January 10, 2025 • 26 mins
Unlock the secrets to impactful community service with Dr. Roy Wood, as he shares his transformative journey into the world of Rotary. Dr. Wood, a pillar of community engagement, joins us to discuss his path to the Rotary Club of Broken Arrow and his new role as district trainer for District 5750. Get an inside look at the groundbreaking District Leadership Academy, an online program designed to enrich participants with leadership skills and a deep understanding of Rotary's global mission. Through interactive sessions with influential leaders and guest speakers, discover how Rotary is equipping future leaders to make meaningful contributions on a global scale.
But that’s not all—our conversation takes a dynamic turn as we brainstorm innovative strategies to expand Rotary leadership. From engaging president-elects in hands-on training to the potential creation of dynamic educational resources, we explore various avenues to enhance learning experiences for members. Imagine a future where artificial intelligence, like ChatGPT, aids in crafting educational content and comprehensive Rotary eBooks. This episode is a treasure trove of ideas and inspiration, aimed at pushing the boundaries of education within Rotary and ensuring accessible learning opportunities for all its members. Join us as we celebrate the power of education and collaboration in driving community impact.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Welcome to the Rotary Spark Podcast.
I'm your host, Brian Schreiger,and with me today is Dr Roy
Wood.
How are you doing today, Roy?
I'm doing well, Brian.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Of course, my pleasure.
Thanks for joining us.
Glad to do it A snowy day todayto do it a snowy day today
(00:47):
definitely we uh, we originallywere going to meet at the
almonte library and we made alast minute change to a
starbucks out in edmond and theywere kind enough to let us sit
down and drink some coffee andeat some snacks.
So thank you, starbucks.
Let's see we've met a few times.
Tell us a little bit more abouthow you originally discovered
(01:07):
Rotary.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Thanks, brian.
I came in kind of through theback door.
In my previous job, when I wasliving in the Tulsa area and
working for Northeastern State.
I was the dean of the campusthere at Broken Arrow and one of
the things that was on my to-dolist was to be community
engagement.
And as community engagement,one of the tasks that my boss
(01:30):
gave me was to look at joiningRotary, and I hadn't really
looked at Rotary before, didn'tknow very much about it, so I
decided to give it a try, wentto the Rotary Club of Broken
Arrow, immediately fell in lovewith it, joined the club, and
the rest is history.
That was about eight years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
For newer Rotarians.
Tell us a little bit about whatRotary means to you.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Rotary is an opportunity to join with
like-minded people so we canhelp serve the community.
It's been a real joy for me todo things like shop with
Rotarian to ring the bell forthe Salvation Army kettles, to
do fundraisers so we can supportour nonprofits in the community
and you know I've always beenone to try to give back
(02:16):
individually.
But Rotary just brings us alltogether as a force multiplier
to get out in the community andreally make a difference.
A force multiplier to get outin the community and really make
a difference.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So, from what I've heard, you're the upcoming
district trainer for District5750.
How long have you been inDistrict 5750?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
We came to District 5750 in July of this past year.
When we moved to the OklahomaCity area, we joined the Edmond
Club and I went to a coupledistrict events and the district
governor-elect asked if I wouldconsider being the district
trainer, knowing my educationbackground, and I said that I'd
love to.
So I'll start that in July withthe turnover of the new
leadership.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That's fantastic.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about the initiatives that
are being put into place withthe District Leadership Academy?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Sure, yeah, district Leadership Academy is something
that's been going on for a while.
In 2023, I took it over inDistrict 6110 when we were in
that district over in the Tulsaarea and ran it in last year,
and then, when my wife and Idecided that we needed to move
over to Oklahoma City, thedistrict governor there asked if
(03:35):
I would keep the leadership ofthe district academy, and he
talked with Jack Warner, thedistrict governor of 5750, and
they agreed to make it open toboth districts, and so this year
we started back in Septemberwith members from District 6110,
5750, and we were able toactually have a young lady who
(04:01):
applied from San Diego in acompletely different district
actually have a young lady whoapplied from San Diego in a
completely different district,who's president of a club over
there and was looking for somenew ideas and ways to get
involved, and so we accepted herinto the class and right now we
have about 18 students that areworking on this seven-month
curriculum.
It's really a deep dive.
I teach master's degreeprograms at northeastern state
(04:23):
and this really is very muchlike a master's degree program
in Rotary and leadership andwhat we try to do is do about
half of the class on leadershipskills like leadership,
communication, networking,fundraising, running a
non-profit and the other half wedo a deep dive into Rotary at
(04:44):
large, starting with the club,going to the district, the zones
, rotary International we'regoing to talk about some of the
things that the foundation issupporting worldwide.
So it's really a broad brush.
Look at all things Rotary.
We dive into their governingdocuments, which sounds boring,
but if you don't know the rulesof an organization, your
(05:05):
latitude is a little bitconstrained to what we're used
to doing and we want people tothink out of the box, do some
experimentation and grow theclubs in ways that Rotary really
wants us to do some of theflexibilities, membership and
the way that we run our clubmeetings and things like that.
So we explore all of those itemsin the District Leadership
(05:28):
Academy.
Obviously, with such a largearea, we're 100% online.
I did establish this year tohave two Zoom meetings a month
where we get the class together.
I'll invite a guest speaker, asubject matter expert, on
whatever it is we're talkingabout.
They'll come in, they'll have atalk.
Students will have a chance toask questions and interact with
(05:50):
people like the districtgovernors, some of whom wouldn't
normally meet the districtgovernors of the district in the
positions they happen to be inand it really broadens their
view of what Rotary is and whatit can be and how they can
better lead their clubs and getinvolved in district and higher
things that Rotary is involvedin.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I really like everything that you've mentioned
.
It actually is one of the firstorganizations where I've really
had the desire to dig intofoundation documents like the
bylaws, the constitution andthen the variations tied to
whether it's a licensed, vendoragreement or documentation
that's just varied throughout1.2 million people.
(06:36):
One of the things that I'velearned about the importance of
that is it not only helps me, asa New Rotarian, understand the
landscape, but it also helps metruly appreciate the root tied
to the history.
It really it's the only waythat I can experience the
(07:00):
possibility of what was throughliterature, and you know I've
had other opportunities to dothat.
Right, I've had, you know, thechance to maybe do that with the
US Constitution, or I hate tocompare it to a video game
manual, but I'm going to as agamer because that's important
to me too.
But I would say that Idefinitely need to thank Rotary
(07:23):
for giving me that understandingthat these documents, even
though they're not superexciting at times, that it
really helps bridge the gapbetween a new Rotarian like
myself and people from the early1900s, and I think that's
really cool, at the very least.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Well, as you know, rotary has evolved quite a bit
in the last few years.
I'll say few.
When it first started, it was avery exclusive club for CEOs
and leaders of organizations andyou could only have one
organization represented by aCEO like a bank in a given town
in Rotary, by a CEO, like a bank, in a given town in Rotary, and
(08:10):
that exclusivity wasinteresting at the time and
probably needed to get itstarted.
But if you read through thedocumentation of the history of
Rotary, you see that it'sevolved, where it's much more
diverse, much more open toeverybody who wants to come in
and do good in the communities.
So they've changed a lot ofthings since 2016, where they
had a council of legislation in2016 and 2019, and they've made
(08:30):
a lot of flexibilities for clubsto open up, to have satellite
clubs, to have the opportunityto have different formats for
the meetings, to move from anattendance to an engagement
model where attendance is nolonger mandatory but rather you
(08:50):
participate in Rotary throughthe meetings and through the
projects and things that they do, and a lot of clubs don't
actually know that thatflexibility exists to be able to
do that, and that's one of thethings that we're trying to get
out with the ideas in in rotordistrict leadership academy,
because society's changed manyways.
(09:12):
We want to recruit youngermembers, we want to recruit
members who are working adultswho may not be able to come and
attend our meetings on atlunchtime or whatever.
So giving those flexibilitiesto say you don't have to attend
every single meeting but youhave to come in and support the
club and do things, or you cancreate a satellite club that
(09:33):
meets after hours at a differenttime.
So Runway's given a lot offlexibilities, a lot more than
most clubs realize.
And experimentation is the onlyway to find out that's going to
work in a particular area is totry a club, to try a satellite,
to try different hours ordifferent times, different
flexibilities, and that'scompletely allowed now by Rotary
(09:56):
.
It's instantiated in theirdocuments.
So we're trying to understandthat and encourage people to be
innovative that and encouragepeople to be innovative.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, I really appreciate that.
It gave me the support that Ineeded to collaborate with other
individuals to do thisexperiment and I see a lot more
of experimentation on theVerizon.
Is there a way that any and allof us can help you with kind of
expanding your project orgiving you feedback and or
(10:35):
participating in any capacity tohelp you kind of spearhead this
forward?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Well, I think you're doing that right now by this
podcast first.
Second is that every year,we're going to do a district
leadership academy and havingindividuals from your clubs come
and be a part of that,particularly president's elects
or present nominees, who aregoing to come into a leadership
position.
If they know these things,these flexibilities, they
(11:03):
understand this, that they workthrough some of the leadership
training, they're going to bemuch more equipped and prepared
on day one to step into theirclubs with some of these
innovative ideas, with some ofthese opportunities to expand
membership and to better engagein the community by
understanding what the communityneeds and what the clubs need
(11:25):
and making that, making thatmatch more solid than it has
been perhaps in the past.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I haven't done a deep dive yet, so these questions
might already be answered, butsince you have more experience,
I'll go ahead and throw them outthere.
Are there interactive videosthat are kind of up to date and
or, more playful, that touch onthe history of Rotary?
(11:52):
That would be my first question, and then I'll kind of dive
into the second one.
That's kind of more of afollow-up.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, the short answer to that is yes.
There are videos being made,both by Rotary International, by
some districts, and even someclubs are making some videos to
help their members understandthis better.
One of the things that I wasable to do when I was club
president was at the beginningof every meeting I would do a
Rotary Minute, and sometimes itwas a minute and sometimes it
(12:20):
was three minutes, but I wouldshow one of these videos that
gave this broader view of whatRotary is and could be, what the
foundation does, what Rotarydoes internationally.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So videos are a place where I would direct people who
really want to know morequickly and to share those in
the club, because they're reallyfun and they're easy to get
people to watch rather than haveto read something lengthy like
a manual of procedures, sure,and it's interesting that you
say that, because one of mythings that I was thinking of is
(12:53):
, you know, at some point itwould be interesting to see,
like an up-to-date biopic tiedto Paul Harris or you know, a
group of individuals doing theoriginal Chicago project on a
platform like Netflix, and wemay not be there yet, but at
some point it could happen.
And then it goes back to whatyou mentioned kind of more
(13:17):
traditional militant style ofliterature.
Is there an official or arethere official textbooks out
there for Rotary leadership?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You know there are a few old textbooks.
There's nothing new that I'vebeen able to find.
Rotary International isactually moving away from paper
and more toward online, and soyou have to really dig through
some of the rotaryorg documentsand things to find things that
used to be printed on paper,sure, um, while that's
(13:48):
convenient and I'm sure it lendsitself to translations to
different languages, it doesmake it a little more
challenging if you want to takesomething and flip through it
and read it and understandwhat's going on.
There are some pdf documentsout there that you can still
come by, but we probably are duefor a book, I would think
(14:08):
pretty soon, because of all thechanges that Rotary's been
through and all of the thingslike incorporating Rotaract into
Rotary and things like that.
So a lot of those things arenot up to date in the published
book area.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, no, because I'd love to see, like, maybe, a PMP
style rotary book that thatcomplements maybe your seven
month intensive or somethingmore tied to the organization as
a whole, and maybe even havekind of uh, uh sections in the
beginning dedicated to interactand rotaract specifically, and
(14:51):
then maybe, you know, tie themback in, but just basically to
have a companion book.
It could even be an ebook format, you know.
So I, I pull out my kindle ormy amazon fire or my phone or,
you know, my smart glasses ofyou know the next few months,
and then I'm able to kind ofread some literature on the fly.
So maybe I'm a little bitrebellious and I'm not signing
(15:13):
up for your class yet, but Ireally want to collaborate and
I'm kind of on the outskirts andeither want to avoid the
process entirely and still havethe same level of understanding,
or I want to come in with moreinformation, because I'm a
little bit shy and somewhategotistical and I just want to
jump in with a little bit of aleg up.
(15:34):
And that's my projection frommy own personal challenges with
traditional education.
But that's kind of where someof the questioning comes from.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Well, it's funny that you mentioned that one of the
things that I've discovered withthe new artificial intelligence
, chat gpts is the ability toquickly put together an ebook
based on topics, and I've donethat three times now for my
classes, uh, at northeasternstate.
So maybe you and I cancollaborate on a book for Rotary
that we put together with thechat GPT.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I'd love to.
I think that would be afantastic project and maybe
it'll lead to the biopic at somepoint, maybe.
So I love these brainstormingsessions.
I also love the fact thatyou're pushing education forward
, especially in an area that I'mvery green in.
(16:30):
I have been exposed to quite afew amazing people in leadership
example.
You know our our districtgovernor chain Mac Patel, jack
(16:52):
Warner, michael Truitt and youknow some great leaders within
our own club.
You know Ben Chili, quite a fewother people that I can name as
well.
So there's a lot of inspiration.
I think some of the learningkind of that's some of the
osmosis learning, you know.
But I really think I love thefact that you're kind of picking
up the pieces and giving thefull meal to individuals that
(17:15):
are really hungry for that data,so that Rotary can push forward
.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Thanks, I appreciate that.
And you mentioned Chili.
Chili and Oscar from MidwestCity Club are both in the class
and doing well, and I thinkthey're going to come back and
change the world for you guys.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I believe that Oscar has been fantastic.
Chili, you're awesome.
Chili's been great, like I.
I love Chili.
Uh, we don't have anopportunity these days to speak
on a regular basis.
I'm a little bit moreintroverted so I don't reach out
as much as I should.
But, uh, he's, uh, they're bothrock stars, so I just you know
(17:55):
it, it's, it's a great districtto be in.
Uh, let's see.
So, let's talk about.
So my favorite uncle is in theNavy.
I read that you have about 24years of experience.
Do you want to talk about thatfor a little bit?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Sure, yeah, right out of high school I enlisted in
the Navy, went into submarines,was electronics technician,
served for three years before Iwas able to get a scholarship.
And I came back and went toTexas A&M, got my undergraduate
in computer science and thenstarted out in surface ships and
commissioned a ship that wasthe guided missile destroyer.
(18:35):
Our first deployment wascompletely around South America,
through the canal, down theWest Coast, up the East Coast,
back into Caribbean, back toNorfolk.
It was a great cruise for us, alot of experience.
I went to graduate school,became an engineering duty
officer, which means I wasinvolved in procurements of big
systems that the Navy wasbuilding at the time.
(18:56):
But I volunteered to go back tosea, went on an amphibious
helicopter assault ship with acouple thousand Marines and we
ended up doing an evacuation ofLiberia during their first civil
war.
And the second deployment I hadwith that ship was over in the
Persian Gulf during Desert Storm.
(19:17):
So those were my sea tours.
I came back, I did a tour inthe high energy laser system
test facility, blowing things upwith light in New Mexico.
That was a pretty unusual tour.
And then I went to Washington DCwhere I spent the next 25 years
.
I retired there.
I went to work for a smallengineering consulting company
(19:38):
and then went back into DODengineering consulting company
and then went back into DOD.
I served for a couple of yearsin the Bush administration as a
presidential appointee, as adeputy assistant under secretary
of defense, and that was agreat opportunity to see how DOD
works at the highest levels.
Went to the Defense AcquisitionUniversity where we helped
(20:01):
train 150,000 military civilianswho managed the large defense
projects.
And then, once I was done withthat, my wife and I decided to
move to Oklahoma.
We moved to the Tulsa area.
I began working withNortheastern State, as I said,
joined Rotary there and I washaving so much fun that my wife
(20:22):
joined about a year later andwe've been Rotarians, enjoying
going to the club events and tointernational conferences.
We went to several and we'replanning to go to the one in
Calgary in June and we're reallylooking forward to that as well
.
So it's been quite a journey.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
That's a lot and I hope to see you there, because
my intent is to go as well, andthank you for your service.
It's taken me a while in mylife to really appreciate not
only the government but themilitary specifically, a lot of
my family members have served.
I have a base job thanks to notonly Tinker Air Force Base but
(21:02):
also Delaware Nation Industries.
They are an organization thatreally promotes the idea of
being an entrepreneur, so itgives me a chance to kind of
fully invest myself, but also,you know, use my free time to
kind of spread my wings.
So, you know, shout out to them.
They've been fantastic.
My team over there is great.
(21:23):
Also the military tape beingwilling to take in, you know,
contractors, without reallyunderstanding the full idea of
what the military actually is.
Because I feel like there's abig prejudice.
You know in different ways,whether it's, you know,
indifference or ignorance,associated with different
variables and stuff like that.
Even only two, three years in,I have no idea what I'm looking
(21:45):
at.
It's a very small fragment of amuch bigger picture, but as I
get exposed to you guys or justanyone in the military and then
kind of calls back to the familymembers that are really
important to me, my unclespecifically.
Obviously I have a biasedperspective because we share dna
, but um it, I just uh, I'm justso thankful uh to uh.
(22:09):
You know, and I I've said thankyou for your service and
haven't meant it, you know, it'sjust like you know, bless you
uh.
But uh, I'm daily, on a regularbasis, as I mature as a human
being, I I'm really starting toreally appreciate the dedication
and the understanding that youguys have over the bigger
picture of how the worldcommunicates.
(22:31):
So thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Well, thank you, brian.
I appreciate it.
It's been an honor and aprivilege to serve the country
as I have, and just continuingthat service through Rotary at
this point.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, no, rotary is a fantastic opportunity.
So there's a lot more to learnabout you.
I won't drill you too much moreOut of curiosity.
Where do you see Rotary goingLike?
I think that you've been ableto be exposed to patterns over
the last eight years.
Tell us about your eight ball.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
You know, I think that Rotary is struggling to
maintain at 1.2 million.
We're shrinking in the west.
We're growing in the globalsouth.
A lot of Rotarians are comingon board from South America,
africa, other places like that,and it's partly because I think
(23:32):
people don't know what Rotary isand what we do, and one of the
modules that we teach inDistrict Leadership Academy and
that we try to stretch isbranding and public image.
I think a lot more people wouldjoin Rotary if they knew what
it was and what we did.
And trying to get that word out, not in a prideful way, but in
a way that acknowledges the goodwork that we're doing, lets
(23:55):
people see that it's Rotarianswho are doing that work and
getting them interested incoming and joining us, because
we know they're out there sure?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
no, I'm glad that you brought that up too because, uh
, cassandra, myself and a fewother people have been
collaborating to kind of kick upthat initiative within our own
district.
So this is kind of a reminderto everyone out in district 5750
or even outside of districtdistrict 5750, if we can
highlight anything specificallyto help your projects, help you
out individually orprofessionally, as long as it
(24:29):
supports rotary, and just reallyconnect and bring awareness to
the bigger picture.
You know, feel free to reachout, because a lot of these new
things, especially kicking upsomething, whether it's a proven
method or not, if it's organic,there's still going to be a
little bit of experimentationand the only way that that helps
(24:50):
is enthusiastic feedback, uh,without, uh like a super
conditioned response.
So I, no obligation anyone feelfree to reach out to us myself,
cassandra, anyone in thedistrict, as we just kind of
lightly nourish the garden ofFacebook and Instagram and a
variety of other platforms tokind of really just kind of
(25:14):
bridge the gap.
So with that I, yeah, thanksfor coming out.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
My pleasure, Glad to do this.
It's great talking to you Brian.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Thanks to Starbucks out in Edmonds and also thank
you to ITSpark for supportingthis project.
I also want to thank District5750 and the Midwest City Rotary
Club.
Obviously I'm a member of thatand have a good night, everyone.
Thank you.
Welcome to the Rotary Spark Podcast.
I'm your host, Brian Schreiger,and with me today is Dr Roy
Wood.
How are you doing today, Roy?
I'm doing well, Brian.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Of course, my pleasure.
Thanks for joining us.
Glad to do it A snowy day todayto do it a snowy day today
(00:47):
definitely we uh, we originallywere going to meet at the
almonte library and we made alast minute change to a
starbucks out in edmond and theywere kind enough to let us sit
down and drink some coffee andeat some snacks.
So thank you, starbucks.
Let's see we've met a few times.
Tell us a little bit more abouthow you originally discovered
(01:07):
Rotary.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Thanks, brian.
I came in kind of through theback door.
In my previous job, when I wasliving in the Tulsa area and
working for Northeastern State.
I was the dean of the campusthere at Broken Arrow and one of
the things that was on my to-dolist was to be community
engagement.
And as community engagement,one of the tasks that my boss
(01:30):
gave me was to look at joiningRotary, and I hadn't really
looked at Rotary before, didn'tknow very much about it, so I
decided to give it a try, wentto the Rotary Club of Broken
Arrow, immediately fell in lovewith it, joined the club, and
the rest is history.
That was about eight years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
For newer Rotarians.
Tell us a little bit about whatRotary means to you.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Rotary is an opportunity to join with
like-minded people so we canhelp serve the community.
It's been a real joy for me todo things like shop with
Rotarian to ring the bell forthe Salvation Army kettles, to
do fundraisers so we can supportour nonprofits in the community
and you know I've always beenone to try to give back
(02:16):
individually.
But Rotary just brings us alltogether as a force multiplier
to get out in the community andreally make a difference.
A force multiplier to get outin the community and really make
a difference.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So, from what I've heard, you're the upcoming
district trainer for District5750.
How long have you been inDistrict 5750?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
We came to District 5750 in July of this past year.
When we moved to the OklahomaCity area, we joined the Edmond
Club and I went to a coupledistrict events and the district
governor-elect asked if I wouldconsider being the district
trainer, knowing my educationbackground, and I said that I'd
love to.
So I'll start that in July withthe turnover of the new
leadership.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That's fantastic.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about the initiatives that
are being put into place withthe District Leadership Academy?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Sure, yeah, district Leadership Academy is something
that's been going on for a while.
In 2023, I took it over inDistrict 6110 when we were in
that district over in the Tulsaarea and ran it in last year,
and then, when my wife and Idecided that we needed to move
over to Oklahoma City, thedistrict governor there asked if
(03:35):
I would keep the leadership ofthe district academy, and he
talked with Jack Warner, thedistrict governor of 5750, and
they agreed to make it open toboth districts, and so this year
we started back in Septemberwith members from District 6110,
5750, and we were able toactually have a young lady who
(04:01):
applied from San Diego in acompletely different district
actually have a young lady whoapplied from San Diego in a
completely different district,who's president of a club over
there and was looking for somenew ideas and ways to get
involved, and so we accepted herinto the class and right now we
have about 18 students that areworking on this seven-month
curriculum.
It's really a deep dive.
I teach master's degreeprograms at northeastern state
(04:23):
and this really is very muchlike a master's degree program
in Rotary and leadership andwhat we try to do is do about
half of the class on leadershipskills like leadership,
communication, networking,fundraising, running a
non-profit and the other half wedo a deep dive into Rotary at
(04:44):
large, starting with the club,going to the district, the zones
, rotary International we'regoing to talk about some of the
things that the foundation issupporting worldwide.
So it's really a broad brush.
Look at all things Rotary.
We dive into their governingdocuments, which sounds boring,
but if you don't know the rulesof an organization, your
(05:05):
latitude is a little bitconstrained to what we're used
to doing and we want people tothink out of the box, do some
experimentation and grow theclubs in ways that Rotary really
wants us to do some of theflexibilities, membership and
the way that we run our clubmeetings and things like that.
So we explore all of those itemsin the District Leadership
(05:28):
Academy.
Obviously, with such a largearea, we're 100% online.
I did establish this year tohave two Zoom meetings a month
where we get the class together.
I'll invite a guest speaker, asubject matter expert, on
whatever it is we're talkingabout.
They'll come in, they'll have atalk.
Students will have a chance toask questions and interact with
(05:50):
people like the districtgovernors, some of whom wouldn't
normally meet the districtgovernors of the district in the
positions they happen to be inand it really broadens their
view of what Rotary is and whatit can be and how they can
better lead their clubs and getinvolved in district and higher
things that Rotary is involvedin.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I really like everything that you've mentioned
.
It actually is one of the firstorganizations where I've really
had the desire to dig intofoundation documents like the
bylaws, the constitution andthen the variations tied to
whether it's a licensed, vendoragreement or documentation
that's just varied throughout1.2 million people.
(06:36):
One of the things that I'velearned about the importance of
that is it not only helps me, asa New Rotarian, understand the
landscape, but it also helps metruly appreciate the root tied
to the history.
It really it's the only waythat I can experience the
(07:00):
possibility of what was throughliterature, and you know I've
had other opportunities to dothat.
Right, I've had, you know, thechance to maybe do that with the
US Constitution, or I hate tocompare it to a video game
manual, but I'm going to as agamer because that's important
to me too.
But I would say that Idefinitely need to thank Rotary
(07:23):
for giving me that understandingthat these documents, even
though they're not superexciting at times, that it
really helps bridge the gapbetween a new Rotarian like
myself and people from the early1900s, and I think that's
really cool, at the very least.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Well, as you know, rotary has evolved quite a bit
in the last few years.
I'll say few.
When it first started, it was avery exclusive club for CEOs
and leaders of organizations andyou could only have one
organization represented by aCEO like a bank in a given town
in Rotary, by a CEO, like a bank, in a given town in Rotary, and
(08:10):
that exclusivity wasinteresting at the time and
probably needed to get itstarted.
But if you read through thedocumentation of the history of
Rotary, you see that it'sevolved, where it's much more
diverse, much more open toeverybody who wants to come in
and do good in the communities.
So they've changed a lot ofthings since 2016, where they
had a council of legislation in2016 and 2019, and they've made
(08:30):
a lot of flexibilities for clubsto open up, to have satellite
clubs, to have the opportunityto have different formats for
the meetings, to move from anattendance to an engagement
model where attendance is nolonger mandatory but rather you
(08:50):
participate in Rotary throughthe meetings and through the
projects and things that they do, and a lot of clubs don't
actually know that thatflexibility exists to be able to
do that, and that's one of thethings that we're trying to get
out with the ideas in in rotordistrict leadership academy,
because society's changed manyways.
(09:12):
We want to recruit youngermembers, we want to recruit
members who are working adultswho may not be able to come and
attend our meetings on atlunchtime or whatever.
So giving those flexibilitiesto say you don't have to attend
every single meeting but youhave to come in and support the
club and do things, or you cancreate a satellite club that
(09:33):
meets after hours at a differenttime.
So Runway's given a lot offlexibilities, a lot more than
most clubs realize.
And experimentation is the onlyway to find out that's going to
work in a particular area is totry a club, to try a satellite,
to try different hours ordifferent times, different
flexibilities, and that'scompletely allowed now by Rotary
(09:56):
.
It's instantiated in theirdocuments.
So we're trying to understandthat and encourage people to be
innovative that and encouragepeople to be innovative.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, I really appreciate that.
It gave me the support that Ineeded to collaborate with other
individuals to do thisexperiment and I see a lot more
of experimentation on theVerizon.
Is there a way that any and allof us can help you with kind of
expanding your project orgiving you feedback and or
(10:35):
participating in any capacity tohelp you kind of spearhead this
forward?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Well, I think you're doing that right now by this
podcast first.
Second is that every year,we're going to do a district
leadership academy and havingindividuals from your clubs come
and be a part of that,particularly president's elects
or present nominees, who aregoing to come into a leadership
position.
If they know these things,these flexibilities, they
(11:03):
understand this, that they workthrough some of the leadership
training, they're going to bemuch more equipped and prepared
on day one to step into theirclubs with some of these
innovative ideas, with some ofthese opportunities to expand
membership and to better engagein the community by
understanding what the communityneeds and what the clubs need
(11:25):
and making that, making thatmatch more solid than it has
been perhaps in the past.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I haven't done a deep dive yet, so these questions
might already be answered, butsince you have more experience,
I'll go ahead and throw them outthere.
Are there interactive videosthat are kind of up to date and
or, more playful, that touch onthe history of Rotary?
(11:52):
That would be my first question, and then I'll kind of dive
into the second one.
That's kind of more of afollow-up.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, the short answer to that is yes.
There are videos being made,both by Rotary International, by
some districts, and even someclubs are making some videos to
help their members understandthis better.
One of the things that I wasable to do when I was club
president was at the beginningof every meeting I would do a
Rotary Minute, and sometimes itwas a minute and sometimes it
(12:20):
was three minutes, but I wouldshow one of these videos that
gave this broader view of whatRotary is and could be, what the
foundation does, what Rotarydoes internationally.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So videos are a place where I would direct people who
really want to know morequickly and to share those in
the club, because they're reallyfun and they're easy to get
people to watch rather than haveto read something lengthy like
a manual of procedures, sure,and it's interesting that you
say that, because one of mythings that I was thinking of is
(12:53):
, you know, at some point itwould be interesting to see,
like an up-to-date biopic tiedto Paul Harris or you know, a
group of individuals doing theoriginal Chicago project on a
platform like Netflix, and wemay not be there yet, but at
some point it could happen.
And then it goes back to whatyou mentioned kind of more
(13:17):
traditional militant style ofliterature.
Is there an official or arethere official textbooks out
there for Rotary leadership?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You know there are a few old textbooks.
There's nothing new that I'vebeen able to find.
Rotary International isactually moving away from paper
and more toward online, and soyou have to really dig through
some of the rotaryorg documentsand things to find things that
used to be printed on paper,sure, um, while that's
(13:48):
convenient and I'm sure it lendsitself to translations to
different languages, it doesmake it a little more
challenging if you want to takesomething and flip through it
and read it and understandwhat's going on.
There are some pdf documentsout there that you can still
come by, but we probably are duefor a book, I would think
(14:08):
pretty soon, because of all thechanges that Rotary's been
through and all of the thingslike incorporating Rotaract into
Rotary and things like that.
So a lot of those things arenot up to date in the published
book area.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, no, because I'd love to see, like, maybe, a PMP
style rotary book that thatcomplements maybe your seven
month intensive or somethingmore tied to the organization as
a whole, and maybe even havekind of uh, uh sections in the
beginning dedicated to interactand rotaract specifically, and
(14:51):
then maybe, you know, tie themback in, but just basically to
have a companion book.
It could even be an ebook format, you know.
So I, I pull out my kindle ormy amazon fire or my phone or,
you know, my smart glasses ofyou know the next few months,
and then I'm able to kind ofread some literature on the fly.
So maybe I'm a little bitrebellious and I'm not signing
(15:13):
up for your class yet, but Ireally want to collaborate and
I'm kind of on the outskirts andeither want to avoid the
process entirely and still havethe same level of understanding,
or I want to come in with moreinformation, because I'm a
little bit shy and somewhategotistical and I just want to
jump in with a little bit of aleg up.
(15:34):
And that's my projection frommy own personal challenges with
traditional education.
But that's kind of where someof the questioning comes from.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Well, it's funny that you mentioned that one of the
things that I've discovered withthe new artificial intelligence
, chat gpts is the ability toquickly put together an ebook
based on topics, and I've donethat three times now for my
classes, uh, at northeasternstate.
So maybe you and I cancollaborate on a book for Rotary
that we put together with thechat GPT.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I'd love to.
I think that would be afantastic project and maybe
it'll lead to the biopic at somepoint, maybe.
So I love these brainstormingsessions.
I also love the fact thatyou're pushing education forward
, especially in an area that I'mvery green in.
(16:30):
I have been exposed to quite afew amazing people in leadership
example.
You know our our districtgovernor chain Mac Patel, jack
(16:52):
Warner, michael Truitt and youknow some great leaders within
our own club.
You know Ben Chili, quite a fewother people that I can name as
well.
So there's a lot of inspiration.
I think some of the learningkind of that's some of the
osmosis learning, you know.
But I really think I love thefact that you're kind of picking
up the pieces and giving thefull meal to individuals that
(17:15):
are really hungry for that data,so that Rotary can push forward
.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Thanks, I appreciate that.
And you mentioned Chili.
Chili and Oscar from MidwestCity Club are both in the class
and doing well, and I thinkthey're going to come back and
change the world for you guys.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I believe that Oscar has been fantastic.
Chili, you're awesome.
Chili's been great, like I.
I love Chili.
Uh, we don't have anopportunity these days to speak
on a regular basis.
I'm a little bit moreintroverted so I don't reach out
as much as I should.
But, uh, he's, uh, they're bothrock stars, so I just you know
(17:55):
it, it's, it's a great districtto be in.
Uh, let's see.
So, let's talk about.
So my favorite uncle is in theNavy.
I read that you have about 24years of experience.
Do you want to talk about thatfor a little bit?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Sure, yeah, right out of high school I enlisted in
the Navy, went into submarines,was electronics technician,
served for three years before Iwas able to get a scholarship.
And I came back and went toTexas A&M, got my undergraduate
in computer science and thenstarted out in surface ships and
commissioned a ship that wasthe guided missile destroyer.
(18:35):
Our first deployment wascompletely around South America,
through the canal, down theWest Coast, up the East Coast,
back into Caribbean, back toNorfolk.
It was a great cruise for us, alot of experience.
I went to graduate school,became an engineering duty
officer, which means I wasinvolved in procurements of big
systems that the Navy wasbuilding at the time.
(18:56):
But I volunteered to go back tosea, went on an amphibious
helicopter assault ship with acouple thousand Marines and we
ended up doing an evacuation ofLiberia during their first civil
war.
And the second deployment I hadwith that ship was over in the
Persian Gulf during Desert Storm.
(19:17):
So those were my sea tours.
I came back, I did a tour inthe high energy laser system
test facility, blowing things upwith light in New Mexico.
That was a pretty unusual tour.
And then I went to Washington DCwhere I spent the next 25 years
.
I retired there.
I went to work for a smallengineering consulting company
(19:38):
and then went back into DODengineering consulting company
and then went back into DOD.
I served for a couple of yearsin the Bush administration as a
presidential appointee, as adeputy assistant under secretary
of defense, and that was agreat opportunity to see how DOD
works at the highest levels.
Went to the Defense AcquisitionUniversity where we helped
(20:01):
train 150,000 military civilianswho managed the large defense
projects.
And then, once I was done withthat, my wife and I decided to
move to Oklahoma.
We moved to the Tulsa area.
I began working withNortheastern State, as I said,
joined Rotary there and I washaving so much fun that my wife
(20:22):
joined about a year later andwe've been Rotarians, enjoying
going to the club events and tointernational conferences.
We went to several and we'replanning to go to the one in
Calgary in June and we're reallylooking forward to that as well
.
So it's been quite a journey.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
That's a lot and I hope to see you there, because
my intent is to go as well, andthank you for your service.
It's taken me a while in mylife to really appreciate not
only the government but themilitary specifically, a lot of
my family members have served.
I have a base job thanks to notonly Tinker Air Force Base but
(21:02):
also Delaware Nation Industries.
They are an organization thatreally promotes the idea of
being an entrepreneur, so itgives me a chance to kind of
fully invest myself, but also,you know, use my free time to
kind of spread my wings.
So, you know, shout out to them.
They've been fantastic.
My team over there is great.
(21:23):
Also the military tape beingwilling to take in, you know,
contractors, without reallyunderstanding the full idea of
what the military actually is.
Because I feel like there's abig prejudice.
You know in different ways,whether it's, you know,
indifference or ignorance,associated with different
variables and stuff like that.
Even only two, three years in,I have no idea what I'm looking
(21:45):
at.
It's a very small fragment of amuch bigger picture, but as I
get exposed to you guys or justanyone in the military and then
kind of calls back to the familymembers that are really
important to me, my unclespecifically.
Obviously I have a biasedperspective because we share dna
, but um it, I just uh, I'm justso thankful uh to uh.
(22:09):
You know, and I I've said thankyou for your service and
haven't meant it, you know, it'sjust like you know, bless you
uh.
But uh, I'm daily, on a regularbasis, as I mature as a human
being, I I'm really starting toreally appreciate the dedication
and the understanding that youguys have over the bigger
picture of how the worldcommunicates.
(22:31):
So thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Well, thank you, brian.
I appreciate it.
It's been an honor and aprivilege to serve the country
as I have, and just continuingthat service through Rotary at
this point.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, no, rotary is a fantastic opportunity.
So there's a lot more to learnabout you.
I won't drill you too much moreOut of curiosity.
Where do you see Rotary goingLike?
I think that you've been ableto be exposed to patterns over
the last eight years.
Tell us about your eight ball.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
You know, I think that Rotary is struggling to
maintain at 1.2 million.
We're shrinking in the west.
We're growing in the globalsouth.
A lot of Rotarians are comingon board from South America,
africa, other places like that,and it's partly because I think
(23:32):
people don't know what Rotary isand what we do, and one of the
modules that we teach inDistrict Leadership Academy and
that we try to stretch isbranding and public image.
I think a lot more people wouldjoin Rotary if they knew what
it was and what we did.
And trying to get that word out, not in a prideful way, but in
a way that acknowledges the goodwork that we're doing, lets
(23:55):
people see that it's Rotarianswho are doing that work and
getting them interested incoming and joining us, because
we know they're out there sure?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
no, I'm glad that you brought that up too because, uh
, cassandra, myself and a fewother people have been
collaborating to kind of kick upthat initiative within our own
district.
So this is kind of a reminderto everyone out in district 5750
or even outside of districtdistrict 5750, if we can
highlight anything specificallyto help your projects, help you
out individually orprofessionally, as long as it
(24:29):
supports rotary, and just reallyconnect and bring awareness to
the bigger picture.
You know, feel free to reachout, because a lot of these new
things, especially kicking upsomething, whether it's a proven
method or not, if it's organic,there's still going to be a
little bit of experimentationand the only way that that helps
(24:50):
is enthusiastic feedback, uh,without, uh like a super
conditioned response.
So I, no obligation anyone feelfree to reach out to us myself,
cassandra, anyone in thedistrict, as we just kind of
lightly nourish the garden ofFacebook and Instagram and a
variety of other platforms tokind of really just kind of
(25:14):
bridge the gap.
So with that I, yeah, thanksfor coming out.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
My pleasure, Glad to do this.
It's great talking to you Brian.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Thanks to Starbucks out in Edmonds and also thank
you to ITSpark for supportingthis project.
I also want to thank District5750 and the Midwest City Rotary
Club.
Obviously I'm a member of thatand have a good night, everyone.
Thank you.
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