upcoming meetings about Membership and look forward to increasing our membership growth in the second half of the year.

 

Many of our other goals as a Club are related to Membership (Ongoing Membership Teams, STAR/Mentoring, Diversity, variety in Social Events) this year; but for those that are not (Social Media/PR, working with other Tucson Rotary Clubs, Youth Programs, International focused on Mexico, RI and the TCCS) we are on track.  We feel confident we will reach our annual goals.  We appreciate all of your work that continues to make our Club better.

 

I would like to take this moment to sincerely thank the Club and to let you know how moved I have been with the way we have supported Jim and Karen Lubinski in the untimely passing of their daughter, Nicole.  And this past week, also for the support and outreach for prior member Yvonne Ervin, who passed away.  The love and care that this Club has provided in support of our members is heartwarming; we truly do look out for each other.  This is yet one more reason I am proud to be a member of our Club, we truly are a Remarkable Rotary Club. 

 

To a prosperous 2019 ahead for each of you, and to finishing 2019 strong where we all continue to Think Big, Have Fun & Get Stuff Done!

 

YIR,

Chuck Sawyer
President 2018-2019