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Service Projects - Should Our Club Have a Service FOCUS

Each year our Club supports a range of Service projects both in our Community and beyond. The recipients of our funds and our sweat equity covers a broad range of community groups and international organizations and causes.

Some Clubs, in contrast to our eclectic approach, have established a single focus and their Club becomes known for the provision of support in that particular area. For example the Comox Rotary Club's Community focus is building things and when they recruit members they want people who are builders; Bainbridge Island Rotary Club's focus in International Service is Clean Water. Other Clubs have developed a single focus for both Community and International projects e.g. Youth, or Literacy, or Housing, or Health and all of their projects would then focus in that specific area.

I would like to stimulate a discussion AROUND THE FOLLOWING THREE QUESTIONS.

1. SHOULD OUR CLUB ADOPT A SINGLE FOCUS FOR OUR COMMUNITY AND INTERNATIONAL SERVICE PROJECTS? IF SO WHAT SHOULD OUR FOCUS BE?
OR
2. SHOULD OUR CLUB ADOPT A FOCUS FOR COMMUNITY PROJECTS AND ANOTHER FOCUS FOR INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS? IF SO WHAT SHOULD OUR FOCUS BE?
OR
3. WE SHOULD CONTINUE DOING WHAT WE HAVE DONE IN THE PAST.

Our October 16 meeting is a Club Assembly and at that time we will divide into 5 groups - Vocational Service, Community Service, International Service, Fundraising, and Membership to discuss the FOCUS question.

I would also invite you to express your thoughts on the topic here on our website. Also I would like you to vote on the Focus question posed on the website.

‹ Committee Assignments & Executive updated January 22, 2009 Meeting Frequency Pilot Project ›

In case anyone is worried

In case anyone is worried that this might mean abandoning some ongoing project that doesn't fit an adopted single focus, an option could be to grandfather existing programs, or, to put it in a less sexist/ageist way, we could say that the single focus is for new projects only.

  • By Ken Walker at 10/11/2007 - 15:50
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A question for Ken Neden and

A question for Ken Neden and the International Service Committee: If we adopted a single focus for our Service Projects how would that fit with ideas/projects that might come out of the Mid Island WCS Committee. If for example we chose to focus on LITERACY and the MIWCS Committee chose to fund a CLEAN WATER project?

Although I suppose you could argue that supporting a Clean Water Project would indirectly affect literacy in the village because then the children (girls for the most part) who had to walk many Km and many hours for water would now be free to attend school.

Perhaps many of these 3rd world issues are so interrelated that it might be possible to connect whatever the MIWCS International project is with our Service focus. e.g.Health / Clean Water / Literacy / Housing / Polio Plus / Children, are all connected, if we support one of these causes then it follows that nearly everything else may also be impacted.

  • By Ed Fougner at 10/11/2007 - 15:32
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Or we might have a single

Or we might have a single focus for Community Service projects here and leave International Projects wide open.

  • By Ken Walker at 10/11/2007 - 15:47
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Feel free to append your

Feel free to append your comments about President Ed's message by clicking Add new comment. That way our discussion of this topic will all be listed along with Ed's posting.

  • By Ken Walker at 10/08/2007 - 22:12
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