District 6220Newsletter

April, 2013

District Governor’s Message

Greetings Rotarians!

I hope this finds you well and celebrating March Madness and the rituals of spring. Here in the Copper Country, spring means … well, it can mean anything from snow to … well … snow. We are hoping that the snow will be melted in time for the conference although our RI Representa-tive, a native of Hawaii, would enjoy a bit of powder!

Speaking of the conference, I am pleased to announce that we have another exciting speaker, Fred Maynard, MD, a practicing psychiatrist from Marquette, Michigan, who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilita-tion. He has published extensively on a wide range of topics, especially those related to spinal cord injuries, post polio syndrome and aging with chronic disabilities. Dr. Maynard will spend some time with us on Satur-day morning, providing a Plenary Session as well as joining several other panelists in a breakout session.

March Madness for Rotary includes our annual President Elect Training Seminar (PETS) again held in Itasca, IL outside of Chicago. This location allows us to participate in a seven district PETS, thus bringing in a variety of speakers and a wealth of Rotary knowledge. Reports indicate that over 500 Rotarians gathered for this an-nual event. Thanks go to PDG Steven Selvick for his work two years ago in negotiating a multi-year contract with the Westin Hotel in Itasca.

Rotary Clubs have continued to support the Brain Game. Approximately 15 clubs (36% of the district) have reported activity with this project. To date we have purchased over 1500 Brain Games! If you are looking to conduct a community service - large or small - this is an easy, turnkey project. We will have more information in the House of Friendship and through a breakout session on Friday of our district conference.

Don’t forget to register for the conference and tickets for Bill Cosby are still available. The Community Dance Committee is hard at work putting together a spectacular event we are calling “Dancing Through the De-cades.” This event will be our service project as proceeds will be donated to the Dee Stadium Renovation Fund. The “Dee” is the home ice for our Houghton Gremlins High School Hockey team and the birthplace of professional hockey.

Here’s hoping for some April showers to melt this snow and bring us some May flowers. Whatever the weather, I look forward to hosting the District conference here in Houghton and seeing you all for this an-nual gathering of District 6220 Rotarians. Yours in Rotary,Bob Sharkey

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Share Your Club Stories

Greetings,

As your District Newsletter Editor, I’m always looking for interesting news and photos of your club’s activities.

During the past year, only a few clubs in the district have submit-ted items.

Please consider sharing your club’s news and upcoming events in this newsletter.

Just send your article and/or photos to me.

Steve Allen, Newsletter Editor allensteve220@gmail.com

Submissions are due by the 30th of the month prior to the issue date. It will be very helpful if you would place the words “6220 Newsletter” in the subject line of your email.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP,

Steve

Brief BitScientific Experts Join

Fight to End Polio

The world is closer than ever to eradicating polio, with just 223 cases in five countries last year. To capitalize on this time-limited opportunity to end the disease, a wide range of experts have signed the declaration to emphasize the achievability of polio eradication and endorse the Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan, a new strategy by the Global Polio Eradica-tion Initiative (GPEI) to reach the end of polio by 2018.

International News Rotaract Outstanding Project Winner

Rotaractors in Mumbai, India, most of them medical doctors, are providing vision screenings and com-prehensive eye care to thousands of schoolchildren in poor neighborhoods of the city, through a series of medical camps aimed at improving the children’s performance in school.

Vision Six by Six, a project of the Rotaract Club of the Caduceus, Mumbai, raised US$15,500 through a variety of creative fundraisers, including a stand-up comedy event, to fund the medical camps. Club members bought supplies in bulk to cut the cost of the screenings to $1 per child, and worked with three

nonprofit hospitals to provide surgeries for cataracts and squinting problems.

The initiative has been selected as the Rotaract Outstanding Project Awards international winner, one of seven projects singled out for honors during World Rotaract Week, 11-17 March. Representatives of the clubs recognized as international and regional winners will present their projects at the Rotaract Precon-vention Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, in June.

Among conditions treated in the camps were refractive errors [vision problems], infections, eye allergies, and Vitamin A deficiency. In the program’s first seven months, 10,000 children were screened and 1,520 of them received some form of correction, from surgery to corrective lenses.

“We wanted to do something to help the 15 percent of children in government-run, low-resource schools in Mumbai who have undiagnosed refractory error,” said Pankaj Jethwani, president of the Ro-taract Club of the Caduceus. “Young children develop an aversion toward going to school because they can’t see sharp images on the blackboard and don’t realize this is not normal or treatable. Most of the children we treat have never met an eye doctor before.”

The Rotaractors received support from their host Rotary Club of Bombay Central in planning, implement-ing, and evaluating the project and in fundraising for it.

For the comedy fundraiser, club members worked with a nonprofit consulting firm to book four of India’s leading stand-up comedians, who performed free of charge. The Rotaractors also used the Internet to solicit donations through crowd-sourcing.

In addition to providing medical assistance, the Rotaractors started a teacher training program, enlist-ing the support of educators to ensure that the children follow through with their care. They found that 92 percent of the children were adhering to their suggested treatment -- for example, wearing their glasses -- two months after the camps.

“More children can now see clearly, potentially impacting their future,” says Jethwani.

By Arnold R. Grahl Rotary News – 15 March 2013

District News Rotary Youth Exchange Update

At our August Inbound Orientation Conference, Inbound students take a needed break from language-centered activities and spend some time sharing their art skills. Each student makes a square to represent their country. These squares later come together in a wall-hanging.

The wall-hanging will go to the highest bidder in our silent auction. The students have chosen to have all

proceeds go towards Rotary’s efforts to end polio.

Wouldn’t this quilt look great at your school, library or place of business! Support our Inbounds and fight against polio by placing a bid. The silent auction started at our February RYE conference and will end at the District Governor’s Conference. Bids can be emailed to Sandy Testin at sandytestin@gmail.com or placed personally at the DG conference.

The current bid is $425. Quilt size is 26” x 26”

Yours in Rotary Service,Sandy TestinSandytestin@gmail.comRYE Conference Chair

District NewsThe Five Deadly Sins of Leadership (Translate “business” to “Rotary”)

By Jack & Suzy Welch, Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University

1. Not Giving Self-Confidence its Due. Self-confidence is the lifeblood of success. When people have it, they’re bold. They try new things, offer ideas, exude positive energy, and cooperate with their colleagues instead of surreptitiously attempting to bring them down. When leaders lack self-confidence, it’s just the opposite. People cower. They plod. And they spread negatively with every word and gesture.

But all too often leaders ignore (or neglect) this very basic fact of the human condition. Why, is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they just don’t understand that it is part of their job to instill self-confidence in their people. It may even be said that it’s their first job. You cannot unleash the creative power of individuals who doubt themselves.

Fortunately, some people seem to be born with self-confidence. Others gain it from life and work experi-ence and come to a company fully loaded. Regardless, leaders can never stop pouring self-confidence into their teams. The ways to do so are myriad. Make sure goals are challenging – but achievable. Give effusive positive feedback. Remind your direct reports of what they do right.

We’re not saying that leaders should blindly extol and exalt. People know when they’re being gamed. But good leaders work relentlessly to find ways to instill self-confidence in those around them. They know it’s the gift that never stops giving.

2. Muzzling Voice. Perhaps the most frustrating way that leaders underperform is by over-talking. That is, they act like know-it-alls. They can tell you how the world works, what corporate is thinking, how it will backfire if you try this or that, and why you can’t possibly change the product one iota. Sometimes such blowhards get their swagger from a few positive experiences, but usually they’re just victims of their own destructive personalities.

Ultimately, the company ends up being a victim too, because know-it-alls aren’t just insufferable, they’re dangerous. They don’t listen, and that deafness makes it very hard for new ideas to get debated, expand-ed upon or improved. No single person, no matter how smart, can take a business to its apex. For that, you need every voice to be heard.

3. Acting Phony. Can you spot a phony? Of course you can – and so can your people. Indeed, if there is one widespread human capability, it is sniffing out someone who is putting on airs, pretending to be who they’re not, or just keeping their real self hidden. Yet too many leaders spend too much time creating personas that put a wall between them and their employees. What a waste!

Because authenticity is what makes people love you. Visibility grappling with tough problems, sweating the details, laughing and caring – those are the activities that make people respond and feel engaged with what you’re saying. Sure, some people will tell you that being mysterious grants you power as a leader. In reality, all it generates is fear. And who wants to motivate that way?

Now, obviously, authenticity is unattractive if it’s coupled with immaturity or an overdose of informal-ity. And organizations generally don’t like people who are too emotionally unbounded – i.e. so real that all their feelings are exposed. They tend to tamp that kind of intensity down a bit. And that’s not a bad

On Leadership ...

District News On Leadership ... (continued)

thing, as work is work, and more than at home, allows us to main-tain some privacy.

But don’t let convention wring all the authenticity out of you, espe-cially as you climb the ladder. In time, humanity always wins. Your team and bosses come to know who you are in your soul, what kind of people you attract and what kind of performance you want from everyone. Your real-ness will make you accessible; you will connect and inspire. You will lead.

4. Fixation on Results at the Expense of Values. Everyone knows that leaders deliver. Orato-ry and inspiration without results equal…well, a whole lot of noth-ing. But leaders are committing a real dereliction of duties if all they care about are the numbers. They also have to care about how those numbers came to be. Were the right behaviors practiced? Was the company’s culture of integrity honored? Were people taken care of properly?

Values are funny thing in business. Companies love to talk about them. They love to hang them up on the plaques in the lobby and boast about them to potential hires and customers. But they’re meaningless if lead-ers don’t live and breathe them. Sometimes that can take courage.

It can mean letting go of a top performer who’s a brute to his col-leagues, or not promoting a star who doesn’t share her/his best ideas with the team. That’s hard.

And yet if you’re a leader, this is a sin you cannot squint away. When you nail your results, make sure you can also report back to a crowded room: We did this the right way, according to our values.

5. Skipping the Fun Part. What is it about celebrating that makes managers so nervous? Maybe throwing a party doesn’t seem professional, or it makes people worry that they won’t look serious to the powers that be, or that, if things get too happy in the office, people will stop working their tails off.

Whatever the reason, too many leaders don’t celebrate enough. To be clear here, we do not define celebrating as conducting one of those stilted little company-orchestrated events that everyone hates, in which the whole team is marched out to a local restaurant for an evening of forced mer-riment when they’d rather be home. We’re talking about send-ing a team to Disney World with their families, or giving each team member tickets to a show or a movie, or handing each member of a team a new iPad.

What a lost opportunity. Celebrat-ing makes people feel like winners and creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy. Imagine a team winning the

World Series without champagne spraying everywhere. You can’t! And yet companies win all the time and let it go without so much as a high-five.

Work is too much a part of life not to recognize the moments of achievement. Grab as many as you can. Make a big deal out of them.

That’s part of a leader’s job too – the fun part!

Rotary-sponsored Medical Team Works with Mercy Ships

“One of the main purposes of this trip and the partnership between Rotary and Mercy Ships is to enhance the skills of local health care professionals to improve delivery of vital health services to West African communities, a goal in line with Rotary’s Future Vision,” said Wilfrid J. Wilkinson, chair of The Rotary Foundation. “This partnership is an innovative approach to addressing critical humanitarian needs by leveraging the wide-ranging skills of Rotary’s volunteers with the expertise of an international development partner such as Mercy Ships.”

The first Reverse Raffle was held at the Outagamie Museum then the hotel, Liberty Hall, Fox Valley Tech-nical College and the OuterEdge. Michiels Fox Banquets provided the heavy hors d’oeuvres. Boxes of chocolates were sold. The silent auction consisted of items such as overnight stays, gift baskets, gift certificates, art and jewelry. A live auction featured five items: an Entrance 21 package at the Performing Arts Center; and 2 trips for 2 to Africa, a stone fire pit and 2 MetJet tickets. Thank you for supporting this year’s club initiatives: Fox Valley Memory Project, a collaborative project with Rotary Club of Gangavathi, India to provide drinking water to school children and PolioPlus.

Thanks to the following sponsors: Community First Credit Union, Goodwill Industries and Network Health (Presenting Sponsors); Ah-Ha, American National Bank, Barb Merry & Gail Popp, Boldt, Nicolet National Bank, Pfile Homes, Schenck and Stifel Nicolaus (Supporting Sponsors); and Bassett Mechanical, Curt and Jean Detjen, Epiphany Law, Fiduciary Partners, Val Wylie and Tom Nelson.

Thanks to the Fundraising Committee for putting on this wonderful event: Michelle Devine-Giese (Co-Chair), Ruth Ann Heeter (Co-Chair) Chad Hershner, Tom Berkedal, Shane Lathrop, Jennifer Stephany, Gail Popp, Megan Klubertanz, Nancy Heykes, Nancy Johnshoy and Trey Neher.

The remaining 3 ticket holders split the prize and received the following:

Tom Boldt - $583.33Bryan Kluesendorf - $583.33Shipra Seefeldt - $583.33

Club News Rotary Club of Appleton

District News

Greetings from Area 9. The clubs that I work with are Shawano, Clintonville, New London, and Marion.

A sad day in Rotary history was realized last December when the Marion Rotary Club was dissolved. I would like to highlight one of its members to you, Arthur Langhoff. Art served in all lead-ership positions of the Marion Rotary Club. He worked hard over his Rotary life to serve his community and supervise Rotary’s participation in the Marion Colorama. Art never complained about the hours he invested in Rotary, he was always focused on serving the youth of the communities he lived in. Art was dedicated to making a difference in people’s lives. A long time Rotarian, he exemplified the meaning of Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self.”

Art Langhoff and the Rotary Club of Marion should be proud of their past accomplishments. Their spirit lives on in Marion and it is fitting at this time to honor them for their service.

Art Langhoff will be recognized for his service to Rotary by the Rotary Club of New London as the recipient of its Fritz Bernegger Distinguished Service Award.

The Shawano Rotary Club continues to do extremely well. Its membership base is growing. At this time, they have 66 members. They are undergoing a major membership campaign at this time. They are extending membership to young professionals within the Shawano community. The gender composition is excellent. Several female Rotarians have joined and they are taking leadership roles within the club.

The major civic project that they are planning is the construction of a gazebo at Sturgeon Park. This would be a three- to five-year commitment by the Shawano Rotary Club totaling $15,000 to $30,000.

A major revenue source this past fall was the reverse raffle. The Red Barn at Charlie’s County Market again will be used this spring during the Memorial Day weekend to generate funds for the club.

The Clintonville Rotary Club is alive and well. This year’s President, Trisha Rose, brought a lot of energy to the position and she has taken on a leadership role at the district level as Public Relations Chairman. Under Trisha’s leadership, new fundraising projects were accomplished and a new Youth Education Committee was formed. There is renewed emphasis in helping the youth of Clinton-ville and this committee should be able to generate fundraising ideas, along with an agenda to increase the Rotary’s presence with the youth of Clintonville.

The most notable fundraising project was a joint effort with the Clintonville Lions. It was a comedy show entitled “Sweet Lips” and was conducted in April.

My message from Area 9 closes. I look forward to seeing several of you at the district conference in Houghton-Hancock.

Area Report– Area 9 ... from Assistant Governor Larry Romuald

District News Area Report– Area 9 ... continued

District 6220’s Area 9 includes: Shawano, Clintonville, New London, Marion

Attendance Data for March, 2013

Members Members Chg From Meetings Average ATT %6/30/12 Current Last Mo. Held Attend% Rank

Antigo 16 16 0 4 61 13Appleton 197 194 -1 4 53 34Appleton Breakfast 14 17 0 4 59 24Appleton West 50 49 3 5 60 19Calumet-Laurium-Kew 25 26 0 4 56 29Clintonville 25 25 0 4 60 20De Pere 32 31 0 4 49 37Door County North 15 16 0 3 75 1Eagle River 46 46 0 4 61 15Escanaba 35 36 0 4 66 5Greater Portage County 27 27 0 4 65 9Green Bay 85 82 1 4 65 8Green Bay West 31 30 0 4 62 11Hancock 29 30 0 4 56 28Houghton 72 70 1 4 57 27Iron Mountain-Kingsford 43 43 1 4 48 38Ironwood,MI-Hurley 36 35 0 4 47 39Ishpeming 25 26 1 0 61 12Kaukauna 22 21 0 4 60 21Kewaunee 30 29 1 4 55 30Lakeland (Minocqua) 52 51 0 4 54 31Manistique 17 18 0 4 43 40Marinette 21 15 0 4 68 4Marquette 98 96 1 4 61 17Marquette Breakfast 44 42 2 3 50 36Marquette West 45 47 2 4 59 26Menominee 41 44 0 4 38 42Merrill 49 51 0 4 41 41Minocqua/Lakeland Area 20 23 0 1 61 14Munising 12 15 0 4 60 18New London 20 18 0 4 65 7Ontonagon-White Pine 13 10 0 3 50 35Packerland Sunrise 11 11 0 4 73 3Rhinelander 63 49 -1 4 61 16Shawano 66 65 0 4 54 32Stevens Point 58 55 0 4 54 33Sturgeon Bay 105 104 -1 4 59 25Sturgeon Bay Breakfast 32 33 0 4 66 6Wakefield-Bessemer 23 25 1 4 63 10Waupaca Breakfast 76 80 0 4 60 22Wausau 79 79 0 3 59 23Wausau Early Birds 48 44 0 4 73 2Totals, Net Gain, Avg Attendance:42 of 42 clubs reporting  

Club

1848 1802 3.76