Here you see Canyon Rotarians Joel Richardson, Don Johnston and Marty McClish (l-r) standing at the front of a room full of more than 150 third grade students at Reeves-Hinger Elementary School in Canyon. Before the students arrived, Joel told me that he always likes to ask two questions: “Who knows what Rotary is?” and “What is literacy?”

Pretty much 100% of the time (today included), at least one student says literacy is when you throw trash on the ground. In addition to a nice chuckle, that remark provides Joel with a great opportunity to encourage them to use their new dictionaries to learn what that “literacy” word actually means.

That’s a Paul Harris pin and medal, and it belongs to my dad. His memory is really fuzzy on this matter (there are reasons for this that are beyond the scope of this post), but apparently he’s a Paul Harris Fellow.

I had no idea.

Before retirement, my dad held a couple of high-profile public education positions, and that meant he got occasional invitations to speak at local civic and service clubs. It’s possible that, somewhere along his career path, a local Rotary Club decided to bestow this honor on him.

So there’s a little bit of Rotary legacy in my family that I had no clue about. I guess you never know what you might find packed away in a box!

If you’re interested in supporting the Rotary Foundation through a Paul Harris Fellow, here’s the link.

And one more thing. I’m composing this while (sort of) watching the 2012 edition of the Rose Parade. Congrats to Rotary for winning the Princesses’ Trophy for a float depicting the fight against polio!

This year’s break, though, comes with just a smidgen of sadness. My absence means I won’t be seeing my Rotary colleagues for a few meetings. I’ll miss them while I’m gone.

While I’m away, I’m planning on using Rotary’s awesome iPhone app to find Rotary meetings in my area. Haven’t heard about it? Read a little bit more about it on Rotary’s website. I’ve had plenty of conversations with my fellow Canyon Rotarians about the joys of visiting with fellow Rotarians in other cities and countries. I plan to do that while I’m back in Alabama.

I’ll share one more thing on this post. RI has posted a link to its Top Five Rotary Stories of 2011. The fight against polio — which happens to be something I’m keenly interested in — is listed as Number Three. There’s some great news coming out of India. So far for the 2011 calendar year, that country has reported only one polio case. That’s remarkable progress toward eliminating this disease.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

In addition, we meet on the campus of West Texas A&M University, and there were still a lot of slippery spots on campus at noon on Tuesday.

I stood outside our usual meeting place to catch anyone who didn’t get the message that we’d canceled, and there were only a few. By the time we were satisfied that no one else was coming, there were three of us standing there: myself, one of our members (who didn’t get the message) and one of our usual guests (who wasn’t on our e-mail list). We decided to go get some lunch at a nearby restaurant.

It was a great opportunity for me to hear from two gentlemen who have spent more than 40 years each in Rotary. As they were enjoying their lunches of catfish (I chose chicken), they talked about the many changes — good and bad — and challenges Rotary has endured during their membership.

We talked about how “doing it by the book” can sometimes squeeze the fun out of Rotary; the importance of solid leadership for a successful club; past Rotarians who made special contributions to the organization; and the need to attract new, active members who believe in Rotary’s mission (as opposed to “Resume Rotarians”).

Moments like this one — sharing lunch and conversation with people who are committed to improving their communities through service — are among my most valuable personal experiences as a member of Rotary.

I thought that I’d use this post to highlight a few of Rotary’s social media initiatives.

Did you know RI has its own channel on YouTube?

Rotary’s on Facebook, too. You can find us at https://www.facebook.com/rotary.

Do you have a Twitter account yet? Here are a few feeds I suggest you follow:

Rotary International — @rotary
End Polio Now — @EndPolioNow
Rotaract — @rotaract
John Hewko, General Secretary and CEO of Rotary International — @JohnHewko

Need to make up a Rotary meeting? (I strongly encourage you to do so if you’ve missed yours). There are several online-only Rotary Clubs, and I like to use the Rotary eClub of the Southwest USA whenever my travels have taken me away from Canyon.

And, of course, we can’t forget Rotary’s primary presence on the web, www.rotary.org.

I’m sure there are other social media sites to add to this list, but these are the ones I use fairly regularly. I hope you enjoy them!

For our November 15 meeting, it was our privilege to have District 5730 Governor David Norris with us. It was his second visit of the Rotary year (which is a real coup for us), and he came to receive a first volume of a Rotary history of our district. Volume I (of three) is apparently difficult to find, and our club had one. We were happy to present it to him.

It was also our privilege to have our district’s Group Study Exchange chair, John Kanelis, with us at the same meeting. He was able to speak to us about our district’s upcoming exchange with the Dominican Republic (May-June 2012).

As great as it was to have both of these fine Rotarians visit with us, the past two weeks saw two — TWO — Paul Harris Fellow recognition ceremonies. One of our members became a Paul Harris Fellow +2 (PHF+2) and another achieved PHF+4 status. It is Rotary tradition to give a rousing standing ovation to everyone who achieves any level of Paul Harris recognition. (By the way, Paul Harris is the founder of Rotary. Read about Rotary’s beginnings.)

These contributions help Rotary perform the vital work of improving our communities locally and globally through the Rotary Foundation.

First of all, our Group Study Exchange team nominee, Kim Bruce, a faculty member at West Texas A&M University, was chosen for the team! (I wasn’t surprised.) Just as a reminder, Rotary District 5730 is sending a team of four professionals (which will be led by a Rotarian team leader) to the Dominican Republic for one month during May-June 2012. Kim and her colleagues will serve as ambassadors for Rotary, for Texas — even for the United States. They will visit Rotary clubs throughout that country and live with Rotarians during their stay there. Our club is very excited about Kim’s participation.

I had the great fortune to visit the United Nations in New York City this past weekend to participate in the annual Rotary-U.N. Day conference. Here’s a picture of me goofing around just a little bit during a break inside the U.N.’s chambers.

It was a humbling experience to learn about just a few of the many programs and initiatives Rotary is working on to improve people’s lives across the globe. I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to attend this conference again, but I certainly can recommend it to all Rotarians. I came back to Canyon even more energized about Rotary’s mission in our community.

The commission issued a proclamation recognizing October 24 as World Polio Day in Canyon, Texas. It was a great moment for us.

And here’s another picture. The “End Polio Now” pins have finally arrived!

These pins have caused a little bit of consternation for me during the past month. I ordered them at the end of September so that our club members could wear them during the month of October in recognition of World Polio Day (which was yesterday, 10/24). I later found out that the pins were on back order but was told they should arrive by World Polio Day (which was yesterday). The pins arrived today (the day after World Polio Day and after our weekly Tuesday meeting). But no matter! We’ll wear them proudly during the month of November, which is Rotary Foundation month.

Our club wanted to raise some awareness (and some funds) for Rotary’s PolioPlus project, so we hit the streets of Canyon earlier this month for Fair on the Square, an annual showcase event that corresponds with homecoming at West Texas A&M University.

That’s Jeff Worley (left), Greg Harrison (center) and Lal Almas (right) at our Rotary tent. Several other members spent time at the tent, as well. It was a great event for us, and we’re looking forward to doing this again during next year’s Fourth of July festivities.

I was also pleased to be joined by Rotary District 5730 Governor David Norris and fellow Canyon Rotary Club members Diana Esch, Terrie Hartman and Elexa Khan. This proclamation provided our club with a great opportunity to continue speaking about Rotary’s efforts to eliminate polio and how difficult it is to eradicate.

The Canyon Rotary Club is working on becoming a 100% Paul Harris club once again. As you can see below, Rotary is providing us with a great opportunity to achieve that goal. All Rotarians should take advantage!

Butler

P.S. Canyon Rotary had a great time this past Saturday at Fair on the Square, an annual event scheduled around West Texas A&M’s Homecoming weekend. We were able to raise some awareness — and some money — for Rotary’s PolioPlus program.

2-for-1 Recognition
During the week of 24-28 October 2011, donors will receive 2- for-1 recognition for every online contribution of US$100 or more made to PolioPlus on www.rotary.org/contribute.  We need your help to encourage members to donate online to make this promotion a success. You must be registered with Rotary’s Member Access prior to making an online contribution.  Member access provides Rotarians with online services and other important features. To register for Member Access, please visit www.rotary.org/memberaccess.

The promotion will begin on 6 a.m., Central Standard Time (CST), on Monday, 24 October, and end at 12 noon sharp (CST), on Friday, 28 October. Please note that contributions on www.rotary.org/contribute are in US dollars and 11 other Rotary supported currencies, including AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK, EUR, GBP, JPY, NZD, NOK, SEK, ZAR. Also, online contributions cannot be made on behalf of another individual, club, or district.  We expect to have a high volume of online traffic associated with this promotion. Please allow 4-6 weeks for the promotional recognition to appear on your account and to request recognition materials. Clickhere for more information on the 2-for-1 recognition promotion.