DOWAGIAC — As the local service organization inches toward the 100th anniversary of its birth, members of the Dowagiac Rotary Club are seeking to reinvent the club in an effort to better define its purpose in the community.

The local service organization is currently in the process of making major changes to the way the club operates, from how its members are introduced to the workings of the club to what kind of responsibilities its members will have to the community. The changes come following a “visioning” meeting the club hosted earlier this month, where local Rotarians worked with members of its district to define what changes the local Rotary chapter should make.

The process was kicked off by club president John Seculoff, who began discussing the idea with other Rotary members in the spring, shortly before the beginning of his term this summer. The purpose of the changes are to, first and foremost, establish a core mission that the service club should be known for, he said.

“If you ask 20 of our members about what is Rotary’s primary purpose in the community, you will probably get 20 different answers in return,” Seculoff said. “We want that purpose to be more defined.”

What is Rotary?

Meeting once a week at noon inside the dining hall of the Dowagiac Elks Lodge, the members of the venerable club hail from throughout the Cass County area, where they either reside or make their living. While their professions may vary greatly — from attorneys to government officials to retirees — they come together for an hour every week to socialize, network and, most importantly, to help further Rotary International’s mission of “service above self.”

The Dowagiac chapter, founded in 1920, is just one of 33,000 Rotary chapters operating today, in more than 200 countries. Around 1.2 million Rotary members — known as Rotarians — are currently active, volunteering their time and talents to serve their communities and the world. The Dowagiac club is part of the international organization’s 6360 District, which includes around 60 clubs throughout 15 counties in southwest Michigan.

Among the members of the Dowagiac club is Barbara Groner, who has been a member since 2000, she said. Groner, a retired Cassopolis educator who currently serves as the community liaison with Dowagiac retirement home The Timbers of Cass County, is one of Dowagiac Rotary’s most active members, and has been responsible for recruiting many new members to its ranks in recent years.

“As a retiree, the biggest thing I get out of being a member is networking,” Groner said about why she is involved with the club. “It’s getting to know the people in my community who are in various professions and walks of life better, and understanding how things work in our community, and helping out. I’m service minded — always have been. I like people, and I like visiting with them face to face. I’m one of those people who don’t use the drive-thru at the bank, because I want to talk with someone across the counter.”

A history of service above self

It was this same spirit of camaraderie and kinship that sparked the creation of the international organization more than a century ago.

The first Rotary Club was established by Chicago Attorney Paul Percy Harris in 1905. A native of Wisconsin, when Harris established his legal practice in the Windy City in 1896, he was a stranger to just about everyone. In order to connect with his fellow professionals, he began meeting on a regular basis for lunch with a group of businessmen in order to socialize.

“That’s how it ended up being called Rotary, because [the meetings] rotated from office to office,” Groner said.

When Harris was elected president of the Chicago Club in 1907, he decided to elevate the club’s purpose and mission to something beyond mere fraternization.

“There is some debate on what the club’s first service project was,” Groner said. “There was a local physician whose horse was killed in an accident. Without a horse, he could not do house calls. So, this group of Rotarians said, ‘let’s get this guy a horse,’ so they donated and got him a horse so he could continue his practice, because doctors were not huge wage earners then.”

As additional Rotary clubs opened and the influence of the organization grew, so did the scope of its mission. Today, members are urged to not only think locally, but globally as well.

The largest service project to which Rotary has committed itself over the past 30 years has been to the worldwide eradication of polio. Since taking on the project in 1988, the number of diagnosed polio cases has gone from 388,000 that year to only 14 this year, Groner said.

“We are so close to having it eradicated,” she said. “It will be only the second disease eradicated, after small pox.”

Serving the people of Dowagiac

Members of the Dowagiac Rotary  club have donated to several other international projects as well, including helping purchase biosand water filters for the Dominican Republic and assisting with the Haiti Relief Fund.

Of course, the club has not lost focus of the needs of their neighbors close to home. The club is responsible for the construction of the Rotary Villa Senior Housing center in Dowagiac. It helps pay for scholarships awarded to local graduating seniors every year. The organization also sponsors the Dowagiac Union High School Interact Club, a service organization for students.

Groner has been heavily involved with Rotary on the local level, as a former club president and as secretary of the club’s charitable foundation board, as well as at the district level. She has also participated in more than a dozen international service projects in places such as Africa, India and Japan.

“As with any service organization, you are going to benefit from [Rotary] the more you are a benefit to others,” Groner said. “I am more enriched because I am involved in Rotary.”

People interested in joining Rotary are encouraged to attend one of its weekly meetings, where they may enjoy a free meal and see how the club conducts its business. To officially join, people must be sponsored by a current Rotary member, something that many, including Groner, would be more than happy to do.

“We are not a secret organization,” she said. “We do not have secrets — though sometimes I think we are not the greatest at tooting our own horn.”

A new vision

On Nov. 2, members of the local club met with Renee Merchant and Jim Goodwin, two former Rotary district governors, for a three-hour session to determine new priorities for the service organization.

Among these new priorities were creating a new member orientation program, to better inform incoming Rotarians about the purpose and function of the club; adding an after-work meeting once per month to the schedule; coming up with a new club leader development program; working more with the high school Interact students; and developing a signature community service project that club members can hang their hats on, so to speak.

“[The changes] will help us attract and retain members, which will help us as we redefine ourselves,” Seculoff said. “If we are going to be known as THE service organization for the community, we will need the community’s participation.”

The club also sent out surveys to its members, which will give members who could not attend the visioning session a chance to share their ideas with the rest of the club.

Seculoff hopes to get some fresh faces more involved with the leadership of the local club as well. The club president said he believes the changes can help Dowagiac Rotary remain fresh and relevant for another century of service to the community.

“It’s an exciting time to be a Rotarian,” Seculoff said. “If anyone is interested, now is the time to get your voice heard about what we can be doing for the community. Now is the time to be a part of this.”