Today’s meeting was a visit from our District Governor Greg Birkemeyer, who stopped by to formally introduce himself and describe what’s going on with Rotary at the various levels during Covid-19.

He started off by giving us a little background of how he got started 14 years ago with the Dayton Rotary Club, and applauded us for our singing, something he wishes happened more at his local club meetings.

Greg then moved on to explaining what an interesting year it’s been becoming District Governor in the midst of a pandemic, but wanted to highlight the positives that have come out of it. One of the things he was encouraged by was clubs such as ours that continue to meet in person while observing masks and social distancing, and also offering a Zoom option.

One of the positives at the District level is that training has become streamlined, and although he misses the in-person comradery of getting various club personnel together to socialize, he does see the benefit of drastically reduced travel time for those trainees who come from the outlying areas of our district.

We then moved on to this year’s Rotary International theme…

Rotary Opens Opportunities.

Greg gave us examples of the various opportunities he’s experienced as a member, including fellowship, our work with youth in the community, and developing peace fellowships via grants with the cooperation at the club, district and international levels.

On youth, he highlighted the importance of our participation in local programs like RYLA and the 4-Way Speech contest.

We also touched on Rotary’s founding goal which is to eradicate polio worldwide, and although there are only 135 cases reported currently, it still takes ongoing funding to immunize countries and communities that could still be at risk.

Lastly, he stressed the growing importance of environmental projects, specifically providing clean water to communities around the world through partnerships with neighboring clubs.

The meeting concluded with some Rotary specific business about contributing to District and International funds while also staying in touch with current membership during these uncertain times, and finally President Linda Oda being presented with a certificate commemorating our 100 years of Service.