Our Governor's To Do List
Assistant District Governor Tony McDowell visited Sunrise last Friday to introduce
Jack Solomon,
our
incoming District Governor, and a member of the East Hampton club.
Solomon holds a BS in chemistry from MIT and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Columbia. He has been awarded five patents and is a published academic author.
Every governor develops a personal interest project for the year. His is the logical extension of a longstanding personal interest - getting district Rotarians involved in STEM education, programs such as a high school robotics team. Here he mentioned Masuk High School in Monroe's 100 member group.
He also mentioned FIRST LEGO League and the Invention Convention, both elementary and middle school programs.
FIRST LEGO League is a robot building competition sponsored in part by LEGO. The Invention Convention is a program in which students individually identify a problem they think important, design and build a device to solve it, and demonstrate their invention for judges.
The East Hampton club provides judge (one-half are club members, one-half are high school students) for area Invention Conventions.
This was preaching to the converted, given the success of Mark Mathias' Maker Faire, our club's involvement with it, and the fact that the club includes three Board of Education members.
Solomon moved to presenting his "To Do List." He builds on the program introduced by incoming RI president Mark Maloney, "The first emphasis is to grow Rotary - to grow our service, to grow the impact of our projects, but most importantly, to grow our membership so that we can achieve more."
Solomon's has three elements he is asking every club to adopt to strengthen each club and enhance its role in their community. The driving force is also membership, to grow from the current 2,000 members and add to the current roster of 57 clubs.
The first item is to build membership. He noted that Ron Holtz is serving as District Membership Chair.
He talked to creating new membership models - "community" Rotary clubs and Rotaract clubs for professionals in their twenties. The first targets prospective members who cannot or do not want to meet Friday mornings. "Let them create their own club."
This writer recalls a Black Rock club that met weekly over cocktails at a local watering hole.
Barry Rassin, last year's RI president, proposed that every club establish a community Rotaract club for younger prospective Rotarians who also prefer an alternate meeting site and time. "They're part of your club even if they don't meet on Friday morning."
One such is the two month old Shoreline Rotary in Milford that now has 20 members and is related to the existing Milford club.
Second, involve community members in Hands On activities. Here we can invite people to help projects
such
as our Exit 17 clean up and use the occasion to discuss Rotary, gather participants' information, invite them to a meeting and seek to attract them as members.
Third, participate in the United Nations' 75th anniversary celebration this October 24. Rotary has had a seat at the UN since its beginning, and continues to enjoy a unique relationship.
Solomon also noted that October 24 is World Polio Day - a day to celebrate the virtual eradication of that dreaded disease around the globe.
During Q&A Mark noted the club's support for STEM, mentioning that the Maker Faire crowd sourced contributions to the world's largest 3D printed duck - six feet tall, with 478 pieces. He added "We're doing a lot of what you talked about, and we're ready to share with other clubs."
Solomon's opened the meeting by naming our first (annual?) Rotary Hero. Karen Kleine presented the award, a small cow bell, to Liz Wong. The award symbolizes the fact that East Hampton is the Bell Town, the last town in this country in which bells are still made.
Karen recognized Liz for "having everyone's back," assisting in every major club undertaking.
Liz said she was truly surprised to win an award she didn't know existed, and added that she has enjoyed helping everyone.
