Rotary Informer

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Fall Leaf Walk next Tues. Oct. 6 at 3:00 PM -- Join NCMC and Little Traverse Conservancy next Tuesday, October 6 from 3:00 - 4:00 PM for a guided, one-mile walk through the Conservancy's newest property, the Offield Family Viewlands (located at 995 Hideaway Valley Drive, Harbor Springs--former site of the Little Traverse Bay Golf Club). This free event is open to the public. Let's safely gather together and have a Rotary presence! Please click here to register.

Winter Sports Park walk next Sat. Oct. 10 at 3:00 PM -- If you love walks, you're in luck! Following the Fall Leaf Walk next Tuesday, Rotary is organizing an informal gathering / walk around the Winter Sports Park next Sat. October 10 at 3:00 PM. This is the site of our Centennial Service Project! Come check it out, hike the hill, tour the facilities, etc. You are encouraged to meet with fellow Rotarians before or after the walk, for a socially-distanced lunch or cocktails.

Roadside cleanup update -- This past Saturday, Sept. 26 we had one of the largest turnouts for any cleanup we've ever had! 19 people -- thank you so much!! Together we collected 35 bags of trash and got our three-mile stretch of US-31 looking sparkling again. Hope we can do another cleanup in the spring.

Pedal for Polio update -- This past Saturday, Sept. 26 we had 6 riders participate in a Pedal for Polio bike ride. Thank you to all who participated and/or donated.

Calendar sales update -- 13% have been sold so far! Special recognition is in order for Jeff Bodette (has sold 28 calendars), Neil Bidwell (has sold 23 calendars) and John Emery (has sold 17 calendars). Thank you!!

As you sell your calendars, you may drop off your calendar money to three locations: (1) Mail it to our club at PO Box 61, Petoskey, MI 49770. (2) Drop it off at Harbor/Brenn office, across the street from Culver's. There's a mail slot in the front door to slide your money through. (3)  Drop it off at Karen Ragland's home. Please contact her first!

PROGRAM

Today we were joined by Carl Treleaven from sunny St. Petersburg, Florida. Carl is a Rotarian and leader of the Microfinance Empowerment Foundation (MEF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in St. Petersburg. Check out www.empowermentfdn.org to learn more.

Carl gave a very interesting and thought-provoking presentation on MEF's approach to international development projects. Traditionally, when Rotarians and other international aid groups step into a developing community to assist with a problem (ex: installing a water well), they do just that -- they arrive, fix the problem and leave...only to return months or years later to see the problem has resurfaced (the well is broken).

The problem with this approach is that it doesn't create any real buy-in from the beneficiaries. Nor does it train/educate beneficiaries on how to sustain the solution.

Carl's organization seeks to prevent this by focusing on 'empowerment' and making international aid / development as much of a business transaction as possible (not charitable), and making sure beneficiaries "have skin in the game." As such, MEF design products and services at a scale economically-developing populations can afford. 

MEF has a six-step empowerment model:

1) Local leadership

2) Local labor

3) Local training

4) Local funding

5) Micro-finance

6) Outside groups fill the funding gap

So what is the best role for non-profits in development? Carl suggested five things:

1) Provide training, education and scholarships.

2) Fund research.

3) Pilot ideas.

4) Network with people.

5) Not think/act like a charity.