Although the Rotary year is not yet over and we have a number of prospective members we hope will join us in our humanitarian effort and providing service to others, I want to give you a synopsis of where our members reside. Our home Rotary District is 5890 which encompasses the Greater Houston area in Texas, USA. We have members who live in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Oregon, South Caroline, and Wyoming. That is 27% of out total membership which is currently at 52 active members. Another 6% live in other parts of Texas and outside of our Rotary district. We also have 8% who are living and/or working outside of the USA in Bosnia, Cameroon, Sweden, and United Arab Emirates. That is 41% do not live within the boundaries of our home district.
For this reason, our meetings are held online (Zoom meetings) and we send newsletters with programs (most often Ted Talks). Our zoom meetings are netting small numbers, and we hope to improve our offerings of these meetings online for you to view anytime 24/7. We have a very active SocialMedia presence with 1,566 Followers on Facebook. Our award-wining international service project "Hope for Venezuelan Refugees" is actively posting on Instagram, Blog, and WhatApp. We encourage our members to join the club WhatsApp group for short updates on members. It helps to get to know each other as well as providing information about service projects and meetings. Projects may also be viewed on My Rotary in My Club Showcase.
Below the banner on our webpage is an Attendance form. We are flexible on attendance, although we encourage all members to participate in some form of service monthly (which counts as attendance, and it may simply be a donation), and hope that all members will find a committee or project to provide club service. Some jobs are quite simple and require only a small amount of time, and of course, others are for dedicated champions. On the attendance form you may also record your service activity.
We want to keep everyone engaged and feeling important to our club. We have begun a new newsletter activity with is termed a "Scavenger Hunt" activity to promote sharing small things about where we live and to compare results with other members. We hope you will enjoy this exchange and participate in sharing.