HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF ROTARY YEAR 2000-2001 AS SUBMITTED TO DISTRICT 5840 FOR BEST IN DISTRICT COMPETITION |
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This report was compiled and submitted by Roy Huff to the District. Our Club was selected as the best Rotary Club in our district in this competition. The following is an extract of the document submitted for judging by the District Committee. Club Service Public Relations: We have received publicity for our meetings and club activities in the Express-News, with numerous pictures having been published. We have also had coverage in the Scene magazine. We are working on a joint project with the local Red Cross chapter to publicize its Adopt A Shelter program. One of our members conceived the idea of and is organizing the effort for funding for and construction of a float for the two surface-level parades in this year‚s San Antonio Fiesta. That float will represent all Rotary clubs, not just ours. New Member Orientation: Chair Alan Johnston has for two years vigorously continued a one-on-one prospective member orientation program, started in the early eighties, giving the prospective member such items as the attendance requirements, history, Rotary Foundation information, classification system, Rotary history, motto and Four Way Test, organization, etc. This is followed up by a biannual Fireside Chat with the officers and the new members to ensure that what was presented earlier has not been lost. Club Assemblies: We have them at a minimum twice a year. They are utilized most notably to report on and make final preparations for, and later on to provide results of, our annual fund raiser, Alamo Heights Night. We also schedule one for the District Governor’s annual visit Other Club Service Lane activities: We have a Tree Committee which calls each member in case of any important matter that arises and must be acted on before the next regular meeting. Unfortunately, Rotarian or spouse death and funeral information has been the primary information passed on this way, but this committee also disseminates meeting changes. We also have an off-site meeting program, in which we meet at an interesting location for lunch and a tour. The most recent such event was at the Witte Museum, on February 27, 2001. Community Service We sponsored four students at the January, 2001 RYLA Conference. Interact Club: The faculty sponsors of the Alamo Heights High School club are honorary members of our club. The student officers annually attend one of our meetings to introduce themselves and to describe what they have done and are going to do. Among their activities were: Assisted with the Alamo Heights Rotary operation of a Red Cross shelter at their high school during the Hurricane Brett evacuation. Sponsored the school’s Howdy Night as a first annual fund raiser Assisted the Habitat for Humanity, Children’s Shelter, and a local Christmas gift program for needy children known as Elf Louise Assisted the Animal Defense League Sponsored and manned a booth at our club‚s annual Alamo Heights Night fund-raiser Our Rotary Club is actively exploring the possibility of sponsoring an Interact Club at MacArthur High School. Rotaract Club: Our Club is currently working with a student at the University of Texas at San Antonio who with about 15 other students is starting a Rotaract Club. Our Club has been a long-time sponsor of a Rotaract Club at the University of the Incarnate Word, but the group there is not currently active. Sponsorship of Youth Activities (Little League, Scouts, etc.): Financial support is being and has been for some years provided to the Alamo Heights Little League. The Alamo Council, Boy Scouts of America, is also an annual recipient of funds from our Club. One of our members is Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 59. We are annual donors to, and have members on the boards of, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Any Baby Can, and Youth for Christ. One of our members is the founder of the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes and is currently on its board. Another is the Director of the Youth for Christ here. Literacy projects: Our Literacy committee gathers book donations from club members and other sources, which are donated to school classrooms. Our weekly speaker recognition includes a book donated to an area school library in the name of that speaker. One of our members and his spouse are mentors at an elementary school, and there are efforts to expand this effort. Targeted for recruitment are mentors and readers for elementary and preschool children. Drug/Substance Abuse projects: We expect to assist the County Youth Commission by member participation. Other Community Service Lane activities: The club has an annual fund raising activity, Alamo Heights Night, to enable its annual support for charities in our area. The annual net profit, distributed to a number of such organizations, has averaged $70,000 to $80,000 over the sixteen years of its existence. Donations made from the April 2000 effort are: City of Alamo Heights-$2,000, Alamo Heights School Foundation-$4,000, Alamo Heights Little League-$1,000, Alamo Heights Pony League-$500, Junior Achievement $1,200, Rotary Foundation-$3,000, Boys and Girls Club of San Antonio$2,000, Christmas in April-$1,000, Northeast ISD Community Education-$1,000, Daily Bread Ministry-$1,000, Alamo Children‚s Advocacy Center-$560, Epilepsy Foundation-$750, Alamo Heights Special Olympics-$750, Fisher House-$500,Alzafar Shrine Hospitals-$1,500, Any Baby Can-$4,500, Texas Burn Survivors-$1,000, San Antonio Youth For Christ-$2,000, Witte Museum-$2,000, Madonna Neighborhood Center-$1,000, Colonial Hills Elementary Family Center-$500, Prevent Blindness of San Antonio-$1,000, Rape Crisis Center-$1,000, Roy Maas Youth Alternatives-$1,000, San Antonio Rescue Center-$1,000, USO of San Antonio-$1,000, Boysville-$500, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation-$500, Salvation Army-$1,890, and Visiting Nurses Association-$500 The club is the first service organization in the County to adopt a Red Cross disaster shelter. We operate the shelter at the Alamo Heights High School gym, and hosted 450 evacuees from Hurricane Brett. There are 20 active members of the Shelter Committee. Its most recent activity, on Saturday, April 7, 2001, was completion by five of its shelter team members of the Red Cross first aid and adult, child, and infant CPR classes. One of the club members is a member of the Red Cross Chapter Shelter Committee, and there is in progress a joint AH Rotary-Red Cross publicity campaign for the Adopt A Shelter program. Rotary Club presidents in area clubs will be contacted as the first step in offering this excellent opportunity for Service Above Self to the other district clubs. That in turn will be lead to recruiting other area service organizations, such as the Lions and Optimists. The club donates Christmas poinsettias to the Santa Rosa Children‚s Hospital and to the Pecan Hill Assisted Living facility. Our club members are chairman of the board, president, or the director of the following community service organizations: Local chapter of the American Diabetes Association We have in our club members of the boards of the following organizations: Our Children‚s Coalition, a child abuse prevention effort Four of our members are working with the Delta Group, a program for taking trained dogs to children‚s hospitals and to nursing homes. Our club members are active members of the following community service organizations: KLRN San Antonio Conservation Society‚s NIOSA San Antonio Area Chapter, American Red Cross American Heart Association Two of our members are on the District RYLA Committee and one is on the International Committee. Vocational Service: There are 12 academic and 11 vocational scholarships awarded each year; each of the 21 is an award of $500, for a total of $10,500. The vocational scholarship contestants are drawn from four institutions in the city which traditionally have student bodies composed of primarily needy people. This includes high school student mothers and students in adult vocational education programs. Workplace Tour: The club holds what we call off-site meetings, the two most recent of which have been a tour of the Culligan Soft Water facility and of the Witte Museum. Community Leader Recognition: The program for our April 10, 2001, meeting consisted of recognizing the Texas Elementary School Teacher of the Year, who is a special education teacher in one of our club area‚s elementary schools. We annually recognize a firefighter and a police officer from our bedroom city that have been selected as the outstanding officer of the year for their departments. Other Vocational Service Lane activities: Our scholarship program actively seeks out deserving vocational students and provides to the winners $500 scholarships to help further their vocational training. One of our members is a mentor for five art students. International Service Our Club has submitted an application for a Foundation Matching Grant, for a shelter for street children in Mexico, D.F. Our Foundation Giving for the 2000-2001 Rotary year is: New Paul Harris Fellows: Nine. New Paul Harris Sustaining Members: 11 Per capita Foundation giving: $30.15 We are a Centurion Club in which all members contribute $100 or more, on average. Our club maintains regular contact by visit by two of our members to our sister club, the San Rafael Club of Mexico, D.F. We are prepared, when its members visit us, to offer as our opening prayer in Spanish the one used in that club. Approximately 30 of our members are in key positions for hosting the International Convention. Eight or nine of the approximately 27 committees are chaired by Alamo Heights Rotarians. One of our members is the host for the motorcycle riders who will attend the International Convention. Our club will host at a zoo dinner and tour in excess of 300 attendees from other countries during the Convention.
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Alamo Heights Rotary
Service Above Self
