Governor Mick's April Message

It’s April 1^st and we are 90 days away from the end of my year servings as your Governor and what a ride it has been.

I think back to last year at this time and our states were reeling from the massive floods that hit eastern Nebraska and Southwest IA. A tragedy to be sure but nothing in comparison to this year’s pandemic and the huge economic impact it is having in our communities and all over the world. Let’s all hope and pray our efforts to follow the CDC guidelines, working from home when possible, limiting our public exposure and keeping a safe distance will flatten the exposure curve, keeping new cases to a minimum and reducing  the loss of life. 

 

This pandemic has dramatically changed how we go about our daily lives, how we interact with others and how go about helping those in need. With many of us out of work, working from home, or sheltering in place the personal interactions we enjoyed through our Rotary meetings came to an end. But as People of Action, many of our clubs have started meeting through virtual “ZOOM” meetings and now over half of our clubs are meeting online. Having attended several of our club’s meetings now, I can tell you it works! It’s amazing to see how our membership interacts with each other. Some clubs strive to keep the format of the meeting just as they would as if they were meeting in person, others take a more casual approach and joke around kidding each other. Let’s just say the personality of the club doesn’t change much whether you are meeting in person or virtually. Several Clubs are doing “After hours” meetings complete with BYO libations, that certainly lightens up the mood of the meeting.

 

To all of the clubs who have elected to meet virtually via ZOOM I say Thank You! You are keeping the spirit of Rotary alive in your members and helping them to stay connected with each other in a time when it’s easy to become disengaged. If your club has not opened a ZOOM account and started on-line meetings, I highly encourage you to do so and remember the District will reimburse you for a one-year subscription to ZOOM “Pro”.

 

I understand not all of our members are computer savvy and you may not think on-line meetings are the way to go. If that is the case, please make sure you are reaching out to the members of your club on a regular basis and do it by phone! Form a calling committee and have each committee maker make a few calls. Hearing a friendly voice can go a long way in brightening someone’s day.  Seeing their face on Zoom is even better, you’ll see their smile.

 

As I do in every newsletter I recap where we are in reaching our membership goal and it is no surprise we continue be in the top two in the Zone in Membership growth again.  District 5650 stands at 1,921 members as of 3/31/20, that an increase of 46 members from7/1/19 and 13 for the month of March! Here’s the top 10 clubs!

A special shout out goes to my own Council Bluffs Noon club who had a rough start to the year, and after losing 6 members have come back adding 4 members the past 2 months! Great work CB Noon.

 

It’s not going to be easy to keep up our momentum in growing Rotary and increasing our membership now that all in person meetings have been cancelled. The key now is retention of our current members, so please do all you can to reach out to your current membership and let them know we all care about each other.

 

In closing, we as Rotarians have a chance, dare I say a responsibility, to help our service providers and our communities right now. A shout out to Omaha Suburban who has a goal of raising $34,000 in support of the Food Bank for the Heartland which serves 600 local food pantries in 93 different counties in eastern Nebraska and SW, IA. 

 

 

Stay healthy and “Be the Good in the World”.

Yours in Rotary,

 

Mick

DG