Steve's Farewell Speech!
Jul 10, 2015
Changeover President 2014-2015 Steve Smith
Steve's Farewell Speech!

It’s difficult to believe that it has been one year since I had the privilege of taking the oath of office as President of the Rotary Club of Toronto. And what a year it has been! I noted in my inaugural address that I believed it is the job of the President to work along with a talented group of people to make the Rotary Club of Toronto even stronger by year end. Thanks to the Board of Directors, the committees and all our members, I believe that we have achieved that goal. 

The primary objective this year was to continue to implement the Strategic Plan. A strategic planning committee was created in 2012 under the supervision of Sandy Boucher. The committee, with feedback from the membership, identified six strategic drivers that are key to this clubs future success. These are: Engaged Membership, Inspired Communications, Effective Committees, Strong Foundation, Sustainable Finances and Governance. Over the past couple of years the focus of this club has been the implementation of the first two drivers, Engaged Membership and Inspired Communications. The membership committee has made great progress in implementing strategy. For example, the “New Members” program has been very successful in engaging new members in our club. Initiatives are progressing to increase our membership through the referral networks of Rotarians in our club. There is also an initiative to attract corporate membership as well. The Marketing and Communications Committee has also made great progress this year, in particular, on the Social Media front. We are now connected not just through the website, but we now communicate on Facebook and Twitter and we continue to develop our internal and external communications. This is a cornerstone to keeping our current membership engaged and attracting new members.

The implementation of these two strategic drivers was initiated last year and the Strategic Planning Committee, headed by incoming resident David Hetherington, continues to oversee implementation. This year we have started to focus on Effective Committees and a task force, headed by VP Susan Hunter, has outlined a comprehensive strategy which will be implemented over the next year.

Read more about Steve's year under Stories on the homepage.....