Superior Rotary Club 40

Our Rotary club just got through the month of January, which had been designated Rotary Awareness Month. That prompted me to ask how we have promoted awareness of Rotary and how we could improve our effectiveness in letting others know what Rotary is and what it does.

We all get the idea that there’s a link between our awareness and our actions. For example, if you could remove all sensory input to your body except for moving around, you would run into something and hurt yourself or worse. That basic example supports stating that “awareness must precede action”. But is it a one-way deal? Doesn’t action produce awareness too? After all, actions speak louder than words but to whom do they speak?

Our Rotary club, maybe most all Rotary clubs, believes that our many good deeds and wonderful actions increase public awareness of who we are and what we do. My observation is that the awareness created is too little, focused on things other than Rotary, doesn’t last and all told isn’t strong enough to sustain our club’s regional identity into the future. Why is that the case?

One reason is that our actions speak loudly to us but very softly to others beyond our view. That’s sometimes referred to as becoming a “legend in your own mind”, and as a result our actions increase personal awareness far more than public awareness. So if it’s our vision to create public awareness of Rotary state-wide, country-wide and even world-wide, we’ll have to complement our tremendous worldwide actions with small but consistent pieces of “*gorilla marketing” to get our message out.

That’s not as big an effort as it might sound. Start with something simple such as wearing your Rotary pin every day you’re out in public. Put a Rotary decal on your vehicle. Carry a few of those “What’s Rotary” cards with you. When somebody asks “What’s Rotary?” give them a card but don’t stop there because that card will only convey idea awareness.

Have in your mind an “elevator speech”, a 30-second statement about Rotary. I suggest using Who rather than What to frame your answer in personal terms: Thus: a) Who are we?; b) What do we do?; c) What makes us unique/special?; and c) How can you learn more about us? Personal awareness will produce public awareness but it only works one person at a time. That’s why we need every member’s involvement.

*Do a search for the book by the same name

One way to tell if a blog is of any value to the community is to publicize something of value.  Towards that end I have pasted an interesting opportunity below:

“An area high school student will be awarded the $1,000 top price in the Annual Rotary District

5580 Essay Contest. In addition to the top award, there will be six $100 regional winners

selected.

Rotary District 5580 offers this Essay Contest as an incentive to young people to develop their

skills of self-expression and as evidence of a sincere interest in the ideals of our youth. All

students in their final two years of high school are eligible to participate.

The essay can deal with any topic of the student’s choosing, but it must apply the principles of

The Rotary 4-Way Test:

 Is it the TRUTH?

 Is it FAIR to all concerned?

 Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

 Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

The Rotary 4-Way Test was first conceived in 1932 at the height of the Great Depression by a

Chicago businessman, faced with the challenge of saving a major company from bankruptcy.

Looking for a way to save the company, he sought a short yardstick of ethics that could be used.

Company personnel were asked to learn the test and to observe it as a guide to every aspect of

business. As a result, a climate of trust and goodwill gradually developed among dealers,

customers and employees, and the 4-Way Test was credited with returning the company to a

thriving status.

The 4-Way Test has inspired safe driving programs, crime and drug reduction activities, and has

been the subject of countless secondary school essays. The message has appeared on roadside

billboards, bronze plaques and has been translated into more than 100 languages”

Here is some additional information:      

 STUDENT GUIDELINES
The Four-Way Test Essay Contest
Sponsored by Rotary International District 5580
WHAT IS THE FOUR-WAY TEST?
The Four-Way Test of the things we think, say or do is as follows:
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
The Four-Way Test is not a code or a creed, but a stimulus to self-appraisal. It is not a pledge, but rather a springboard to voluntary self-improvement.
It is not a sermon, although any number of sermons has been preached on it. It aims to encourage the ethical instincts in every
person and constitutes a simple and practical guide for people of all cultures.
The Four-Way Test has inspired safe driving programs, fire prevention campaigns, crime and drug reduction activities; it has been the
subject of countless secondary school essays. It has been translated into more than 100 languages.
WHY DOES ROTARY DISTRICT 5580 CONDUCT THE FOUR-WAY TEST ESSAY CONTEST?
Our Rotarians believe that the thousands of dollars committed are an investment in our youth. It is a statement of our interest in the
ideas of our young people. It demonstrates our belief that it is important to reward our youth for expressing their views. And, it is our
way to encourage youth to apply the Four-Way Test to the world around them.
PRIZES
There are three levels of competition and prizes:
1. Local — Rotary clubs will provide prizes for the local winners.
2. Regional — The winning local entry will be entered in regional competition. A $100 prize will be awarded to the winners of each of the
regional contests (six regions).
3. District — The regional winning entries will be submitted to the district level to compete for the Grand Prize of an additional $800
($1000 total for the District winner).
ELIGIBILITY
Open to all students in the final two years of high school.
TOPIC
The essay may treat any subject of interest to the student. It may be specific or general. For example, one might choose a topic relating
to world peace, to a special friendship, to the environmental issues in general or to some issue in particular, to a choice of life-style, to a choice of
occupation. Creative use of one’s imagination is encouraged. However, the essay must include the principles of the Four-Way Test and the way
these relate to the topic presented.
Here are some of the topics from previous contests: “George Bernard Shaw”, “Truth + Fairness+ Good Will + Benefits = Dance”,
“Competitive Swimming”, “College Tuition”, “Life is Full of Choices”, “3 Letters, 4 Questions (How FFA Meets the Rotary 4-Way Test)”
“Should You Multi-task?” “Censorship” was last year’s winning essay from a student attending Bemidji, MN High School.
LENGTH
500 to 1,000 words
PRESENTATION METHOD
A typewritten copy, double-spaced, is to be submitted, along with the signed statement below.
JUDGING CRITERIA
Judging will be based on utilization and application of the principles of the Four-Way Test. Essays received that do not incorporate these four (4)
principles will not be considered. Student creativity, organization, language and grammar usage will also be considered as part of the overall
judging criteria.

DEADLINES:          Superior Rotary has now set its official deadline as Monday, February 28, 2011.  We’ll then have enough time to send all entries to our District 5580 office before their mid-March deadline.

Good luck with your entry.

   One of the responsibilities for Rotary District Governors (DGs) is to visit every club in their Districts (our District  is # 5580) during their year as Governor. Our District includes all of Minnesota, North Dakota, some of Ontario Canada and some of Northwestern Wisconsin. That’s a lot of clubs, a lot of driving and a lot of chances to find out how well things are working in each club and why.

Roly Turner, our current DG, shared some interesting observations with our board last week (11-17). He noted that collaboration between adjacent clubs is up, but collaboration is not generally widespread because it’s difficult to establish and maintain. Of course collaboration or cooperation depend on people and how they behave when working together.

DG Roly believes that two major factors dictate the success or failure of cooperative/collaborative efforts in clubs: 1) it takes two or three capable key players to drive the process; and 2) it takes club members who are willing and able to “drop their guard”.  Dropping ones guard implies the need to be trusting of one another (i.e., other clubs’ members) and be able to tolerate the vulnerability that inherantly accompanies trust situations.  This is not a unique issue to Rotary clubs.  You can see it in any group or team trying to work together to accomplish something special, meaning a success that could not be realized by one individual or club acting alone.

The term “silo mentality” has been popularized in the business world.  Silos symbolize free-standing, autonomous entities performing some job with a purpose, and there is little if any cooperation or collaboration between silos.  They just stand there waiting for their next job oblivious to what the other silos are up to.  People who think and act like that have silo mentalities.

The silo metaphor is used to describe businesses that have departments or divisions or multiple locations that do not work together even though they could or should under the right circumstances.  Here’s the “so what” query: Why should the parts want to work together as a whole?  You can hear the nabobs of negativism mutter: “Our business (club) has been successful without all this cooperation/collaboration nonsense.  You know, eventually the stuff gets done whether folks work together or not, so long as we still have our overworked and underappreciated member, Joe or Sally.  So let’s not change!  Let’s resist or avoid doing anything differently.  Besides it will just end up meaning more work for us, like always.”  Does some of that sound familiar to you?  That’s one hard cultural mindset to break!

Again, why try?  My answer comes from observing that not all tasks are created equal.  There are individual tasks that people do by themselves without any help from anybody inside or outside their “clan”.  But every so often there comes a bigger job that one person can’t do, and so he/she has to cooperate with one or more others to get it done.  Note that each cooperating person does his/her own work and when the finished parts are done, they hopefully fit together as one job.  More and more these days something comes along (often prompted by a consultant) that’s a “BHAG”, big, hairy audacious goal”.  The only way to successfully reach these goals is through collaboration with others.  The difference between cooperation and collaboration is that, in the latter case, the individuals work together so that they actually multiply their energy/effort to achieve something they couldn’t have done individually or cooperatively.  To read more on this topic I suggest you search for “The Wisdom of Teams”  by Katzenbach and Smith.

What are the implications for Rotary Clubs?  Historically our organizations use a  ”spawning process” where one club sponsors others and each of these “offspring” is charged with the goal of becoming an autonomous, free-standing unit that spawns still more offspring.  What this model does is reinforce independent, autonomous thinking and behavior.  This has worked for about 105 years so there shouldn’t be some huge problem threatening Rotary Clubs.  Yet  maybe there is if you believe there is zero net growth in the district’s clubs and/or membership.  But remember, Rotary Clubs can and some do choose to collaborate on a special BHAG.

That’s what the Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival (LSDBF) is, a big hairy audacious event now approaching its tenth year.  The Superior Rotary club, the Duluth Harbortown club and the Superior Sunrise club have developed a collaborative process for our continued success.  Since the three clubs meet in different places at different days and times we can’t get everyone to come together for some grand, synergistic happening.  Instead we use something that sounds a bit crazy:  27 sub-committees, one executive committee, and a co-chairman arrangement that seems to join the co-chairs at the hip each year.  The results talk and they say it works!  We have the “few capable, key players and we continually work at “dropping our guard” and trusting one another.  It ain’t easy and when you add new folks (like me) to each year’s mix, challenges do arise.  But when LSDBG works as it did last year (and each of the previous eight years) collectively we are quite satisfied, we have a lot of fun in the process, and we accomplish something that truly is for the benefit of all concerned.   Happy Thanksgiving.

• Has a total of 203 acres with 2.75 miles of beach
• Includes a lighthouse for the Superior entry
• Has an historical marker for a sacred Chippewa burial ground
• Has activities including bird watching, duck hunting, hiking and “beach use”
• Is described as a “Watchable Wildlife Area” and I don’t know what that really means.

Along with these descriptors are ones for a handful of prohibited activities, from horseback riding to bringing in glass “beverage containers”.   When you think about it, the positive features and related activities can conflict very easily.  For example, if you don’t know the life history of John Audubon, you just might believe that hunting and birdwatching can’t coexist.  Actually, even today the two activities serve the same purpose.  On the matter of prohibitions, some of them only apply when the smelt aren’t running.  Unfortunately, Tom’s presentation included a collection of photos showing that the prohibitions aren’t working (regardless of smelt run).  Human intrusion will degrade any environment and does so faster when no one chooses to be resonsible or personally accountable.  Enforcement of the restrictions is nearly impossible under the present conditions.

So, what might be done?  Two overlapping themes emerged from the questions.  One issue is to define the goals of “protection” and ”preservation”.  The other is to understand how ”conservation” can be applied to Wisconsin Point.  Again these are more complex matters than can be casually addressed, but here are a few thoughts.  Protection means to stop abuse and possibly all use, and the term is typically applied to living things that are challenged to survive naturally.  Preservation also strives to stop abuse and/or all use but goes one step further.  Preservation will intervene in the survival struggle and attempt to ensure that failure-to-survive is not an option.  Unfortunately, living things and nature don’t cooperate very well.  That’s why preservation works best with minimally disturbed dead things that nature has left behind.  Ask any archeologist!

The spirit of conservation is that of “wise use”.   Conservation will involve some protecting but will also recognize that all living things are in a state of continual use and are at their healthiest when used wisely.  For more extended material on this topic, follow this link,   http://www.fieldmuseum.org/biodiversity/    , to The Web of Life concept.   Conservation necessitates a prespective of longevity that expects us to know what we’ve got before it’s gone.  What is unknown to us is what will replace that which is gone.  You see,  something always does become a replacement.  More than a century ago, before protection and preservation, timber was clear-cut to feed the lumber needs of our growing country.  What replaced the “barren harvasted” landscape?  A growing city of Superior and a vacation destination called Lake Nebagamon (formerly the Weyerhauser mill town).  Who knew then what we now treat as worthy of saving.

Nathan Bentley, founder and driving force behind Bentleyville Tour of Lights, spoke at yesterday’s noon meeting.  Bentley is easy to listen to when he describes what the Christmas/Holiday event accomplished last year, its inagural year at Bayfront Park, and the plans for this year’s festivities.  I think he taps into the “inner child”, both his and ours.  For more on the history of Bentleyville go to: http://www.bentleyvilleusa.org/Home/BentleyvilleHistory.aspx.

“It’s cold down there!, Bentley exclaimed.  You know, it wasn’t all that warm up at Cloquet in previous years for that matter.  But the Big Lake does create its own special brand of chill, so much so that live entertainment won’t be a part of Bentleyville Tour of Lights, 2010.  But here is some of what you can expect at the Tour of Lights:

• a new castle entrance
• a 40-ft building for storing donated food and toys
• new knit hats for kids who tell Santa what they want for Christmas (last year they gave away 10,000 hats)
• more hot chocolate and Famous Amos cookies (last year visitors consumed 6,000 pounds of hot chocolate)
• tunnels of lights that will add up to 3,000 ft of pure visual joy (incidentally, they are making the switch to more energy-efficient lighting).
• And there are a few new features that Bentley will announce next week.  We promised not to tell.

Last year’s event drew over 150,000 people and that’s an actual head-count, not a guesstimate.  Bentley and his all-volunteer crew began preparations on September 25, and they will be working Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesday evenings.  If you are curious and/or would like to help out the cause, drop down there.  I’m sure they’ll be able to find a few strings of lights to put up.

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