Rotary Clubs Honor Traditions While Facing Change

Rotary Clubs Honor Traditions While Facing Change

By Susan Kim, STAFF WRITER

Connecting with other businesspeople and helping others were the top reasons cited by local Rotary club members as their reasons for joining in the first place. Now they find themselves honoring the traditions of Rotary while, at the same time, facing changes that have shifted their trends on fundraising, membership and global outlook.

Betty Loafmann, owner of the 4 East Madison Inn in Baltimore, moved to Baltimore from Chicago in 2003 and promptly joined the Baltimore club, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2012.

"A friend said it would be an excellent place to meet people, and it was," said Loafmann, who is now president of the club.

Meanwhile, the North Anne Arundel club is just 3 years old but is already forging close ties between its members. Architect Peter Notari, president of Notari Associates in Baltimore, became a member when the chapter started.

"When we chartered there were 24 of us," he said. "I was intrigued because, while my business is in Baltimore, I live in Linthicum, and I didn't have a lot of business connections to Anne Arundel County. The other thing that attracted me to Rotary is the idea of civic work to better the community."

A Better World, Locally and Globally
Across the board, Rotary members said they appreciate the chance Rotary offers to not only make their community a better place, but to reach out locally to those in need.

"It's something to help the community," said Jeff Blitz, owner of Laurel Automotive and president of the Laurel club. Blitz said that, currently, the club is focusing on enhancing education in the community in a variety of ways.

Like other local clubs, the Laurel club also has a global outlook. In the wake of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti in January, the club raised funds for an international aid kit that contained a 10-person tent, portable stove, blankets and other survival tools.

The Bowie Club is also focused on meeting the needs of others, and is currently in the planning stages of a bus shelter for the C. Elizabeth Rieg Regional School in Bowie, a public special education school.

Abba Polangin, president of the Bowie club and a local architect, said the club, though fairly new, is already immersed in the project.

"We chose a bus shelter because, every day, 12 to 14 buses pull up in front of the school and each child has to be unbuckled from the seat, rolled to a lift, and lowered to the ground, where an adult picks them up. Then, it's the reverse in the afternoon. They do that completely in the weather right now," he said.

Changes Afoot
Rotarians also reported that, though their organization is steeped in tradition, clubs are extremely adaptable to change.

David Newman, president of the Clarksville club and pastor of New Hope Adventist Church, said he has been a Rotary member since before women were officially admitted to Rotary. The Rotary club was established in 1905, but it wasn't until 1989, after a legal battle, that women were admitted to the international service organization. Today all clubs in the United States and Canada permit female members.

"When I joined, Rotary was very much a men's club - and it's been so much better since women have joined the ranks," he said.

Rotary clubs always have thought on a global level, but now are working more effectively on a larger scale, reflected John Contreras, president of the Columbia Town Center club and general manager of business affairs at Athelas Institute.

"Clubs are coming up with bigger and better ways to help worldwide with big disasters, and with nearly eradicating polio in countries such as India," he said.

Constantly Evolving
As the community around them changes, local clubs change, too. Sometimes that means taking a hard look at the habits of a club, said Michael Maultsby, president of the Glen Burnie club and a senior accountant for Clark & Anderson.

"The club has gone from being one of the larger clubs in the district to a smaller club, and now to a growing club. Over the years, as we shrunk a little, we really needed to take a good hard look at ourselves and work to find who we are. While we have numerous dedicated Rotarians, we, like most organizations, have had to accept that change happens, and we are not the same club we were when we started 81 years ago, or that we were 10 or 20 years ago."

The Glen Burnie club is one among many local clubs that has had to work to redefine itself and its parameters, explained Maultsby. "For a number of years we had followed the normal migration of age, though this year we have been working on growing, and also trying to attract younger members."