Dear Fellow Rotarians,

 

Welcome to the Saratoga Rotary 2025-26 year. It’s my honor to have been chosen as your President this year and I will do my best to make this an exciting and successful one. A huge thanks goes out to Chuck and all the previous Presidents who have made our club the vigorous and successful club that it is today. I’m also very appreciative of my new board members and am looking forward to working with them this year.

 

As many of you heard, we had some last-minute changes at Rotary International with Francesco Arezzo, a member of the Rotary Club of Ragusa, Italy being recently chosen as President due to the unexpected resignation of RI President-elect Mário César Martins de Camargo on 8 June. Our theme for the year, though, will remain Unite for Good, which calls on Rotary members to be a force for unity in a world increasingly divided by politics, geography, and ideology. Through service projects, Rotary brings together people of every background — across races, religions, and professions — in a shared mission to do good in their communities, which is something that our club has excelled at and I’m looking forward to continuing this year.

 

Our first meeting will be at the Community Center on July 11, and I look forward to seeing you there. We have scheduled Brian Adams as our speaker that day, he is an award-winning actor, comedian, author, playwright, television and radio talk show host based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He will share stories of some of the celebrities he has met, as well as his time working for KTVU and on several other local and national networks. This is just the beginning as we work to further improve our lunches.

 

Spicing up our lunches is just one part of my effort to bring more energy into the club. I also want to raise our visibility in the community, through being at more community events and doing more service projects. This includes working with West Valley College to start a Rotaract club this year. I’ve also met with several other newly installed Presidents that are interested in doing joint projects with us. Most importantly, both the city of Saratoga and our club are celebrating our 70th anniversary this year, so we have started discussions on how to recognize these achievements (let me know if you have ideas and/or want to help).

 

Lastly, I just want to remind everyone to fill out the survey we sent about your thoughts on our club. You can access it here, bit.ly/4kllu6t, or with the QR code below. There is so much that we can do to make this an even better club, but we need to know what you want to see to ensure we continue to meet your needs. Or you can reach out to me directly and let me know your thoughts.

 

Cheers, David