Good News - the Topeka Rotary Club has approved 4 new members since July.
We are well on our way to meeting our goal for this year. Thanks to those of you who sponsored them.
I hope everyone is looking around - at your co-workers, neighbors and friends for potential members. Feel free to contact them and ask if they might be interested in joining Rotary. Membership applications are at the back of the room. If the prospect is interested, invite them to a meeting as a guest of the club. Let me, or someone one the membership committee know and we will take it from there.
This month I want to write a little about attendance. Normally our club's attendance is about 50% of our membership. For many years Rotary International required that members attend 60% of the meetings, but recently that requirement has been relaxed to 50%. In our recent club bylaw revisions, that was changed to "encouraging members to attend 50 percent of the time".
I do remember when I first joined this club, it was impressed upon me that I must meet the attendance requirement. I was terrified that I would miss one too many meetings and then-President John Knoll would call me on the carpet. But he never did. And gradually I learned that there is more than one way to be an active Rotarian.
With today's busy work environment, many people find it difficult to attend every week. I personally do a lot of work-related traveling and most of the time, it is impossible to interrupt a business schedule and find a Rotary club meeting to attend. Make-up meetings at other clubs are fun if you have a more leisurly schedule but that's not the only way to keep your attendance at 50%. Attending board or committee meetings, doing volunteer service, working on a club project--all these ways count toward attendance, but often they are never reported.
At the Rotary Convention in Salt Lake I learned of an on-line. virtual club where you can sign in and post something. For some people, that is the only way they can participate in Rotary, although I'm not sure I'd find that satisfying if it were the only way to belong.
Belonging is what it is all about -- being active, involved and connected with other Rotarians. It is not about just counting the number of meetings you attend.
So, if you would like to get more involved, with a Rotary service project, or helping with the many club duties such as giving invocations, introducing speakers, etc., let us know of your interest. E-mail me and I will connect you with the correct person.
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