Speaker Kathryn Randall last week described her work as a Professional Organizer with the specialty of working with seniors who are beginning “rightsizing” and “decluttering” for functional and safety reasons. “Afterwards, do a full house inventory and send it to one’s children.” Kathryn’s mantra is “Always be Cleaning.” She focused particularly on the disposition of “collections. Her view is that very few collections have increased in value-children rarely want them– so keep no more than 10% of your accumulation. Lightening the load of all possessions takes time. Don’t rush – but do not wait for a crisis when you may not be able to participate in decisions. Everyone should make a list of important documents, using a suggested form that was distributed to the membership.

• [fancy_link color=”black” link=”https://nbrotary.org/kathy-randall-video/”]Watch Video[/fancy_link]

Bob Parkinson (Lexington Park club) began his talk with comments about his recent visit with the new Rotary International Japanese president SakuJi Tanaka whose theme for the year is “Peace Through Service.” At the local level this means people using their time and skills to help other people—each doing what he does best.

“In our district there are 60+ Rotary clubs,” said Bob. ”Annapolis is the largest with 162 members, and there are six clubs with under 10 members.” During the past year, membership admissions and attritions have both been about 240 people, hence a static membership account. Bob hopes that the North Bethesda Club can raise its membership to 45 during the coming year, and that other clubs will be able to add to their ranks. District 7620 will continue to support the International Rotary project of conquering polio with funding for vaccinations, and our District is also obligated for the completion of a grant to Gallaudet College in D. C. This $500,000 project began about 15 years ago with a grant of $250,000 from a single donor, and today there is $65,000 still outstanding

• [fancy_link color=”black” link=”https://nbrotary.org/dg-video-2/”]Watch the video from his speech[/fancy_link]

As advertised, a good bit of time was spent last week by Lasse Syversen on a description of the club’s new membership roster. During his presentation, it turned out that only a few club members present used our web site, all of which prompted Lasse to express his opinion as to whether or not we should be offering this membership benefit. It is your bulletin editor’s opinion that more members will use the web site now that it contains our membership roster.

President Gary Lett expressed his concern about the club’s recent decline in attendance at club meetings. For the most part, this has been due to the fact that a number of members (including club directors and officers) are not attending our Friday meetings or making up at other clubs due to work conflicts. Assistant District Governor Greg Wimms  was on hand and spoke about membership, noting that we would be getting help from- George Nash.