See you at State of the City!

Greetings, Fellow Rotarians! I hope you have been enjoying this incredible sunny weather the last few days! What a welcome break!

This week as you hopefully are aware, we will NOT be meeting at Willamette Heritage Center, but WILL be joining our colleagues from the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, the Salem City Club, the Mayor of Salem and other city leaders for the annual “State of the City” event at Salem Convention Center. 

Salem is an incredible community and uniquely positioned to rise above its current challenges to really thrive in the next few years. But that won’t happen by itself. Cities only thrive when leaders of three sectors – government, business, and non-profits – intentionally put aside their differences, explore problems collaboratively, develop creative and sustainable solutions to their challenges, and have the discipline to develop an achievable implementation plan for those solutions. Then, of course, they need to share those plans with the greater public in order to earn their buy-in and cooperation in being part of the set of solutions. If that sounds like a lot, of course it is. 

But I’m telling you, this is possible for Salem. Having moved to Salem in 1988 and having worked with a number of key influential leaders over the last 25 years, I can tell you that this is possible. So let’s start by showing up. People get a voice when they show up. Let’s make a commitment to attend the State of the City, hear first -hand from the Mayor, and show the rest of the group what a powerful, dynamic force for good is the Rotary Club of Salem. See you Wednesday!

Yours in Rotary Service,