One of the great joys of serving Rotary in the AG’s position is the opportunity the job presents to meet other club leaders and see what innovative things those clubs are doing. As I have often said, “Some of the best ideas I’ve ever had, I stole from someone else.” And I’m not backing down from that.
For example, while it was a modest beginning, the Elk River club did hold their first ever Lithium-Ion battery recycling event a few weeks ago, from which they gained valuable experience with the process of receiving the spent batteries and packaging them properly for shipment back to “Redwood Resources,” the company that Rotary has partnered with to offer this program. I went, just to see how it worked. If Elk River can do it, so can we. It’s not just the batteries, it’s “Rotary People of Action” in the community.
I had the privilege of attending the swearing-in ceremony for the new President of the Anoka club. It wasn’t an ordinary ceremony held during a regular club meeting. It was a picnic in a pavilion located in a lovely park near downtown Anoka with locals as well as club members attending...an enjoyable event that got their members out of their meeting format and into a public space. I’m also impressed by the social benefit Anoka enjoys by renting a bus for Rotarians and their friends to attend Twins games as a group, and any number of other fun-focused activities. Here is another club that goes places and does things.
In Cambridge-Isanti, which seems rather geographically isolated from the body of 5960 (they are about an hour north and west of where I live in Shoreview), I found a club that has, over the years, built a strong student exchange program, which has become the principal focus of their club. Beyond that, however, they have members who work to ship medical supplies to Ukraine. So, even a small club can accomplish big things.
Coon Rapids seems to have something going on all the time. In October, they will have what seems similar to our “Taste” event in the clubhouse of the city-owned Bunker Hills Golf Club. There, as in Elk River, the list of sponsors goes on and on, and sponsorships are understood by everyone to be the “key” to a successful event. There are lessons to be learned here. More than that, however, is a strong emphasis on “showing up” in the community in ways that maintain visibility. The latest example had club members on the front steps of the high school welcoming students to their first day of class. And finally, I attended a Coon Rapids Rotary “social” at a local bar which anyone could attend. Anything to “meet the people.”
Although they are not in my “AG Area,” so to speak, I’m learning right now about the Northfield club’s Sept. 8 Rotary Family Bike Tour, which involves hundreds of adults and children in a fun activity, while putting Rotary’s name out in the community and raising funds for the club. I know about this because I will be in Northfield on Sept. 21 to present an overview of Rotary’s new strategic partnership with the Institute for Economics and Peace. Watch for a Zoom invitation from Kathy Hughitt.
I hope during the course of this year, we can animate the “Explorers Team,” in our club, the point of which has, from the beginning, been to see and learn from other clubs. Right now, I believe, the “team” is just Anoop, Elinor, and me. Exploring is fun, whether by travelling or just by scouting the websites of other clubs. And it’s easy to sign up. So come on...surprise me. Join the Rotary Explorers Team.