A total of 116 members heard Jerry May’s presentation on giving to U-M. He last spoke to us in 2004. We had three Visiting Rotarians (Cindy Duggal from Windsor ON, Willi Li of San Juan PR and ADG Anne Nauts of Chelsea). We were also joined by 16 guests. In conjunction with lunch, three members of the Centennial Committee met. Also reported were 23 Rotarians at the Hire MI Vet event on November 13, 15 Rotarians at the Glacier Hills meeting on November 16 and the delegation of six to the Toledo Rotary Club on November 19

John Ackenhusen (Traverse City on October 23)

November was Foundation Month in the Rotary year. We finished the month with 293 Active Members. Our club also has six Honorary Members. After the passing of Reno Maccardini, we are down to nine Inactive Emeritus members. Average attendance during October was 45% for the three meetings. Not reported to the district but calculated for club use were the averages of 110 Ann Arbor Rotarians and eleven others at our weekly meetings. This level of average was the highest since we left the Union at the end of April. Our Engagement Ratio for November was 61%.

Following is an article as it appeared in the December 1918 Issue of The Rotarian Magazine, precisely one hundred years ago. Please excuse the references to man and men. It would be another 70 years before Rotary admitted women.

“Some years ago I had the pleasure of a long talk with our International Secretary, Chesley Perry. In the course of our conversation we discust whether Rotary might not flourish for a few years and then die out, either from lack of interest, or because it would be merged into some other movement. Perry was optimistic, ‘Rotary is not going to die out in your lifetime or mine,’ he said. ‘It is going to be a living and permanent force in the progress of the world.’ That was more than five years ago, and the truth of Perry’s prediction is becoming more apparent every day. At that time there were less than a hundred clubs in International Rotary, while today there are more than four hundred. So far as I have been informed, no club organized under proper auspices has ever gone out of existence. Such permanency of interest has never been maintained in any other business organization. We have seen all sorts of clubs start, flourish a little while and then die from lack of attendance, leaving only some unpaid bills as souvenirs of their existence. Now why has Rotary persevered where other organizations have failed? There is no normal man who does not enjoy a growth toward some kind of an idealism. Nowhere, I believe is this more strikingly exemplified than in Rotary. I dare say there is no member of this club, who has been in Rotary any considerable time, who cannot look back and see that he is a little better man on account of his membership. He always wanted to do the right thing and be a useful member of society, but Rotary has taught him how to do better. Right there, I believe, is the heart of Rotary and the reason that it has lasted. Men like to be better, and Rotary teaches them how.”

~Jack Sprague, 1918-19 President Rotary Club of San Antonio TX