I'd like to start off by saying "Thank you!" to everyone who participated in the Club Visioning session this past Saturday as it was a big SUCCESS! There were many ideas and topics passed around with many commonalities.
In the coming weeks, those in the Club Visioning Commitee will be working hard to develop an action plan for the Club to use as a blueprint for growing and moving forward. There will be additional details released at Club meetings and a Visioning Presentation coming within the next month!
With that said, here's a recap of what took place...
- Members were asked to come up with "headlines" as to what the Club has accomplished between 2022 - 2025. These "headlines" fell into 4 building blocks of the Visioning blueprint.
- Increase Our Impact
- What's needed to expand our reach? Funding, more members?
- Did we participate in International Projects via global grants?
- Have we added youth and/or vocational services to the community?
- Expand Our Reach
- Imagine what the club can accomplish both in our communities and across the globe if we think bigger than our past
- Does the community know who we are?
- Enhance Member Engagement
- How have we actively engaged one another in the Club?
- Have we reached new, diverse members?
- How have we provided personal growth and opportunities for members to become better leaders?
- Increase Our Ability to Adapt
- Have we explored new ways to implement new club models?
- How do we adapt to the changing needs of the Community?
- Is the club accessible and relevant to new, long-term prospective members?
- After the ideas were written down (Thank you Dan Coons for being a scribe!), the members had to then "vote" by placing a "blue" sticker next to the ones they deemed important
- The ideas with the lowest number of votes were crossed off from the next voting round
- Members were asked to conduct a 2nd round of voting by using a "red" sticker.
- The ideas/topics with the most votes at the end were classified as our "areas of focus"
- Increase Our Impact
Now I'd like to mention that ALL ideas are welcome and equally as important to those that weren't on the list or had many votes. This exercise allows us to openly communicate and work with one another to push the Club forward in a positive direction. I'd like for you all to pay close attention to a common theme across many of these ideas: What is the Community's Greatest Needs & Impacting Our Youth (Interact + Rotaract). It goes to show how similar we all are without even knowing!
Here are the results! (Pictures of the actual exercise are attached)
The top 3 areas, bolded below, reflect the items with the most votes. These items will set the stage for where we're headed on this journey. By no means does this mean other areas are forgotten. We simply must start with a baseline so that we can propel Mesa West Rotary into being a more impactful & vibrant, community driven Club.
| Improve Impact | Expand Our Reach | Member Engagement | Adaptability |
| Participate with Rotaract + Interact Clubs quarterly in service projects | Host educational workshops for the community residents as a service project | Diversify service projects to appeal to interests and talents of the club members | Host monthly membership socials (field days/team building/business networking) |
| Focus on communities' greatest needs (Community Needs Assessment) | Establish durable, consistent ways to participate alongside Rotaract & Interact Clubs | Partner with local businesses for awareness | Programs designed to get to know one another |
| Focus on community volunteer projects to build rapport and attract new members | Get published in local papers and magazines about who we are and what we do | All members can access RLI at no cost | Establish annual club survey (visioning) |
| Successfully send 2nd vocational team abroad | Start member mentorship program for students | Quarterly member orientation | Collaborate with other Rotary Clubs in service projects and fundraisers |
| Programs to attract diverse membership | Focus on community needs assessment | Master new member engagement | Host semiannual fundraising tournaments (bags, bocce, billiards, bowling, darts, poker) |
| Identify Rotaract & Interact Club passions | Focus on small charities and NPOs that need funding in the community | Start member mentorship program for students | Connect and collaborate with other Rotary clubs |
| People of action dinners to honor community members | Restart hearing project in Guaymas | Club mentorship program engaged at 100% | Promote closer personal relationships among our members |
| Make Guaymas hearing project "R.I. sustainable" | Partner with Non-Rotary Organizations | Design club mentorship for new members | Achieve 100% TRF contribution |
| Partner with Mesa Public Schools | Charter satellite club and create evergreen partnership opportunities | Sponsor 2 club members to R.I. Convention each year | Achieve 100% TRVFA contribution |
| Partner with City of Mesa (departments) | Sponsor 3 Rotaract Clubs | Club meeting programs on areas of focus | Reach under-represented groups for membership |
| Establish minority scholarship program | Sponsor 3 Interact Clubs | Survey members to identify topics for program speakers | Connect with Mesa Chamber of Commerce |
| Partner with vocational institute | Establish 3 sister-clubs to collaborate on service projects and grants | Shuffle seats at club meetings (draw cards, colors, numbers) | Connect with Mesa Public Library |
| All club presidents and board members graduate RLI | Establish 'new' community service projects | Signature Project in each area of focus | Service projects and program speakers in all 7 areas of focus |
Looking forward to this next stage with you all!
Logan Harper
Club Visioning