As I compose this message on the first day of December, I am pleased to report that our district is off to our best start since the fall of 2020. We have welcomed 55 new members to the Michigan District so far this quarter and we find ourselves at a net +8 members which places us at 4th best in Optimist International. Our membership retention rate is currently 97.61%. The 1st and 4th quarters are difficult quarters to achieve positive membership growth. Let’s continue to ask and invite others to become a part of our organization and please remember that the $50 new member rebate incentive continues all year.
Overall, I feel that our 1st Quarter Gathering in Auburn Hills in November was a success and I would like to thank our Michigan District Team and club members for making that happen. The breakout sessions were informative and entertaining, as was the panel discussion featuring members from some of our smaller clubs. I believe that our members left with plenty of good information that needed to be shared with their fellow members. We were also able to showcase the wide variety of “Bee the Difference” clothing wear at the Gathering. The profit from these sales supports the OI Foundation. The ability to purchase merchandise on-line through our Michigan District website is underway. This is just one of the ways our members can support the Foundation and let’s keep those Dime A Day and Woman’s Philanthropy Council contributions coming.
December is a season of colorful pageantry, and it is heart-warming to see so many of our Optimist Clubs participating in their hometown holiday parades. Parades are a wonderful way for our clubs to spread our message of Optimism and promote their club. I had a lot of fun pulling the Optimist float at the Mt. Clemens and Pontiac parades. Multiple clubs came together to participate in these parades. I hope you had a lot of fun too, at your hometown parade. As we head into the 2nd quarter, I want to invite our members to attend the 2nd Q Gathering on February 21. This will be a half-day virtual gathering and will be FREE for everyone. Attendees will have a chance to hear from many of our district committees, play games and win prizes, too. You can register for the 2nd Q Gathering through our website. Please mark your calendars for our 3rd Quarter Gathering in East Lansing on May 16 and our 4th Quarter Summit in Interlochen during the weekend of August 28-30.
World Optimist Day 2026 is Thursday February 5. Please let me know what your club is planning to do in honor of this special day.
During the 1st quarter we spent a lot of effort on membership retention, and we will continue to do so for the remainder of the year. However, the 2nd quarter is also the time to start building new clubs for those communities that we are currently underserving. I would like to hear from you where or for whom we should build new clubs. We also need to start more JOI clubs in the coming year. We have incentives for building new adult and JOI clubs.
As I mentioned in one of my biweekly emails to our club officers, the Club Project Impact Report has replaced the Club Pride Report. By regularly entering your club’s events into the Club Impact Reports we will have a more accurate method to measure the impact our clubs have within their communities.
I look forward to seeing you in the 2nd Quarter and please continue to “Bee the Difference”.
