How awesome was it to finally be back in person last week!?! Thank you to everyone, both in person and on Zoom, who attended my inaugural address last Thursday. The standing ovation was truly touching.

 

For those that couldn’t attend, let me share some great news with you! No, the great news isn’t that I saved 15% by switching my car insurance to (you know the name), but that we no longer have to RSVP and pre-pay to come to Rotary at the Spokane Club!  Yeah! Another indicator that we’re back! 

 

I have big plans that involve a lot of getting back together in person this year. I think we’re all ready to get back to doing things as we did before March of 2020. But one change that may become permeant will be hosting our meetings both in-person and online. We’ll continue to do our best to improve your online experience as we move forward during this “hybrid” Rotary year.

 

Another big idea is to work with both our district and other area clubs to help revive our Rotaract Club.  I spoke with our District Governor, Lynn O'Connor, and she’s appointed a new District Rotaract Chair, Bill Crowe, to help us in this endeavor.  If you’d like to be part of this district-wide task force to help improve Rotaract membership and visibility, please let me know. I’ll let you know when we move forward on scheduling our first meeting with Bill Crowe and the current Rotaract presidents to help develop a game plan for Rotaract.  Because a healthy Rotaract leads to a healthy Rotary Club for us and all clubs in our area.

 

My other big idea that I “floated” out to everyone is to build a Rotary float for the 2022 Lilac parade next year.  I recently spoke with Nate Calvert, who is the incoming VP of floats for the Lilac Parade, and he said he’d reach out to other groups/festivals in our region to see if he can get us a used float chassis. Awesome!  If you’d be interested in joining me on this quest to build a Rotary Float for our parade, please let me know and I’ll keep you in the loop on when we’ll have our first meeting and what all is involved.

 

Again, thank you to everyone who attended my first meeting!  I look forward to a fantastic Rotary year full of fun, family, fellowship, food, fundraising, and a whole bunch of other clean “F” words!