Last week, a colleague of mine said during a work meeting that after last Thursday, December 31st, we would all have perfect 2020 vision, which I really appreciated, not just for the humor but for a bit of a positive spin on a year that we'd all like to leave in the past. Having lived through it, though, we can now look back and take stock of what we accomplished, what challenges we overcame and what we would like to do better moving forward. 

 

As far as our Club is concerned, I'm very proud of the contributions we still continued to make to community organizations despite everything, including donations to the food shelf, delivering milk to families at school and all of the awesome things that Interact has managed to do in a few short months with completely new student leadership! 

 

We were able to quickly pivot (one of many words of the year) to online meetings and consider how to make them more meaningful. We've had interesting speakers from across the country that we would never have been able to hear from, and we also tried some online and in-person socials that were really fun. Turns out, Rotary is a pretty fun drinking crowd!

 

As we consider this year, I think, as a group, we're more willing to try some new things. We should strive to include a technology component into our future meetings, even when we are back to in-person ones. For those people who need to be at work or away, it's been great to still be able to connect via Zoom. I think we discovered that changing our meeting structure was not so scary, and actually, that doing something a little different may help us to gain new members. 

 

One thing that I hope never changes, however, is the giving spirit of this group or of Rotary International. I am always amazed at how much a group of volunteers, many of whom have full-time jobs, can accomplish. 

 

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2021! 

 

Yours in Rotary,

Ashley Dress