"My Rotary Education"
In briefAI summary — tap to read
David Postic shares his personal Rotary journey from a struggling two-member Rotaract club to becoming a key leader in youth engagement across multiple districts, emphasizing the critical need to integrate young people into Rotary decision-making to drive membership growth. He highlights that despite 250,000+ Rotaractors worldwide, fewer than 20 converted to Rotarians in his region, revealing a massive untapped membership opportunity that Rotary organizations are currently missing.
Key takeaways
- Rotary organizations operate in isolated silos; breaking down these barriers by involving youth in planning committees, decision-making, and service projects significantly increases conversion from Rotaract to Rotary membership.
- The Rotaract pre-convention at the 2011 RI Convention in New Orleans was transformative, showing that small clubs can grow dramatically by adopting successful practices from thriving clubs worldwide and communicating Rotary's mission effectively.
- Founding the Rocky Mountains Rotaract MDI-O involved extensive research to locate 96 Rotaract clubs and over 1,000 members in zones 21b and 27, revealing critical information gaps in Rotary International's tracking systems that hinder youth recruitment and retention.
- Currently, only 2 out of 10 Rotaractors become Rotarians, and 1 of those 2 drops out within the first year; dual membership options and satellite clubs with younger demographics offer promising solutions to this retention crisis.
- Rotary clubs must actively invite youth participants not just to meetings but into the club family by engaging them as valued decision-makers and mentors, which creates meaningful professional networks and significantly improves long-term membership sustainability.
About David Postic, Rotaractor, Rotarian, & Founder of the Rocky Mountains Rotaract Multi District Information OrganizationDavid Postic is an estate planning attorney in Oklahoma City, past president of the Norman Rotaract Club, and founder of the Rocky Mountains Rotaract Multi-District Information Organization. He served on the Rotary International Rotaract and Interact Committee (2013–2015) and currently serves as secretary of the Houma City Midtown Rotary Club and district Rotaract chair for District 5750.
AI-generated from the meeting recording — AI can make mistakes, so check the recording for anything important.
This is the meeting for the week of January 15, 2018 through January 21, 2018
This Meeting at a Glance:Program: My Rotary EducationProgram Description:David has been a Rotaractor for years, serving Rotaract and Rotary on regional committees to international committees such as the Rotary International Rotaract and Interact Committee. David comes from a family of Rotarians, and shares with us his story about Rotary.Speaker: David Postic, Rotaractor, Rotarian, & Founder of the Rocky Mountains Rotaract Multi District Information Organization
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Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Here's a message from President Stephen:
Welcome to our meeting this week, Rotarians and guests!
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. week, everyone! As the incoming Rotary District Governors are having their worldwide training this week in San Diego, California at the annual Rotary International Assembly, Andrew and I are starting to get ready for the next Rotary year as well!
If you would like to get more involved with our awesome team in the next Rotary Year, please contact me at president@siliconvalleyrotary.com and President-Elect Andrew Taw at pe@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
Yours in service,
Stephen Zhou,
President
Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
Weekly Funny with the Lady of Laughter (LOL)
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Yvonne Kwan, our “Lady of Laughter!”
From Yvonne: “We went on a beautiful hike at Mission Peak this last weekend and ran into some of the famous Mission Peak cows. So you could say I'm in a moooo-d for some cow jokes."
Why did the cow cross the ocean?
To get to the udder tide.
What did one cow say to the other while playing chess?
Your moooove!
Why do cows have hooves instead of feet?
Because they lactose.
Weekly Inspiration: Keeping Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream Alive
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change. This week we are featuring a video as a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. week.
For the past 15 years, Stephon Ferguson has been traveling the world reenacting the mighty speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. With his uncanny cadence, Ferguson found his calling channeling the voice of Dr. King, making certain the power of his words are never forgotten. As the only person licensed by Dr. King’s estate to perform, Ferguson uses his platform as an opportunity to spread King’s philosophy of love and nonviolence.
You can make anything happen when you put your mind to it, and when great movements happen -- sometimes they become immortalized. What will you do this year?
World of Rotary: 2018-2019 Rotary Theme Revealed
Our club is part of a 1.2 million member international organization called Rotary. There are clubs all around the world, and Rotarians making a difference in each of those clubs. This segment of our meeting features stories about Rotary beyond our club.
Rotary International President-elect Rassin Reveals his Presidential Theme for 2018-19
Excerpt By Hank Sartin with Photos by Monika Lozinska
Rotary International President-elect Barry Rassin laid out his vision for the future of the organization on Sunday, calling on leaders to work for a sustainable future and to inspire Rotarians and the community at large.
Rassin, a member of the Rotary Club of East Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas, unveiled the 2018-19 presidential theme, Be the Inspiration, to incoming district governors at Rotary’s International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA. “I want you to inspire in your clubs, your Rotarians, that desire for something greater. The drive to do more, to be more, to create something that will live beyond each of us.”
Rassin stressed the power of Rotary’s new vision statement, “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.” This describes the Rotary that leaders must help build, he said.
To achieve this vision, the president-elect said, Rotarians must take care of the organization: “We are a membership organization first. And if we want to be able to serve, if we want to succeed in our goals — we have to take care of our members first.”
Rassin asked the incoming district governors to “inspire the club presidents, and the Rotarians in your districts, to want to change. To want to do more. To want to reach their own potential. It’s your job to motivate them — and help them find their own way forward.”
Read more here: https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-international-president-rassin-theme-2018
For Members Only: Updates
This segment of the meeting is dedicated to our club members. This section includes announcements and new initiatives. Guests, you are welcome to read this section or just skip it.
Past Member Announcements:
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Member namebadge orders delayed; more info coming soon!
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Active members now have yourname@siliconvalleyrotary.com email forwarders! Your forwarder should be your full first name plus the first initial of your last name. Emails going to your @siliconvalleyrotary.com email will be forwarded automatically to the email you have on file with our club. If you want your email forwarder changed to a different variation of your name, please email Webmaster Mitty at mittyc@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
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Members Only Facebook Group: If you haven't joined our members-only Facebook Group, consider joining! Request an invitation from mitty@siliconvalleyrotary.com
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Service Blotter Submissions: Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
Our events & projects
We hold our meetings online, but we hold regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley every month! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of our events and service projects listed here.
Also be sure to join our Meetup Group for automatic calendar updates and to RSVP for our events! These are open to all guests as well!
https://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleyrotary/
Upcoming events
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)
Thursday, January 25, 2018 starting at 5:30 PM - Leaders in Motion Speaker Series at Oakland
Get inspired and recharged! Join leaders and community members from throughout the San Francisco bay area on Thursday, January 25th in Oakland for a TEDx style speaker series called Leaders in Motion, hosted by local Rotary clubs and co-sponsored by ours. Listen to executives from Google, Back to the Roots, and Copia.
Register and receive more information at leadersinmotionoak.org
Other Upcoming Club Events:
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Saturday, February 28, 2018 - Save the date for a club skydiving event (Details TBD)
More events coming soon! All events are open to guests, unless otherwise mentioned. Feel free to join us! If you ever have questions, please email inquiries@siliconvalleyrotary.com
What would you like to do?
Hey Members! What would you like to do? We're working on putting together some exciting socials and impactful service projects for our upcoming quarter's event calendar. Let us know what you want to do by posting in our members only Facebook Group (if you don't have access, please request it with Webmaster Mitty). Remember, you're only taking advantage of the full impact of Rotary when you're stepping up to get involved.
Happy Dollars: do good by sharing something good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it's appropriate!)
Last week's happy dollar contributions went towards our club projects. Here are some of the happy dollar messages from last week:
Thank you to member Rory Olsen for his generous $15 donation. Rory had this to say:"Reconstruction has finally started on my house. Last week I had a nice visit with Andrew Taw, his fiancee and two of his male friends in Austin, Texas."
Thank you to guest Paul Andrus for his generous $10 donation! Paul had this to say:"Happy New Year!"
Thank you to member Brian Liddicoat for his generous $15 donation. Brian had this to say:"Looking forward to first 2018 skiing trip with my son this weekend."
Thank you all for your donations last week!
Happy dollars is also a great opportunity to share with the group about something good that has happened to you, while giving back to a great cause. Next week's happy dollars will go back to powering our club's projects locally and globally.
So what are you happy about? Share with us below to help with doing good around the world.
Selected Six
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select six comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are six comments selected from last week’s meeting featuring the program on Grateful Garment Project:
Member Tzviatko Chiderov had this to say:“The vertical garden video was amazing! Lisa, thank you for your important work and for taking the time to share it with our club. I like the various micro fundraising ideas you talked about - people can be so creative when doing good!“
Member Carlos Gabuardi (Mexico) had this to say:“I think that the vertical farming video is a clear example about the capability of human beings to adapt to new circumstances, a great example of innovation at its best. I hope we could find more of that everyday in our own settings. Congratulations to Lisa Blanchard!!! Working for human dignity makes this world better and I am pretty sure that what your organization is doing for those persons that you help to keep that piece of dignity in such difficult circumstances will have beneficial implications far beyond them. Thank you for improving our world!!!”
Guest Celine Neal had this to say:“I love vertical farming. Thanks for sharing the video. Lisa you are an amazing individual. Like you said with one person change can occur. I had no idea victims were treated that way. After such an experience clean clothing would comfort them more than we think. Keep up the work and thank you for sharing with us Grateful Garments.”
Member Raquel D. Juncal (San Diego, California) had this to say:“Sexual abuse is an alarming problem and although there are data on the epidemiology and consequences of sexual violence, it is not valid to stick to them or to the stereotypes that the population tends to have. We definitely can do more to assist sexual assault victims. Lisa, thanks for your presentation and the work you do!“
Member Richard Knaggs (South Africa) had this to say:“My New Year's resolution is to REALLY LISTEN this year. Thank you for the vertical farming video. We are experiencing a terrible drought in Cape Town. We are 100 days from day ZERO, when they turn the taps off, so I have forwarded this to some people who are running a Water Hackathon soon. Wonderful work Lisa. I would never have thought of this need. Keep up the great work.“
Member Ferheen Abbasi (Osaka, Japan) had this to say:“Lisa, thank you so much for your presentation. When I was in college, I was a part of the Sexual Assault Task Force which focused on how to combat sexual assault on campus. Your presentation was so eye opening on how clothing can impact survivors. Thank you for all that you do. May I suggest one thing though? On the task force, we talked a lot about language and how we talk about folks who have experienced sexual violence. We decided that instead of using the word "victim," we use "survivor" to be more affirming of the experience they had. Have you considered that terminology?”
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!
Program: "My Rotary Education"
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, education, technology, and humanitarian service. This week our guest speaker is Rotarian David Postic.
David Postic is an estate-planning attorney in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. A past President of the Norman Rotaract Club and past District Rotaract Representative of District 5770, he served on the Rotary International Rotaract-Interact Committee from 2013-2015, where he advised the RI Board of Directors on Rotaract and Interact policy issues. In 2016, he founded Rocky Mountain Rotaract, the official Rotaract Multi-District Information Organization (MDIO) for Rotary Zones 21b and 27, and serves the organization as General Secretary. He is currently the Secretary of the Oklahoma City Midtown Rotary Club and serves as the District Rotaract Chair for District 5750. David discusses his Rotaract journey and what those experiences taught him about how Rotaract and Rotary can (and should) grow and evolve.
Members and guests, please welcome David to our meeting!
Related Links:
Share with us your thoughts in the comments at the bottom of this meeting page! If you have questions for Lisa, feel free to ask in the comments!
Upcoming program schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Upcoming Recordings:
If you would like to join us for any of the live recordings, you are welcome to join us. Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always https://zoom.us/j/5104080000. Please note the timezone for all recordings are listed for San Francisco, California, USA time (Pacific Time).
