It’s August and that means Rotary Membership Month!

In just the first month of visiting clubs, attending events and activities, I’m so inspired by the work each of you are doing in your communities and around the world!

Let’s not keep this great feeling of service to ourselves! August is all about sharing the opportunity of membership with someone who has the same heart for service that YOU do!

As soon as you finish this message, turn on your cell phone and scroll through your contacts. There must be at least two people you could extend an invitation to - maybe a relative who just retired who cares about kids and would love your dictionary project, or your niece who is passionate about the earth and trees and growing healthy food. How about your local librarian, someone at city hall, a first responder, local hairdresser, artist, teacher or therapist that you just love being around because of their caring hearts? Professionals who directly ‘care for people’ have a great sense of what the community needs and are natural connectors! Invite them!

Growing membership is everyone’s responsibility. For those doing well with membership – congratulations and let’s keep growing!! If your club is having membership challenges, take a club meeting or two to engage every member in a conversation about what they love about Rotary and how each one can bring in one new member. Invite your friends to speak, join a project, enjoy a social event! DISTRICT CLUB VISIONING encourages deeper conversations and inspires exciting plans! Invite us! Look around and notice who is missing – which occupations, diverse community members, potential leaders from unique organizations. Rotary began as a mentorship organization – young professionals as well as students. Start a mentorship campaign! And, make it a point to reach out to members you haven’t heard from in a while – let them know you care. Invite them for a cup of coffee. Be courageous and ask “How are you doing, really?”

1.      Ask a potential member to join you in bringing hope into the world through Rotary this year! Share the Vision!!

2.      Connect with current members outside of a meeting – text, call, meet up, let them know you value their membership. Be the person who INVESTS in the success of your club!

3.      Invite our terrific Membership Chair, Mike Gallagher, and the amazing membership committee members, to connect you to resources to keep the membership conversations alive in your clubs!

Be watching for Zoom Education Sessions all of our Leadership Team Members are offering – membership, public image, foundation, international, environment, service projects, arts-based service projects, mental health, youth, and so much more! Our sessions are intended to INSPIRE and help you THRIVE!

Plan to attend the ONE SUMMIT at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo on October 28, 2023, 10am-2pm. We'll explore integrating service projects, membership, public image, & foundation in innovative, attractive, expansive and impactful ways!

Please read the newsletters and share what is happening with your clubs! It’s a wonderful new Rotary year, perfect for celebrating CREATE HOPE IN THE WORLD through your projects, donations, vision for peace, and living the 4-way test.

Our District Leadership Team celebrates YOU as a member of District 6360! We’ve planned lots of celebrations ahead! Let’s share who we are with everyone we meet – PEOPLE OF ACTION (with happy hearts!)!

In Celebration!

DG Sharalyn Davis

Photo below: DG Sharalyn with RI President R. Gordon McInally and his wife Heather

One of the most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics in the world is the Rotary "4-WayTest." It was created by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor in 1932 when he was asked to take charge of the Chicago based Club Aluminum Company, which was facing bankruptcy Taylor looked for a way to save the struggling company mired in depression-caused financial difficulties. He drew up a 24-word code of ethics for all employees to follow in their business and professional lives. The 4-Way Test became the guide for sales, production, advertising and all relations with dealers and customers, and the survival of the company was credited to this simple philosophy. 

Herb Taylor became president of Rotary International during 1954-55. The 4-Way Test was adopted by Rotary in 1943 and has been translated into more than 100 languages and published in thousands of ways. The message should be known and followed by all Rotarians. "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?"  
5. We Will Have Fun!

Each year Interact clubs are required by Rotary International to submit a Certification Form. 

Cindy Igoe, District Interact Chair, sent the form to all club presidents and to the Interact Club advisors that have an Interact Club last year.  To officially certify an Interact Club:

1.   Complete the information on the form complete with Interact Advise Information with email address.  

2.   Obtain the signature of the club president;

3.   Send to District Governor Sharalyn Davis for her signature on page  (Scan and email to Sharalyndavis@gmail.com). 

4.   DG Sharalyn will sign and send back to you.

5.   Send the completed signed form with DG signature to Interact@rotary.org.

It’s not hard, but necessary! Please complete this by August 11, 2023.

Did you see this article? Interactors making a difference! 

Interactors share secrets of fundraising success

Mehreen Rosmon isn't even out of high school, but she's already having a big impact on her community and the world. The senior from Fremont, California, USA, leads Interact District 5170, one of Rotary's larger Interact districts. Interactors in the district are on track to raise more than $40,000 for The Rotary Foundation this school year. And it’s not the only place Interactors are making a difference. Several leaders share their fundraising secrets in a story in Rotary magazine online.

It will be the

“Best Year of Your Life!!!”

-- Quote from former Outbound Students

It’s time to look for students that are interested in becoming an exchange student. Rotary Youth Exchange is the BEST youth exchange program!! It’s also the most economical!  

Who can be a Rotary Youth Exchange student?  Eligible students for the long-term program must be:

•        Between the ages of 15-1/2 and 18 ½ by the time of departure

•        Top half of their class academically

•        Socially ready to handle living abroad for an extended period

•        Ready to make new friends, learn about a new culture, new language.

•        Flexible, friendly and fun! 

The Rotary Youth Exchange Program is for the school academic year from August through mid-July.   Students stay with 2-3 host families. They are required to attend school.

It all starts with each Rotarian promoting the program with people you know. 

Students that are interested complete a Club Rotary Youth Exchange Pre-Application and submit it to the local club. The club will interview the student and parents looking for suitability, responsibility, flexibility, maturity. Then the club will recommend the student to District 6360 Outbound Coordinator Felicia Smith. Deadline for this Pre-Application is September 30, 2023.

Felicia will send the Central States Rotary Youth Exchange (CSRYE) Outbound Application to be completed and return to her. Deadline for the CSRYE application is October 31, 2023.  

For more information contact:

 Felicia Smith, Outbound Coordinator: feliciarotary6360@gmail;

 Margie Haas, RYE Chair, haasmargie@gmail.com

District 6360 Outbound Students and Parents at Summer Conference

Front Row L-R Danielle Plichta,OB parent, Lilli Plichta (OB student 23-24), Ellie Murray (OB student 23-24) Heather Stanton, parent; Margie Haas, Carlota Espi Vaño, Inbound student from Spain; Bell W. Inbound student from Thailand;

Back Row L-R: Felicia Smith, Outbound Coordinator, Ok Kim, Outbound Parent; Josh Kim, Outbound student 22-23; Genevieve Stanton, Outbound student 22-23; and Cathy Murray, OB parent.

• Teaching life skills to high school students in Portage.
• Exercise equipment for the Okemos Senior Center.
• Beautifying and upgrading a park in Plainwell.
• Teacher supplies purchased by the Saugatuck-Douglas Rotary Club for a new school in the Dominican Republic.
• Conducting of home safety audits for seniors in the Vicksburg area.

And many, many more.

These projects are examples of Rotarians helping others.

How are these projects funded? One-half of the funds came from Rotarians just like you through the purchase of District 6360 Foundation Raffle tickets; and the other half of the funds came from the Rotary Clubs undertaking the individual projects. Nearly all the funds the District 6360 Foundation contributes to these projects originate from the sale of Annual Raffle tickets.

Since the creation of the Foundation’s Annual Raffle, over 260 thousand dollars has been contributed for funding more than 130 projects undertaken by our District’s Clubs.

Three quarters of the Rotary Clubs in District 6360 have received at least one grant from the District 6360 Foundation. In addition to the awarding of the grants to Clubs for their projects, the Annual Raffle has made it possible to send hundreds of high school students to the RYLA Leadership Camp. And most recently, your District 6360 Foundation made nearly $50,000 available for 24 special grants to address food and nutrition issues that occurred as a result of the COVID pandemic in the various Clubs’ communities.

Rotary Clubs in District 6360 have a long history of supporting the District 6360 Foundation’s Annual Raffle. Last year (2022), thirty-seven (37) Clubs became a “One Hundred Percent Club.” To be part of this prestigious group, a Club must sell 100% of the Raffle tickets allocated to them. Many of these Clubs have a long history of being a “One Hundred Percent Club.” Last year we had eleven (11) Clubs became part of the “Elite One Hundred Percent Club." To achieve this status, these Clubs (Cereal City Sunrise, Haslett-Okemos, Jackson Breakfast, Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Sunrise, Lakeshore, Oshtemo, Plainwell, Saugatuck-Douglas, South Lansing-Holt and Union City) sold at least one ticket for each member of their Club.                          

The 2023 Annual Raffle will begin in early July and will close with the Raffle drawing on Tuesday, October 24^th. We will again be using the new process for selling tickets. Instead of actual tickets, Raffle Sales Tracking Sheets will be used to record ticket sales. Based on the feedback, this process is embraced by nearly all of the Clubs.

Rotary Club Presidents will receive a Raffle Information Packet by US mail. It will contain information on the Raffle process and the Raffle Sales Tracking Sheets that are unique to their Club. The sheets list the actual ticket numbers of the Raffle tickets that will be placed in the Raffle drawing. Shortly after receiving the information packet, the Club President will be contacted by a District Foundation Board Member to answer any questions or address any concerns related to the raffle and to offer assistance, if needed.

The motto of the District 6360 Foundation is “Helping Rotarians Help Others.” Raffle ticket sales make the pursuit of this mission possible.

It’s that time of year so…get your Club ready to R.A.F.F.L.E!

District Foundation Corner

For general questions about your District 6360 Foundation and how it can help your Club, please contact Foundation President

 Gary Campbell, campbellgary929@gmail.com

Any correspondence should be sent c/o Rotary District 6360

to 741 Wolverine Road, Mason, MI, 48854

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