President's Message September 2012
At our August 7, 2012 meeting Club President Bill Manby, Jr. presented his State of The Rotary Club of Akron address – here are excerpts from that presentation:
Rotary has always been more about doing than saying, so even though I pushed this presentation off for over a month, I think what’s been done is well worth the wait.
- 4 new members
- $100,000 check from Medical Mutual for camp
- Despite not everyone doing it yet, many of you have updated your member bios on Clubrunner. If you haven’t, please take the time to do so soon.
I think that’s pretty good for a month and I would like to pass the gavel to Lance a little early!
In all seriousness, my main goal for the year is to keep building upon all the momentum we’ve created.
I’d like to continue to grow membership and hope to have a net increase of 10%. That probably means 20 new members as a handful will fall off for various reasons.
I want to maintain the clubs profitable situation we were in this past year. Times are tough and you should all be very proud of this.
I would like to close out our camp capital campaign this year and coordinate an international project. What this club does is amazing for the community. What Rotary International does is amazing for the entire planet, so I would like to have more speakers on international themes and projects and I’ve selected some speakers from the district and All Ohio that we can share throughout the year.
I would also like this Club to provide a dictionary to each 3rd grader in the Akron public schools.
The Board has decided to move our meeting location. Although it is impossible to make everyone happy, all of the member’s input was heard and we are taking action.
Much of our success can be attributed to our members spending more time together, getting to know each other better and working together. So I’m going to try to have more time to interact and bring back Mark’s “My, Life, My Passion.
Getting more members engaged helps all of this happen. Continuing our PR plan to raise community awareness of what all this club and its members do is critical and will attract more leaders from our area that can benefit from everything our membership has to offer. I hope each person who hasn’t had it occur yet, get’s as inspired as I have been once I became more engaged. To further encourage this, we are adding an Akron Rotarian of the Month program, and there will be a year-end drawing for 2013-2014 dues. The July recipient is Shon Christy: PR Chair and Chili Open Co-Chair.
The culmination of all of this leads me to my theme for the year:
“Get Engaged and Be Inspired.”
What led me to this theme can best be outlined by what made me a Rotarian.
o Originally I had no choice – Barrett needed someone to play Santa for the kids and my Dad asked and encouraged me to do that.
o I was not engaged in the club, I just participated with Barrett and Chili Open for Barrett.
o Then I got more involved with camp and it all changed, but not with my relationship with the club, but with the relationships I had with others about the camp.
o But with no club – what happens to camp?
We had to either change the club to something people wanted to do or change how we support camp.
I am part of a “me first” generation that is prone to blame others, can be self centered and feel they are smarter than more “experienced” members of the community. I was no different, to some degree. I got involved selfishly because I loved the camp, kids, etc, not because I loved the club.
But then it happened…
By becoming engaged with the camp, it brought me closer to members of this club and showed me how much this club can accomplish. TOGETHER WE CAN DO MORE!
I am blessed to be on the steering committee for the camps amazing capital campaign which has brought:
- >$2.5M total but $1M from our own- members and our foundation
- $1M more and by working as a coordinator of a 3 WAY TEAM (club, camp, foundation)
- I want to finish this AWESOME initiative that will help us transform the camp into an unbelievable, YEAR ROUND, resource that can expand to bring value to an always increasing
population in need.
I also got to serve as the chairman of our Chili Open - young/old, new/experienced and non meeting attendees all working together to achieve a record year and I’d like to see this year go over $150k!
I want to thank every one of you who have been involved in choosing me to serve as your Club President. It’s an amazing honor and I’m humbled to be in a position to lead so many people that have accomplished so much more than me. Specifically, Mark Krohn, whose previous leadership has set the table.
I want to thank every member of my current administration as well and those who have committed to come in and clean up the massive mess I will create this year, especially Lance. I promise to miss plenty of meetings so he can be as prepared to run these things as Mark made me!!
I want to thank my dad for encouraging me to be Santa when I wasn’t ready, because it helped shape the foundation I have today; where I can appreciate helping others that need me… even when it may make me uncomfortable.
Finally, I know FINALLY!! I want to thank my family. The time I commit to this club, camp and my work takes time from them, but they not only tolerate it, they embrace it. They know how much it means to me and, as a result, it means a lot to them. They have been to camp and have even helped clean up; yes, the kids will clean there but not at home. They actively educate their friends on special needs kids and I’m very proud of that; and just like most of you, my main goal in life is to make this world a better place for them.
Hopefully, you each get a chance to know them better and I hope to build a deeper relationship with each and every one of you and your families.
So let’s all try to get a little more engaged and hopefully, a lot more inspired! This is a great club, doing great things and we can be even greater.
Thank you.
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