Rotary Lives Here - A unique project for a Rotary District!

Rotary Lives Here – A unique project for a Rotary District!

…and many individual ideas for individual clubs!

33 Rotary Clubs in Northern Missouri Participated in District 6040’s Rotary Lives Here Service Day - September 20, 2008

Thirty-three Rotary Clubs in Northern Missouri conducted 39 service projects in their respective communities on September 20, 2008. Rotary service projects include bike safety checks, diaper drives, child ID testing and handing out infant car seats.

Kansas City, MO (PRWEB) September 20, 2008 -- Thirty-three Rotary clubs in Northern Missouri will be conducting 39 community service projects during Rotary District 6040's Rotary Lives Here Service Day on September. 20, 2008. District 6040 represents 53 Rotary clubs in Northern Missouri from Kansas City to Kirksville.

The District's Service Day projects support Rotary International's goal to (a) Enhance child safety and well-being and (2) Reduce child mortality worldwide. The projects range from bike safety training to offering budgeting and life skills training for teenage mothers. The community service projects include:

-- Blue Springs Rotary will help build a Habitat for Humanity house.
-- Eastern Independence Rotary is conducting two projects: (1) One is a "Bears on Patrol" project where members are collecting stuffed animals for first responders to give to children affected by trauma; their goal is to collect 400 bears; (2) The second project is "StarRight Teen MOMs Program” where club members will provide budgeting and life skills seminar for teenage moms.
-- Higginsville Rotary will be responsible cleaning up the entire downtown area following the Higginsville Country Fair.
-- Kansas City Plaza Rotary Club is collecting diapers to deliver to Operation Breakthrough.
-- Kirksville Thousand Hills Rotary will sponsor its 2nd Annual Chicken on a Stick fundraiser during the Red Barn Arts Festival.
-- Lee's Summit Sunrise Rotary will be partnering with Hope House and a local grocer to solicit donations of "life's essentials" products, including diapers and paper products.
-- Liberty Rotary will offer safe Halloween trick-or-treating tips at the opening weekend of Carolyn's Pumpkin Patch.
-- Parkville Rotary is collecting used luggage to give to children in crisis. The "Used Luggage for Kids in Crisis Day" is September 19.
-- Platte City Rotary will partner with local YMCA to offer skateboard and bicycle safety tips.
-- Princeton Rotary will offer DNA child ID protection services during the Princeton annual festival
-- Raytown Rotary is collecting diapers, diaper wipes, children's vitamins, peanut butter and jelly for a local emergency assistance program.
-- South Platte Rotary will provide "PhotoFacts" booklets from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children/Kansas City branch to children and their parents and grandparents during the Riverside Festival in Riverside.
-- St. Joseph Rotary is conducting two projects: (1) Club members will pack backpacks for America's Second Harvest Foodbank's Backpack Buddies program for needy children in the city. Their goal is pack 1,000 backpacks. (2) The second project is a partnership with the Red Cross where members will help the Red Cross with a child CPR class.
-- St. Joseph Southside Rotary is partnering with the St. Joseph Safety Council and bilingual police personnel to provide infant car seats to St. Hoe's Hispanic community and to offer car seat checks during the Annual Southside Festival. Tarkio Rotary will install a bike rack at the Tarkio Resource Center.
-- Trenton Rotary will partner with the local police department to offer a bike safety course.

"Rotary is a service-oriented organization and the clubs in Northern Missouri are demonstrating Rotary's ability to come together on one day to provide important community service projects aimed at helping children," said District 6040 Governor Elizabeth Usovicz. "Rotarians are committed to giving back to their communities in a way that makes an impact. It is very exciting to see 60 percent of our 54 clubs, from Kansas City to Rock Port to Kirksville, participating in District 6040's Rotary Lives Here Service Day."

Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. For more information on Rotary District 6040, visit www.rotary6040.org.

Source: http://www.prnewsnow.com/

Opportunities for Fellowship in Rotary

Most Rotarians are successful professional and business executives because they hear opportunities knock and take advantage of them. Once a week, the opportunity for Rotary fellowship occurs at each club meeting, but not all members hear it knocking.

The weekly club meeting is a special privilege of Rotary membership. It provides the occasion to visit with fellow members, meet visitors and new members, and share personal friendship with other members.

Rotary clubs that have a reputation for being “friendly” clubs usually follow a few simple steps.

• Members are encouraged to sit in a different seat or at a different table each week or to sit with a member they may not know very well.
• Members are asked to invite new members or visitors to join their table and share the conversation rather than merely eating in silence or talking privately to the person next to them.

To further enhance club fellowship, Rotarians should also make a special point of trying to get acquainted with all members of the club.

When Rotarians follow these easy steps, an entirely new opportunity for fellowship knocks each week. Soon, Rotarians realize that warm friendship is the cornerstone of every great Rotary club.

Ask yourself: Is our club a “friendly” club?

<…source The ABCs of Rotary>

Do you know the history of the Four-Way Test?

When the Great Depression hit in 1930, many Rotarians faced the greatest challenge of their lives. There was no better time to test for ethical conduct than during such a dire economic crisis and the scramble to survive.

Herbert J. Taylor, a member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, was asked to take over the near-bankrupt Club Aluminum Company in 1932. It was a last-ditch effort to save the company, which had no money, low employee morale, and ruthless competition from other firms in similar straits.

Taylor used his Rotary background to draft a 24-word code of conduct. He used this code of conduct to guide all his daily decisions. He found this ethical compass so helpful that he called all the department heads together and asked them to do the same. The code had four points, so Taylor called it The Four-Way Test:

“Of the things we think, say or do:

1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?”

Club Aluminum applied The Four-Way Test to its dealings with employees, customers, dealers, and suppliers. It deliberately walked away from business that, while profitable, would have failed one or more of its standards.

The company’s fortunes turned around; it eliminated its debt, and over the next 15 years paid out $1 million in dividends while building a net worth of $2 million. Herb Taylor credited The Four-Way Test.

The RI Board voted to officially adopt The Four-Way Test in 1943. When Herb Taylor became RI president in 1954, he donated the copyright of the test to the organization. The test has been translated into the languages of more than 100 countries.

-- A Japanese Rotary club printed The Four-Way Test on umbrellas for passengers at railway stations.
-- The Rotary Club of Bayswater, Victoria, Australia, sponsored an essay and poster contest among the town’s 11- to 14-year olds using as its theme “A man’s struggle with his conscience.”
-- NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin planted a Four-Way Test pin on the Moon’s surface.
-- In Meerut, India, the Rotary club erected a stone pillar next to the highway, inscribed with The Four-Way Test
-- Similar monuments were built in public parks by Rotary clubs in Brazil, Japan, and the Philippines.

The Four-Way Test has appeared in gymnasiums, courtrooms, and labour contracts. Today, the test appears on highway billboards, in schoolrooms and halls of government, and on the walls of businesses the world over.

...source: A Century of Service (David C. Forward)