During the past couple of months, we have completed eight focus groups plus an online survey. Forty-one percent of our club participated in a focus group or survey.  We also heard from experts on each topic to help us choose our One Relevant It, a long-term project that Downtown Rotary will be known for.  We thank you for all your engagement and especially your thoughtful comments. 

 

Many of you mentioned that you felt both projects – cleaning up the Big Sioux and mentoring – were worthy and deserving of our attentions.  The final vote had 153 of 296 members voting and the tally was 59% choosing mentoring and 41% selecting the Big Sioux. 

 

So the official One Relevant It will indeed be mentoring, the details of which will be worked out beginning at the first planning session in July.  Who will we partner with?  How many groups already mentor?  We want to offer mentoring for multiple populations so we need to do this research.  Kids, recently released offenders, start-up businesses, etc. are all on the table.  Please let us know if you are willing and interested in helping to establish our approach.

 

Many of you may know that mentoring is a great fit in Mayor TenHaken’s One Sioux Falls. We have also spoken with the Mayor about his plans for the Big Sioux.  He feels this is definitely a long-term play and requires state officials, and other agency involvement. That said, there were such passionate comments about Rotary involvement with clean water, we feel we should form an ad hoc committee to at least study the issue and gain more information.  If anyone would like to be a part of this, please let us know.

 

So while this year may be spent in planning rather than doing, we think the outcomes will be well worth our efforts.  Jessie Schmidt, our incoming President on July 1, 2019 will spearhead the planning process.  Then in 2020, under Jason Herrboldt’s leadership, we will begin to execute the plan.