President Karen Bogisch gave a wrap up presentation about her goals for 2024-25 and then handed the program to President-Elect Miriam Moorman, who talked to us about what to look forward to in 2025-26.
As for the 2024-25 goals, Karen told we brought in two new members in 2024-25 - Uche Okafor and Ed Grune, out of her goal gain 3 new members. We had four programs about Rotary, presented by Scott Rainey (Polio Plus), DGN Jeff Coleman (Membership), DG Doug Smith, and Miriam Moorman (Paul Harris Society). We also had two social events, our annual holiday party and our June installation party, and Karen worked to involve all the members, whether in a service project, fundraiser, social event, or simply by donating to the Rotary Foundation, Polio Plus, or one of our local causes. With regards to service projects, we hosted our annual Rise Against Hunger meal packaging event, wrapped presents for Brown Santa, handed out food at the St. Louis Catholic Church food bank, showed our appreciation to the Hart Elementary teachers, and donated books to BookSpring. We also raised over $10,000 for our local charities, over $11,000 for the Rotary Foundation, over $3,000 for Polio Plus, and also joined the NW Austin club's Global Grant for a water project in Uganda. For the youth in our community, we continued to support Early Act First Knight at Hart Elementary, helped serve a meal at RYLA camp, and gave scholarships to six students from Anderson High School. Finally, we raised over $5,000 at our Fiesta Fundraiser.
In preparation for her Rotary year, Miriam told us about the results of the survey she sent out the membership. That survey showed that most of us came to Rotary via a friend or family member, we joined for networking and service, and we stay because of club relationships and our service projects. Looking at Rotary International's seven areas of focus, our members are most interested in Basic Education and Literacy, followed by Water and Sanitation and Maternal and Child Health. Our members would like us to be known for service, diversity, and our friendliness and fellowship. Miriam explained how we support our local causes through the sunshine basket and how donations to the Rotary Foundation partially come back to the district and our club as a DAP grant. Finally, she set out the leadership for the club next year including board members and committee chairs and encouraged everyone to join a committee that fits with their Rotary passion!