This has been a Rotary week. Rotary, an international service organization, was started in Chicago, Illinois in 1905 (see http://wp.me/p20I1i-22E). Trying to get up to speed on leading a club of leaders (herding cats, anyone?) has left little time for my GLO hobby. On Saturday, I spent the day at a Rotary Foundation and Membership seminar. This week our club was visited by the District Governor. Luckily, I could be the absolute worst president the club has ever seen, and I am fully confident the club would survive, nonetheless. My sights are set much higher than that, so I am not worried.
An “Uh-Oh” award given to me at the changeover dinner where I was installed as Club President.
At the meeting, bright and early on Tuesday morning, Tom Guebert, the District 6510 Governor, mentioned that one of our club members was quoted in the latest Rotarian magazine. While I was at the club meeting, my Alpha Gamma Delta friend, who is also a P.E.O. and Rotarian, messaged me to tell me the same thing. Sad to say, the magazine was sitting on the dining room table in the untouched stack of Monday’s mail.
Aur Beck is a dedicated member of the Rotary Club of Carbondale-Breakfast (where you’ll be hard pressed to find breakfast).
And then a twitter post later in the day mentioned that Robb Knuepfer, the Rotarian on the cover of the magazine, was a fraternity man. Knuepfer served Rotary as a Governor for District 6450, among many other things. I suspect that many of the skills Knuepfer used in his Rotary service were built upon the foundation of his stint as president of the Denison University chapter of Alpha Tau Omega. As a college junior, he was awarded the Richard A. Ports Public Affairs Internship, which came with a summer working in the White House. As a college senior, he won the Thomas Arkle Clark Award, Alpha Tau Omega’s highest undergraduate recognition. As an alumnus, he served Alpha Tau Omega as National President (1990-1992) and Chairman of the Alpha Tau Omega National Foundation. The Rotarian article about Knuepfer, who after a long and distinguished law career is now a divinity student at the University of Chicago, is at http://bit.ly/1MpVBQy.
One of the highlights of my club’s District Governor’s visit was the presentation of this year’s banner. Rotary International President, K. R. “Ravi” Ravindran chose “Be a gift to the world” as his Rotary theme. For more information on Rotary international visit www.rotary.org.
District 6510 Governor Tom Guebert presenting the 2015-16 banner to the Rotary Club of Carbondale – Breakfast.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2015. All rights reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
