Rotarians,
As we roll into the new year it is only natural to look back at 2025 and look forward to 2026. As we look backwards, we see a wonderful Rotary Summer Social, a great Duck Race, an awesome Christmas Party and another successful UTV Holiday Light Parade. We live in a community that is growing and vibrant, with the inevitable growing pains. This is however much better than the alternative of a depressed and stagnate community. We mourn the passing of two great Rotarians, Bruce Turner and Carrie Scheid.
One of the transitions is the Idaho Falls mayor position as Mayor Casper hands the baton to Mayor Burtenshaw. Regarding the Mayor’s office, the State of the City speech is at noon on the 21st. To encourage attendance, we will not be having a noon Rotary Club meeting on that day. However, we are working on putting together a social for that evening so please stay tuned. Remember, this is a fundraiser for the Mayor’s Scholarship Fund, a fund we will find out more about from our Club meeting speaker on the 28th.
Also, this year the Rotary district convention will be in Idaho Falls. As the biggest club in the district, it is incumbent on us to Unite for Good and step up and help.
So, here's to looking forward to a great year, with great people, in a great community!
In Fellowship,
Stephen Boorman, President
Rotary Club of Idaho Falls
Rotarians,
As we transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas, we are in the middle of the holiday season, a wonderful time of the year. This is a great time of the year for family and community, so enjoy it. Our Rotary schedule gets lighter with only two noon meetings this month. We will get to hear from our District Governor and learn about the history of the Salvation Army.
I recently finished a great book called "Inspired Public Service" by Steve Wright. One of those books that if I hadn't known the author I probably wouldn't have read. The author was the Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration for the first 13 years of this century. The book contains a lot of great principles with one of the themes being that public service is harder than private industry, as private industry success is based on being financially successful. While public service has more objectives and they are harder to define because “non-for-profits exist primarily to create a better life for the public than would occur in their absence".
Steve does provide three public sector values: trustworthiness, operational excellence, and stewardship. A little different than "to provide humanitarian service, promote peace, and advance goodwill globally through a fellowship of business and professional leaders" but with a lot of overlap.
Another theme of the book is that the measure of public service is the satisfaction of the stakeholders. With full acknowledgement that every group has many stakeholders and measuring satisfaction can be difficult.
Therefore, as we go through this holiday season and while we unite for good let’s enjoy the community of others. Let’s also look outward and see how we as Rotarians will be able to make life better for the public, provide trustworthy excellent responsible service, and enhance the satisfaction of our community in the coming year.
In Fellowship,
Stephen Boorman, President
Rotary Club of Idaho Falls
Rotary At The Idaho Falls Festival of Trees
Michelle Ziel-Dingman, Executive Director of The Snake River Animal Shelter - "An Update"
President thoughts for November
In Fellowship,
Stephen Boorman, President
Rotary Club of Idaho Falls
Rotarians,
As we move into October, the Rotary International theme is "Economic and Community Development". Our program chair this month is Brad Cramer and he has some great speakers for us. With topics ranging from a conversation on civil discourse, to talking about celebrating our 250th Anniversary as a country, and community growth topics thrown in. Topped off with our own Carrie Athay talking about the impact of the arts.
As we approach an election season it is important to remember that our economy and community are built on the bedrock of the ability to talk and work with all our neighbors. Life would be quite boring if we were all the same. An election also raises the question of the purpose of government. For me that is “to provide an environment in which private industry can prosper” with “private industry” including the tranquil enjoyment of our private life as well as our commercial interest. Or, as stated in some old document, “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty”.
This brings us back around to economic and community development, which is built on that civil discourse that Rotary does such a great job of fostering. Which is why many Rotary clubs and/or Rotarians are working with Braver Angels a group working to help America heal its current divide (https://braverangels.org/rotary/).
In summary, I am grateful for our great club where we can "Unite For Good" and have discussions that provide for greater "Economic and Community Development".
In Fellowship,
Stephen Boorman, President
Rotary Club of Idaho Falls
President thoughts for September
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose”, a quote that applies to seasons of the year and seasons of life. As I write this on Labor Day weekend, this weekend seems to be the most definitive season of the year. That clean break between summer and fall, vacations and school, camping and school sports, hiking and hunting. It is the time when we know we will have shorter and cooler days, the garden is about done, it is a mental shift. We are now headed into fall, a season I love, crisp mornings and warm afternoons, a season that just smells different.
Now of course the date that starts summer is Memorial Day. So just how did the last Monday in May and the first Monday of September get chosen?
According to google: Memorial Day began as Decoration Day in 1868, with May 30th chosen by General John A. Logan because flowers would be in bloom across the country. The date was originally selected for decorating Civil War soldiers' graves but was changed by Congress in 1968 to the last Monday in May, taking effect in 1971, to create a three-day weekend and honor all fallen U.S. service members. While The date for Labor Day was chosen for a practical reason: the first Monday in September was a date that fell between the July 4th and Thanksgiving holidays, providing a much-needed mid-year break with good weather for the proposed parades and picnics that honored the labor movement. The first celebration was on September 5, 1882, in New York City, a date chosen by the Central Labor Union, which later changed it to the first Monday in September.
With that bit of trivia, thanks to Elaine for a timely bulletin to let us know what is happening in our club. September is education month so support our students and thank a teacher if you get a chance. Also, always we are working to get great speakers each week, attendance has been good through the summer and should just improve. Finally, we are still emphasizing membership recruitment this year.
As we "Unite For Good", I am looking forward to a great year.
In Fellowship,
Stephen Boorman, President
Rotary Club of Idaho Falls
Service Above Self
Idaho Falls, ID 83402
United States of America