Rotary InternationaI President Holger Knaack's theme for 2020-21, Rotary Opens Opportunities, asks Rotarians to create opportunities that strengthen their leadership, help put service ideas into action, and improve the lives of those in need. When this theme was announced early in 2020, little did we know how the Covid-19 pandemic would change our lives and challenge the ways we would have to think, react, and adapt to create those opportunities.
Had you asked most of us at the turn of this decade to use "zoom" in a sentence, you'd hear something like "I'll zoom into the store for a couple of things and be right back." Today, it's more like, "I'll see you at the Rotary Zoom meeting on Wednesday at noon." Today's cautions for physical distancing to guard our health has opened new opportunities for social connections in our virtual space.
For a lot of us, being introduced into a new world of technology has expanded our Rotary reach. It has freed us from planning our weekly meetings around speakers who can physically attend our venue. We now see that anyone in the world with an internet or telephone connection can be a presenter. New opportunities.
Maintaining and growing membership may be one of our biggest challenges. For more than 80 years, we've been a club that has thrived on handshakes and hugs, house parties and work parties, lunch conversations and community involvement. In these times, we need the collective creativity of our entire membership to find new opportunities to continue and strengthen our connections, bring in the Next Generation of members, and continue our legacy of "Service Above Self."
Together, let's create opportunities.
Stay well,
Kerry J. Witkin
President 2020-2021
Kerry J. Witkin
President 2020-2021
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