Welcome to our fourth newsletter. The New Year brings new beginnings. Parties, special events and regular Rotary meetings fill our 43 Club agendas. But if you don’t know you can’t go. Rotary Monthly newsletter’s goal is to tell our District members about our neighbor clubs upcoming 2019 activities. Let’s start with January. Please contribute by sending us info as to what your club has scheduled, report on your recent events with pics and text, and attend the other area Rotary events and nearby activities that you can. Let’s add one resolution to your New Year list. PLEASE tell us what your Club did list month and what is scheduled in the coming months with as much info as your club would care to share. It brings nearby Rotarians to your events, gives your Club ideas, increases revenue and people power. Attending and cross-pollinating we grow, do much, have fun, serve and become better Rotarians together.
John Ehrlich, Editor
District Governor's Message
Best Practices for Engaging Members
Engaged members are critical to a vibrant Club. They take initiatives, participate in (or even organize) projects, and magnetize the Club to prospective members. Conversely, disengaged members take no initiatives, avoid projects (or show up grudgingly), and are a disinterested presence (at best). Such disengaged members repel prospects spread their disenchantment and eventually threaten the very existence of Clubs, big and small.
The perennial challenge for Club leadership is to make (or keep) members engaged. Disengaged member will eventually quit the Club, and their unpleasant experience will linger - and be broadcast - for a long time. Thus, failing to engage members is a disservice to the committed members who seek to “do good in the world”, to advance Rotary ideals, and to benefit the community.
While member engagement has many facets, let’s focus on some key administrative practices that advance or hinder member engagement. Does the functioning of your Club in all its aspects encourage or discourage member engagement? Clearly, if you have to pester - or worse, have to resort to “mandates” to compel - members to show up at Club projects/events, you have an acute engagement problem. And even if your problem is not acute - yet - good Club administrative practices are necessary for member engagement.
Failing to circulate the agenda for Board meetings or the minutes of such meetings is a common failure in many Clubs. Result? Members are unaware of Club affairs. This failure alienates members, who feel no sense of ownership of or responsibility for the Club. Nothing could be more damaging to members’ sense of involvement, of participation, of engagement in the Club. Worse, circulating the agenda sufficiently ahead of time also forestalls disasters waiting to happen.
For example, one such Club’s board approved a member’s proposal to fund what appeared to be a worthwhile project organized by a third party. Members did not even know about this, except for a terse verbal announcement at the Club meeting with no details. The project ran aground; the Club’s funds and efforts were wasted. Imagine the consternation when a member informed them, much after the fiasco, that the third party had been expelled from another Rotary Club. Would the Club, and the Board, have been well-served by circulating the agenda in advance so that this member could have alerted everyone? Would the Board have approved the proposal if it had known of the third party’s background or expulsion? This disaster could have been avoided with a simple step: Circulate the agenda for the Board meeting to the entire membership a week in advance, and do not consider in the meeting any items not so circulated (PDG Arnie Quaranta also recommended this practice in the last District Training Assembly). In case of genuine emergency - say, disaster relief - the time may be shortened, but the practice should still be adhered to. It helps member engagement, while also avoiding disasters.
Follow that up by circulating the minutes of the Board meeting promptly. Ideally, draft minutes should be circulated to the Board within 24 hours of the meeting, and deemed approved absent corrections within 24 hours - so that the minutes may be circulated to the entire membership within 48 hours of the Board meeting. Let members know of Club developments as they occur or are about to occur, not what’s history. The minutes don’t have to be exhaustive, just a list of decisions taken.
So also, any material expenditure of the Club funds - say, above $500 - must require board approval at a formal meeting. In addition to letting members know the items the Board will consider, it will also enable and encourage members who may have special knowledge on specific items to bring it to the Board’s attention. Maybe there’s a better way to accomplish one or more steps involved, maybe one or more items could be obtained through donation or at discounted prices. It’s members’ money, why keep them in the dark.
The District 7230 Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program enables all Clubs to send 10th-grade students with leadership potential to a three-day Leadership Weekend held at the Alpine (NJ) Scout Camp on March 22, 23, and 24, 2019. Thanks to our participating Clubs, our RYLARIANS receive life changing experiences and positive memories that will be carried for a lifetime.
Who can our members or our parents contact with questions? E-mail ryla@ Rotary7230.org, or call Dr. Nitin Gupta, Rivertowns Rotary Club at (510) 557-3212 or PDG David Del Monte, Rotary Club of New York at (212) 532-2131.
"I could not imagine a more educational, enlightening experience than our recent Friendship Exchange adventure . . ."
Kevin Finkelstein, a 22-year old who accompanied his mother on a Friendship Exchange, Feb. 2013 Newsletter at rotary7230.org.
Join the Friendship Exchange Team headed to Mumbai. Details found at rotary7230.org. The deadline is December 31!
Grab this opportunity to experience the perspectives and way of life of people residing half way around the globe! See local places of interest through the eyes of your hosts! You'll establish life-long, trans-oceanic relationships with individuals and families in Mumbai!
Rtn. Victoria Winkelmann, President and charter member, Rotary Club of Cortlandt Manor, organized a highly successful public event, “Pancake Breakfast with Santa,” (below) on December 2nd & 3rd in Cortlandt Manor. Attendance? Over 600 attended, with rave reviews all around!
The District congratulates Vickie and her team for this wonderful event, spreading cheer all around with a meaningful project involving young parents and kids! Vickie and her husband, Herb Winkelmann, have four children and six grandchildren. A nurse for fifty years, Vickie retired in 2017. She and her husband own and manage real estate, as well as a small marina and trailer park. "Rotary has given me more good feelings and experiences than I could have ever expected,” Vickie says. "We started the first Rotary Community Core of Keon, the first mentally and physically challenged adult club in the world. Proud to be a Rotarian."
Welcome Rotaract Club of Manhattan
District Governor Krishnan Chittur presented the charter and installed officers of a new community-based Rotaract Club of Manhattan NYC on Thursday, December 6. Congratulations to President Abit Ragbeer, Advisors Esther Yip and Stephanie Chew from the sponsor Rotary Club of Chinatown New York, and District 7230 Rotaract Chair Jahnbaz Almas. Please help us welcome them to our Rotary family!
New Interact Club at Sacred Heart High School
The new Interact Club of the Sacred Heart High School is now official! This culminates months working behind-the-scenes by Rotary Club of Yonkers-East Yonkers members PDG Greg Arcaro and former Club Secretary Peggy Murphy, supported by Sacred Heart High School faculty Anne Murphy. They identified the young people, informed them about Rotary, and demonstrated the great potential of Interact. Following receipt of all required paperwork, DG Krishnan Chittur approved the application. RI President Barry Rassin signed the Charter on December 7.
GOLI Committee Holds "Taste of Westchester"
The District 7230 Gift of Life International Committee hosted a Taste of Westchester on Sunday, December 2, at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Tarrytown. Chair J.T. McFadden and the committee thanked William P. Currie for his long-time service on the committee. Bill and his wife, Sue, have recently relocated to Cape May, NJ. GOLI Founder Robbie Donno and GOLI CEO Rob Raylman joined the celebration.
Over 600 Served Pancake Breakfast with Santa
The Rotary Club of Cortlandt Manor served over 600 pancake breakfasts with Santa at the Muriel H. Morabito Community Center in Cortlandt Manor on December 2nd & 3rd. Guests had a photo op with Santa and Mrs. Santa in a beautiful Christmas setting. There were arts and crafts activities for the kids, including writing letters to our troops, and as always, Santa collected unwrapped gifts for “TOYS FOR TOTS.”
Holiday Meal Served to the Developmentally Disabled
For the 28th year, the Rotary Club of New Rochelle brought a holiday meal to those served by the Parents Advisory Board for the Developmentally Disabled on Wednesday, December 12. The Rotary Club of the Pelhams and the New Rochelle Parks and Recreation Department co-sponsored. The over 100 attendees enjoyed the fabulous food donated by Paul Hurley of Hurley’s Steakhouse in New Rochelle. The Girl Scouts of New Rochelle also helped serve for the fourth year. The hugs and smiles made for a memorable, festive evening!
Chappaqua Rotary Club Celebrates the Holidays
Chappaqua Rotary Club members welcomed the Horace Greeley High School Chorus, Town of New Castle employees, and many more guests and visitors to its annual Holiday Lunch Meeting on Monday, December 3, at Crabtree’s Kittle House.
Manhattan Clubs Join Together for Toy Drive
Once again, the Rotary Clubs of Harlem and Metro New York City joined with the Rotaract Club at the United Nations for a Holiday Party and Toy Drive at Raise New York on Wednesday, December 5. Santa distributed the over 400 toys collected to the children served by the sisters of Fraternité Notre Dame in East Harlem.
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