President's Message JANUARY 2014

Happy New Year to Rotary eClub One members!

As I write this January newsletter, some of you are getting ready to ring in 2014.  Some of us still have a bit of 2013 left.  To all, wherever you are in our Rotary geography, many happy wishes for a great year. 

This year many of the strategic goals we had for this Rotary year are moving along very well.  As you have heard me report, under our secretary’s/website liaison’s Emmanuel’s direction and hard work our new website is implemented.  And, along with Emmanuel’s good outreach, Forum and participation is at an all-time high of 78%.  Our club membership continues to grow.  Thanks to Tracy, President- Elect, who has been our Membership chair, new members are processed and on- boarded efficiently.  Welcome to Megan MacLean who will be our Membership chair beginning January 1st.   Finally, this club is in a very strong financial position which allows us to fund international and community service projects as well as respond to disasters where appropriate.  

So with strategic initiatives, such as increased forum participation, strong membership growth and solid financials, it is time (and what better time than the start of the calendar year) to look forward.   To focus on the future, we are going to ask your strategic input in two different forums.  One forum will be the first week of January, the second, the first week of February.    Many of you, no doubt, have participated in a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) activity. We did this as a club activity under Past Presidents Carol Steen and Tom Green.     This task involves stakeholders (that’s you) assessing how our eClub is doing.    A SWOT analysis has four elements and is usually displayed in a 2×2 matrix.

SWOT analysis evaluate s the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a in an organizational venture.  The four components of a SWOT involve collecting data on the:

• Strengths: characteristics of the organization that give it an advantage over others.
• Weaknesses: characteristics that place the team at a disadvantage relative to others
• Opportunities: elements that the our club  could exploit to its advantage
• Threats: elements in the environment that could cause trouble for our club. 

Once the SWOT data is collected the leadership team can set new or confirm existing strategic objectives.  This would allow us to create achievable goals or objectives.  In addition to guiding the club President elect, Tracy will use this information to create her goals for her year as our club President. 

So please participate in the first forums in January and February from me.  In January, you will give us your feedback on the internal strengths and weakness of the club.  In February, we will ask you to give us information on the external environment or the Opportunities and Threats that face our club.    We will compile the data and report back to you what the themes were. 

Rotary best wishes

Deb