MRV Rotary held our annual Changeover Dinner recently at American Flatbread - Lareau Farm. For those of you who could not attend, here are the words from Mike Curtin, New President.
June 20, 2024
Thank you, Bill.
For starters I will warn you that I have never been part of a changeover ceremony. In business when one president is out and a new one is in they are seldom ever in the same room together for a ceremony. So, in preparation for tonight I thought I would look to a past president to get some guidance. I went to two-time President Al Barillaro and asked him if he could provide me with a little direction for my year ahead that I could talk about at this meeting. He said no problem, bro I have an app for that and then handed me this. I said what is this? And he said you just point it in the direction you want to go and then you follow it. This is what I’m working with. Needless to say, I am winging this thing.
Ok. To begin I would like to follow on Bill’s comments and make a few acknowledgements:
At last year’s changeover dinner, Bill shared his vision for the upcoming year, focusing on two main goals:
Goal 1 - optimizing current key areas of the club
Goal 2. and minimize the number of new and growth initiatives that might distract from Goal 1.
A reasonable vision for sure.
So, in preparation for tonight I spent some time looking back over the year to see how Bill fared on his vision.
Regarding main goal 1, its completely obvious that we did indeed achieve this goal -we optimized all current areas of focus -fundraising efforts were executed flawlessly, key charitable partnerships continued to flourish, grants were awarded, projects completed, Fourth of July parade was the best ever, we had a killer Holiday party at Emily’s (Shea) space, and everybody got frostbite selling restaurant raffle tickets in January. Well done Bill!
But what about goal #2, the no new initiatives or growth goal? Hmmm.
Let’s start with membership. It is no secret that across Rotary International club membership is declining. So in a year where we might at best expect to remain flat or add maybe a few new members, I am happy to report that under Bill's leadership, the MRV Rotary club welcomed 12 new members this year – 20 percent. That’s very impressive growth. Very well-done Bill.
Further, under Bill’s watch the club accomplished the following:
As of May 31, we have raised an impressive $71K for charitable giving – almost $10k over budget and we spent $90K ish on critical initiatives
And of the over 20 Monetary Grants made under Bill’s leadership we launched the following NEW initiatives:
- Launched what might be an unprecedented initiative within our club for funds and service to Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity for establishing a Restore to help address the affordable housing crisis in our broader community
- Launched a New Educational Grants Initiative to fund grants supporting teachers and students in their efforts to advance educational excellence. In our first year we received 9 applications, and we funded whole or in part 6 grants to help teachers in the Harwood School system
- Launched The (now annual) Student Backpack Program: We bought and stuffed 30 backpacks including age appropriate supplies covering 1st through 12th grade and delivered them to students who otherwise would not have one
- Scholarships – we awarded $25K in scholarship money including a newly named scholarship in honor of our fellow member and friend Bob Holden
Service Initiatives:
- Support for Camp Ta-Kum-Ta work grows from hockey rinks to cabin cubbies to athletic courts, Neck of the Woods exploded, the Food pantry work (104 deliveries this year) and considering growing by adding another delivery day, and many other community initiatives
Administrative and club improvement initiatives
- Launched a Club Bylaw Review: First comprehensive bylaw review and revision since 2017
- Tackled Club leadership Continuity: Ensuring smooth transitions for future leadership with the additions of Susan Klein and Mike Leichliter as future presidents.
- Launched a club health check, Visioning and Strategic Planning initiative – Preparing our member driven organization for future success.
So that is a very impressive list of accomplishments Bill but I gotta tell ya, it feels like a lot of growth and a lot of new!! Looking at my year I can only hope that I do as poorly.
Bill truly led us through an exceptional year of accomplishments and I would like to ask all of you to join me in congratulating and thanking President Bill Barnes for a job very well done.