At this year’s district conference, club recognition looked different – they were aligned to meet Rotary International’s updated strategic priorities and objectives. These are: 1) Increase our Impact; 2) Expand our Reach; 3) Enhance Participation Engagement and 4) Increase our Ability to Adapt. And hasn’t 2020 taught us to adapt!
The Awards committee recognized clubs using these four criteria in the areas of Membership, Public Image and Foundation.
In Foundation, the following clubs were recognized for their excellence in:
- Increase our Impact: Omaha Suburban: they were able to give $10,000 to Polio from their Annual Car Show
- Expand our Reach: Seward: they had their first ever global grant working with a Rotary Club in the Bahamas
- Enhance Participation Engagement: Western Douglas County: out of 20 members, they had four new Paul Harris Fellows
- Ability to Adapt: Omaha West: food packaging: they changed the date, adapted by adding safety measures and worked with other Omaha clubs to coordinate volunteers and packaged over 31,000 meals
In Membership, the following clubs were recognized for their excellence in:
- Increase our Impact: Shenandoah: they changed their dues structure and added sponsorships for younger members or those struggling with covid
- Expand our Reach: Omaha Downtown: they added 18 new members and focused on diversity in their board
- Enhance Participation Engagement: Lincoln South: they were innovative and sought out new projects to keep their members engaged
- Ability to Adapt: Lincoln 14: they added several ways to communicate with members, held meetings virtually with speakers from around the world
In Public Image, the following clubs were recognized for their excellence in:
- Increase our Impact: Fairbury: they added corn hole sets to the city park with encouraged the city to add more games to the park to encourage more people to visit
- Expand our Reach: Council Bluffs Noon: they saw that there was a need for wheelchairs to help elderly people get into the vaccination places so they gathered wheelchairs and volunteered their time to help wheel people into the building
- Enhance Participation Engagement: Lincoln 14: they were awarded several awards and had those published in various publications.
- Ability to Adapt: Norfolk: Music in the Park: they had to get special permits from the city, marked off the park for social distancing and had several hand sanitizing stations throughout the park.