An antidote to difficult times
Text : Diana Schoberg
It’s 2020 and the world is in turmoil: a global pandemic, unrest over police violence against Black Americans, and a U.S. election that’s exacerbating divisions. “I felt isolated and wanted to take action, but the pandemic and the way society was changing were unsettling me,” Garette says. “I figured I couldn’t solve the big problems, but I could make a small impact by working at the local level.”
On Facebook, she types “volunteer opportunities” into the search bar. The Springboro Rotary Club appears in the results.
Her father was a member of Rotary, which encouraged her to contact the club via Facebook. Due to the pandemic, meetings are held via videoconference. She discovered a dynamic, multigenerational, mixed group that wanted to strengthen the community.
The club hadn’t always been in this situation. It was formed in 2004 with 25 members and by 2007 it had shrunk to 13. Doug Buchy, a member of the Rotary Club of Dayton, was then asked to join the Springboro club and give it some new blood. While he was president of the club in 2009/2010, it grew to 17 members. “We stopped the bleeding,” he says. “We continued to grow. Today, the club has almost 40 members.”
(From left) Scott Marshall, Sarah Garrette, April Walker and Doug Buchy, members of the Rotary Club of Springboro, Ohio.
Photo : Meg Vogel
The club is making changes to attract new members. It is starting to meet at breakfast instead of lunch, which is more convenient for suburbanites who often work in Dayton or Cincinnati, the two big cities nearby. “It’s hard for them to come back to Springboro for lunch,” Buchy said. “That’s why we were losing members.”
To cut costs — a concern voiced by younger members — the club decided to meet over coffee instead of a proper breakfast. Occasionally, someone brought doughnuts. “We try to keep it simple,” said April Walker, the club’s former president.
A favorite part of the members’ lives is the monthly “Who Am I?” presentation, which allows them to talk about themselves. One member talks about his father, who was a clown; another shows a photo from the 1980s when he was a senior in high school, sporting a mullet and a gold chain around his neck. “You think you know your club members, and you don’t,” says April, who started the practice when she was president in 2021/2022. “It elevates the camaraderie.” At most meetings, members are asked questions like, “Who is your favorite Muppet Show puppet and why?” or “When you were a kid, did the family car have a nickname and what was it?”
Club member Scott Marshall finds it amusing: “Nobody wants to get up early to go to a 7:30 a.m. meeting. But I look forward to it. I’m having a blast.”
Club Health Check
The Rotary Club Health Check helps identify and address gaps in the following areas:
- Club experience: Members who have a great experience within their club are more likely to stay and their enthusiasm is contagious.
- Actions and other activities: Actions and camaraderie are the main reasons why members join and stay in a club.
- Staff: A healthy club is one that grows and evolves; having members with diverse perspectives and experiences drives innovation and allows the club to better understand local needs.
- Image : A positive public image improves your club’s relationships with the community and potential members.
- Operation and administration: Strengthen your club through leadership development, strategic thinking and continuity.
The club also increases the opportunities to get involved in actions or fundraisers — it organizes more than twenty per year. On a beautiful day in April, the club gets involved in the “Build a Bed” action in partnership with the association Sleep in Heavenly Peace who is working with local Rotary clubs to raise $22,000 to buy equipment and bedding. About 100 volunteers—Rotarians and their families, high school students, and others—are meeting in Cincinnati to work on the assembly line, assembling 150 beds in less than six hours. “These aren’t Ikea beds,” Marshall says. “A truck comes in with lumber that we have to measure, cut, drill, and brand with our logo.”
To quickly onboard new members, the club surveys them to find out what committees, projects or fundraisers they would like to get involved in. “You have to get them involved right away,” says Doug Buchy, 2023/2024 District 6670 governor.
When April Walker joined the club in 2019, she was tasked with leading the club’s fledgling social media presence. She began by taking photos and posting videos documenting the club’s actions. “I think people are inherently good; they want to do something for the community but don’t know how,” she says. “So we give them the opportunity to do it.”
The club continued to grow during the pandemic. When April became president, she prioritized recruiting women and promoting them to leadership positions.
One of them is Sarah Garrette, who became treasurer in less than six months. And when she compares what she gives to Rotary to what she gets in return, the value of membership becomes clear. “I joined at a time when the world was extremely polarized. I needed to come back down to earth and be more open-minded,” she says. “If we can find common ground by serving the community, it gives me a lot of hope because it shows that we are not so different after all.”
And she can set an example for her two young children. “They think Rotary is really cool now,” she says. “They always ask if they can come to meetings, probably because it’s before school and they can get a doughnut.”
