Posted on Jun 19, 2018
July 1 kicks off a new year of Rotary International! How can we, as individual Rotarians, ‘Be the Inspiration’ that will continue to build a Rotary that will be stronger tomorrow than it is today?

This Week’s Meeting

Week beginning June 18, 2018

Presiding today is Diana Martinelli, President

Ding! We’re now in session.

Welcome all – Visitors, fellow Rotarians and guests alike to the E-Club meeting for the week of May 20, 2018!

Remember the smiling pot. Donations to our E-Club help support our service projects.

We’d like to respectfully remind all visitors that if they would like to contribute the normal cost of a meal for your makeup, we would be grateful. These funds go directly to support service projects locally and around the world. You can make a contribution in the Donation box on your left. Or you can write a check to:  Rotary E-Club of District 7530 and mail it to Treasurer MSRE, 213 Crosswinds Dr., Fairmont, WV 26554.

Four-Way Test

At the beginning of each meeting we remind ourselves of the The Four-Way Test.  Therefore, please remember to ask yourself always . . .

Of the things we think, say or do:

  1. Is it the TRUTH?
  2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
  3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
  4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Reflective Moments 

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

                                     ---Leo Tolstoy

"When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”
 
                                             ---Benjamin Franklin

 

Summer Light Moments 

Q: What did the pig say at the beach on a hot summer's day?

A: I'm bacon! 

Q: When do you go at red and stop at green?

A: When you're eating a watermelon. 

Summer Job

For her summer job, my 18-year-old daughter arranged interviews at several day-care centers. At one meeting, she sat down on one of the kiddie seats, no simple task for most people. The interview went well, and at the end, the day-care center director asked the standard question, "Can you give me one good reason we should hire you?" "Because I fit in the chairs." She got the job. 

"Hair gets lighter, Skin gets darker, Music gets louder, Nights get longer, Life gets better." Happy Summer 2018! 

source for this program's Light Moments: 

http://www.jokes4us.com/miscellaneousjokes/weatherjokes/summerjokes.html

 


Member Spotlight: Bonnie Branciaroli, Assistant District Governor, Incoming Public Image Chair

Bonnie Branciaroli is a new member of the Mountain State Rotary E-Club and will serve as Public Image Chair for 2018-2019. In 2017-2018, she worked with Past District Governor David Whalen as a District 7530 Assistant Governor and served as New Generations Service Chair.

With 35 years of experience in the West Virginia travel industry, Bonnie and her husband, Mark, have spent a lifetime of entrepreneurship – owning and working businesses that have created outstanding travel-related publications for regional and state entities. She has worked in the Marketing and Public Relations fields most of her life and retired in 2016 to her 30-acre farm in Elkins, where she helps operate a commercial campground and music park.

The couple loves to travel extensively, and have spent a few months of each year in Europe since retirement. During their 2017 trip, she attended five Rotary functions in three different countries – Rome and SanRemo, Italy; two in Crete, Greece and one in Paris, France.

When not working or traveling, she and Mark play music, garden and enjoy the great outdoors.

 

Welcome to A New Year of Rotary!  by Bonnie Branciaroli

July 1 ushers in the new 2018-2019 Rotary year. With that date comes a full roster of new names, new faces and a new generation of Rotary leadership working on all levels within our international community.

As Rotary International President-Elect, Barry Rassin said to new incoming governors during the January 2018 International Assembly in San Diego, CA, “…we have been given the responsibility to build on the work of those who have gone before us – and build a solid foundation for the work yet to come – by serving as effectively and as efficiently as we can; keeping our work transparent and accountable; changing the lives of as many people as possible for the better, in the most significant and lasting ways; and ensuring that Rotary continues to provide the best possible experience to its members.”

“Rotary,” he said, “doesn’t begin or end with any one of us… we have been entrusted to help Rotary grow and continue to be useful to the world.”

So, how do we do this on a club level? How can we, as individual Rotarians, ‘Be the Inspiration’ that will continue to build a Rotary that will be stronger tomorrow than it is today? How do we inspire our community leaders to join us to take action through Rotary?

We can begin by bringing to life Rotary’s new vision statement:

Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.

United, we stand strong, far stronger than any one of us could alone. Rotary is a membership organization, and service, doing good for the world, is our product. Without membership we cannot continue to provide the continued good that we do.

According to PE Barry Rassin, Rotary membership has hovered around the same 1.2 million mark for the past 20 years. “We aren’t growing,” he said, “ and our membership is growing older.”

A survey conducted by Rotary International in January-February 2017, as part of research to help develop Rotary’s new Strategic Plan, found that the average age of a Rotarian in the United Kingdom is 74, and in the United States, 71. Consequently, in 10 to 15 years, Rotary will lose a large percentage of its membership.

On the club level, what can we do to reverse this trend? We take action.

“Rotarians are not dreamers, but doers,” he said. “We work to create lasting change – change for the good, change that will endure long after our involvement has ended.”

And how do we do it?

RI president (as of July 1), Barry Rassin, has challenged us to double the number of Rotaract clubs around the world this new Rotary year. He is asking us to create a sustainable Rotary by inspiring the new generation who will carry forward the work that has already been done.

“We need to work harder to build Rotaract as a vital force within our organization,” he emphasized. “We need to remove the barriers that hold clubs back, to make it easier for people to start new clubs that suit their needs, for Rotaractors to start their own Rotary clubs, and for all Rotarians to have the flexibility to serve in the way that works for them.”

New Generations Service is a relatively new concept, although most programs it encompasses are nearly a half-century old. New Generations Service became Rotary’s fifth Avenue of Service in 2010. It is defined in article 5 of the Standard Rotary Club Constitution:

New Generations Service recognizes the positive change implemented by youth and young adults through leadership development activities, involvement in community and international service projects, and exchange programs that enrich and foster world peace and cultural understanding.

New Generations Service works to engage youth and young adults in leadership roles and includes these well known programs (among others):  Rotary Youth Exchange; New Generations Service Exchange; Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), the world-wide training program for young people, ages 14-30; Interact for International high school-aged youth between the ages of 12 to 18; and Rotaract, the International Young Adult Program for ages 18-30.

Rotaract was initiated in 1968 by the Rotary Club of Charlotte North, Charlotte, NC, and will be celebrating its 50th birthday June 22-23 during the 2018 Rotaract Preconvention in Toronto, Canada.

Rotaract boasts 10,904 clubs worldwide, which calculates to nearly 251,000 members in 184 countries.

Doubling these numbers will dramatically impact Rotary’s sustainability and potential to assimilate new projects, and this united effort will be inspiring work benefitting communities for generations to come.

So, how does our club achieve this? First of all, create a New Generations chair! Use resource tools available in Rotary.org and network with your District and Zone leadership to learn more.

“To build a stronger organization, we need to do a much better job at letting people know who we are and what we do… to get the message out where it will be heard,” Rassin said.

Public Image has become a major focal point during Rotary International training programs the past few years. How we tell our Rotary story increases public awareness and understanding of Rotary, thus strengthening our ability to make an impact on our community and communities around the world. Rotary International (RI) offers all clubs public relations help through the Rotary Brand Center on http://www.rotary.org.

RI President Rassin is asking clubs to consider hosting a “Rotary Days” event sometime during the 2018-19 year. This could be our first step into the development and sponsorship of a new university or community-based Rotaract club.

The event can be held at any time, and tips on how to organize the event can be found on the Rotary web site. RI stresses the use and importance of social media during and after the event. They are requesting that we post photos and videos using the hashtag, #RotaryDay in our social media. RI will collect photos of these Rotary Day events around the world and show them at the 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg, Germany.

Let’s be inspired to Be the Inspiration this new Rotary year! Let’s take action to build upon what we have already accomplished and look forward to a future of change for the good of our communities, our world, and ourselves as Rotarians.

 

Helpful links:

2018-2019 Presidential Theme  

http://rotarydistrict7530.org/2018-2019-presidential-theme

An Introduction to New Generations Service – Handbook (pdf)

http://rotarydistrict7530.org/membership/new-generations

 

Rotary Day Event

 https://my.rotary.org/en/document/rotary-days-brochure

 

Thank you for attending today's program and for your membership in Rotary, the world's largest service organization! Please feel free to comment or to leave a note for Bonnie or our other members below.