Summer has arrived and the Rotary year 2023-2024 is coming to an end. Now it’s time, in the role of president, to look at how our year went, before we move to the summer vacation, cut the lawn at the rotary park, and prepare for the coming new rotary year.
The Rovaniemi Rotary Club’s year progressed in accordance with the rotary’s annual theme “Create Hope in the World” and our own annual plan. We achieved almost all of our goals and we are also developing new projects over the course of the year. This year, we accelerated our cooperation with the Santa Claus Rotary Club and held no fewer than seventeen joint events.
Right from the beginning of the season, we rebuilt the beloved Northern Lights wicket together with the Rovaniemi Santa Claus Rotary Club, townspeople and partners. The opening of the Northern Lights wicket was held in October in a prestigious society, and district governor Petri Keränen awarded the rotary clubs of Rovaniemi, as a representative of the president of Rotary International, for the first time in his term an award significant service award of outstanding and significant community efforts. The Northern Light wicket was also of interest to the local media, and articles were published about it in Lapin kansa, Uusi Rovaniemi and Rotary Norden magazine.
Reconstruction of the Northern Light wicket
We also participated in the traditional way in Rovaniemi’s Old Market in charity work by running Rotary Roulette, and we also collected a nice amount of donations in the End Polio Now fundraiser for charity. As a new opening, we collaborated with the Rotary Club of Kuusamo by selling great annual calendars, the proceeds of which we donated to End Polio fundraiser.
For the people of Rovaniemi and those visiting the city, this year we have also maintained an open bookshelf in the Sampokeskus, and we have taken care of the maintenance of the Rotarian forest park. The area of Rotary Park and Northern Light wicket was developed based on feedback from the townspeople.
This season, together with the Santa Claus Rotary Club, we decided to invest especially in joint company and community visits. Thanks to LapIT, BRP Finland, Lapland district of the Finnish Red Cross, Rovaniemen Palloseura, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi Airport, Norrhydro, Kunnon Paikka and Kolpeneen tuki- ja osaamiskeskus for inspiring and motivating visits! Rovaniemi clubs also organized a trip to Helsinki, during which they got to know the parliament and several other places.
Regarding youth exchange activities, Maija came back to Finland from Colombia for a youth exchange and we got to hear about her experiences in the world. We prepared our exchange student Hilma’s trip to Australia for the coming season and we are expecting an exchange student from Australia at the turn of the year for the coming season.
At the weekly meetings held by Rotarians, we have been able to hear current presentations from our own brothers and sisters, as well as from guests they have asked to perform. I am especially happy about the increase in the number of members in our club and the arrival of four new inspiring Rotarians, Victoria, Antti, Matias and Vilma.
We have shared more information about our activities and communicated on Facebook and on our website in both Finnish and English. Happily, our meetings and meetings have had guests from Singapore, Spain and Great Britain as well. Singaporean brothers and sisters came to visit us both in autumn and spring. We greeted our Italian brothers and sisters together with Santa Claus, which certainly offered memorable experiences even for the youngest members of the family.
To develop our club’s operations and to support planning for the upcoming season, we organized a member survey at the end of the season, the results of which were encouraging. About 1/3 of our members responded to the survey and the recommendation index (NPS, Net Promoter Score) reached 64. In the open feedback, our sense of community, relaxed atmosphere, good atmosphere and openness garnered praise. A special development target for future operations is the development of fundraising. It’s good to continue our joint charity work!
Net promoter score (NPS)
On behalf of the Rovaniemi Rotary Club, I would like to wish you all and your loved ones a relaxing summer time. Exciting rotary moments for the coming season’s president Toni and the new officers for the coming rotary year. Thanks to everyone for the excellent cooperation in creating hope for the world!
Manu Pajuluoma
President of the rotary year 2023-2024
Rotary Club of Rovaniemi
The basis of Rotary activities are local Rotary clubs, which bring together influencers to do good in their own community. As a Rotarian, you can implement meaningful charity projects near and far. You can find more information about us and our contact information on our website and Facebook:
https://rotary.fi/rovaniemenrotaryklubi/en/
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