January is a time for making resolutions. Rotary formalizes this, but on a different calendar. Incoming presidents are supposed to have set goals back in June, and then they get a year to try to follow through on them. The Rotary International website gives clubs some useful tools for setting goals and tracking progress. Six months into my term as your president, it’s time to review the state of the “resolutions” I put onto the webpage last spring.
The first one was to grow. We did add some members, but we lost more, so we’re down a bit from last June. John’s goal for last year had been to reach 65 members. I scaled that back to 60, but we’re now at about 50. Adding ten in the next six months will be a challenge. To get to 60 from where we are now, ten members will have to step up to invite and sponsor a new member.
The second was to be sure everyone is involved. The target is to have at least 50 members engaged in a club service project. I think we’ve come very close to that. Reviewing the membership directory, I could place every member at at least one of our service events since last June.
There’s more on my wish list: more social activities, greater public visibility, a new community service project, maybe a new fundraising project, a community forum about Rotary International’s core priorities, collaboration with other Rotary clubs in the area and with InterAct. So many ideas, and now so little time.
Setting goals does focus attention and stimulate imagination. But planning should not take more time than doing. There’s much to be said for showing up to do what we already know needs to be done.