It’s hard to believe it’s November and we are entering the Holiday season. I have now made it to every Rotary Club in the District and the Rotaract Clubs in Lincoln and Wayne.
Jan and I would like to thank each and every Rotarian in the District for your warm welcome, wonderful hospitality and great friendship as we made our visits. Rotary is an amazing organization that makes you feel welcomed wherever you are in the district, in the US or any place in the world. If you have never visited a club outside your own, I highly recommend you do so. You’ll find a new Rotary experience with each one you visit and you’ll begin to understand the impact we have across our district and around the world.
I want to bring you up to date on membership, as our number one goal is to “Grow Rotary”. I’m pleased to tell you as of the end of October District 5650 membership stands at 1,917 members, up 42 from 1,875 members since July 1, 2019. We are second in Zone 29 with 2.13% membership growth slightly behind District 6450 at 2.33%. This is fantastic news! Here is the list of Clubs with 5 net new members or more. A big shout out goes to all of our Lincoln clubs, all of which have positive membership growth of 5 members or more.
Lincoln #14 - +8 members
Lincoln East - +5 members
Lincoln Giving Spirits - + 6 members
Lincoln South - +10 members!!!!!
Omaha Suburban is up - +9 members
Omaha West - +5 members
Red Oak - +5 members
Seward - +5 members
As you can see we are making great progress however we have work to do. Overall we brought in 62 new members since July 1, however we’ve lost 20 members since then. Member retention is the key to membership growth. Since July 1, 17 clubs have positive membership growth, 10 clubs have held their own and 15 clubs have declined. I am convinced every club can achieve at least +1 if we make the “ask” and focus on member retention. Congratulations to all clubs with positive membership growth. If your club is not one of them, reach out and we’ll do all we can to help.
November is Foundation Month. This District has been very generous in its support of the Foundation in the past. This year over $100,000 came back to the District in District Designated Funds. Of this half goes to the District for club projects and the other half goes towards global grants and the Districts 20% match for Polio +.
We currently have 22 District Grant projects totaling $57,223 and 3 global grants in various stages with the total of those projects being $304,310. These are all thanks to your past giving to the Foundation.
Last year our top 3 clubs in per capita giving to the foundation were Lincoln South - $318.37 per capita, Omaha Suburban - $272.92 per capita and Council Bluffs Centennial $267.99 per capita. These three clubs are truly outstanding supporters of the foundation. Rotary asks each member to contribute $100 every year to reach the “Every Rotarian Every Year” designation for your club. Last year Ashland, Columbus Morning and Omaha Night Clubs reached the EREY designation. Congratulations to these strong supporters of the Foundation.
The Rotary International Foundation once again received Charity Navigator’s highest rating and scored perfect 100 out of a possible 100 points. When you think about making charitable contributions, I hope you’ll make the Rotary Foundation one of your charities of choice. Your contributions go further than any other non-profit organization I can think of and you are doing good in your communities and around the world.
Thank you again for the opportunity to serve as your District Governor. It is truly an honor and a privilege to serve you.
Yours in Rotary
Mick