“Change has a bad reputation in our society. But it isn’t all bad – not by any means. In fact, change is necessary in life – to keep us moving, to keep us growing, to keep us interested. Imagine life without change. It will be static, boring, dull.”
Presidency came much faster than I thought it would. I thought I would have had a much longer time before my name was called, but here I am. A proud Rotarian, member of the Rotary Club of South East Nassau, who started out just 10 years ago, looking for a way to give back, knowing that my efforts alone are small, but they multiply when combined with the efforts of others. When Past President Peter Goudie pinned me at my induction, I promised myself that I would do whatever I could to serve my community. I tried and continue to try to do that. I proudly represented my country and the South East Family when I served on Rotary International’s Rotaract Committee and as District Rotaract Representative. Now I’m here about to kick off the new year as your President.
My vision for the year is to focus on connection and engagement across our membership, to pave the way for us to continue to support and serve our partners and community in impactful ways. The foundation Rotary was built on is friendship, and I believe if we focus on that, we will not only see our family grow stronger, but we will be fired up to take action that truly creates lasting change. But taking care of our family starts with each of us giving our very best and being dedicated not only to supporting the club, but honoring our commitments to the club.The board is ready to lead the way, but we need your help if we’re going to make this a reality. We are here to guide, but also to serve you.
I know that our focus on connection and engagement requires us to communicate well - so we can determine what’s working and what’s not. It requires us to look at things from multiple perspectives - so we can be equipped to make the best possible decisions. And it also requires us to be open minded - so we can give different things a try. Right out the gate we’re attempting a new meeting schedule that includes hybrid and evening meetings. With the changing demographic of our club and the ever-evolving world around us, the board seeks to provide more opportunity for our members and supporters to connect with our meetings each week. It’s a balancing act between adapting to change and honoring our identity, but that’s a challenge I think we are willing to take on if it means we can help to build a sustainable club. At the end of Q1, we will review attendance levels and determine the next steps.
And because our club isn’t just about meetings, we’re aiming to increase our number of projects, partnerships, and fellowship events. But more output requires more input. We need you to support the various portfolios represented on the board; we need you to share your ideas, bring your questions, and leverage your networks. We want you to be involved even if it’s virtually, but we really want to spend some time with you in person as well, if only once a month. We need you to support the administration of our club by contributing to fines and raffles even if you aren’t physically present. We want to see more of you liking, sharing, and commenting on our social media pages - and forwarding our fliers to all your contacts on WhatsApp. We want you to always consider that Rotarians are doers who serve and make lives better with their time, talents, and treasures. We want you to remember that it takes all of us to get the work done.
Rotary International President Elect Gordon is asking us to Create Hope in The World through focusing on promoting peace and mental health. And District Governor Elect David is encouraging us to dive a little deeper with our focus on Mental Health & Wellness. I can confidently say that in the South East family, we are no strangers to creating hope. We create hope when we support Road to Peace - showing our communities that we value and will put in the work to make peaceful living and conflict resolution a reality. We create hope when we mentor our students and remind them that they matter. We create hope when we feed families and ease their worrying. We create hope when we visit the elderly, when we build wells in Haiti, when we support medical screenings in another country, when we host and promote blood drives, when we outfit libraries, when we clean up beaches,when we build up our young leaders. We are not strangers to creating hope, and this year, we will continue doing that.
The history of our club is filled with stories of success, breaking barriers, producing leaders, and being home to meaningful relationships. The foundation for greatness is there, and it’s up to us to build on that. But we have to do it together. I’m excited to see what this year will bring, and I really want you to be there with me this time next year to reflect on what we’ve done.
