Greetings Fellow Club 29 Rotarians
It is a tremendous honor to serve as president of this great club for the 2025-2026 Rotary year and I am grateful for chance to do so. The past 115 presidents have set a very high standard of club leadership and my goal is to live up to that standard.
Club 29 has always been an opportunity for the leaders of our community to come together for friendship and fellowship, to share their professional successes and challenges, to learn about advances in medicine, technology, and industry, to hear about the good work of nonprofit organizations in our community and state, and to be inspired by the personal stories of our fellow community members. I believe we will continue that tradition this year with programs and events that educate, entertain, inspire, and motivate our members to live the Rotary motto “Service Above Self.”
The theme of Rotary International this year is “Unite For Good.” That is a theme that Rotary Club 29 has lived for 115 years. Numerous testaments to our Club’s history of uniting for good are on display in the form public improvements such as Rotary Point in the Riversport District, the entrance to the Zoo, the statue outside the Skirvin Hilton Hotel, the arrows at the airport, and improvements and additions to nonprofit facilities too numerous to mention. Throughout the many years of its existence, this Club has always managed to come together for the good of our city, our state, our nation, and our world, and I am confident we will continue to do so this year.
Of course, one of the challenges to “Unite For Good” is for our members to be engaged and active. Club 29 provides a wealth of opportunities to do so. Tuesday lunch programs regularly attract twenty to thirty percent of our Thursday breakfast meetings, to Rotary After Hour events, to meetings of our approximately forty committees, to holiday parties and other special events, to projects like bell ringing and service Saturdays, there is no reason why any member of Club 29 should feel left out. And if we are missing an opportunity to foster participation, please help me to identify and evaluate it.
We are one of the very largest clubs in the Rotary family of more than 46,000 clubs. But our goal has always been to be the very best, and I believe we have never failed to achieve it. Together we will continue to fulfill that destiny. And while we are at it, let’s have some fun, make some new friends, and maybe even help to make the world a better place to live.
Ross Plourde
Congratulations Ross….well said. Best wishes to you for a great year.