Receiving my badge.

Now I truly feel like a member. I have my plaque and my badge. So far I figure I am half way through my red badge of courage. After surviving work day in 90 degree heat I figure I should have more than 10 points. I must admit when I rolled out of bed Saturday morning moaning and groaning I was not looking forward to clearing any property for any reason. After I got there the friendliness of my fellow workers changed all that and it was more like a game, a very hot game, but still fun. Rotarians are definitely special and the better I get to know all of you, the more I realize how fortunate I am to be a member of a very select group.

Thursday April 24, 2008

I'm well on may way to having a real badge. I have 2 whole points and a possible 3 points if my invited guest comes. Although the meetings are at O dark hundred, I find myself looking forward to them. I had to scoot out very early the week before and it felt like I was missing something the rest of day. See you at Rotary At Work Day Saturday. I even bought a pair of gloves and a couple masks. I have a beautiful brown thumb so I know that won't be the best assignment for me. Actually, my best job is as manager but I heard that job was taken.

Here it is my second week as a Rotarian. I promised I would do my blog the same day as the meeting. You can see how far I got with that. Thanks to Rob Weinberg I am now an expert blogger and I will remember to use the spell check feature.

Every meeting is better than the next one now that I am getting acquainted with all of you. It's such a joy to be part of a group that is both fun and dedicated. I've signed up to help with clean up day and am looking forward to the reverse drawing. A little birdie told me that if I bought a ticket I would win the big prize and believe it. After all a visitor won the 50/50 drawing this week so there's hope for me. I do believe in miracles.

Arlene

Arlene Cawthorne joins Paul Gorman as a Red Badge Rotarian

What a priviledge to be able to continue the blog that Paul started about our experiences as a newby in the club. Tuesday, April 1, 2008 I was inducted with my sponsor Inan Linton at my side. How ironic that my special day was also April Fool's Day but beleive me I am no fool for joining this very special group. The energy in the room at 7:00 am or what I call o'dark hundred, is invigorating. No snoozing in our group.

So why did I decide to become a member. Let me name the reasons:

Community involvement
Worldwide involvement
Service to others
Good friends
Fun and laughter

Who Am I? First of all I am not a R.I.N.O. I want to be involved with Rotary and give my red badge to someone else as soon as possible. I have lived in RB for 37 years with my husband of 46 years. Dave and I brought our 2 children up here who are know grown and still live right here in RB. My husband is a retired pilot from FED EX and owns a business selling upgrade kits for Dodge Vipers. His wife, who me, wanted a Viper when he retired. I am a person of many professions; the most recent as executive director of the Rancho Bernardo Joslyn Center. What a wonderful opportunity. The Joslyn Center provides activities and education to active mature adults. In other words, the AARP crowd. Gee, how many of us qualify.

Do you know...?

Today I received 3 Rotarian magazines in the mail. These are the first that I received, so I had to take a moment to look through one. I learned something almost immediately. Do you know what the object of Rotary is? I hadn't thought about that much, but it was printed right there in the magazine, and reminded me very well about why I joined in the first place.

The Object of Rotary is, to me, so important that it actually prompted me to write this blog, just so I could share it with you. So here it is, verbatim:

First. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;

Second. High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupation, and the dignifying of each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to serve society;

Third. The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian's personal, business, and community life;

Fourth. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

To me, these are worth while and easy objectives to buy in to. Rotary is a means to an end, and as an organization can facilitate multiple goals and objectives to make the world a better place than we found it - "The Object of Rotary."

Always wear your Rotary pin

I'm a commercial real estate broker in San Diego. As part of my job I have a lot of meetings and meet a lot of people. While doing so, I've found that it is important to establish common ground with them because it helps us to get to know each other better. That's important.

So I've taken to wearing my little Rotary pin on my lapel. Twice now within just the past month people have asked me if that is a Rotary pin. They recognize it right away because they, too, are Rotarians. Immediately a rapport is generated that might otherwise not occur. We immediately have something in common. Further, it breaks down a lot of barriers because now we know that we share common values. After all, people do business with those whom they know, like, and trust. Having Rotary in common with others that I meet everyday goes a long way toward establishing that important bond of commonality.

This is better than a secret handshake! Always wear your Rotary pin!

By the way, I can be reached via e-mail at paul.gorman@svn.com, my Sperry Van Ness Commercial Real Estate Advisors e-mail address. Our web site is www.svn.com. And you may phone me at (858) 204-9547.

Until next time.....

We're baaaaack......

Well, it's good to be back after the holidays. As I mentioned before, I really missed those early morning meetings and all they had to offer.

This week's meeting was particularly interesting to me for a couple of reasons. First, one of our members recently passed away. Although I did not know him because he apparently became ill before I joined, I was very impressed by the outpouring of remembrance for the guy by the RB Sunrise Rotary. He was clearly highly respected and loved. That, of course, reflects right back on the club itself.

At the meeting we also had a guest speaker who was not a Rotarian, but was a local entrepreneur. A physical therapist by training and occupation, he owns his own gym and does personal training as well. His excellent speech motivated me to high a personal trainer to tune up my own routine and to set some goals. I have a much better understanding of what is going on as I get older, and what I can do about it.

Finally, as a Red Badge Rotarian, one of the things on my checklist of things to do toward full membership is to attend a Board of Directors meeting. I checked that off tonight. I particularly enjoyed the wine and snacks! The meeting impressed me as cheerful, rather loose (we didn't have THAT much wine), but very productive. I got a good sense of what goes on to keep this great organization running.

Good to be back!