President’s Notes

First of all, I would like to congratulate Frances and Kevin once again on their well-deserved awards. Their unwavering commitment and support to the Rotary mission and vision exemplified the pinnacle of being a Rotarian.

Secondly, I wish to extend my sincere gratitude and thanks to Vikki for her sincere commitment to our entire membership and exemplifying the epitome of a true Rotarian.  I am forever grateful for her guiding me through these past few months in preparation for next year’s presidency; Vikki thank you very much.

Since 1912, our club has maintained a sustained level of ‘service above self’ throughout the Binghamton-area and community regions. Each President of The Rotary Club of Binghamton has left his or her personal legacy embedded into the history of our club. I truly believe our club serves as a benchmark for all local area service clubs to emulate.

Every President our club has had has exemplified the best of the best.  Each has carried himself and herself with the utmost professionalism, care, dignity and exemplified the true passion of being a Rotarian. Our Past Presidents have raised the bar of community service and have ‘walked the walk’ of “Service Above Self”- I will do my best this year to continue the paths of excellence and tradition set forth by our clubs preceding Presidents

The upcoming 2020-2021 year will be like no other Rotary has ever endured.  Our Binghamton community will be faced with modern day challenges that none of us have ever been faced with; as Rotarians we have an obligation to honor our commitment to the Rotary values.  We shall honor the “Four Way Test” in every endeavor our club chooses to accomplish.  The recent pandemic has crippled our ‘way of life’ throughout not only our area, but throughout the world.  As Rotarians, we will make a difference in the ensuing the year.

In the late 1980’s, Rotary initiated its crusade to eradicate polio and thirty years later Rotarians have assisted in the reduction of 99.9% of polio cases. Our club will continue to honor this pledge to protect each and every child in the world from polio infection; however, as our world and community changes, the Rotary Club of Binghamton will support the on-going international efforts to find a cure and vaccine for the corona virus.

I truly believe the membership composition of our club is our most valuable, impactful asset.  As Rotarians, we will all volunteer just a small slice of our own lives this year to make an impactful difference throughout our neighboring communities and across the world.

Unfortunately, for the near future, our club must continue to meet ‘virtually’; however, this will not prohibit us from communicating, engaging and interacting with each other. This is absolutely critical we continue stay engaged.  Our club must do this in the ensuing months and years to preserve and honor our club’s previous achievements!

In San Diego, our 2020-2021 Rotary President, Holger Knaack, presented this year’s new theme as “Rotary Opens Opportunities”.   This theme will provide our club the autonomy to be creative, inspirational and ‘nimble’ reacting to our community needs and challenges.   He said something interesting regarding – membership.  President Knaack has challenged us to retain our membership – he mentioned every time Rotary has asked ‘us’ for increased numbers – we have come up short.  He challenged us to ‘win’ new members by celebrating our community service and impactful projects.  What we do as a club, will draw others into the ‘goodwill’ we create. We can do that and we will do that.  We must retain our membership and we will!

This year our club will continue to support the annual programming and community service projects we have always aligned with in years past.

My vision is to slightly increase our presence in both of these areas.

I am only asking from each of you a very slight, small increase in your time and effort.  Something as ‘small’ as taking a two-hour bell-ringing slot during the holidays to support the Salvation Army will make a huge difference!

Our entire community, workplace and lifestyles are being consumed by the ‘digital media’ trend.

In the ensuing year our club is going to evolve with digit media plans, media programming and we will explore new communication methods in how best we can promote and align with Rotary’s core mission and vision from a digital standpoint.  We are so lucky to have Jeff and Jake support our club’s weekly programming thru their businesses; I want our club to expand on the available platforms and see if in fact we can promote our club’s success on a broader-wider scale.

I will ask our committee chairs to become just slightly more informative and progressive in the ensuing year; as a club, we will make a difference this new year.  I have submitted our 2020-2021 goals and they reflect a conservative, stagnant approach in membership and fiscal planning; however, I have committed to a slight ‘uptick’ in our club’s community involvement, public engagement and enhancing our club’s Rotary branding.

The weekly scheduled ZOOM meetings are going to be critical for our club to stay focused on our immediate planning; I anticipate the meetings to be direct, to the point, and each to have a ‘forward’ purpose.  I anticipate these meetings to last no longer than 30 mins.

I envision our club becoming more prominent and recognized in the goodwill and service we provide to our community.  I want us to collectively ‘listen’ to each other; I want our membership to ‘learn’ from each other.  Our club represents our areas best educators, best attorneys, best public servants, best architects, best accountants, best PR/marketers, best general managers – I want to capitalize on that.

I am anxious and proud to walk alongside each of you as fellow Rotarians and embrace our 2020-2021 Rotary theme “Rotary Opens Opportunities”.

I am extremely grateful, forever indebted and honored to be The Rotary Club of Binghamton 2020-2021 President.

Brian Jester
President
Rotary Club of Binghamton
2020-2021