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Meriden
Rotary Club
Service
In the spirit of this avenue of Service, the Meriden Rotary Club has worked to provide opportunities to encourage membership growth and development. Special activities include:
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Installation Banquet and Social celebrating the year end achievements of 1998-1999, and kicking off 1999-2000 Rotary
year.
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Summer Family Picnic in Rhode Island that provided a casual get together to celebrate the hard work of the membership and the resulting success of the Second Annual Golf Tournament with body surfing, sunning, and lobsters after a great day of fellowship.
- Holiday Party and Pizza Bake-off Contest celebrating the holiday season and the President challenging a Rotarian from another club and local cooking instructor to a pizza
bake-off (all food was donated, and cash donations from the members were used to assist a local
organization).
- Volleyball Challenge in
which the Meriden club members challenged a neighboring club
and shared a good social evening together.
- Ski Trip to a local member's home in Vermont for a club skiing/sledding outing.
- Dinner Theater Trip
which promoted fellowship during a social evening together.
- Weekly Raffle schedules
a different member to donate a raffle prize each week to insure
that raffle prizes would be a part of every Tuesday.
- Happy Dollars are printed each week in the bulletin and all monies collected
are used to name new Paul Harris Fellows.
District News: The Beams
is e-mailed/faxed to membership weekly to keep the club up-to-date with
happenings within the District.
Membership Development: Retention of current membership is promoted by having fun. Social activities included getting together with spouse/significant others four times during the year. Membership recruitment efforts
are around the classification system and a "bring a guest / potential member" to lunch day is planned.
President's Advisory Council: The president relies on the advice of many of the club's past presidents. In addition to continuing traditions, these individuals set the example in the area of club service to bring the
club into the new Millennium.
Rotarian of the Month: The President established a practice of selecting the Rotarian who made the greatest impact on the Club during any given month, and recognized them with a framed certificate at the
luncheon.
Governor's Visit: The District Governor's visit was timed to coincide with the presentation of the Citizen of the
Year Award. Interact Club members were invited to attend, and the club raised enough money during Dick's visit to purchase 3 "kids" for Haiti.
Routine Improvements: Ongoing discussion with the local restaurant regarding service and logistical arrangements in the room; rotating program chairs-different members took turns at recruiting speakers which increased the variety of speakers; speaker system-members researched and purchased a new sound system so that speakers could be better heard; club
scrapbooks of golf tournament, and photos of all activities during the year; public relations-ongoing relationship with the local news media, both print and cable for better coverage of Rotary events.
Long Range Planning Committee: The president and president-elect established a long range planning committee with new members as the backbone of the
committee along with past presidents' advisors. The committee surveyed the membership, and then held a session at a club meeting to report the results. A roundtable on specific topics got at the issues in more depth. This input will be used to set the direction of the club for the next few years.
District Assembly/District Conference: The Meriden Rotary Club had members (4) in attendance at both of these events starting out this year. Members will be attending the Assembly and the Conference again this spring.
Leadership: this club met the goals that were set forth by President Curry for
1999-2000. A continual process of checking progress on them happened all year
long and, as a result, the Club has made many significant strides during this year.
Public Awareness: The Club has worked all year to increase the awareness of the Meriden Rotary Club in the eyes of the community. This was done by having agencies we support display our logo in an appropriate way, and by increased media coverage. The local newspaper was invited to any special event or
meeting and several photos and feature stories were printed in the paper.
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