In presence of 3 founding members: Chris De Wolf, Koen Beckers, Ludo Vanhelleputte
Dear
friends,
Estimated
members of our Rotary E-club,
As I stand
before you today, I'm filled with a mixture of emotions:
- pride,
- gratitude,
- and a
hint of nostalgia
When I took
the decision of being the club president for the Rotary Year 2023 - 2024 I
really couldn’t image what an incredible journey it would become. I was very doubtful if I would be able to
meet the standards, but I made the jump. Looking now in the back view mirror I
only can conclude that yes it was the right decision to make!
In the past
year serving as your president, I’ll tried to give direction to our Rotary Club
with passion, dedication, and a shared vision of making a positive impact in
our community and beyond.
If I look
on the achievements made by our club, the only conclusion we can make today is
one of being pride.
1/ Our club
was enriched with wonderful and very motivated new club members, 6 in total for
this Rotary Year. On our general meeting
we were honored by the adjunct district governor Daniël with the fanion of fastest
growing club of the district 2130.
2/ We gain
new structure in our monthly meetings and gave a new “hold on” by introducing
the use of Polaris, the club agenda, the minutes of the meetings, ….
3/ Thanks
to the creative help of Guy, our honorary member, how decided to become full
member of our club by leaving his old Ostend club, we are now in possession
again of a very nice club fanion. Making
it possible for our members visiting physical clubs to also present our club colors.
4/
Furthermore we were able to complete the procedure of becoming a nonprofit
organization according to Belgian law. A
structure opening opportunities for our fundraising projects and the club
actions to come.
5/ We
created the fundraising commission and will make a maximum use and publicity
for our Trooper initiative.
6/ Our
social project in Mali joined hands with the project of houses of artemisia to
share efforts and knowledge in technics and results. A nice example of cross fertilization of a
Rotary initiative with a non-Rotary initiative.
7/ Looking
to the future and to Caroline as our incoming president, I already witnessed
the birth of very nice new initiatives, creative ideas and the continuum on the
projects and structures who were introduced this year. As for example our club was asked to be the
Godfather club of a new Satellite Club to be chartered soon and coming out of
the club of Aalst Noord. The focus of
this satellite club will be healthcare on generative illness.
All those
great achievements were only possible because of the confidence our club gave
me and foremost our unwavering support, commitment, and hard work.
Each and
everyone have been the driving force behind our club's success over the past
year and therefore I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude!
But I can’t
go around a special “thank you” for my wonderful club board members:
-
Thank
you, Arlen, for being the best club secretary a president can imagine. And also being my supporting external memory
for all our “to do”s.
-
Thank
you, Didier, who recently became member of our club, but who stood up
immediately to become our new treasurer after the decision made by Frank to
enjoy his well-deserved Rotary pension and honorary membership of our club.
-
Thank
you, Karin, who as past president, was always ready for any question I might
have had and looking for the best supplier for the making of our physical
version of the club fanion.
-
Thank
you, Thierry, who is always there with is incredible expertise concerning the
grant procedures.
-
Thank
you, Caroline, for being my incoming president, for joining me in the
development of cross year initiatives for our club and for being such source of
great and innovative ideas for our club in the past year and for the year/years
to come.
Standing as
one together, as friends and club members we all embody the spirit of service
above self.
As perhaps
a last action as president of this nice club, it is my great pleasure to call
before us Ross and Geert. To handover
them their membership pins and welcome boxes to Rotary and to our club. Welcome Ross, welcome Geert! And welcome Guy
not as honorary member anymore but as effective member of our club!
Looking to
the upcoming year and the presidency of Caroline, I am confident to sleep on my
both ears. In a few moments and with the
highest level of confidence I will pass the ceremonial ribbon of our club to
her, knowing that our club will continue to thrive, to innovate, and to inspire
positive change in our community and beyond.
To the
incoming president and board members of which I will be part, I offer my full
support and confidence as you embark on this new chapter of leadership. So, if
you saw or heard me to much in the past year, sorry, but I will continue my
harassment in the next year as your past president.
In closing,
dearest Caroline, it is my privilege as I step down of my role of club
president to present you with our club ceremonial ribbon. You will see that your name is already
shining on it. Enjoy your year of
presidency, you will do a wonderful job!
Cheers to
our new club president of 2024 – 2025 Caroline Teugels.
Yours in Rotary
and Service,
Laurent
Mollet
Oostende, Brassi Restaurant 04/06/2024
