Dear readers,
I’d like you to know that your feedback about these weekly messages is always welcome! Please feel free to email me with any comments you may have.
We had a very productive final Club Board meeting of the year last week. We gave a special thanks to the members of the Board who are outgoing: Barry Nelson, Barby Dressler (although she is starting on a new two-year term and will remain on the Board), Natalie Dunn, Maria Reyes and Lucy Salmony.
We are finishing the year with healthy finances, after a successful year of fundraising and moderate overhead expenses. The Board decided to allocate a portion of our annual fundraising proceeds to the Salem Rotary Foundation (SRF), to invest in our Club’s future as a strong charitable organization. We also made a gift to SRF in the name of all our distinguished program speakers for the year.
We had a good year for the induction of new members. It’s been my great pleasure to induct a total of 17 new individuals. Of these, 7 are women, 10 are men. Seven are from businesses, 7 are from nonprofit organizations, and three are from the government/university area. We’ve been informed that a few existing members will have to drop their membership, so we don’t know what our net gain for the year will end up. Nevertheless, let’s celebrate the fact that 17 new people have chosen to become part of Rotary Club of Salem this year.
There are many, many other achievements from this year that you can be very proud of. I’ll highlight a few of them at my final speech on June 29. In the meantime, let’s finish the year strong with social events, an informative movie about human trafficking, a ceremonial presentation of our $30,000 grant, and good momentum for proposed new members going into our new Rotary year.
This week’s program: United Randy Franke, CEO and Brenda Kidder, Development Director for United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley, will share the many facets of the organization. Randy will talk about collaborative partnerships United Way is currently funding and their impact throughout Marion, Polk, and Yamhill counties. Brenda will be sharing information about United Way’s regional investments and volunteer projects. United Way – helping great things happen in our community every day!
Read more!