It's been all-out Rotary Adventure since the start of this Rotary year.

The Rotary Club of Columbus-Muscogee has been busy impacting our community in a variety of ways. We have continued with collecting different items to help support the many needs our community has in helping our under-served and homeless populations. We had a guest speaker that told us about her area of assistance and from that we gathered much needed bug spray – lots of bug spray that our homeless residents needed. We also helped with back-to-school backpack drive, everyday supplies for a veteran rehabilitation facility, supported MercyMed with many dollars contributed to their flower garden, and helped with clothing and food drive for Baptist Mission.

We have also been focused on growing our membership, changing up our meeting format a bit to include a regular social time one Thursday a month focused on supporting and enjoying local businesses and attractions in our wonderful “Fountain City” of Columbus. We also offer an evening meeting option as an extension of our regular AM meeting two Tuesdays each month at a local restaurant in addition to our club social week . We have reached out to our other clubs to decide how we can collaborate for lasting impact. We are in the process of inducting five new members - one for the extension and four for our breakfast club.

As the new President, I have been able to start to grow our membership by inviting many friends and guests to our fun meetings (and of course to enjoy the delicious food). This is really getting people to meet our Rotary family at which time they want to join us. I also started Executive Board meetings in April so that I would be best prepared for the club operating budget and other important information. And we met with each member individually to better learn about them and the gifts they each bring to our Rotary family. We have been enjoying member spotlights each meeting to help teach us and share something about each member.

We just welcomed our GRSP student from Denmark, enjoyed a welcome reception and conclave. Just before Conclave, we hosted a Jazzy Social for all clubs at the State Theater of Georgia, the Springer Opera House. While our DG Cythia Edwards was unable to attend our wonderful Wizard of Oz reception, DGE Buck Buchannan stepped up in super fashion to bring the wonderful Rotary message: Create lasting Impact, Grow our membership all while being our better best.