Rainy and cool day for our ZOOM meeting this week.   During casual conversation, Sue told dog stories and a baseball book she recently received as a gift.  Of course, we also complained about the weather.  Mark attended the convention last week and contracted COVID.   Larry told us there was no snow up North – he is playing golf.  The East Hartford school system has paid dues for Frank Staples. Attendees today were Sue, Peter, Bill, George, Wes, Mark, Larry and his daughter, Alex, Jack, Anwar and Neal. 

 

Sue rang the bell to start the meeting at 12:00 PM.  Alex called the meeting to order and led The Pledge of Allegiance and 4 Way Test.  Bill gave the invocation and stressed that we be aware of opportunities to serve.

 

 

 

Our speaker today was Kevin Matthews who is a Rotary Member from Cyprus, Texas which is near Houston.  He is a retired Marine Recruiter and his talk was from a Marine Corp recruiting perspective.  He was very dynamic. 

 

The Marines and the Rotary both have to dispel some myths.  Myths for the Marines are “very rough, very tough and physically demanding”.  This is based on the past.  Today, there is no swearing or physical touching.  A myth about Rotary is it is “old white men club”.  

 

The Marines total 176,000 with 25% turnover every year.  Kevin stated that all Marines are recruiters.  He discussed building membership in the Marines.  He would get monthly status reports from his recruiting agents. He would review 70 applications to get one Marine!  In Rotary, he figures the ratio would be 10-3-1.  You get 10 names, 3 come to a meeting and one new member.  That extrapolates to 6 for East Hartford.  Our goal is 6 new members each year which mean getting 60 names, 18 people to a meeting and then 6 new members out of the 18.

 

He advised that we have to make ourselves known.   Go to as many social events as possible, use social media and contact as many people as possible.  You have to sell Rotary.  We are a network of professional people and we want to deal with young professionals and what these people want.  They want to grow networks, develop professional skills, and an opportunity to be heard.   They want to see people making decisions.   In this area, targets are young professionals and people in financial services. He asked how visible our events are and asked if we help other organizations.  Kevin was impressed with our scholarship program but thought we should be passing them out in an Awards Night atmosphere to get recognition and bring in parents and others.    

 

Meeting continued with Alex saying that this presentation was very helpful.  We asked for Kevin’s slides and think his presentation has opened new possibilities for us.  Mark is planning on introducing him to the full District.