Club offers an antidote for difficult times
Text: Diana Schoberg
It was 2020, and the world was, as Sarah Garrette puts it, “a dumpster fire”—fueled by the global pandemic, unrest over police violence against Black Americans, and a divisive election in the United States. “I was feeling pretty isolated and wanted to give back, but I felt like I was losing control in the face of what was happening culturally and the pandemic,” she says. “I thought I couldn’t change the big things, but if I start at the micro level—in the community—then those small impacts add up.”
She went on Facebook and typed “volunteer opportunities” into the search bar. The Rotary Club of Springboro popped up.
Her father had been a Rotary member, so Garrette reached out through Facebook. Because of the pandemic, meetings were being held via video conference, and she attended a few of them. She found a dynamic group of people of all ages, about 50/50 women and men, who wanted to strengthen their community.
This thriving membership has not always been the case for the club. In 2004, the club was founded with 25 members, but by 2007, that number had dwindled to 13. Doug Buchy, a member of the Rotary Club of Dayton, was asked to transfer his membership to help revive the Springboro Club. When he served as president of the Springboro Club in 2009-10, it grew to 17 members. “We kind of stopped the bleeding,” he says. “And we grew again.” Today, the club has nearly 40 members.
Members of the Rotary Club of Springboro, Ohio (from left): Scott Marshall, Sarah Garrette, April Walker and Doug Buchy.
Photo: Meg Vogel
The club made adjustments to attract new members. It switched from a lunch club to a breakfast club, which offered more convenience in a suburb where residents often work in the larger cities of Dayton or Cincinnati. “People couldn’t get to Springboro from their jobs for lunch,” Buchy explains. “That’s why we lost members.”
To cut costs, a concern especially among younger members, the club decided to meet for coffee instead of breakfast. Occasionally, someone brings doughnuts. “We try to keep things really simple,” says past president April Walker.
A highlight of the meetings, members say, is the monthly “Meet a Rotary Member” presentation, where club members talk about themselves. One member shared that his father was a clown, another showed a graduation photo from the ’80s in which he wore a “mullet” hairstyle and a gold chain. “You think you know people in the one hour you spend with them, but you don’t,” says Walker, who, as 2021-22 president, introduced the club’s favorite agenda item. “It’s really enriched the community.” At many meetings, the club also asks get-to-know-you questions, such as “What’s your favorite Muppet and why?” or “What was your family car called when you were a kid?”
“I know fun is a boring word, but I can’t think of a better way to describe this club,” says member Scott Marshall. “Nobody in their right mind wants to get up at 7:30 in the morning and go to a meeting. But I really look forward to these events. It’s just a lot of fun.”
Club-Check
To find out how your club is doing and to address any issues, you can use Rotary’s Club Health Check, which assesses the club’s well-being in several areas:
Club experience: Members who have had positive experiences are more likely to stay in the club, and their enthusiasm is contagious
Service and social events: Service and fun with other members are the main reasons why people join and stay loyal to a club
Members: A healthy club is one that grows and changes; members with diverse perspectives and experiences encourage innovation and give your club a broader understanding of the needs of your community
Image: A positive public image improves your club’s relationship with the community and potential members
Club operations: Leadership development, strategic planning and succession planning are ways to strengthen your club’s business.
In addition, the club has increased the number of service activities and participates in more than 20 fundraisers and projects every year. On a sunny day in April, the club, in collaboration with the non-profit organization “Build a bed”, held a project called Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Working with nearby Rotary clubs, the group raised $22,000 to purchase materials and bedding. More than 100 volunteers – club members and their families, high school students and other community members – gathered at the County Fairgrounds in Cincinnati to use assembly line labor to build 150 beds in less than six hours. “These are not pre-assembled beds from Ikea,” Marshall says. “The wood came straight off the truck. We measured it, cut it, drilled holes and branded it.”
To get new members involved quickly, the club surveys them on which committees, projects and fundraisers they would like to serve on. Then they are presented with their choices. “You have to get them involved right away,” says Buchy, the 2023-24 District 6670 governor. (All club members receive the same survey annually.)
When Walker joined the club in 2019, she was “volunteered” to lead the nascent social media effort. She began taking photos and livestreaming videos of service projects to spread the word about the club. “I believe that people are inherently good; they want to do something for the community but don’t know how,” she says. “We give them an opportunity.”
Even during the pandemic, the club continued to gain members. When Walker became club president, she made recruiting women and promoting them to leadership positions one of her top priorities.
One of them was Garrette, who became the club’s treasurer within six months. And when she weighs what she has given and what she has received through Rotary, she realizes the value of her membership. “I joined the club at a very polarized time. I was looking for something that would ground me and make me more open to others,” she says. “If we can find common ground by giving back to our community and the environment, it gives me a lot of hope that people are not so different after all. I have gotten back tenfold.”
And she can set a good example for her two young children. “Now my kids think Rotary is super cool,” she says. “They always ask if they can go to the meetings, probably because it’s before school and they can get a doughnut.”
Out of: Rotary September 2024
