Planning Meeting 2026 2027

Rotary Club of Houston

Planning Meeting for 2026-27

Saturday, June 27, 2026

Goodwill Industries
1140 West Loop North
Houston, TX 77055

8:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Coffee and continental breakfast

8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Planning sessions

Fellow Rotarians,

First of all, I want to thank you all for your continued support and commitment to the Rotary Club of Houston and for your willingness to serve as officers, directors and committee chairs for the upcoming Rotary year. As we kick off this new year, it’s very important that we come together as a team to discuss where we are as Club currently and where we’d like the Club to be going forward. While I have lots of ideas about ways to improve the Club, this is OUR club and I want to hear from each of you about what’s working and what’s not, and any suggestions and concerns you may have.

There are so many areas that we could consider but, for our purposes on the 27^th, I’ve identified five critical topics that I want us to focus on:

1. Membership and engagement
2. Weekly Meetings
3. Legacy Service Projects
4. Community Service
5. Fundraising

We could spend hours discussing each of these, but I plan to keep to a very tight agenda in order to end the meeting by noon. In order for that to happen, I want to give each of you a homework assignment. I’d like for you to take a few minutes on each of these topics and consider:

1. Membership and engagement: What can we do to improve the new member experience? How can we improve the red-blue badge process? Do we even need a red-blue badge program? How can we get new (and existing) members more engaged?
2. Weekly meetings: What do you like and/or dislike about our weekly meetings? What impression of Rotary and our Club do guests and our speakers leave with? How can our meetings facilitate members getting to know each other better? What about the mix of speakers we have?
3. Legacy Service Projects: Are all of our legacy projects still viable? How do we measure the impact/benefit to the community of our projects? Do we have enough members to actively continue all of our projects?
4. Community Service: Rotary is a service organization. Should we be doing more local service projects to support our community? Would doing so potentially increase member engagement? How do we encourage (recruit) members to participate in our service projects?
5. Fundraising: In order to pay for our projects, we MUST do fundraising in order for the Foundation to be able to support us and our Community Service Budget. Should we abandon the Distinguished Citizen Award and find another major fundraising opportunity? Should we consider multiple smaller fundraisers throughout the year? If so, do we risk “fundraising fatigue? How do we get member “buy-in” on the importance of supporting our fundraising efforts.

Clearly, if we tried to discuss all of these questions in one sitting it would be impossible. So, what I’d like you to do is share with me any thoughts you have on any or all of the five topics. I’ll compile what everyone sends me and keep your ideas anonymous if you wish. My email address is rcoh2026Tom@gmail.com . Your input will be greatly appreciated.

I believe in Rotary and what it stands for and I love the Rotary Club of Houston. However, I personally don’t see our Club growing and being successful if we continue plodding along, simply doing things the way we’ve always done them. In some cases, it may just need a little tweaking here and there. But, in other areas, we may need to rethink, revamp and shake things up a bit. Times are changing and so is our membership and the Rotary Club of Houston must adapt.

Please make plans to join us in person on Saturday, June 27^th. I know your time is valuable, especially Saturday mornings. However, we have an important responsibility as leaders of our Club and this planning session is a critical step in working as a team to make the coming year a huge success. I look forward to working with each and every one of you.

Yours in Rotary Service

Tom Vann

713 824-4563