The State of the Rotary Club of Canton

The July 22 meeting will be a “State of our Club” meeting. I will review our goals for 2016-17, our committee structure and chairs, our financial status, as well as introducing some of our committee chairs who will provide an overview of their committee’s projects and goals for 2016-17. At the conclusion of the presentations there will be tables setup where each committee chair will be talking about their committees and what they do. Each Canton Rotary member will have the opportunity to sign up for a committee of which they would enjoy being an active participant.

One of my goals for 2016-17 is to have every Canton Rotarian become more involved with the club and our projects, become more engaged with the spirit of Rotary and how we can improve not only our local community but the world, and by becoming more engaged with Canton Rotary we will all become more sharing of Rotary and invite more of our friends, neighbors, and colleagues to join our club.

2016-17 is the beginning of a journey to return the Rotary Club of Canton to its status of the premier Rotary Club in District 6650. This is not a one year journey, but rather this is the start of a long journey. We did not lose over half of our membership in one year;  we did not lose our focus on District goals, on involving our members, on sharing Rotary with our friends, and so forth in a one year period. These things have been slowly happening over a decade or longer, and there are no quick fixes. One of the primary things we need to accomplish as a club is being an important part of the Canton community. We made a good step in that direction with our support of the Market Square project. We need to keep that momentum going through more local projects, through continuing and growing our OktoberFest celebration, and with growing our membership.
 
There will be some changes that will be discussed and implemented over the next few years, these changes will be focused on positioning our club for growth, to increase not just our number of members but the diversity of our members, and to position our club to remain and become more important as a vital part of the fabric of what makes Canton, Ohio a special place.

I look forward to this journey with all of you, and I thank you for your confidence in me.