Thank you for letting me spend time with you last week. I appreciated the conversation and the opportunity to hear more about your club, your service, and the momentum you are building.
What stood out to me most is that Bastrop County is a club on the rise. You have had positive net growth over the last four years, you have strong meeting participation, strong project participation, and you are keeping membership at the forefront of what you do. That matters.
I appreciated the way your club describes itself as a hands-on service club. That identity is important. Clubs that serve together build friendships, create ownership, and give members a reason to stay engaged.
President Steve deserves recognition for the way he has embraced the Better than Your Best campaign. That kind of leadership matters. When a president sets expectations, keeps goals in front of the club, and encourages members to stretch, it helps create momentum and gives the club something clear to work toward.
Because membership is already a priority, I encouraged your club to think about engagement as part of the membership plan. Adding members is important but helping new members become engaged is just as important. I challenged you to add people to the membership team whose specific role is to help new members participate in meetings, projects, and fundraisers. That kind of follow-up can help turn new members into committed Rotarians.
Another opportunity is reconnecting with members who have started to disengage. Sometimes a simple phone call or personal invitation can remind a tenured member that they are still needed and still part of the club’s future.
Even though you already have an End Polio Now event scheduled at the 602 Brewing Company, I hope your club will also participate in the World’s Largest Polio Walk on October 24. This is another opportunity to raise awareness, support PolioPlus, and be part of a district-wide Impact Event. Register for the Walk, create your Raise for Rotary QR code, and order your Walk T-shirt here: World's Largest Polio Walk
Project Tumaini is another opportunity for Bastrop County to create impact beyond your local community. Helping provide clean drinking water to children who today have no choice but to drink contaminated water at school is exactly the kind of hands-on impact Rotary exists to create.
Learn more about the water project here: Project Tumaini
The Rotary Foundation gives us the opportunity to create impact locally and around the world. Rotary Direct makes it easier to give personally and consistently without having to give it all at once. Those gifts help create impact through grants, scholarships, PolioPlus, Project Tumaini, and projects around the world.
I was especially encouraged when two newer members told me they planned to sign up for Rotary Direct that day. That is how a culture of giving grows, one Rotarian at a time.
Click this link to sign up for direct Foundation giving: Rotary Direct
Governor’s Challenge
Make this the year the Rotary Club of Bastrop County turns momentum into deeper engagement.
You have growth, participation, hands-on service, and members who clearly care about the future of the club. Now the opportunity is to keep inviting new members, help them become engaged Rotarians, reconnect with members who may be drifting away, participate in the Polio Walk, support Project Tumaini, and strengthen Foundation giving through Rotary Direct.
As I shared during my visit:
"Impact isn't something Rotary creates. It's something Rotarians create. Rotary simply gives us the opportunity."
DG Jeff
