January is Rotary Awareness month.  The rollout of our PR campaign comes at an appropriate time. Our TV ads are running as we speak! I urge you to wear your Rotary pin all the time and to share your Rotary story with your friends, your neighbors and your community. Our total membership is 1844, up from 1813 on July 1st.  Hats off to our leaders in membership growth:  Boise Centennial, up 23% (3 new members); Nampa, up 14% (8 new members); and Idaho Falls, up 10% (16 new members)!  The goal of the $15,000 PR grant we received from Rotary International is to increase our numbers 3.5% by June 2015.  That’s 64 net new members. 
 
At the Pocatello mid-winter conference on Jan. 11th, I was asked about the gender composition of our district.  It was a question I was unable to answer then, but I can now!  District 5400 is 23.7% female, compared with 18.5% worldwide.  Nine of our 43 club presidents (20.9%) are female.  
 
Congratulations Burley for reaching your Annual Fund goal on Jan. 6, overtaking American Falls to move into first place at 102% of goal.  But what a difference a day makes!  Blackfoot’s check and multiple donor form was “in the pile” and was processed this week, jumping that club from 37th to first, overtaking Burley at 136% of goal.  In other Annual Fund accomplishments, Boise Sunrise sent in an end-of-calendar year donation, moving that club from 21st in per capita giving to the #2 spot at $104.59. And Ashton moved from page 2 to the top 10 success stories reaching 100% of goal on Jan. 16. If 2012-13 club performance in Annual Fund giving is any indicator, 100% of goal will not keep your club on page 1 come June!  Last year the top 25 clubs, those landing on page 1 of my spreadsheet, were more than 100% of goal! 
 
Nearly all our clubs have contributed something to the Annual Fund so far.   Some of those “club contributions” were in the form of the district match, whereby the first $100 toward someone’s Paul Harris Fellow can be matched by the district.  In an effort to demonstrate the impact the district match can have on a club reaching or exceeding its Annual Fund goal, I have been making the requests for many of those eligible.  We have sent in nearly $18,000 ($100 each for 180 persons) through this program so far.  Who in your club is tracking the eligibility of your Rotarians for the district match and making the requests? 
 
Half of our clubs are at > 50% of goal, right where they should be halfway through the year!  So many clubs are doing so well that we are now posting the entire chart at www.rotary5400.org. (Look under "District Docs and Downloads" for a folder called "Rotary Foundation" and sub-folder called "Club giving Reports")  Here’s the current top ten!.
 
ANNUAL FUND GIVING – Top 10 Clubs
Club
Club Size
As of 6/30/13
% Annual Fund Goal
YTD
Rank as %
Of Goal YTD
Per Capita
Giving Goal
Per Capita Giving YTD
Rank in Per Capita Giving YTD
Blackfoot
22
136%
1
$50.00
$68.18
12
Burley
30
102%
2
$83.33
$84.80
6
American Falls
12
101%
3
$101.67
$102.67
4
Ashton
21
100%
4
$23.81
$23.81
32
Meridian
25
96%
5
$90.00
$86.00
5
Montpelier
9
95%
6
$66.67
$63.33
13
Gooding
37
88%
7
$67.57
$59.78
14
Blue Lakes-Twin Falls
29
86%
8
$153.62
$132.79
1
Boise Southwest
89
79%
9
$129.77
$103.09
3
Pocatello-Gate City
59
77%
10
$105.08
$80.42
9
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   Total for D5400
 
52.96%
 
$92.70
$49.09
 
 
 
In the battle against polio, ten clubs have exceeded their goals and 27 clubs have contributed to the eradication effort.  We are “this close” to wiping out polio from the face of the earth.  Thank you for your financial support!  Only 3 new cases, all in endemic countries have been reported so far in 2014.
 
POLIO PLUS GIVING – Top 10 Clubs
Club
Club Size
As of 6/30/13
% Polio Plus Goal
YTD
Rank as %
Of Goal YTD
Per Capita
Polio Giving Goal
Per Capita Polio Giving YTD
Rank in Polio Per Capita Giving YTD
Jerome
58
640%
1
$25.86
$165.52
1
Ashton
21
519%
2
$8.10
$42.05
5
Blue Lakes-Twin Falls
29
352%
3
$20.69
$72.72
2
Gooding
37
224%
4
$10.00
$22.43
9
Eagle-Garden City
19
201%
5
$23.21
$46.74
4
Idaho Falls
159
157%
6
$31.45
$49.43
3
Boise Metro
32
146%
7
$23.44
$34.22
8
Rigby
18
140%
8
$27.78
$38.89
7
Twin Falls
120
110%
9
$20.33
$22.29
10
Boise Centennial
13
109%
10
$38.46
$41.85
6
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   Total for D5400
 
93.1%
 
$22.41
$20.86
 
 
D5400 has completed 2 of 3 regional mid-winter leadership conferences.  The Twin Falls meeting is scheduled Feb. 1 at CSI.  The meetings are a combination of mid-year assessment for current presidents and PETS preparation for presidents-elect.  Think of your leadership team as a relay team.  No matter how talented your incoming president, he or she may stumble without a clean hand-off of the baton from the 2013-14 president.
 
Congratulations Gooding and Blue Lakes-Twin Falls, the only clubs to appear on both Top Ten lists!
 
Rotarians are among the finest human beings on this planet.  I’m here to help you “Engage Rotary – Change Lives”.  Let’s work together to be the change we hope to see in the world!