Weekly Meetings matter!  Roswell Rotary Club (RRC) incoming President Trummie Lee Patrick III made it clear that his path to membership growth was going to be made with outstanding weekly meetings. With deliberate attention not only to the speaker and their topic but also the important weekly components: starting/ending on time (respect), introducing our visitors (hospitality), Happy Dollars (celebration), announcements (service projects), introducing the member 1-minute “Rotary Why” video AND, because RRC is celebrating our 75^th anniversary, a little 1951 history lesson.  President Trummie Lee inherited a commitment to outstanding food, room set-up and clean-up along with the sound system and technology from Past President Nancy Alterman. 

Our goal was to boost our average lunch attendance by 10% month-over-month. That seems to be happening!

There is now a monthly cadence for two topics:

•  Honoring a Hometown Hero (Veteran, 1^st Responder, Teacher)
• Recognizing a Student and Teacher of the Year from each of the 16 Roswell area private and public schools.

President Trummie Lee III ramped it up another notch by having his Board, past presidents and all club members officially be part of the Membership Committee. Everyone is expected to invite friends, family and co-workers to meetings, service events and/or gatherings! He established a contest: For each newly installed member, the sponsoring RRC member will be entered into a drawing to have their RRC dues be paid by him. 

Since July 1, RRC has hosted the following speakers:

• Attorney General of Georgia Chris Carr who discussed goals of Georgia, especially about Ending Human Trafficking and how to better support our first responders. That same meeting we Honored a Hometown Hero Veteran and stuffed 42 backpacks with school supplies for one of our middle schools.
• A proud standing room only crowd for dream meeting of President Trummie Lee III’s father, Past RRC President Trummie Patrick II who passed earlier this year. This meeting featured a panel of the five best football coaches for Roswell HS : Coach Ray Manus, Coach John Coen, Coach Wayne Smith, Coach Tim McFarlin ... moderated by Fellowship Football Coach John Thompson. The stories, local lore and obvious proof of intense respect and friendship were inspiring.
• Jenn Gray, talking about living "authentically" and faith leader Mike Linch about offering more encouragement vs. criticism

• 1996 Heisman Trophy recipient and Florida Gator/New Orleans Saint Quarterback Danny Wuerffel who is focused on elevating under-resourced neighborhoods across the Southeast through Desire Street Ministries

Future meetings will include hosting another panel of professionals but this time it will be the four brewery owners in Roswell, Governor and Chancellor Sonny Perdue, Senator Saxby Chambliss, and our 14 Interact Clubs - each giving a two-minute update for their service plans, Lt Governor Burke Jones, ESPN & College Football Expert Tony Barnhart. And, finally, we will have a surprise coach of a major college football program prior to Thanksgiving.

Adding new members is our goal because more members will equal more service projects.  Doing good is our mission locally, state-wide, regionally and internationally. With new members, we not only get new ideas but also new spheres of influence. President Trummie Lee’s focus on the meetings seems to be working for we hope to induct nine new members soon.