Still a few spaces left at the District Golf Tournament, on the Dunes Course at La Quinta Country Club Thursday, April 29, at a very special $99. Club presidents have applications, or send your check (made out to "Rotary District 5300") to the district office, 1963 South Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia, CA 91016. Bob Jugan can answer your questions: 323-726-0556.

Then everyone in the District is invited to come celebrate – the fabulous 1999 District Conference, at that special $99 hotel rate, in a beautiful and accessible place. Every Rotarian throughout 5300 has received a personal invitation and application form – please, respond; this affair promises to be magical! Lee Mothershead is an inspiring leader, guiding clubs to greater service. He deserves our cheers, and that’s part of what the Conference is all about.

Rotary International President James Lacy is sending his friend and neighbor, James Andrews of Cookeville, Tennessee, as his personal representative to our conference. Jim and Rosalie Andrews will attend our functions, and Jim will be giving a report on the worldwide state of Rotary today.

All seven Rotary districts around Southern California and Southern Nevada sent 372 young men and women from Rotaract (the college-level clubs), Mideract (junior high leaders), and of course the high school Interacts to spend three rewarding days at the Rotary Interact Leadership Symposium this past November 13-15 in Idllywild. Katie Roberts, Interact Committee Chair, says the Symposium promotes leadership while forming a bond between Rotary Club liaisons, school advisors, and club leaders. Designed much like PETS – the successful President-Elect Training Seminars for our adult officers – the days were full of great training sessions and opportunities for fellowship and friendships.

Our multi-district Interact Committee did a wonderful job on planning program, registration, and logistics, and all deserve to be recognized. Congratulations to Chair Bill Held (District 5280), Margaret Cooker, Roger Shulte, and Steve Garrett (from our own district), Bob Gemar (5330), Rock Berschweider (5340), and Father Jack Cejea (5240). Our district 5300 had the highest number of attendees, thanks to lots of promotion and direct follow-up with the Clubs. Ask your own club’s Interact liaison about having attendees meet and speak at your Rotary Club to report back on their adventure.

IRWINDALE and AZUSA-GLENDORA FOOTHILLS SUNRISE clubs decided to merge after many weeks of collaboration. On February 4, presidents Zoe Vanek and Jim Maki hosted the first joint meeting which introduced the members of each club to each other with a great time of fellowship.

The newly merged breakfast club covers the cities of Azusa, Glendora, and Irwindale. The name is simplified to the FOOTHILLS SUNRISE CLUB. Meetings will be on THURSDAY mornings at seven in the East Huntington Medical Center Building, on the corner of Alosta and Glendora Avenues in Glendora. All Rotarians in the western portion of our district are urged to consider a breakfast with this group to help boost their enthusiasm.

Azusa-Glendora Foothills Sunrise completed their international project prior to the merger by delivering a 1991 Ford ambulance to the Red Cross chapter in Ensenada, Mexico. Through persistent efforts and the generosity of club member Patrick McAlmond, director of marketing, and his company, American Medical Response, this wonderful donation brings life to Baja California. With the assistance of past district governor Chris Lyman and the Ensenada Calafia Rotary Club, arrangements were made for the transfer. Delegations from both clubs met at the US-Mexican border on Saturday, January 30, where Antonio Novelo, president of the Ensenada Red Cross, inspected and accepted the ambulance. It will be used to transport patients to clinics, hospitals, and out-patient facilities and to provide emergency assistance in the more remote areas around Ensenada. This is the first vehicle of its kind that the Ensenada Red Cross has ever received.

The international vehicle exchange was a great learning experience for the Rotary Clubs on both sides of the border. Dealing with legal and customs requirements delayed the Mexican delivery a few days, but the lessons learned will make future donations much easier – and can be shared with other Rotary Clubs. This was truly an endeavor that built good will and much better friendships.

Although April may be the cruelest month, March is a time when we must begin the end. The Rotary year is winding down – the various presidents’ pet projects have either happened or are about to happen, the District Conference is planned and coming close, the Presidents-elect are gearing up for training at PETS, the incoming club officers are getting ready for the District Assembly on Saturday, April 10, and Rotarians throughout our District are trying to finish projects begun earlier in the year. It’s a time of coming and going – and sometimes we wonder which we are doing.

Unfortunately, this also is the time of year when corporate relocation plans are put into operation, to take effect in late April or May. Membership takes a hit in some clubs. Potential members are also in flux, so it’s a difficult time to get commitments from them to join Rotary. But remember – MEMBERSHIP IS THE LIFELINE OF ROTARY. Since its inception in 1905 until 1996, Rotary International grew in numbers every year. In 1997, for the first time in Rotary’s history, membership declined about one percent. This is, of course, nothing like the declines in other service organizations, some experiencing losses of half their members over recent years. But the reversal of a 92-year trend of growth, though not serious, should be enough to serve as a warning – a warning that Rotary could shrink to the point where our programs will start shrinking instead of expanding.

Rotary International has had a larger effect on the globe as a whole than any other service organization in the history of mankind. Just imagine! – Rotary has been instrumental in wiping out a disease which was scary enough to cause your governor’s parents to keep me out of school for six weeks in the 1940s, when an epidemic swept through the San Francisco peninsula where I was in elementary classes. Rotary was instrumental in wiping out most polio in China with a gift of $26,000,000. There have been only a few rare cases of polio reported in China so far this year, a number drastically down from what it was only a few years ago. If we can vaccinate children in just a few more countries during 1999, we’ll have nearly accomplished our goal. By 2005, the 100^th anniversary of Rotary, we will have in place monitoring stations to be sure polio never gets another start.

Eliminating polio worldwide is truly a remarkable feat, yet it is only one of many ways in which Rotary benefits mankind. Don’t forget the many hours and dollars put into our own communities – always a bit short of what we would like to be able to achieve, but still a proud record for every one of our clubs throughout the district and the Rotary world.

You’ve all heard me say on my club visits – all completed now, to every club – that fellowship is a necessary part of Rotary. But fellowship needs fellows! That’s where membership committees are needed. We are nearly breaking even for the year in District 5300 – having the same number of members in the district that we started with in July. To be exact, we are now less than ONE member per club of being even. This means we have made back most of the 10% of membership loss each year. To achieve the 3% overall growth I hope and believe we can, we need to work very hard NOW to recruit qualified Rotarians (not just "members") for each Rotary Club. Remember, for a club of 20, just ONE member more on July 1, 1999, than you had a year before reaches the goal! A club of 100 needs only THREE members more!

Everyone’s business becomes nobody’s business – unless someone carefully directs and orchestrates the effort. I suggest that "someone" should be your club’s membership chair. He or she needs to have a definite plan, a per-month schedule for recruiting new members, and specific people should be assigned the specific targets. Have a weekly meeting of your membership committee, setting goals, comparing notes, reporting progress and lack of progress, identifying prospective members, and assigning someone to follow up on each. Make it your business to bring a prospective member’s name to your membership committee if you don’t feel comfortable contacting the person directly, so someone from your club can make an invitation. Walk into an unfamiliar business in your town, sound out the owner or manager about his her availability or desire to participate in Rotary. Host a Chamber mixer one month at your club’s meeting place, and have Rotary literature scattered about in really obvious places. Remember, the only reason YOU are in Rotary is because someone asked you to join – not because you sent in a box top and twenty-five cents!

Please send in your QUALITY ROTARY PROGRAM reports. The District Conference is less than two months away. Every single club I’ve seen in the District has at least one thing it does well. Let’s hear about it! Share your good ideas and successful programs with others, so they may be more successful. Adopt someone else’s program – and improve it. Come to the District Conference and celebrate your club’s successes! YOU deserve a party for YOUR contribution to the betterment of your community, both local and this world.

--Lee Mothershead

Dr. Mel Anderson, a member of Alhambra Rotary since 1947, recently became a Major Donor to the Rotary Foundation. But this isn’t the first time he’s made a contribution. Mel is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow. Then Dr. Anderson realized his long-held stock in Exxon had appreciated many times over, with resulting tax consequences that could be severe. He donated the stock to the Foundation – a substantial contribution that will do much good world-wide, and that bypasses capital gains taxes on its growth. As a pathologist, Dr. Anderson knows the devastation of polio much too well, so he designated the funds to be applied to PolioPlus Partners. What an inspiration to others in the District holding stock that has greatly appreciated!

Mel also lends his support to the Alzheimer’s Association by participating in the annual Alzheimer’s Walk, and encourages other Alhambra Rotarians to do the same. He has first-hand knowledge of this disease too, as his wife, Coralie, has it and has been confined to a nursing facility for some time. Dr. Anderson is there every day, feeding, caring, and loving her. Alhambra Rotarians are extremely proud to have Mel Anderson as one of their members.

Tim Siu, one of our outstanding Past District Governors and another Alhambra Rotarian, chairs the District’s Permanent Fund Initiative. He would be delighted to get any club more information on the Major Donor program, recognizing contributions over $25,000. Dr. Anderson’s donation was matched by matching grants to stretch it even further around the world of Rotary charities.

We begin – and end – this month with golf, for Rotarians who like to pick on that little white ball. Diamond Bar Rotary is holding its 12^th Annual Don Nardella Memorial Charity Golf Tournament on Monday, March 22, at Via Verde Country Club in San Dimas, celebrating the City of Diamond Bar’s tenth birthday. Call president Karl Rosen (909.861.2606) to join.