On the final day of the month our club had 201 Active Members, according to ClubRunner statistics. Attendance for September’s meetings was 32% (down 2% from last month). Average attendance at each meeting was 65 members and 8 guests. Our Engagement Ratio for the month was 59% (up 4% from last month).

Membership Updates

Membership added one new member in October, Julie Lowery. There were no Member terminations or resignations in October.

New Member Vote

Nancy Margolis (Sponsors: Carolyn Hiatt, Nancy Harrison and Carolyn Lepard) was voted into membership by the Board.

Treasury Update

Our club financial highlights include Foundation total assets of $3,685,381.63 and Club operating cash balance of is $88,866.29.

The annual audits by WSR for the Club and Foundation are nearing completion and under review by Norman Herbert, Claire Foley, and Bill McPherson.

Update on Pollinator Garden – Sustainability

• Dawn met with Norman Herbert and Anne Glendon to discuss negotiations with the City on maintenance and materials, programming, etc. Dawn is keeping Dennis Burke (EAG chair) in the loop. The Board would like to have the Rotaractors involved in the regular maintenance. The pollinator garden will provide a corridor for butterflies as they migrate.

Audience Analysis and Annual Survey

• The board will conduct an audience analysis first; followed by an Annual Survey – perhaps at the first of the year.
• The audience analysis discussion will occur in mid-December with the board and committee chairs.

Committee Audit

• Dawn will be sending out a form for Directors to reach out to their committees to determine their succession plans.

Meeting Guest: Dana Fair

• Dana Fair came to our meeting to give a presentation regarding “audience analysis” as part of the Strategic Plan.
• His presentation covered the following areas:
  • Strategic Plan
    • All communications strategies begin with a strategic plan.
  • Communications Strategy
    • Provides a framework – what problems are we trying to solve.
  • Audience Analysis
    • Think about who are audiences are and how we want to communicate with them.
    • Active vs. Creative audiences – have different needs

Policy update on adding committee chairs

• Committee chairs continue to be added without any particular structure or communication to the board or membership.
• A policy will be written to express a more formal process of delegating committee chairs and how to communicate these changes.

RCAA Financial Transactions

• The IFPC committee discussed the pitfalls of cash transactions particularly related to the recent GPO Raffle and the Pennies for Polio campaign. Concern was raised that club members bought tickets with incidental cash. Consensus supported that club members could readily use credit cards for the purchase of tickets because the Union requires credit card purchases for lunch.
• The board would like to move away from cash transactions in general. Checks will remain acceptable.
• We need to add a policy that addresses what we need with regard to in-meeting fundraisers. The committees must come to the board for approval, and the board will provide the parameters. Bill McPherson will create a draft policy.

Annual Meeting

• The Annual Meeting will be held December 3, 2025.
• Joyce Hunter, Kathy Waugh, Norman Herbert and Bill McPherson will be presenting.