Our meeting was called to order at 12:07pm by our President Deborah Wright, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to our nation’s flag.
Dave Surface introduced a new process for the Thought of the Day- a “comment box” of sorts and a randomly chosen member will read the Thought of the Day. Bill Tsoukalis was the big winner to read the thought today. It was “a long one, unfortunately” per Bill, with thoughts to ponder and an inspirational quote. (too long to get all the details..)
Our musical ears were treated to Kathryn Goforth playing us a tune on her viola as the Song of the Day.
Guests were introduced including Virginia McKenzie from Seattle 4 (our speaker of the day) introduced by Greg Tisdel, who also introduced Mike (the father of the speaker). There were no other guests today.
Announcements: Tom Koenig presented a third Paul Harris to Amy Norman for her contributions to The Rotary Foundation. Tammy Dunn was not present to report on Golffun so Judi Edwards “pinch-putted” so to speak. Golfers participating this year to represent our club include Jeff Cornish, Clay Browse, Tammy Dunn and Judi’s husband. The Fellowship at El Paraiso on Aug 13 was also announced by Judi. It is limited to 15 due to space so sign up! Sign ups also for VOA opportunity, or contact Eileen Simmons. Judi Edwards rounded out her announcements on everyone’s behalf speaking for Sally Lancaster and the Youth Exchange Committee who is in need of host families (3 month commitment), during next year for an incoming Exchange Student.
In other announcements, Henry Newton announced some happy bucks for the 60th EHS Reunion but also announced that Larry O’Donnell, who is typically the heart and soul of the reunion planning was unable to be present because of his wife’s insistence that he be seen by a doctor for some symptoms he was having, which was found to be a major blockage in his heart and he subsequently had major heart surgery yesterday. A card for Larry was at today’s meeting, and our positive thoughts go out to him for a speedy recovery!
Happy Bucks had a lot of bell ringers today! Sorry if I didn’t get all of them, I think my ears were ringing because of all the bell ringing. Rich Toyer was $100 happy for his birthday and still being around to celebrate, Glen Bachmann was also a bell ringer for cruising the Seine river in 55 days and 45 years of marital bliss= $100. Tom Koenig was only $5 happy for tasty lunch provided today (smoked ribs and chicken with all the fixin’s), Russ Hermes was $100 happy for a wedding (anniversary?) on the beach and other items, Dave Schlosser was yet another bell ringer for a new child, Rich Anderson was happy but I couldn’t hear why (sorry!),
Mary Toews was $20 happy for AquaSox for Mari’s kids charity Aug 28 game. Paul Pitre had $54 happy bucks to celebrate $$ for new facility in Everett. Judi Edwards was happy to win duck dash but while she hasn’t picked up her check yet, she also won the jackpot at the casino recently, so she’s giving $100 to Rotary. Dale Newman paid some money for his weight loss competition with Steve Ellis who are both dropping weight quickly!
Dick Schlosser was $100 happy to be a new grandpa, 37 years of marriage, 37 Rotary years and an undisclosed birthday. Mark Valentine gave $20 to clarify the story that Judi didn’t really win a duck dash. Because there was no water in the river, she instead won a random drawing from ducks that were thrown on a field and chosen by small children as a winner.
Roy Yates paid some celebration of life dollars for Peggy Doph’s passing; Peggy was Joe Gaffney’s grandmother among other notable accomplishments.
Drawing: all items included Bark in the Park tickets- Ed Rubatino won wine and goodies, Mike (guest today) won wine and goodies, and Gail Larson was the big winner with Bluwater Organic vodka and other goodies.
Our program today “How to Recruit, Engage and Retrain Young Professionals to Rotary” was introduced by Andrea Sekora: Our speaker, Virginia McKenzie who happens to be Deborah Wright’s daughter, is also an active member of the Seattle 4 club and has spoken at 4 international events for bringing young members into Rotary. Virginia is an executive recruiter so speaking on this topic is an easy one for her.
Virginia started out saying how grateful she was to be able to accompany her mom in Rotary and to Rotary International meetings. Rotary international received a $1M grant to bring young professionals into Rotary specifically. Rotary has been trying to better define what it is to the young professional demographic. They are trying to determine what is the best way to approach this group and how to decrease the “old white businessman” assumption. Their investigation determined it is about changing and blending current traditions and create seeds of change within the clubs instead of just changing the Public Relations aspect. Virginia found that a lot of the ideas that were shared to young Rotary leaders in Chicago were rebuffed when they came home and tried to initiate those efforts in their clubs. Thus Rotary is having a new summit in Berkeley CA with district leaders and young professionals together to work as a team for more success in implementation after the conference. This conference is happening in August with 135 people planned to be in attendance.
Virginia started a young professionals and a Rotaract club in Seattle, called Young Rotary Leaders. She reported many other ideas but opened it up to questions to field comments and suggestions from our group.
Virginia reported that Seattle 4 as a club initially was reluctant to open membership up to younger members, as it was designed for upper level executives only. Ralph Munro started a program called Tomorrow’s Leaders and those members could come into Seattle Rotary at reduced dues, which changed the club’s perspectives and “loudly signaled” that they wanted young leaders.
Questions were asked by Russ Hermes, Walt Greenwood, Jerry Tucker, Judi Edwards and others.
Virginia’s advice is to get younger members together and spend more time together to network and discuss who the young folks wanted to meet with and learn from, have fireside chats, created mentorship programs. But not create a “little kids table”; but develop a critical mass. Help younger members find what they want to be involved in (world service, engagement of what they like.. etc) and create active engagement vs passive membership (this is true for all members!)
Ron Thompson asked how she suggested we identify and get potential younger members involved? Virginia recommended considering your own sphere of influence and personal introduction to Rotary (same as now). Seattle 4 has used the “40 under 40” through Puget Sound Business Journal and approaches them directly. She suggested starting with reduced dues, and having happy hour/socials to invite them in and retain them.
She suggested it was important to find out the younger members’ needs in terms of attendance/commitment requirements, financial commitments- Virginia recommended happy hours as make ups (hey, we’ve done that before!). She reported that Rotaract clubs meet 2x/month and has reduced dues and is more fellowship and service focused (designed for < 30 yr olds).
Seattle 4: young professionals do reduced fundraising but the club still pays full rate to RI. They will do coffee meetings rather than lunch . There are a total of 550 members in Seattle 4.
Virginia responded that hands-on service opportunities that also provide networking opportunities and mentorship channels is a great motivator of this younger group. She said that they focus on Service-Fellowship-Networking as ideals in order of importance and if they are looking for that, then Rotary is the group for them.
She also reported that they give out Business Etiquette Networking guidelines for members to help guide them into appropriate avenues and behaviors for networking.
She also suggested in response to Andrea’s comment that more family-friendly events are good to bring up younger kids to know service and Rotary as a way of life.
Virginia concluded her presentation with an opportunity to talk afterwards for more information or questions.
President Deborah thanked Virginia for coming and speaking to the club, and thanked all for their comments and questions. She presented Virginia with her speaker’s gift and announced the upcoming events including:
Next week’s program: “ KSER, Your Public Radio” , VOA Volunteering opportunities, upcoming board meeting, and the club-wide BBQ Sept 13.
The Aphorism of the day was, “Something which is unsustainable can’t go on forever”, by ex-Chief economist Mervyn King from the Bank of England
Meeting was adjourned at 1:02pm
