Pres. Tom: Introduced District Governor John LoBosco and his wife Sue on their official visit to the club, and also Assistant District Governor Malcolm McNeil of the Dover club ... Ric and Tom T have Bingo this week; Heather and Frank R are up on the 26th.
Program
DG LoBosco has been a member of the South Portland-Cape Elizabeth club since 2005. He shared some personal experiences that drew him to Rotary. One was the practice of his club to reimburse a member for an out-of-pocket expense that came from dealing with the urgent need of a member of the community. There have been some adjustments to the practice but it continues to this day. Many clubs he has found have established at least one free library in their towns where books can be borrowed or exchanged. Decorating the installation with a Rotary logo helps awareness as well. RYLA was a great success this year with 136 attending. There were many testimonials from students attending.
John wanted to tell us about the new four-part strategic plan that will drive the activities of the District in the year ahead. The first part involves Public Image and the casting of Rotarians as People of Action. He asked that the club appoint two members to work with his people on that. Next is Membership which increased last year to 1,620. The goal is 2,000 within 5 years. To get there, each club will need to share the gift of Rotary and grow by 10% each year before the usual attrition due to relocation, etc. Engagement of each member will be key to success. (Ed. note: excellent article in this month's Rotarian.) Collaboration is third. One of Malcolm's roles will be to help the clubs in our area build ties. John mentioned something we've heard before about the benefits of the Club Runner app as a directory for each club. The final piece is Leadership and Succession Planning. The benefit of having in place the Rotary International President-elect and President-nominee was demonstrated this year when we lost the President-elect and President Barry Rassin from the Bahamas stepped up. There will be help available to clubs in selecting future leaders.
