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Foundation Moment with DG Hadi
What is the Year-End Deadline for Making a Rotary Foundation Gift?
Every year, June 30this the deadline for contributions to count toward a Rotary club’s final giving amount for that Rotary year. Club members are encouraged to make their year-end gifts as early as possible in order to ensure that their gift is processed on time. Remember, every contribution that is made to Annual Fund-SHARE by June 30th this year will result in more grant funding for your club and district three years from now.
Make your year-end contributions today to ensure that your club can make a difference in the world tomorrow. Please visit https://www.rotary.org/en/donate.
May is Youth Service Month and June is Rotary Fellowships Month!
As May is coming to an end, the District will give young people aged 15-18 a chance to sharpen their leadership skills at the upcoming RYLA on May 28-30! It is an excellent way to finish Youth Service Month. Our club is sending 3 young people to the event, and hopefully we will be able to get them to tell us all about their experience in an upcoming meeting.
RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (in some areas, it is referred to as Rotary Youth Leadership Academy), and takes different shapes and formats depending on the District. It is usually geared toward teenagers or young adults to help improve different abilities, such as teamwork, decision-making, knowing who you are, etc.
Rotary has, as you may well know, other youth programs, such as Interact and Rotaract (among others). You can find many Rotaract clubs on Facebook or Instagram, and you can always check the District website for more information: https://rotary7040.com/ Click on ‘About’ and ‘Programs for Youth.’
Secretary's Thoughts
Hi fellow Passport Club Rotarians and friends,
I hope that everyone is enjoying the long May 24th weekend and at least spending some wider family time via Zoom or FaceTime if possible.
At our last Club Meeting on April 27th we spent quite a bit of time discussing the Rotary Club of Mississauga’s Online “Feel Good Raffle”. – “Catch the Ace”. I tried to answer most of the questions even though I was faced with several technical challenges. When I was able to review the recording of the meeting, I was actually surprised to see that I did rejoin the discussion and continued to answer questions as best I could even though I continued to get kicked off Zoom because of my intermittent internet connection.
I did post some further documentation as promised in that meeting and I also had some dialogue with different Board members as we discussed the merits and complexities of the raffle.
Nevertheless, I am reporting tonight that the Board of Directors has made a formal decision this week to withdraw our application to the Mississauga club and not pursue our involvement with their new “Catch The Ace” format. The Board’s decision was based on the fact that the raffle comes with a very “Ontario-centric” format, and given that we have a significant portion of our membership living outside the province, meant that in our Passport Club’s case, the raffle was simply not “Fair to all concerned”, and therefore did not meet Rotary’s Four-Way Test.
Hope to see as many of you as possible at Tuesday’s meeting – our last full business meeting of Jacinthe’s Year as President.
Yours in Rotary Service,
Terry
President-Elect Maddie Roy
As you may know, the date for District 7040's Great Lakes Watershed Cleanup has been extended until June 1st. While any time is a great time to get outside and appreciate the beautiful land that we live on and the bodies of water that sustain life, this event is a wonderful reminder to do our part to keep Mother Nature happy and clean!
Calling all artists! The Rotary Club of Westmount is searching for artists that would be interested in supporting an online art sale to commemorate the anniversary of their club. Funds raised will be used to support their efforts in eradicating chronic homelessness. They intend to provide participating artists with either a gallery showing or a professional portfolio shoot. Send this to any artists in your life (preferably those in the general Montreal area) and contact info@rotarywestmount.org for more information.
Ariane Carriere, Membership chair
Have your checked Coffee with a Rotarian this month? You can find it here. Brian was able to match everyone this month except for one person. It's almost the end of the month, so do it before June starts.
Below is an adapted article that I found recently.
Keeping members engaged and encouraging participation is an important part of Rotary. Participation and absenteeism work in cycles. But when it becomes chronic the tendency is to say that ‘why bother trying to get more members to mark in makeups: the participating members are the ones who are doing all the work anyway.’ Additionally, it is sometimes viewed as a temporary problem, that will lapse as new members come into the club.
Looking at the issue as a cycle, we note that it tends to increase if left unmonitored and the cycle is reversed when the club shines a light on it. If left unmonitored, club engagement is a mixed message where new members are required to commit while existing members are chronically absent, absent in recording their activities that is.
Reversing the cycle should begin at the executive level. The club leadership can become more engaged in looking at the absenteeism with a strategic goal in place. Over the short term, the participation issue requires such ‘top-down’ intervention and solution. This is why you get messages often about marking in your makeups. It sends a message to the club that it is aware and is willing to do something positive. Later it becomes a ‘bottom-up’ solution, when the club members understand the problem and begin to respond with positive action. Otherwise, expecting new members to be engaged while older members do not participate would be like stretching an elastic on both ends.
