Things are heating up on the District Calendar. District Training Assemblies . . . Grant Management Workshops . . . Youth Exchange Conferences . . . District Conference . . .
There is a District Training Assembly strategically placed not more than 2 hours away from where you live. (Elk Rapids – January 16; Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario – January 30; Muskegon – February 13)
You can fulfill your club's requirement to apply for a Grant by attending the Grant Management Seminar which will be held after the DTA's have ended! At no cost!!!!!!! And, you will be done by 4:00pm
The District Training Assembly faculty have you and your Rotary club in mind when preparing training material.
The District Leadership believe that a District Training Assembly is one of the best ways to provide district wide training to the club leaders.
One of the most important aspects of Rotary is building relationships. Learning about professions and job involvement is one of those foundation stones to creating an environment in our Rotary Clubs which builds relationships. Often during the introduction of a new member there can be glimpses of what job choice has been made. And there are those occasional programs devoted to Rotary membership talks where a new member or a more seasoned member shares their life story and work experiences.
Intriguing, interesting and informative are words that will often describe these vocational talks.
New and innovative work positions are being created in our world. Vocational Service month is a great time to celebrate and learn about the life work of our members, whether it is a profession that has lots of history or newly established.
This month and in the months ahead, take some time during your club meetings to have Rotarians share their stories of what they do to impact their world. Relationships will be stronger and one of the reasons for the founding of Rotary will be expressed.
North Muskegon High School and Middle School Interact clubs collected a variety of winter clothing items and donated them to The Mission for Area People and Every Woman's Place. They collected approximately 300 winter coats and about 450 other assorted winter clothing items that will benefit people in our local community.
North Muskegon Interact "adopted" 3 boys from North Muskegon and supplied their family with presents because they are unable to purchase gifts this holiday. All the members contributed to buying and wrapping the gifts.
Mona Shores Interact Club members facilitated a school- wide campaign to identify needy families through the local Salvation Army to provide customized Christmas gifts for many area families. At a massive "wrap-a-thon", thoughtfully purchased Christmas presents were wrapped by classroom representatives and a truck was filled, headed for the Salvation Army and future delivery before Christmas. Service Above Self is alive and well at Mona Shores Schools!
These are some seriously active clubs! Continue reading to learn more about some new and ongoing projects.
The Christmas season sees countless Rotarian's in their local communities ringing the bell as part of Salvation Army's Red Kettle Campaign. Via our Facebook feed we saw ringers from Rotary Club of Petoskey, Big Rapids, Roscommon, Traverse Bay Sunrise, Traverse City, Grand Haven, Rotaract of Baker College of Muskegon, Sault Ste. Marie MI, and Spring Lake.
But we've got to say that it seems Big Rapids Rotary Club took this to a new level -- a Rotary 'Ring-Off Day' as a challenge with Manitowoc Noon Rotary! Not only did Big Rapids Rotarians ring the bell at both entrances of their local Walmart -- they also secured matching donations! Steve Jones Construction Company matched up to $500 at the Household Door and Johnson's Automotive Repair matched up to $2,000 at the grocery door! In 2014 they raised over $1,100 in a single day.
What a fun idea - a challenge with a Rotary Club from another District, community support via matching donations AND they involved kids. Well done!
Charlevoix Rotarians and community members donated and/or volunteered at our canned food drive. They were able to donate $3008 and lots of nonperishable items to the Charlevoix Community Food Pantry!
Fremont Rotary Club had a 'Toys for Tots' Christmas Party. All the gifts were given by Rotarians. Their theme was...'It is better to give than receive.'
Sault Ste. Marie, ONT Rotary hosts the community annual Christmas Parade that brings Santa to town! Click on the image above to see all the fun!
Inbound Exchange Students enjoy special gifts from their host club, Sault Ste. Marie, ONT
The holidays can be a tough time of year - especially if you are a teenager that is living in a new country far away from home and family, and all things familiar.
It was heartwarming to see so many of our 6290 clubs going out of their way to embrace our inbound students making them feel at home in their new countries.
Have you checked in with your outbounds? Consider having a club program where you can catch up with 'your kids' via Skype. Invite their families to attend the meeting, and be sure your 2016/2017 outbounds and current inbounds are there as well. We promise it will be a truly fun meeting!
Did you know you can track guest attendance in ClubRunner? Why is that important?
For follow up by your membership committee
To capture metrics to report on impact of public image efforts
Did you know there's an entire volunteer management module to support your events?
Eliminate paper signup sheets (version control) in place of online signup
Simplify communication through integrated email to event volunteers
Did you know there's a Committee Management module?
Automatically reports on members that are/are not on committees
Create online repository for vital committee documents e.g. grant applications
Streamline changing of guard because organizational history is online
ClubRunner publishes wonderful tips on how to maximize usage of their club administration tool--everything from creating engaging bulletins to simplifying bookkeeping. Stay current by following them at ClubRunner BlogSpotandClubRunner Facebook Page.
Baker College Rotaract Club, Muskegon Area Intermediate School District officials, and MLive Muskegon Chronicle staff sorted roughly 5,000 books donated by the public in the MLive Read to Kids Book Drive for the Read early, Read often community initiative. Over a two-month period of time, the Read to Kids Book Drive generated approximately 5,000 books from across Muskegon County and about $1,000 in cash contributions for new infant book purchases. The Rotaractors were responsible for collecting 1,000 of these books! Well done!!
My name is Sarah Sanderson and I am a Rotary Peace Fellow from the Holland, Michigan Rotary Club in District 6290. I’m writing to introduce myself and share how the experience has gone so far in the hopes that you’ll follow along with me.
Each year, Rotary International chooses one hundred candidates from a worldwide selection process to serve as Peace Fellows. Fifty Fellows study at a peace and conflict professional development program in Chulalongkorn, Thailand, and the other fifty study at one of Rotary’s Peace Centers in England, Australia, North Carolina, Sweden and Japan. Peace Fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all internship and field-study expenses. The goal of the Peace Fellowship program is to train future leaders for careers in peace building.
To qualify for the Presidential Citation Award, Clubs are challenged with completing at least three of seven possible goals in the Humanitarian Service category. In short, the seven goals are:
Have 75% of members involved in hands-on service project
Create corporate and/or government partnership and complete service project
Partner with at least five other clubs in Region for a service project
Knowing our District 6290 clubs, we are confident each is able to achieve at least three of these goals provided they are a stated priority of the club.
On October 23, 2015, the Kalkaska Rotary Club hosted the Harlem Ambassadors Comedy Basketball Team for a fundraising event at Kalkaska High School. The purpose of this event was to raise money for technology needs in the Kalkaska Public School district. It was a great night of fun for families here in our little community, and it paid off in a big way! Continue reading for all the details.
"Thank you to the Fremont Rotary for your generous donation of a GaGa Court!! We will make great use of it!! Kids heard saying, repeatedly, "I can't wait for recess so we can play in the GaGa pit!!!" Thank you!!!!"
GaGa is a team game, very popular in camps and schools. It encourages activity, interaction, and some friendly competition, without the need to look at your cell phone or plug in a TV!
Laughter needs to be one of the natural ingredients in leadership. Someone a long time ago said that “one needs to learn to laugh at their self.” Another person said “don’t take yourself too serious.”
Can you remember a time when you were leading a group, or giving instructions individually, or sharing a story at a meal function or some other similar situation and you had a “slip of the tongue” and said something that was truly unintentional or not related and caused a chuckle by those listening? That can be embarrassing and quite uncomfortable at the time. But, those are times to laugh at yourself, laugh together and continue.
Worldwide membership is 1,225,827 as of 30 November 2015 (this represents growth of 16,336 above the 1 July start figure!!)
To help facilitate that growth, Rotary's new process for collecting and communicating leads from prospective members is up and running — making it easier for club officers to follow up on leads, and for prospective members to join a club. This process has been in place at the District level for about three years. The good news is the process has now been extended to the clubs.
Learn more about how club leaders can use this process to identify new members. Equally important is using this to refer prospective/transferring members to other clubs.
You can track and act on all your leads by signing in to My Rotary and, under 'Manage' select 'Club Administration' and look for this heading:
Interested in taking advantage of the latest membership materials from Rotary?
"This not-for-profit organization works to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace. Using Rotary Foundation grants, Rotary's 34,000 clubs across the globe develop and carry out sustainable humanitarian projects and provide scholarships and professional training opportunities.
One of its biggest initiatives aims at eradicating polio through its PolioPlus program, launched in 1985. Since then, Rotary and its partners, including the World Health Organization and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have immunized more than 2.5 billion children, reducing the incidence of polio by 99 percent and eradicating it from all but three countries."
If you think it's too hard to raise funds for Polio - think again.
In the first week of December the Rotary Club of Charlevoix held a Pints for Polio fundraiser at the Lake Charlevoix Brewing Company and they raised $2408 for polio plus. Each pint of beer sold resulted in $6 to EndPolioNow. ($1 donated by LCBC, $1 match from the club, $4 from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). Who knew a pint of beer could immunize ten children! Fabulous. Hats off to Charlevoix Rotary and their community partner Lake Charlevoix Brewing Company.
Want to help Rotaract to make a difference? Then find a Rotaract Club of Cadillac member a purchase one of our bracelets! They are selling these purple gummy bracelets that say "BE A GIFT TO THE WORLD" for $1 each, to help us in the fight to end POLIO!
Interested in another source for bracelets? These EndPolioNow bracelets are available through Russell Hampton (100 @ $1 each)
Looking back at 2015, the program has seen remarkable steps forward towards polio eradication. A wrap-up of the year shows fewer cases in fewer places than ever before. The report on the status of polio eradication to WHO's Executive Board also summarizes the progress on the Polio Endgame Plan, and on Resolution WHA68.3, adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2015. The year to come will need strengthened momentum to build on these gains and deliver a polio-free world.
There are four months to go until the globally synchronized switch from the trivalent to bivalent oral polio vaccine. This will be an important milestone in achieving a polio-free world.Read more
KEEP READING FOR AN Endemic Country Summary (as of 12/30/2015)
During the upcoming year, our goal is to release the District newsletter at the start of each month. The deadline to submit materials is the 20th the month to issue. If you have an example of a 'best practice' or have other great news to share, please complete our 'Club News' submission form (found at www.ridistrict6290.org under Public Image, or in the FAQ section in our monthly newsletter). Electronic photos are encouraged. Please try to limit your submission to 300 words or less.
One of the most important aspects of Rotary is building relationships. Learning about professions and job involvement is one of those foundation stones to creating an environment in our Rotary Clubs which builds relationships. Often during the introduction of a new member there can be glimpses of what job choice has been made. And there are those occasional programs devoted to Rotary membership talks where a new member or a more seasoned member shares their life story and work experiences.
Did you know you can track guest attendance in ClubRunner? Why is that important?
My name is Sarah Sanderson and I am a Rotary Peace Fellow from the Holland, Michigan Rotary Club in District 6290. I’m writing to introduce myself and share how the experience has gone so far in the hopes that you’ll 
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Laughter needs to be one of the natural ingredients in leadership. Someone a long time ago said that “one needs to learn to laugh at their self.” Another person said “don’t take yourself too serious.”
Excerpt from the CNBC release:
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