Sponsoring a Service Companion Club

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

The webinar organized by Rotary Zones 25B & 29 focused on sponsoring a service companion club, featuring panelists who shared their personal experiences and advice. The discussion revolved around the concept of service companion clubs, which are essentially smaller, more flexible extensions of existing Rotary clubs. These clubs are designed to engage members who might find it difficult to attend traditional meetings due to time constraints or geographic locations. The panelists shared success stories and insights, emphasizing flexibility and passion for community service as key drivers. The session concluded with a Q&A and an invitation to explore the concept further.

Highlights

Introduction to the new webinar format aimed at growing Rotary's reach 🚀.
Kate shares how her club supports Rotary Youth Exchange through a virtual setup from multiple states 🧑‍🎓.
Mark discusses the Minnesota Veteran's Club and its evolution from traditional meetings to service-focused gatherings 🪖.
Lynette talks about starting a community-focused club in a small town and their various service projects 🌼.
Deb explains a twin club project in Zimbabwe focusing on girls' empowerment and sustainable development 🌱.

Key Takeaways

Service companion clubs offer flexibility in time and location to accommodate diverse members 🌍.
These clubs can focus on specific causes while benefiting from the structure of an existing Rotary club 💡.
Starting a companion club requires fewer members than a traditional club and can be more informal 🤝.
The focus should be on collaboration and shared goals within the community and beyond 🏙️.
Passion and commitment to service are crucial for the success of any companion club ❤️.

Overview

The webinar kicked off with an introduction to the concept of service companion clubs, highlighting their flexibility and accessibility. The panel moderated by Tom Gum featured individuals from various states who shared their successes and challenges in establishing these clubs. This flexible model allows clubs to operate under the umbrella of a sponsoring club, focusing on service-related activities without the traditional meeting constraints.

Kate discussed her club's concentrated efforts on preserving and promoting Rotary Youth Exchange, functioning across different geographical locations through virtual meetings. Mark Shaki shared insights from the Minnesota Veterans Club's journey, demonstrating its transition from being a traditional club to a more dynamic, service-oriented one over time. Lynette from Ansley, Nebraska, narrated her experience of forming a community service club in a small town, underlining the importance of understanding community needs and working collaboratively.

Deb Massen wrapped up the session with an inspiring story about a collaborative project in Zimbabwe, where a twin club partnership focuses on girls’ education and empowerment. She emphasized the power of collaboration and shared examples of how to effectively engage and recruit new club members. The session engaged attendees through interactive polls and encouraged them to consider starting their service companion clubs.

Chapters

00:00 - 00:30: Introduction The chapter introduces the topic of a webinar on sponsoring a service companion club. The host welcomes the participants and mentions the involvement of several panelists who will share their stories. Tom Gum is introduced as the moderator for the session, and his participation is appreciated.
00:30 - 01:30: Webinar Format and Registration Reminder This chapter reminds participants of the switch to a new webinar format and platform. It emphasizes the importance of registering for these webinars and encourages attendees to spread the word to others in their districts and communities. The webinars are valuable tools that can enhance membership engagement. Additionally, the session videos are available on the website for those who could not attend the live sessions.
01:30 - 02:00: Poll and Feedback Request In this chapter titled 'Poll and Feedback Request,' the focus is on engaging the audience for future events. It encourages listeners to register and to share the opportunity with others through emails or texts. The chapter emphasizes the importance of a call to action at the end of each webinar, revealing a poll as a follow-up to previous sessions, aiming to gather feedback and prepare for upcoming events.
02:00 - 03:00: Q&A Instructions and Panelist Introduction In this chapter, the session begins with instructions for a Q&A segment, where participants are asked to answer a question about their club’s use of a structured membership committee. Participants are asked to respond with 'yes,' 'no,' or 'I don't know.' Additionally, they are encouraged to think about and suggest any topics they would like to see on the website that are not currently available.
03:00 - 04:30: Kate's Introduction and Motivation for Service Companion Club In this chapter, the speaker discusses the process of registering for a service or event, mentioning Lloyd Campbell's email for assistance. They emphasize the importance of suggesting future topics for consideration during upcoming strategic planning sessions. The speaker expresses interest in receiving feedback and ideas for monthly webinars as they plan for the next year. The chapter concludes with the speaker handing over the session to Tom, reminding the audience that it is a webinar.
04:30 - 06:00: Service Companion Club Focus and Structure The chapter focuses on the structure and focus of the Service Companion Club. It mentions the format for questions and answers during meetings, encouraging participants to submit their questions in advance or during the event for a response either during or at the end of the session. Tom Gump is acknowledged and thanked for his contributions to Rotary, with a special mention of the orange theme color representing change for the year.
06:00 - 07:30: Mark's Introduction and Veterans Club Experience The chapter focuses on the importance of change in improving clubs and organizations. It begins with a description of an event in New York where the speaker, presumably Mark, interacts with several tables of attendees. Each table universally expresses a desire to discuss membership, highlighting its importance. The chapter sets a positive tone towards embracing change and emphasizes excitement about upcoming discussions and panelists, including someone named Kate Mark.
07:30 - 09:30: Achievements and Challenges in Veterans Club The chapter titled 'Achievements and Challenges in Veterans Club' involves Lynette and Deb inviting Kate to introduce herself. Kate shares her background, mentioning her involvement with the Satellite Club of Waka and the 6220 Exchange. She emphasizes her family's passion for youth exchange programs, which they find particularly exciting as part of their Rotary activities.
09:30 - 11:00: Lynette's Introduction and Ansley Service Companion Club Lynette shares her motivation for starting a Service Companion Club, which is to support Rotary Youth Exchange. Her first interaction with Rotary was as a 15-year-old outbound exchange student. This experience expanded her horizons from a small Midwest town to becoming a global learner.
11:00 - 12:30: Ansley Club's Focus and Activities This chapter discusses the formation of a satellite club within Ansley Club, primarily focusing on accommodating younger members who find it challenging to attend traditional noon meetings on weekdays due to work commitments. The motivation to create a more flexible club structure arises from the desire to engage younger participants who otherwise couldn't participate because of scheduling conflicts.
12:30 - 14:00: Starting a Service Companion Club The chapter titled 'Starting a Service Companion Club' discusses the structure and operations of a satellite club with members spread across various states like Colorado, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Illinois. The club convenes virtually twice a month using Google Meets to collaborate. It highlights the importance of participation, especially in programs like the Rotary Youth Exchange, which demands extensive member involvement. The chapter underscores the significance of having all members actively engaged in Rotary activities.
14:00 - 15:00: Deb's Role and Experiences in Africa Deb participated in a youth exchange program that was coordinated by a certified youth exchange officer from their club. They had support from District staff associated with rotary youth exchange. Despite being heavily involved with rotary activities, they faced challenges in attending traditional meetings. The sponsoring Club shared a significant interest in the Rotary Youth Exchange (RY) program, leading to their involvement and connection, which is a story appreciated by Kate.
15:00 - 18:00: Victoria Falls Twin Club and Global Grant The chapter discusses the vision statement of Rotary, emphasizing unity to create lasting change globally, locally, and personally. It highlights youth exchange as a prime example of personal growth, alongside Global and local service projects.
18:00 - 20:30: Training and Education in Zimbabwe The chapter focuses on the role of youth exchange programs in clubs in Zimbabwe. It discusses how host clubs sponsor and host exchange students, highlighting a specific club that is hosting three exchange students for the year. The chapter also emphasizes the robustness of the Rye program in facilitating these exchanges.
20:30 - 23:00: Impact of Collaboration and Global Projects The chapter titled 'Impact of Collaboration and Global Projects' focuses on the collective efforts and diverse involvement of club members in supporting Rotary Youth programs. The club consists of individuals ranging from former exchange students, some with experiences dating back decades, to key coordinators and host families actively participating in exchange programs. The common objective among these members is to support and facilitate youth involvement under the Rotary framework, showcasing the impact of collaboration in global projects.
23:00 - 25:30: Panel Discussion and Audience Questions The chapter discusses the structure and organization of monthly meetings within the Ry program, highlighting the importance of both online and in-person gatherings. These meetings are not only educational but also offer a social aspect, especially during Ry conferences where exchange students have the opportunity to interact face-to-face. There is a strong participation culture within these meetings, indicating the value they bring to the participants. The chapter suggests that almost all topics discussed in these meetings are engaging and significant to those involved.
25:30 - 26:30: Final Advice from Panelists The chapter discusses a service project where a club is developing a marketing plan for the rotary youth exchange. The ultimate aim is to distribute this plan as a starter pack to clubs within the district to aid them in promoting their rotary youth exchange programs and attract students.
26:30 - 28:00: Webinar Conclusion and Call to Action The chapter concludes with a discussion about the local area involving outbounds, host families, and inbounds within the Rotary Youth Exchange program. The acronym RYE stands for Rotary Youth Exchange. There is a mention of the Northstar Rotary Youth Exchange's recent achievement, having won a significant award at the North American Youth Exchange Network event in Mexico.

Sponsoring a Service Companion Club Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 good evening and Welcome to our monthly membership webinar we're excited to have you all joining us tonight uh our topic in case you're wondering is sponsoring a service companion Club we've got a great lineup of panelists here tonight to share their stories with us and we also have Tom Gum as our moderator always a pleasure to have him with us so thank you again Tom for your time we know that
00:30 - 01:00 it's always not easy to get that so thank you for that we appreciate it so we are we know that we have switched to a new format and and a platform basically and we just want to remind everyone we know you're here you're on this call we appreciate you taking the time to register but please remind people in your District uh and others as well that this is a something that can be a valuable tool in your membership toolkit uh we do post them after the fact the videos on our website on our
01:00 - 01:30 Zone website uh but you can go now and register if someone you can think of send them a send them a text for the future or an email and let them know sign up for the future because we still have you know each month we do this so now we are going to bring up a poll because we always have a call to action after the end of tonight's webinar we'll have a call to action for next month uh so following up from last month we have a poll that we're going to bring up now
01:30 - 02:00 and so we would like you to answer this question does your Club use a structured membership committee please choose yes no or I don't know and as you do that we'll just take a second to also ask you could you please think about topics that you know if you look at that website like we just talked about and you see a topic that's not there that you would like to have could you please share that with us uh I know in the email when you
02:00 - 02:30 get registered it has Lloyd Campbell's email if you'll let him know um if you have a great topic that you say you know I really wish that they would consider this for the future please let us know because we're constantly looking at that we're about to have a strategic planning um time for us to plan for next year so we would love to have your thoughts uh as we go forward with the ideals for monthly webinars and with that I am going to hand it over to Tom and I guess one final reminder this is a webinar
02:30 - 03:00 format so Q&A will be where you put your questions if you have them uh we will try to have some time at the end of our night for some questions but please put them in there as you think of them and we'll try to respond if we don't have time at the end so Tom Gump please take it away well thank you very much Mindy and thank you so much for all you do for rotary I love that you're wearing um a orange headband and orange shirt because that's one of our theme colors this year and orange symbolizes change and it's
03:00 - 03:30 interesting because if we want to grow in rotary and we want to have better clubs and better organization we do have to change you know I was at a pets in New York over the weekend and we started out by the speakers going to each of the table of the few hundred people there they had tables of 12 and every table I went to I said well what do you want to talk about and without exception every single Club every single table said membership so I'm glad we're talking about membership I'm glad we're talking about change and I'm very excited about our panelist tonight uh Kate Mark
03:30 - 04:00 Lynette and Deb and I'd like Kate to come on the screen so she can tell us a little bit about herself in a way of an introduction hi thank you Tom uh my name is Kate Hurst I'm in Wisconsin I'm a member of the satellite Club of Waka friends of 6220 exchange well that's wonderful um my family and I have always loved youth exchange it's one of the things that excites us most about rotary
04:00 - 04:30 so can you tell us what motivated you to form a service companion Club all right so our companion Club is based on a common goal of supporting rotary youth Exchange in my first experience with rotary at all was as a 15-year-old um I was a rotary outbound uh for exchange which really opened up my world from a small Midwest town to being a global learner trying to survive
04:30 - 05:00 learning a new language um uh when I circled back around to Rotary later in life though I wasn't able to um attend our local meetings the traditional meetings because they're at noon on weekdays um and my work so many of our club members are um younger people not all of them but younger people who struggle to make it to a traditional club meeting uh so that was one thing that um made us want to form a satellite
05:00 - 05:30 Club another one is geography uh our satellite Club has members that are in Colorado um Tennessee Wisconsin and Illinois and we meet virtually twice a month on Google meets so that gives us the chance to um work together so rotary youth exchange requires hundreds of hours of participation um all of our members have some involvement in rotary
05:30 - 06:00 youth exchange being either coordinators we have a youth exchange officer um certified for our club um we have District staff for rotary youth exchange and all of us are hugely involved with rotary but just struggled to make traditional meetings and so our sponsor Club has a huge interest in Ry also and that's how we got connected I love that story Kate you know so often
06:00 - 06:30 when we're through pets this season we talk about our vision statement where rotary wants to be and our vision statement says together we see a world where people unite to take action to create lasting chains across the globe in our communities and in ourselves and it's interesting we always talk about our Global projects which are wonderful and we talk about our local service projects but I really do think youth exchange is the best example of how we grow ourselves
06:30 - 07:00 and I know that you have as a youth exchange student I know that I have as a host parent so tell us exactly how does youth exchange and their involvement in your Club how do they fit in your club and how do they fit in the host club so our Host Club sponsor or well hosts um three well this year they're hosting three exchange students and they have a very robust um Rye program um
07:00 - 07:30 the members of our club are all um a spectrum of some involvement of Ry whether we have um several rebound students who were former exchange students some of us decades ago um we have I I am the inbound coordinator former host we have several former host families um or current host families also we have an outbound coordinator who is a member of our club um all of our our goal of supporting rotary youth
07:30 - 08:00 exchange is um our our monthly meetings are structured around the Ry program um we get together various times during the year at Ry conferences working with the exchange students so that's when we get to have the social aspect of rotary and meet in person um versus the online format um we have a strong participation uh almost all of our topics have
08:00 - 08:30 something to do with rotary youth exchange and how we can support that our current goal is our um our service project is our club is working on helping create a marketing plan for rotary youth exchange and then we will uh our end goal is to disperse that to clubs in our district as kind of like a starter pack to help them uh advertise their program their rotary youth exchange TR to get students from their
08:30 - 09:00 local area as outbounds and um host families and and inbounds and things like that wonderful and Ry stands for rotary youth exchange yes and are you part of the Northstar rotary youth exchange no well I don't know okay I think that um you are and they just want a big award in Mexico at Nan the North American Youth exchange Network for one of the best
09:00 - 09:30 conglomerate of Youth exchange so congratulations to you and your service club and for adding energy to that club and your host club and to Northstar in general so please stay on because we're goingon to may have some questions for you later thank you Kate now I'd like to um have Mark shaki introduce himself but before he does I'd like to say he's uh district governor-elect for district 5950 and he helped me develop as a rotarian and um he was in rotary before
09:30 - 10:00 I was in rotary and when I was about to be Club president he helped me put together an orientation manual and all kinds of manuals and all kinds of help and many nights sometimes to 3:00 or 4 in the morning he'd be up with me making everything so he helped for me as a rotarian um go ahead Mark no I am Mark shaki um as as Tom said I'm I'm a part of 5950 which includes Minneapolis and
10:00 - 10:30 Central Minnesota and a Shameless plug will be the host for the 2028 RI convention and uh I've also served as the district uh Pi chair and the district membership chair now Mark you know more about rotary than most people just from your experience you used to be president of my club before you were in the veterans Club you were administrator of my club and then you help form the veterans Club
10:30 - 11:00 so what advice would you give another Rotary Club who's considering sponsoring a service companion Club you will simply grow in amazing ways I mean that that's the simplest way to say it uh the the serving becomes contagious and uh it it flows back to to the other clubs you know I've been a part of a rotary since back in
11:00 - 11:30 1989 it was the year When Harry Met Sally and the time in my early career when I was introduced to a number of impressive Community leaders who who ate lunch together in an Italian restaurant on Thursdays and then they gathered in the evening to do service projects all over Pittsburg that's that's where we were located so so my initial sense of what rotary was
11:30 - 12:00 is really about serving and unique serving that happened in in different ways so fast forward to Minnesota where five years ago I was invited by a DG also known as Tom Gump to uh to meet with a a group of military offers to officers to to explain rotary and a little bit of setting the previous weekend I had waved a a sad farewell to
12:00 - 12:30 my son-in-law who was being deployed for a year leaving two little ones behind with my daughter so how could I say no to to talking to Military Officers about about rotary and Tom was excited about the possibility of of starting a ca-based club and recognized that there
12:30 - 13:00 were a lot of va individuals around from veterans from the VA hospital just across the road from from the airport to the large National Garden Reserve Base at the MSP airport and and the Vets Tom invited became the charter members of the Rotary Club of Minnesota veterans the the first cause-based Rotary Club specifically for for veterans and as
13:00 - 13:30 there was was little knowledge of rotary I ended up joining that club and was honorably named the XO by the president so what's really interesting about it is is our story so the veterans Club was actually formed as a full cause-based Rotary Club but what would happen
13:30 - 14:00 several years later took on a whole new approach it it was interesting because we had a a number of vets who were a little bit uh more mature and you know they they had retired as veterans many of them in in full-time uh military service and and so they were happy just to to gather and Do rotary meetings we we brought in a lot
14:00 - 14:30 of different organizations and uh they were all veteran types of organizations and then then what would happen is uh we would meet and we would go home and we did a lot of talking about serving and we did some incredible service projects But as time went on there were less and less service projects and and just more and more sitting around in an even me and we had a young group of National
14:30 - 15:00 Guard individuals men and women who had families and full careers and they didn't want to hang out at night talking to vets they just wanted to serve people so we we adjusted it and and really made a a big change of focus to to gather around service projects and not focus on meeting to hear speakers and so
15:00 - 15:30 even though we had the structure of a a cause-based rotary club we also had a a club within the club a a service companion club that uh really started without us being intentional that that's what we were going to do so the the serving continued on and um you know
15:30 - 16:00 really the the heart of it is this story right here it had been a year that the club had not had a formal traditional meeting but the serving projects continued on which was very unique and a lot of struggles deployed leaders that becomes one of the the difficulties of a veteran Club is there
16:00 - 16:30 are a lot of deployments and often we don't know exactly when those deployments are going to uh step in so when we invite leaders to come along uh we might uh lose them you know to a deployment for a time uh but it's it's powerful so the club itself uh started out in in the first weeks of its Club existence uh with a a little taste of
16:30 - 17:00 rotary magic we had discovered that there was a need and substance abuse and PTSD battles among recent vets were just ripping families apart and one of the VA centers had an an excellent com compassionate program to to help and the need was for a place for the graduates
17:00 - 17:30 of the program to land when they were released and and enter Haven for Heroes H remodeling a 1920s Old Government building into a transition home and we came along and and were able to turn $500 of Club money into a $20,000 Grant to complete the project and and give these families a chance to to reconnect in a warm welcoming place so the service projects were part of what we did and
17:30 - 18:00 and then they really U the service companion part of the club kept the club going when the traditional aspects of the club were really limping along and I am just thrilled to say we've been through a lot but we've come out strong uh the whole boots on the ground aspect has been very powerful and um you know we we've recognized there
18:00 - 18:30 are so many organizations that have money but no volunteers and and just walking with them has has been great that's so wonderful Mark and please stay on because we're gonna want to hear more from you in the near future so we'd like to do two quick polls right now to get you as the audience your opinions on things so if we could have the first real poll because we had a practice poll before so are you familiar with what a service companion club
18:30 - 19:00 actually is I feel like we should have the Jeopardy theme music going in the background excuse me and do we have the answers yes we have 60% yes and 40% no well you're definitely in the right place cuz we're
19:00 - 19:30 going to find out exactly what a service companion is Club is here tonight so poll number two have we clarified that service companion Club is a satellite club that may have a different structure
19:30 - 20:00 drum roll and we have 92% that said yes and 8% that said no so we will answer that for the 8% in the following um questions that we get to our following panelists so I'd like to have Lynette come on the screen and introduce herself hello everyone uh my name is Lynette Don I'm from Ansley Nebraska a very small community in central Nebraska and when I say small we're less than 500
20:00 - 20:30 people so we are very small um I retired from my my job about a year ago the end of December or end of January excuse me and I spent about I spent 43 years working in city government as the city clerk so I had a lot of experience in um providing services from the governmental side and after I retired it was I wanted to kind of get back into community community service and uh there were some like-minded people that wanted to do the
20:30 - 21:00 same thing Ansley did have a rotary club many many years ago that was uh all businessmen and that had been uh not active for a number of years and so there some like-minded people got together and we felt like we wanted to do community work um ansay had many Community organizations in the past but those had all kind of disappeared and so rotary seemed like a good group grou to form and to do the kind of community
21:00 - 21:30 work that we felt was important um all for improving our community helping some growth uh helping uh to bring some Services helping to bring the community together and so we had the opportunity to become a service group with broken B um was only about 15 miles from Ansley and that seemed like a wonderful opportunity to um rely on their expertise their expert
21:30 - 22:00 their experience um they could give us some clues about how to get started what to do and we could collaborate with them on Mutual type of Interest projects um and also got some guidance from them on how to kind of set off on our own everything from how we might want to set our meetings and you know all that type of stuff well that's great to know and it's interesting that you could have a service companion Club in a large club
22:00 - 22:30 or you could have it in a smaller Club so how did you choose to focus on what service projects well we pretty much focus on what we see for a need in the community and uh and and just encouraging Community uh growth and Community togetherness I guess if you will so we're going to do some beautification projects this year uh we have a couple of our members that are very involved in and uh trying to get a daycare in Ansley
22:30 - 23:00 and as most of you know if you're I mean daycare in communities especially smaller communities is a huge problem everywhere and we our membership is probably people in their upper 20s lower 30s clear up into their 70s so we think that that gives us a broad uh spectrum of interest of focus uh but everyone comes together and we've been very agreeable on the project we'd like to work on um and and how to bring people
23:00 - 23:30 together in our community we've done some things this fall we kind of kicked off with a Halloween supper uh to bring people together um just to kind of get our name out there for rotary and this is what we're here to be a service Club to do projects to help Ansley be better uh we did a uh Christmas uh Christmas tree lighting project at the park in December uh we are planning a um kind of the Ansley Spirit Awards in April to
23:30 - 24:00 recognize people that we feel like have really contributed to the community and uh so those kinds of activities to just kind of focus on community and the importance of being together and supporting wonderful and I'm sure there's some in the audience tonight who would like to know how to start a club now that we have them interested so how did you go about starting your service companion Club well I think that probably it started with one of our current members um Michelle Nelson who
24:00 - 24:30 was a member of the brokenbow club and Michelle actually was a member of the rotary group in brokenbow but she took over my job at the city office so she was going to be in Ansley and I think she visited with Deb massin and and they kind of came up with this Comm companion Club idea and so we kind of put out the word that we were going to be um working on this inviting people to come and then they came and they kind of gave us an explanation Deb and Norm came and gave
24:30 - 25:00 us an explanation kind of of the structure of rotary uh their focuses their purposes we had a couple of kind of meetings that um focused on those that kind of information to develop an interest and um so then we kind of set off on our own and sat around the table and said what do we want to focus on what is our what are our goals going to be and kind of came to a general consensus of uh really focusing on our community but at the same time
25:00 - 25:30 collaborating with the broken bow wherever we could step in and help and we've that's happened at least on three occasions already in this first year wonderful and how many people did you add to The Host Club 14 14 people wonderful wonderful over what span of time well actually those were our kind of our initial people to sign up was 14 people one person has since uh decided that it's
25:30 - 26:00 just not going to work for her because we have noon meetings and she works out of town um and so that doesn't really work for her but our membership we really haven't grown but we have at least maintained our original group and you know we're always open and always inviting wonderful and you said you had some help from PDG Deb massen how does um an individual a rotarian who wants to start a companion Club find that spark plug or that person to help them get
26:00 - 26:30 started well I you know I think if you if you know first of all communicate you know say hey we're interested in this who should who who can we talk to who can help us and uh and then set up meetings with them and kind of get that Core group of interested individuals and and just really rely on their leadership their experience their their recommendations they've made recommendations to us for potential fundraisers and we you know and and to also just we can we can call on them to
26:30 - 27:00 if we need help uh if we need warm bodies for a project and we have collaborated with them to provide people you know with their types of projects that we're going on and we're very close I I said we're only 15 miles apart and so it's just finding someone asking you know communicate reach out uh find the person and uh We've discovered that they are very open and welcome and want to teach you and have you start your own
27:00 - 27:30 group and give you some options and some different ways that you can manage your own group oh that's great advice so you listed a bunch of projects how do you decide how to do your projects do you survey the community do you survey your members do you survey both well so far we've just surveyed members um but like I said with that broad range of age groups we've had you know a lot of uh the daycare obviously the the younger members see a need but the older members
27:30 - 28:00 we realize that there's a need everyone is uh thinking if we do like let's say the property or the yard of the month that's going to encourage people to be proud of our community to get involved you know to have ownership and uh be good citizens and so it's just kind of a combination of who talks to who and what you hear on the street and or in the coffee shop or at church and you're going to get ideas from a broad range of age groups and
28:00 - 28:30 individuals one of the things I really like about your service companion Club is you do all the different types of projects because I know the sponsoring clubs sometimes they always do the same projects like maybe they do Highway cleanup every year they've been doing it for 20 years or 30 years so it's nice to have that around so if you don't mind staying around because we may have some more questions for you but right now we have to move into another poll
28:30 - 29:00 well Deb I'm glad you're here because I thought we were moving into another poll but um we decided we'd rather hear from you instead so so Deb would you mind introducing yourself oh not at all I'm a past District Governor from 5630 and currently I'm an arc which is fancy
29:00 - 29:30 words for assistant rotary coordinator uh for our Zone um and I have the privilege of working with um and getting to know four districts located across central us just um kind of a fun job it sounds like it and um if do you mind if I just roll on in because I've got about 20 minutes of material to roll into this tent that sounds great I hope you tell us a little bit about what you've been doing in Africa though because I've been seeing AB absolutely you know we just heard
29:30 - 30:00 from three presenters and I'm so excited about the service companion Club um concept uh they shared their passion and all just have demonstrated the power of collaboration and that's really what a service companion uh Club is is is collaboration there's so many different Club models out there traditional passport cause-based um just you know you could go on and on and listenting them but one thing I want you to remember remember is that a standalone Club requires 20 members to
30:00 - 30:30 start a service companion Club requires eight members to start um and one of the meetings with Ansley was really kind of cool as their superintendent raised their hand and they said Deb what if we get to 22 members do we have to stand alone or can we stay as a service companion I'm going why don't you get to 102 members and still stay as a service companion so that's it and a service companion club like a standalone it says their own meetings and assess their own
30:30 - 31:00 uh to structure which is really cool and Tomy you mentioned Africa I could hardly wait to get started with this I'm going to go here uh can everyone see my slides okay cool um I'd like to introduce another type of uh uh oh a club type and that is a twin club oh sorry
31:00 - 31:30 um we have a twin club with Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe we started this well over 10 years ago our collaboration started back in 2012 um and became for formalized in about 2018 uh and and yes we do have a global project um now a twin club is the same thing as a sister Club within rotary the two names are interchangeable and what it is is two clubs on in two different countries uh decide to work on things
31:30 - 32:00 together you can work on things in either one of the two countries together you come together because you have a common interest our common interest with Victoria Falls is uh girls empowerment which is a second passion of mine we do have a global Grant and This Global Grant brought uh sewing machines in for 133 schools uh it provides leadership health education classes business basics onto M School Basics I'm an old retired
32:00 - 32:30 economic developer and I'm fully aware that it doesn't do you a bit of good to teach a job unless there's a job at the end of the training where you can actually get a job and so we're focusing very hard on that the goal is to provide um for the girls and boys to learn how to sew and to make their own washable sanitary pads we would like to put three daytime pads three nighttime pads uh into the hands of every single girl and across when I think about the power of
32:30 - 33:00 collaboration here's this chick from broeno Nebraska a little tiny town in rural Nebraska and we have a goal over five years of impacting 9,500 girls I just can hardly wrap my arms around that figure and this figure does not even count in the two generations down I'd like to point out the picture at the bottom of the page this was taken in Broken Bow and um at when Norman and I were there oh oh last October I was there in January but I was also there in
33:00 - 33:30 October uh we brought a thousand granny panties to Zimbabwe with us in suitcases and we had a um drop your panties here campaign uh which was really kind of cool and our community got really involved in it that was really kind of neat and here what I'd like to show here is uh part of this is training how to sew so we brought in two teachers from every one of the 133 schools to teach them how to sew and I'd like to point
33:30 - 34:00 out the gentleman in his white shirt um I was standing beside him and he kind of looked up at me and he goes you have a question I think that you want to know why I'm here and I said yes I do and he said and he's a longtime teacher he's a history teacher and he's teaches in bingan Zimbabwe which is one of the poorest of the poor Villages and he said I'm here because I'm a husband and I'm a father and I have daughters and I have sons who will have wives and they will have daughters we have to figure out how
34:00 - 34:30 to keep these girls in school to put it in a nutshell when a girl can't take care of her period She misses at least one week out of every month of school so you think about trying to pass a math class after you've missed at least nine weeks out of every week of a month of school um and that's really really tough and so on the next one and uh so we forms sewing clubs and he you see all these gentlemen up here these boys are
34:30 - 35:00 also learning how to S sew because they want to help their classmates and I absolutely loved that um I'd like to point out this picture here you see the girl in blue she's a mine worker she has a great job she works in a coal mine she works the night shift then she goes home she cleans up she gets a couple of hours sleep and she comes back to the school because she wants to learn how to school so she's has been coming to this after
35:00 - 35:30 school program but even more than learning how to school she had to drop out because she could not take care of her period She wants to help the girls in that school take care of her their periods and she was just um Delight to talk to we also put soy machines into women and youth vocational C centers and these are centers that hire girls who had to drop out of school and this is one of the uh handouts that we give out when we
35:30 - 36:00 give a package so each girl takes home a bag to carry the things in three daytime three night time um another bag to wash the pads in and this very important piece of paper that says that you are important you are amazing you are kind you are special the gentleman you see down toward the bottom of this picture was a very respected tailor in the area and he is volunteering in his time to teach the girls how to sew properly
36:00 - 36:30 because he sees the importance of keeping girls in school so this is where we're at with this particular Grant the machines and accessories and fabrics are purchased and distributed train the Train the programs done hand machines is done and we have multiple NGO Partners from the Ministry of Education the health Ministry you don't do this alone it's all about collaboration with all sorts of people and we have another project coming up uh we're in the middle of uh
36:30 - 37:00 launching a second Global Grant to drill solar powered B holes for for schools schools and Villages and to build girl-friendly toilets and sustainable community in school Gardens what I didn't tell you okay sit down everyone of the 133 schools that we're in right now four have water six have electricity and these are schools that it's not
37:00 - 37:30 unusual for them to have over 1,200 kids at each of these schools so you have 1,200 kids no water no electricity while while I was there this last um in January we also established a pin pal program between the interact clubs in central Nebraska and the district in this particular District of Zimbabwe and I had probably 50 to 60 kids show up for the meeting and uh we had a chance to talk about winter they
37:30 - 38:00 were very interested about our Nebraska Winters and of course if you're invited into a classroom you show up especially if they want to talk English and just so so much fun um so what the bottom line here is that more members equates to the ability to accomplish more and to dream bigger dreams the projects we're doing Zimbabwe we certainly in broke boat could never dream of making a difference for 9,000
38:00 - 38:30 girls on her own and I know that the club in Zimbabwe is so appreciative of our partnership they would not have dreamed this big without us and they tell us this all the time and over the years we become we have become uh friends and that's really really cool I think I'm under 10 minutes Tom you are I have a few questions for you though talk really
38:30 - 39:00 fast um the power of collaboration is clear you've gotten all this done because of the collaboration but tell us for those in the audience tell us how you found your partners and how they can find their partners for their service projects and their service companion clubes okay I happen to be in Zimbabwe volunteering for a group called Alliance for Smiles they repair Cliff lips and pallets I have no medical ability whatsoever but I take decent pictures and once in a while I can write a good story so I was there to take pictures to write stories to help with the grant
39:00 - 39:30 paperwork and after our mission was over the two nurses and I kicked off and uh went to Victoria Falls they wanted to go shopping I personally hate to shop and there was a sign on the wall that said Victoria Falls Rotary Club meets here Thursday at noon and I showed up and they took me under their wing and we they showed me everything they were doing um they had a similar Club size to our club you know it's 20 members here
39:30 - 40:00 20 members there we just it was so cool to meet everybody um and they said would you be interested in being an international partner I jumped all over it took it back to my club talked about it we did a number of zooms together and we decided hey let's walk down this rotary path together and and we've become friends where we're um the families are important to us it's just really kind of a cool collaboration very cool now I'm glad you're our last
40:00 - 40:30 speaker because my understanding is you're part of the Zone membership team so can you please tell our um audience here where they can get resources to find out more about how to start a new club satellite club or otherwise well we have a bunch of resources that we are going to be putting onto um The Zone uh website under membership and all of these resources basically came from Rotary International and they're learning ET so if you're interested in starting um a satellite
40:30 - 41:00 club or a new club or anything like that don't hesitate to reach out we'll bend your ear for hours on suggestions because each of us on this team have started clubs before one suggestion I would have in starting a new club is to look for something or someone or an area that's relatively geographically close to you um I've started two clubs uh or helped start two clubs one was three and a half hours away the other one was 15
41:00 - 41:30 miles down the road I can tell you Ansley was the dream situation because we've just done so much together the other one was in Cheyenne County Nebraska and it required an overnight and so when you're when you're having when you're going and you have the privilege of working and you're going making lots of trips it's just much easier if it's close in also you happen to know the people um it was just so much fun going to the aning meetings because I knew everyone around the table and they knew
41:30 - 42:00 me wonderful and that's just just kind of fun it sounds like fun and that's important part of rotary so we have a few questions in the chat so I'd like to call on the panelist to see if they can answer these questions I'm sure they can um and this one's for Mark uh Chris Bailey writes as I joined rotary membership was focused on Business Leaders and professionals what is our current attitude towards attracting Trad people as
42:00 - 42:30 members so the the attitude is is really quite open um you know the we want people who are passionate about what they do and how that can impact other people so for example um we want people who who specifically serve and that service takes isn't dependent on Prof professional people it it is really people who just get in there and work
42:30 - 43:00 hard and I think uh you know from our veterans um audience if you will the the people that we invite to be part of clubs we see all kinds of backgrounds um you know everything from people who are tattooed pretty much across their bodies to to individuals who that was the would be the last thing that that they would think about people who are Bank presidents to people
43:00 - 43:30 who are simply serving as Highway uh workers and you know a lot of in between so yes definitely the draw and the appeal of rotary today is is for all people you know Mark it's fascinating in District 5950 they're having a lot of success with technical colleges so we have one rotor act club which is one of our strongest called Dakota County
43:30 - 44:00 Technical College where the faculty three of them are involved and the students are very passionate because they know that after they learn their trade let's say Bodywork on cars that they're likely going to stay in that community so they're working on their networking now so thank you for that answer and Mindy I was wondering if you could answer Dean Clark's question which is what is the difference between a companion club and an extension Club sure there are a lot of different names
44:00 - 44:30 out there um and those are two in the same so really uh as we go through the different time and phases we've heard this kind of changing but it's really a satellite Club it's an extension Club it's a service Club it's a club within a club so I think in my mind the easiest way that I've tried to explain it to people and where they can wrap their head around it is it's a club within a club so as we've heard tonight the rotary youth exchange group or the service group that Lynette spoke to or
44:30 - 45:00 the veterans group it's kind of a group that's kind of cause-based or focused on a certain area and they are they're rotarians or or if it's a rotaract club sponsoring you know another club a service companion Club same thing but they are part of the club they just are a different group within that club I love it a club within a club so same Club just different place to meet and different time to meet that's wonderful great explanation thank you and one one
45:00 - 45:30 quick thought because I I didn't hear it mentioned at all but a lot of times their dues are less because as a as a rotary club they are paying you know less because they're not meeting and having a meal so they are paying you know Rotary International dues and District dues but they may not be paying the club dues because they may not be having a meal they're just meeting to do service so that's also an advantage um I know that Kate mentioned flexibility in terms of meeting later a lot of a lot of that plays into schedule but also the
45:30 - 46:00 cost plays into it wonderful so Deb um Sharon Burke has two questions and I think that uh they are addressed to you um have any plans been made to bring a well to the schools and how far are they from the water um depends on how I'm going to ask you this answer the second one first it depends on the location um most of the time the water comes from the rivers so they can be two and a half hours walk uh from water a long ways are
46:00 - 46:30 there any plans yes this next grant that we're doing will bring water to four schools and this will at the same time bring the water to the uh neighboring Villages um and and second part of that is to create Community Gardens in The Villages and within um the school grounds uh for food stability um food stability is an issue well thank you very much for answering that um now do you have
46:30 - 47:00 anything else you want to say Deb yes okay okay if anyone would like um a more extensive program on that uh please just reach out I'd love to uh cl to come to your club meeting if it's close or join by zoom and also I'd like to point out that service companion clubs can or a satellite Club can be as easy and singular focused as let's increase the literacy rate at our local high school
47:00 - 47:30 or can be as complicated as let's end human trafficking it's really wherever your passion lies wonderful so we have 13 minutes left and I'm sure that all of our panelist would be happy to help you start your own club after tonight um but I want each panelist to answer in 2 minutes or less give the audience the one piece of advice that you think is the most important piece of advice when
47:30 - 48:00 starting a club and we'll go in the order that we started so we'll start with Mindy oh sorry I thought you were gonna start with the first panelist so I think that in my opinion the best advice I can give is this companion club or service club or one of the other names you want to use is one of the easiest processes around because you don't have to Charter a separate club uh you do have a separate group that's in charge um you know you want to have your officers but you don't even have to do
48:00 - 48:30 separate bylaws you can you know work under the bylaws of the club so it is an easy thing to do as Deb mentioned earlier it's less members to get started you just need that service oriented focused group that has a common cause that wants to do service and that's what I can leave you with is find that champion for some particular cause whether it's young professionals whether it's any of the things that have been miss mentioned tonight and get them involved great that's great advice um
48:30 - 49:00 Kate what's the one piece of advice you would give our audience in starting a service companion Club um I like what Mindy said about having a common Focus um and I think incorporating flexibility into your service Club um whether that's meeting in person meeting online you can um offer your meetings at different times um at your the the dues are less just it allows you to focus on a variety
49:00 - 49:30 of members in different locations different um age groups so you can really reach out to different um groups of people wonderful and Mark youve started a club what's your advice on how to start one well I would say uh a lot of it is empowerment and uh giving permission you know that's that's the key to it all just giving permission just just do it and invite a few friends start doing something and we'll put the
49:30 - 50:00 rest of it together let me let me just share a little bit in my two minutes here um here's what put a huge smile on this rotarian face so like I said the the parent Club if you will the the rotary um club for serving or for for U Minnesota veterans uh hadn't met for over a year they met just last week they brought in two new members and I was talking with one of the new members typical questions you know how did you
50:00 - 50:30 hear about us he said he had attended a few of our service events a Red Cross blood drive to donate blood and and that and he pointed at me you gave me a club brochure and talked about what we were all about and I thought to myself okay so that's why you look so familiar and then he ex he he said you invited me to a club meeting 6 months earlier and and
50:30 - 51:00 he finally got around to looking us up and wanted to be more involved and and and the other thing the impact that this has on the club so just a week ago the club voted to change their name from the Rotary Club of Minnesota veterans to the Rotary Club for serving Minnesota veterans so that's the impact that that giving permission to people to just
51:00 - 51:30 serve will have on the sponsor Club as well you know [Music] impress is that it does so many so a lot of times when we go to pets you
51:30 - 52:00 know these clubs our average club now is 30 people in 1996 it was 60 people so people sometimes say my club's too small to do service projects but you could be like Mark's club and partner up with other clubs so it's a good thing to keep in mind so Lynette what's the one piece of advice you would give to us here tonight well I don't know if I have anything that much different to say than any one else has already said I think the you just want to collaborate with
52:00 - 52:30 people that are interested in doing service whether it's project oriented what it and ours is community based um to improve our community so if everyone has that mindset that they want to participate in providing service in whatever form that is then I think you know those core those shared cord that share cord value is very important and then maybe to be open-minded um the type of projects that you will get involved in uh like I said we have a broad spectrum in our age
52:30 - 53:00 range and so everybody brings something different to the table but everyone has been very open-minded to participate and to serve um all of those different kinds of projects um and so you know wanting to serve being open-minded about your projects uh never never stop thinking of new things that you can do whether it's you know service project oriented or community project oriented and then just be very open to the collaboration um how
53:00 - 53:30 you can help each other sounds like great advice to me so we only have a few minutes oh Deb we have to give Deb we have to give you your chance to give us your advice I think as you collaborate with others whether it's through a service companion club or a twin club or a sister club or maybe even a a club that's down the road an important question to ask is if time resources and volunteers were
53:30 - 54:00 not an issue what would you do if you removed all three of those what would the dream be and then you can dream back and by George through rotary you could get it done wonderful could you answer a question for us because there's been more questions that come in um how do dues work in Satellite clubs satellite clubs can can set their own d um they are responsible to pay Rotary
54:00 - 54:30 International and their District but other than that however they work it is strictly up to them wonderful so we only have a few minutes left so I'm going to turn it over to past District Governor Mindy so she can wrap it up for us so thank you Tom for an excellent job and to all of our panelists kudos to you for sharing lots of great information uh again just a quick reminder that this will will be recorded or is being recorded and it will be on our website so you can share it with others and uh just a reminder
54:30 - 55:00 also the poll that we did earlier I didn't get to say that but we did have 80% say Yes um and so that's great that they were taking action from our last time and our membership committees they have structured membership committees so we just want to remind you that our next webinar will be on April 15th uh it'll always be that third Tuesday of the month from 6:00 to 700 pm and we are giving you a few minutes back tonight so we appreciate you being here tonight and
55:00 - 55:30 our topic for next time will be personal engagement strategies for member retention so we look forward to you registering and getting your friends registered and coming to see us then and we also want to give you a call to action so start a companion club we hope that we've shared some great advice with you tonight but if not and you have questions please reach out to us I think Deb myself Baron who's not on here tonight and Lloyd are all pretty accessible you ask about anybody and
55:30 - 56:00 they can tell you how to get to us Lloyd's email is actually on the registration link when you get that so he's the point person so send it to him find us we are happy to help any way we can because we are all here because we love rotary or passionate about rotary and want to grow rotary so thank you again for your time tonight have a Wonder wonderful rest of your week good night everyone good night bye