At 12:30, President Joanne Pierson rang the bell to start the official meeting. President Joanne introduced Joan Knoertzer on the piano, who led the members  with a patriotic song. (Click here for your listening pleasure.) Amy Goodman provided the Inspirational message with a communiqué from Mitch Albom. Steve Pierce took us on a walk with his backpack singing “Der frohliche Wanderer” (Click here for your listening pleasure.)

“Francesca” paid the members another visit to welcome everyone in attendance and thank our set up team consisting of Lori Walters, Jim Egerdal and Steve Kesler; our photographer, Fred Beutler, Reporter, Kathy Waugh and attendance taker, Daphne Schalbetter.

Special guest “Francesca” spoke about our new Summer Fundraiser on August 17

The Virtual Italian Mid-Summer Festival will be held on August 17, 2020 at 7:00PM so please SAVE THE DATE. A take-out, order-ahead meal will be provided by Paesano’s and will include wine options. The evening incorporates a Zoom wine talk by Paesano’s owner Michael Roddy and former wine director, Chaad Thomas. Profits from this summer festival will support RCAA projects. The event will be emcee’d by Steve Schram and we thank the Michigan Radio for being a sponsor!

REGISTER HERE: https://www.a2rotary.org/fundraiser/

And the Survey Says! – Sally Hart Petersen

A full presentation will be available on the Rotary website; however, Sally Hart Petersen provided us a specific viewpoint looking at the pulse of the club. We had a much higher response rate to our latest survey over prior years. On average, there has been an increase in the amount of time spent on Rotary activities since last year (outside of the lunch meetings). More people are saying that they are getting more than enough value for their experience of being a Rotary member for the amount that they paid.

The question regarding the quality of several elements of our weekly membership meetings (based upon the in-person meetings) was discussed. Items that ranked very high were the “Degree to which you feel welcome by greeters” and “overall quality of speakers.” We have room to grow regarding the technical aspects of our meetings, as well as the quality and variety of luncheon options.

The rate of likelihood our members would recommend the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor to a friend is at the highest it has been in the past several years. However, overall score comparison over the years have not changed much over time.

Zoom meetings have proven successful since the attendance at these meetings is higher than the in-person meetings last summer. Tom Millard, Ashish Sarkar and Lauren Heinonen were called out specifically for the work they have done with outreach to members.

In Memoriam

President Joanne led the members in a few moments of silence to honor of Barbara Debrodt, who passed away last Thursday. She was a Rotary member from 2000 until 2016.  Her obituary may be found here.

Announcements from the President

• Thank you for keeping President Joanne’s Rotary days to Mondays and Wednesdays!
• Dues are way overdue
• Moving forward – tax letters will be mailed at the time of the event (rather than waiting until the end of the year
• Back to the Michigan Union? Not anytime soon.

Taking the Pulse of the Club – Joanne Pierson

President Joanne took us to the heart of the meeting, which was to examine more closely Rotary Action Plans for the Four Pillars, including:

1. Increase our impact in the community
2. Expand our reach by building awareness of our impact and Rotary brand
3. Enhance participant engagement with a participant-centered approach that delivers value
4. Increate our ability to adapt by building a culture of innovation and a willingness to take risks.

….all while dealing with Covid-19.

The members took a leap of faith and split up into small groups to discuss several topics that Clubs are being tasked to do. Each small group had a moderator to take notes. Since this was our first-ever Zoom meeting using Breakout rooms, we had a slow start. But thanks to Lori Walters, we managed to make it happen. Each group moderator took notes and the results are outlined below.

**QUESTION #1 – Identify some new projects that will have an impact on our community that we could engage in while under the constraints of Covid-19 (Moderators: Rosemarie Rowney, Barbara Eichmuller, Don Duquette)

Group A

1. Reach out to schools to help with virtual learning with tutors and readers on Zoom or in person on the playground.
2. Help distribute box lunches to children who don’t have enough to eat.
3. Involve Rotaractors and Interactors in the Adopt-A-Highway.
4. Reach out to local organizations who are in need of volunteers i.e., Food Gatherers, African American Cultural and Historic Museum, Corner Health, Packard Health

Group B

1. Rather than reinvent the wheel, let us first survey existing organizations in our county and ask them what their needs are that our volunteers and fund-raising could help fill.  That is, ask the city, United Way, the school system, UM, and other service groups what their needs are, and then fill them.  This certainly applies to food delivery and otherwise addressing hunger, that our club is already addressing.
2. Related: Let’s develop a Rotary Ambassador system to assist returning UM students and the larger community.  That is, Rotarians in Rotary vests could patrol the streets with masks (Rotary logo?), directions, etc.  This could be a service to students, but also the city businesses because if we don’t contain any contaminants it will shut down our town even more.
3. Face masks are getting pretty costly.  Rotary could make masks, or broker masks, and distribute them, especially to lower income people.
4. Computers and Wi-Fi are essential to students learning virtually.  Can we identify needs through the schools and meet by direct service or fund raising or both?
5. Kids will need more tutoring and more tutors whether they are returned to live classes or not.  In consultation with the schools, can we reassess this need and retool our current tutoring program to accommodate pandemic conditions?  Can we recruit more tutors to meet this need?
6. Inspired by our tax preparer program that Bob Mull runs, can we offer a financial guidance program, a navigator-type program, to help people who may be eligible for government assistance, but are having difficulty with the paperwork, bureaucracy etc?  Or help people trying to navigate the health care system under this stress where people might have new challenges because they’ve lost their jobs and no longer have health coverage from their employer.

Group C

1. Expand food drive to Help Hungry Kids; “Fill a Ford” project would challenge members to fill their cars with food and converge on Food Gatherers or another non-profit to deliver it en masse. (Note:  You could also virtually fill your car with donations of money)
2. Train Rotarians to be better at technology – particularly Zoom; make us better workers on Zoom; give technology classes to members
3. Help elementary school kids (2^nd graders) by providing online activities for young people (readers, tutors, game players, etc.)
4. Invite community members into a Rotary sponsored  Zoom room to help people learn to fill out forms for assistance (e. g. Bank)
5. Assist with early childhood development for marginalized  families by assembling literacy packets (Consult with Yolanda Whiten for details)
6. Give out diapers, formula, etc.
7. Recruit a more diverse membership; identify barriers to joining.

**QUESTION #2 – Identify new ways to build awareness and communicate what Rotary does in their community while under the constraints of Covid-19 (Moderators: Susan Froelich, Lauren Heinonen, Steve Pierce)

Group A

1. Social Media Posts – text/email press releases (short info-snippets conducive to posts)
2. Re-Allocate some budget money to Social Media Advertising-Facebook, targeted-demographics
3. Pick brains of Rotaractors:  i.e. Use as consultants to gather techniques for getting the word out.
4. Publicize (social media posts and/or paid social media ads) COVID response donation-recipient-organizations (no dollar amounts)

Group B

1. We should try using radio perhaps with the assistance of Steve Schramm of WUOM or Lucy Ann Lance. Also, WEMU sometimes features interviews with non-profits between 7 and 9am. For the ones that are just short announcements perhaps using the format of, “Did you know? and then a response about one area or project of RCAA.
2. If there is a local group of Executive Directors of non-profits perhaps Lori could join it, thereby being part of a collaborative that is already operating and see what ideas might come from such a group. This includes possibly the local Chamber of Commerce.
3. Perhaps we could increase what we do on Facebook or use LinkedIn?
4. When we give grants to other non-profits we should specifically ask them to include our logo in their newsletters or any other way they communicate with the public.
5. Perhaps have an exhibit somewhere local with information about RCAA. We did this at the time of our anniversary. Would UM Museum of Art be someone we could work with?
6. All of the groups that received Disaster Response Relief from us due to COVID-19 should be asked to run our logo in their newsletter or give us credit/thanks in another way. If they use more than our logo perhaps we could come up with a few sentences that describes us as a club that they could use.

Group C

1. Focus on advertising the work we’re doing now (like pandemic response, global grant recently approved) — have articles written about impact and put on website/social media

2. Communicate what we do and how to dismantle the common misconceptions of what Rotary is in the public (i.e. NOT exclusively an ‘old white men’s club’)

3. By focusing on increasing our diversity in membership, we will increase our image in the community

4. Focus on reaching out to and partnering with organizations comprised of black people and organizations that help black people / minorities. Find out who the presidents are, reach out to them with an introduction, and start a dialogue. Invite them to our meetings, yes, but more importantly ask if we can join their meetings. Both gets the word out about what we do and who we are AND starts partnerships with people and organizations we want the perspectives of.

**QUESTION #3 – Identify new ways to engage Club members (current and new) into Rotary while under the Constraints of Covid-19 (Moderators: Karen Wasco, Collyer Smith, Norma Sarkar)

Group A

1. With the hot days of summer, and our extraordinary efforts with our Universal Access Playground- offer free water. Our understanding is that kids cannot play on the structure. But there are plenty of families walking about- so it would be good to set up a kiosk and offer free water (in fall, apple cider)- and information on the great services our club provides. Did you know…..
2. There is a great deal of stress and anxiety with our high school and college students. We could contact SPARK and Career Development and U of M and Washtenaw- and see how Rotary could help/support. A great resource for potential Rotarians because with students, there are Moms, Dads, and neighbors, that we could connect with as well- and share the RCAA mission.

Group B

1. Rotary Tutors could work with Angel School to help with reading & math
2. Become a local resource center to help students K – 12 who are mainstreamed and/or cognitively impaired to help with multiple subjects (e.g., physics, algebra, etc.) and life skills
3. Make masks using Rotary fabric as a way to advertise

Group C

• Smaller informal events focused  on specific interests
  • For example: discussion group focused on a movie, book, TED talk or documentary
• Outdoor Activities in small group:
  • Biking, nature walk, yoga or tai chi class

• The theme was activities that foster small group interaction and allow Rotarians to connect in smaller groups

By some miracle, we all left our Breakout sessions and returned to the full meeting before parting ways.

Next Week’s Speaker

Next Week’s Speaker: RCAA’s Anti-Racism Committee – Marcia Lane, chair.

***

President Joanne closed today’s meeting with a quote from Robert Lewis Stevenson: “Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.”  She rang the bell at 1:30.