January 24, 2025 • 30 mins
Unlock the secrets to creating vibrant and impactful Rotary clubs with insights from Jeanean Yanish Jones, Past District Governor and member of the Rotary Club of Oklahoma City. Join us in this enlightening episode of the Rotary Spark podcast as Janine shares her passion for maternal and child health, and how Rotary International’s seven core areas of focus—ranging from peace and conflict prevention to environmental support—guide clubs in making a meaningful difference. Discover how aligning club activities with personal interests and community needs can harness the power of district and global grants, paving the way for transformative projects.
Empower your Rotary club with strategies to boost engagement and vitality. We explore the importance of setting goals, strategic planning, and leadership succession to ensure future success. Janine and I discuss how understanding each member's role and fostering personal connections create a supportive and energetic club atmosphere. Hear how partnerships with organizations like Toastmasters and tools such as Rotary Club Central fuel personal and professional growth. By conducting member surveys and offering leadership development opportunities, your club can thrive, sparking excitement and leveraging the unique talents of its members for positive global change.
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Episode Transcript
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Brian Triger (00:00):
Welcome to the Rotary Spark podcast.
I'm your host, Brian Triger.
With me today is the pastdistrict governor, Jeanean
Yanish Jones, also a member ofthe Rotary Club of Oklahoma City
.
How are you doing today,Jeanean?
Jeanean Yanish Jones (00:13):
Very well, Brian.
Thank you so much for hostingthis wonderful podcast and thank
you for having me on here.
Brian Triger (00:20):
My pleasure.
So let's just jump right in andtell us a little bit about
Rotary.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (00:26):
Sure, so, as you mentioned, I am the
immediate past district governorfor District 5750, which is
northwest of the area of thestate, so we're Northwest
Oklahoma clubs.
There's about 33 clubs in ourdistrict and it was really an
(00:46):
honor to get to serve in thiscapacity.
And Rotary is incredible at thetraining and resources that
they provide to the members butespecially to the leadership and
a couple of things that I feellike are really important to
share with clubs and in thetoolbox that I think really
(01:08):
clubs be extraordinary is thevibrant being a vibrant club and
it's a leadership plan forclubs to look at and kind of
evaluating the work that they'redoing, what their club
represents as a personality intheir community and service
(01:33):
group that's making impactfulservice projects to their
community, but then seeing, like, what are the things that we're
doing well, what are somethings that could use
improvement?
And then continuing to build onthat year after year, plus
using the strengths of themembers in your club and to
attract new members.
Brian Triger (01:54):
I love that.
So, and aside from yourleadership skills and your
academic and professionalqualifications, as a member of
one of, if not, the biggestrotary club in the world, as
well as one of the most vibrant,I believe that there are a lot
of resources for our districtspecifically to draw on to get
(02:16):
there.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (02:17):
Sure, and so for members or prospective
new members, it's reallyimportant you know, when you're
trying to evaluate and find aclub to be a part of that, you
find one that aligns with someof the areas that you are that
are important to you.
Like, rotary has their sevenareas of focus, but different
(02:38):
clubs kind of focus on specificareas of focus within those
seven areas.
So some clubs are more involvedwith their local schools.
So that hits the area of focusof basic education and literacy.
Of course Rotary does thesethings not just in the community
but also in the world, andRotary clubs, individual clubs,
(02:59):
can also be a part of largerprojects with district grants
and even global grants.
So, for example, I'll just tellyou the seven areas of focus
for Rotary are peace andconflict prevention.
Rotary encourages dialogue topromote understanding and trains
leaders to prevent conflict.
(03:20):
You know, a world peacementality.
Secondly, disease prevention andtreatment.
Rotary works to stop the spreadof diseases like HIV, aids,
malaria and polio.
And of course, polio isRotary's major accomplishment,
claim to fame with the BillGates Foundation matching
(03:40):
dollars that we've helped to endpolio worldwide and that's a
big feather in the cap of Rotaryand something that we're really
proud of and continuing tofight polio.
Thirdly, water, sanitation andhygiene.
There's many countries aroundthe world that don't have basic
(04:02):
water, sanitation and hygiene,and to get to be a part of that
solution is amazing.
Fourthly, we're very passionateabout maternal and child health
.
Rotary works to improve thehealth of mothers and children.
Not everybody knows that.
Fifthly, basic education andliteracy.
I mentioned earlier working toimprove access to education for
(04:25):
all children and adults.
Education and literacy are bothstepping stones to be able to
provide for your families tohave quality of life and to do
something for the nextgeneration in your communities,
as well as be able to advancecommunities through education
(04:48):
and literacy.
Sixth is community economicdevelopment.
Rotary works to createopportunities for work and grow
local economies.
Then there's some really amazingprojects that you can research
about things that Rotary hasdone.
I'm just thinking about evenfarming.
There's a lot of farmingprojects that have been done so
(05:10):
people can grow their own foodand be self-sustaining in their
communities, in nations,especially underdeveloped
nations around the world.
And then supporting theenvironment Rotary works to
address environmental issues andhelp to improve the environment
(05:30):
in the world, and I know one ofthe projects our current
district governor is reallypassionate about is a river
project and I think it evenextends to oceans, but just
cleaning the pollution out ofthe waters in our oceans and
along our rivers, especially inunderdeveloped countries that
(05:52):
don't have the infrastructure tosupport local rubbish and
garbage pickup, and the impactthat having that type of waste
in their communities has onindividuals and their health.
I've said a lot, brian.
Did you want to jump in?
Brian Triger (06:11):
I was just listening to everything that you
had to say and listening tojust kind of the structure of
all of the areas of focus.
At the end of the day, for meone of the most important areas
of focus is peace, but I alsorecognize that the other areas
of focus are required in orderto have a full comprehension of
(06:35):
not only what that means but howto get there.
So it's interesting to see,just to visualize as a
Nuberitarian kind of, theintersection of the kind of the
requirement of understanding thefundamentals to really humble
oneself to be part of of thatsolution.
(06:55):
So I was just doing someinternal reflection while you
were chatting, out of curiosity,because, no, from the time that
I joined to now, you know, asI've met you several times, I've
seen you connect to many, ifnot all, of the areas of focus.
Is there one area of focus thatis either closer to your heart
(07:21):
or maybe tied to a focus onsomething that you'd like to
spotlight right now?
Jeanean Yanish Jones (07:30):
Sure, well , as a career, I am an executive
director for Health Alliancefor the Uninsured, so I have a
huge passion for helping peoplehave access to health care and
quality of life, and so thematernal and child health piece
of our areas of focus is reallynear and dear to my heart, as
(07:54):
well as basic education andliteracy, and I would extend
that in broader terms to healthliteracy.
And just as I serve anuninsured population in Oklahoma
and there's estimated one infour people uninsured we have a
lot of people that do not havebasic health literacy,
(08:17):
information on how to take thebest care of themselves and
their families best care ofthemselves and their families,
which can lead to more seriouschronic health conditions like
diabetes and hypertension, justbased on lifestyle changes Sure,
so, being able to be a part ofgoing upstream and helping
(08:39):
people to understand how to takecare of themselves, in turn,
then they can take care of theirfamilies, their communities.
There's a whole snowball, apositive snowball effect to that
.
So thank you for asking that,and I think too, as you made it
more personal for me, I thinkabout how we can personalize the
work that we do in rotary.
(09:00):
I think Rotarians really getout of rotaryary, what they put
into it.
So you mentioned that I'm partof one of the largest clubs in
the world and so it's real easyto just be a lunch participant
and come, listen to reallymeaningful programs, make a few
connections, say hello and thenleave.
But you know, and maybe in somemembers that's maybe what they
(09:22):
want to get out of theirmembership.
Some people, and even in ourclub, we have a lot of
opportunity to sign up to be ondifferent committees, to get
more involved.
So we have a team that's reallyinvolved with the grants.
We have a team that helps withour happy hours, our
socialization, so that we canhave opportunities to, to mingle
(09:45):
and get to know each otherbeyond the luncheons.
Um, we have, you know, thegreeters.
We have people that are, um, wehave a um, pretty robust, uh,
financial piece of our clubwhere we're able to do a lot of
giving, and so we have peoplethat are managing those funds
and helping to do annual givingcampaigns.
(10:08):
And you know, we say you knowthat we all have time, talent or
treasure to offer in thecapacity and, like you said, you
know what are your passions.
So then I'm going to transitionto making a club vibrant.
So what makes a club vibrantand I would say for sure, it's
the people and having a purpose.
(10:30):
So, as you're coming togetherfor your meetings to have that
energy and excitement to make adifference in the world and I
think that's one of themotivating factors for all of us
to really want to be a part ofa service organization is that
we know that together,collectively, we can make a
(10:51):
bigger impact than we canindividually.
Brian Triger (10:55):
No, that's good I was thinking about.
You know I've only been in twodifferent clubs recently
transferred, so again, some youhave great wisdom.
So, based on my minimalexperience, one of the things
that I think can add to or atleast be supplemental to what
(11:16):
you have to say is the biggestimpact that vibrancy of a club
has had on me and has allowed meto support a club in that
capacity, is just caring youknow, sitting next to an
individual and just looking intotheir eyes and kind of giving
that space to figure out, okay,what's going on, how are they
(11:37):
connected into the community,how are they connected to their
club, what are the club dynamics?
You know, when I originallyjoined you know I'm still early
in my journey, but when Ioriginally joined it was it was
networking, right, you know, Ijust, you know, wanted to build
the business, wanted to maybeplay around with nonprofit
addition or exposure and stufflike that, and, um, I think I,
(12:02):
you know it, it has served thatpurpose.
But one of the interestingthings is, uh, building up that
momentum and experiencing someclub vibrancy.
Uh, not only uh built up thattraction so I could get detached
from some of the limitationsthat I had, but also kind of
getting me outside of thatfishbowl, just seeing the bigger
(12:23):
picture and figuring out, okay,there's so much positive energy
there, the vibrancy that youtalk about when you see it in
the you know, the Jeaneans, theMac Patels, the, uh, the Jacks,
the Chilis of the world, the,the Ben's, uh, you know, I can
name so many different people in, in and outside of position
(12:47):
that have kind of inspired meand, um, I just appreciate the
wisdom that you and a lot ofother leadership have to share.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (12:54):
Yeah Well, thank you, and I love how
you're connecting vibrancy towellbeing.
You know there's so muchresearch about being connected
as individuals and weexperienced that as we went
through COVID and we weredisconnected and how well-being
was struck.
People were struggling withtheir overall mental health and
well-being and being a vibrantindividual and also aligning.
(13:17):
I hear you saying you know yourpersonal goals, your
professional goals, yourmotivation for joining Rotary.
So then you know, like you said, you know, looking at the
bigger picture, you know where,when you're in the club or
you're considering a club, it'sgood to know, like, where does
this club want to be in three tofive years?
What is what's their?
What are their goals?
Are they doing some strategicplanning?
(13:39):
Are they inspiring theirmembers to be creative and voice
their opinions and thoughts andideas?
Just you, doing a podcast likethis is very creative and much
needed and outside of the box,which is amazing and then also
developing strategies forincreasing member engagement
(14:01):
over the next few years.
So that's like looking forward,looking club.
You know a vibrant club islooking towards the future and a
lot of clubs do that too withtheir leadership plan, like
they'll already have asuccession plan for who's going
to be there.
You know their, their.
Their vice president becomestheir president, the secretary
becomes the vice president, youknow.
So their leadership.
(14:21):
They already know who theirleadership is going to be
through their board position.
So the next leader can startthinking of what are some goals
that I would like to achieveduring my leadership year.
And there's training, of course, for the president-elects in
different groups, and everymember has access to the
(14:44):
training on the my Rotary pageand we have a wealth of
information there.
Same thing about being vibrantin your personal and
professional goals and, plus, asbeing a good club member.
And we even have a partnershipwith Toastmasters.
So if you're looking to improveyour speaking skills, that's a
great partnership that we haveand free training that's
(15:06):
available as a member.
And then, as you're thinkingabout setting goals, my Rotary
and they call it Rotary ClubCentral actually has a way to
set goals on the platform,online, and that way everyone
can kind of know what the goalsare for the club and for the
(15:26):
district.
You can focus on things thatyour club's already good at and
maybe what can we do to improveit, build on that success and
make it even more successful.
And whether that's a fundraiseror a service project or maybe
just having a really engagingclub meetings.
You can ask club committees andmembers to propose ideas and
(15:48):
goals for you for the club.
So that's another thing too.
So you're kind of lookingforward setting goals and then
also having club assembliesregularly to keep members
engaged and knowledgeable.
So a lot of clubs will devotemaybe a meeting a month or a
(16:08):
quarter and they won't have aspeaker come in but they'll just
say, okay, we're going to talktoday during our meeting about
different topics, and they mighthave table discussions or ask
members to present new ideas,designate times to share
impressions of their club, andso that way too you're getting
feedback with each other andsaying, you know, kind of a
(16:32):
little check-in, how are wedoing, how are things going, and
it gives everybody a chance tohave a voice in your club as
well.
Brian Triger (16:43):
I like that a lot.
I uh, no, thank you so much forsharing this.
Uh, I'm not.
You know, I'm not in leadershipat the moment and I respect
everyone.
That is uh and isn't Um, but itgives me a clearer picture of
you know, a little bit behindthe scenes.
(17:03):
I've had the luxury of hangingout with you know people in the
district level and at least oneperson on the zone level, and I
just love the ability to hopinto different clubs and connect
with people at different levelsand kind of tap into this
information in order to, youknow, just to find the next door
(17:24):
to serve and add a little bitof peace.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (17:28):
That's great, Brian, and I also have a
few more thoughts to share onthis.
So one another thing and thisis what you're doing is
communication, and Rotary has alot of great information on
their brand center and theappropriate way to use the logos
and things like that.
But they have some really greatresources for ways to keep your
(17:50):
website engaging, how to usesocial media to highlight the
work that clubs are doing andthankfully, since we do have so
many resources within Rotary,there's a lot of great training
and suggestions and also justother social media sites that we
can follow and see how peopleare sharing their Rotary stories
(18:13):
.
And a lot of times, actionphotos and the club doing
something is a lot moremeaningful than just a picture
of your speaker in front of yourrotary logo, although that's
good too, because you know youwant to have the brand out there
, but you also want to show theclub doing stuff and making a
difference.
So communication and having apodcast, like you are, Brian is
(18:35):
fabulous.
And then you know you talkedabout leadership and saying you
know you're not really inleadership, but I mean we all
really actually do have aleadership position in Rotary,
because Rotary is an opportunityto be of service and even at
the member level you're a leaderin your community because
(18:56):
you're saying service, being ofservice is important and I want
to make a commitment to that bymy membership in Rotary because
you know you're taking your time.
Generally you have somemembership dues, you may be
giving some additional money andyou have the opportunity to be
kind of the eyes and ears ofneeds within the communities and
(19:19):
bring that back to your cluband say you know, hey, I saw
that there's this thing going onwith the school or this
homeless shelter or this foodpantry.
Maybe we could do somethingthere.
So even at the member level youhave an opportunity to be a
leader in helping to make adifference in the community.
But then also within your clubkind of start looking at the
(19:42):
member level, where would youaspire to grow within the club
and really vibrant clubs workhard to have smooth leadership
transition and really groompeople and doing some mentoring
to help people understand thebasics of Rotary, but then also
(20:04):
to grow their own personalleadership skills within the
context of Rotary.
So that's another thing is withleadership, and then this is
just governance things.
But on the vibrancy side it isimportant for clubs to review
and know their bylaws so thateverybody's following the um,
(20:28):
the mandates of how the club wasset up, like how your um, you
know what are your requirementsfor the number of board meetings
and how many members do youhave on your board and what are
the procedures for makingchanges within the club.
And so that way too, when youhave a lot of different
(20:49):
personalities and somebody mightfeel this way or that way, well
, let's go back to what thebylaws say.
The bylaws say, and then ifthere's a question about how the
bylaws were written or ifthere's something that needs to
be changed, then together theclub can come together and make
sure the bylaws align andsupport the great work that that
club is trying to do.
(21:09):
So that's a little bit of thenuts and bolts on the governance
, but it is important for bylawsto be you know whether they're
on your website or that all themembers have access to that, so
you can understand what theguides are that are driving that
club and making it as vibrantas possible.
And then, as you grow yourcommunication, your leadership,
(21:36):
um, straight, uh, focusing onwhat you do good, making it
great, you continue to developstrong relationships within your
club.
So some uh, so some ideas totry sit at different tables with
different people at themeetings, like we all kind of
get in creatures of habit, right, we'll sit at the same place.
Um, there's a lot of um optionsfor creative club membership
(22:01):
structure.
So some clubs may considerforming or have a satellite club
that meets at a different time.
So maybe if you're a lunchmeeting, your club may have a
breakfast meeting one day a weekfor people who are having a
hard time making it to the lunchmeeting.
So having some alternative clubtimes or satellite meetings is
an option for ways to growrelationships within your club
(22:27):
where you have more engagement,where people can attend.
And then another way to growrelationships within your club
is invite friends and familymembers to meetings, to service
projects and events, and this isa great way to show how
wonderful volunteering is butalso encourage them to join or
(22:47):
help out.
I remember last year, during myRotary year, we gave an award
at the Midwest City Rotary ClubRotary Club Midwest City, and it
was to a family that actuallyweren't even Rotarians but they
had the spirit of Rotariansbecause they do so much
volunteer work for the club andfor their major fundraiser that
(23:08):
they asked if we would you knowpresent this award to them of
how inviting friends and family,business associates to rotary
can get people involved, even ifthey haven't joined rotary yet.
They're a part of a greatcommunity thoughts.
Brian Triger (23:31):
So thought that comes to mind for any, for any
clubs out there that are in theprocess or figuring out a good
starting point to become vibrantor more vibrant.
What out a good starting pointto become vibrant or more
vibrant?
What's a good starting point?
Jeanean Yanish Jones (23:46):
So getting clubs to be more vibrant or
getting more people involved inyour club.
Brian Triger (23:50):
I would say just no specific example, but like,
let's say, a club is, you know,finding itself or staying
stagnant to some extent, butwants to add some vibrancy to
its club.
What would be the first step?
What's the way to inject lifeinto a club?
Jeanean Yanish Jones (24:11):
Well, that ties really great into the next
point I was going to makeanyways, and that is making sure
members are involved and thatactivities that the club is
doing genuinely interests them.
So getting members involved inmeaningful ways.
So if they don't really careand you mentioned how important
caring is as a quality of beinga Rotarian I'd say one of the
(24:35):
key character assets of aRotarian is caring.
But find out why people joinedRotary.
I know Midtown Rotary did a bigcampaign a few years ago on
their Rotary why and they wouldinterview each of their members
why is Rotary so meaningful toyou?
So finding out the motivation,why people love being a part of
(24:59):
Rotary and how it's impactedtheir lives helps to get
engagement.
You can do some member surveysProbably.
My opinion on surveys is to doit more in person and
communicatively versus onlinesurveys, but you could do those
two in a pinch and use resultsto plan projects and activities,
(25:22):
to continue to tailor things tomeet the needs of what the
members are wanting too, becausethe membership clubs are
autonomous, so the membershipreally kind of drives where the
areas of focus are that the clubis going to focus on and also
where people are going to getengaged and feel excited about
(25:44):
what they're doing.
And when you're excited, youhave enthusiasm and you're
telling other people about whata great club you have, and then
also is finding out the skills,gifts, talents of the people
that you have in your club andget people engaged in these
activities.
A really basic example is myhusband, he, jerry Jones.
(26:08):
He, joe, joined the Rotary Clubof Northwest Oklahoma City and
they do the Santa at North ParkMall, which is an amazing
fundraiser, and they also have abeautiful red carpet there that
they put out every year for theSanta booth.
Well, my husband is the ownerof a rug and carpet cleaning
(26:29):
company, so he cleans the carpetfor them, you know.
So, using the skills and assetsthat your members have to help
make, whatever you're doing,your project, your community,
more improved.
I mean, we're trying to makethings better, we're trying to
make the world a better placeand then also giving membership
(26:51):
the opportunity to learn andgain experiences from club
activities that they may nothave ever gotten an opportunity
to be a part of, but being inRotary, you know you can dress
up like an elf and help takepictures down at the at North
Park Mall, which I do everyChristmas because it's super fun
.
Brian Triger (27:09):
I like that a lot.
I mean you're you're followingup with what you said, doing
something that you're, that youenjoy, that you care about, and
having some fun in the process.
It keeps you engaged in theorganization as a whole.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (27:22):
That's right, brian.
So in closing I have a coupleof last things about being
vibrant, and that is coach newand current members in leading
and in leadership and so tryingto get you know how we have
young professionals, newermembers, you know, just creating
(27:43):
a pipeline of really greatleaders within your club.
And then also, another way forengagement is to have
opportunities for smaller groupswithin your club to do
different committee type work,so you might have a committee
that's focused on membership anda committee that's focused on
public relations and maybe onservice projects.
(28:04):
Maybe there's some people inyour club that really love the
Rotary Foundation.
We have such a strongfoundation, highest rating and
charity navigator for beingtrustworthy and the monies that
you give to the foundation go towhere they're intended.
So there's lots of opportunities, whether you're in a small club
or a large club, to getinvolved, to be as involved as
(28:28):
you can.
And sometimes you're goingthrough things, life situations,
where you need to pull back alittle and sometimes you know
your empty nest and the kids arebusy, the grandkids are off and
about and you have some margingap that came in your life and
you're like what could I do withthis time to really make a
difference in the community, andone thing that we all know
(28:51):
about volunteering and being apart of and helping someone else
is that, in return, it helps usfeel really good, too, that
we're we're doing something tomake a difference in this world.
And, um, one of my, my lastclosing thought would be this
that every member should feelempowered to shape your club's
future and make it outstanding.
Brian Triger (29:13):
This has been a great episode.
I really appreciate this.
I'm, and I do listen to theother episodes, but I'm
definitely going to go back andlisten because there's a lot of
really good information here.
I yeah.
No, there doesn't have to be aperfect conclusion, because this
is just a conversation.
(29:33):
So I appreciate you, Janine,Thank you for coming out.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (29:36):
Thank you, Brian, it was my pleasure.
Brian Triger (29:52):
For all of our listeners.
Thank you for continuing tolisten, follow, support.
All of it was my pleasure MonteLibrary, all the Board of
Commissioners, anyone tied tothe Metropolitan Library System
for you know, donating space andtime to allow this project to
continue, and anyone else inbetween.
You know we're all connected.
So thank you to everyone andhave a wonderful evening
(30:13):
everyone.
Welcome to the Rotary Spark podcast.
I'm your host, Brian Triger.
With me today is the pastdistrict governor, Jeanean
Yanish Jones, also a member ofthe Rotary Club of Oklahoma City
.
How are you doing today,Jeanean?
Jeanean Yanish Jones (00:13):
Very well, Brian.
Thank you so much for hostingthis wonderful podcast and thank
you for having me on here.
Brian Triger (00:20):
My pleasure.
So let's just jump right in andtell us a little bit about
Rotary.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (00:26):
Sure, so, as you mentioned, I am the
immediate past district governorfor District 5750, which is
northwest of the area of thestate, so we're Northwest
Oklahoma clubs.
There's about 33 clubs in ourdistrict and it was really an
(00:46):
honor to get to serve in thiscapacity.
And Rotary is incredible at thetraining and resources that
they provide to the members butespecially to the leadership and
a couple of things that I feellike are really important to
share with clubs and in thetoolbox that I think really
(01:08):
clubs be extraordinary is thevibrant being a vibrant club and
it's a leadership plan forclubs to look at and kind of
evaluating the work that they'redoing, what their club
represents as a personality intheir community and service
(01:33):
group that's making impactfulservice projects to their
community, but then seeing, like, what are the things that we're
doing well, what are somethings that could use
improvement?
And then continuing to build onthat year after year, plus
using the strengths of themembers in your club and to
attract new members.
Brian Triger (01:54):
I love that.
So, and aside from yourleadership skills and your
academic and professionalqualifications, as a member of
one of, if not, the biggestrotary club in the world, as
well as one of the most vibrant,I believe that there are a lot
of resources for our districtspecifically to draw on to get
(02:16):
there.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (02:17):
Sure, and so for members or prospective
new members, it's reallyimportant you know, when you're
trying to evaluate and find aclub to be a part of that, you
find one that aligns with someof the areas that you are that
are important to you.
Like, rotary has their sevenareas of focus, but different
(02:38):
clubs kind of focus on specificareas of focus within those
seven areas.
So some clubs are more involvedwith their local schools.
So that hits the area of focusof basic education and literacy.
Of course Rotary does thesethings not just in the community
but also in the world, andRotary clubs, individual clubs,
(02:59):
can also be a part of largerprojects with district grants
and even global grants.
So, for example, I'll just tellyou the seven areas of focus
for Rotary are peace andconflict prevention.
Rotary encourages dialogue topromote understanding and trains
leaders to prevent conflict.
(03:20):
You know, a world peacementality.
Secondly, disease prevention andtreatment.
Rotary works to stop the spreadof diseases like HIV, aids,
malaria and polio.
And of course, polio isRotary's major accomplishment,
claim to fame with the BillGates Foundation matching
(03:40):
dollars that we've helped to endpolio worldwide and that's a
big feather in the cap of Rotaryand something that we're really
proud of and continuing tofight polio.
Thirdly, water, sanitation andhygiene.
There's many countries aroundthe world that don't have basic
(04:02):
water, sanitation and hygiene,and to get to be a part of that
solution is amazing.
Fourthly, we're very passionateabout maternal and child health
.
Rotary works to improve thehealth of mothers and children.
Not everybody knows that.
Fifthly, basic education andliteracy.
I mentioned earlier working toimprove access to education for
(04:25):
all children and adults.
Education and literacy are bothstepping stones to be able to
provide for your families tohave quality of life and to do
something for the nextgeneration in your communities,
as well as be able to advancecommunities through education
(04:48):
and literacy.
Sixth is community economicdevelopment.
Rotary works to createopportunities for work and grow
local economies.
Then there's some really amazingprojects that you can research
about things that Rotary hasdone.
I'm just thinking about evenfarming.
There's a lot of farmingprojects that have been done so
(05:10):
people can grow their own foodand be self-sustaining in their
communities, in nations,especially underdeveloped
nations around the world.
And then supporting theenvironment Rotary works to
address environmental issues andhelp to improve the environment
(05:30):
in the world, and I know one ofthe projects our current
district governor is reallypassionate about is a river
project and I think it evenextends to oceans, but just
cleaning the pollution out ofthe waters in our oceans and
along our rivers, especially inunderdeveloped countries that
(05:52):
don't have the infrastructure tosupport local rubbish and
garbage pickup, and the impactthat having that type of waste
in their communities has onindividuals and their health.
I've said a lot, brian.
Did you want to jump in?
Brian Triger (06:11):
I was just listening to everything that you
had to say and listening tojust kind of the structure of
all of the areas of focus.
At the end of the day, for meone of the most important areas
of focus is peace, but I alsorecognize that the other areas
of focus are required in orderto have a full comprehension of
(06:35):
not only what that means but howto get there.
So it's interesting to see,just to visualize as a
Nuberitarian kind of, theintersection of the kind of the
requirement of understanding thefundamentals to really humble
oneself to be part of of thatsolution.
(06:55):
So I was just doing someinternal reflection while you
were chatting, out of curiosity,because, no, from the time that
I joined to now, you know, asI've met you several times, I've
seen you connect to many, ifnot all, of the areas of focus.
Is there one area of focus thatis either closer to your heart
(07:21):
or maybe tied to a focus onsomething that you'd like to
spotlight right now?
Jeanean Yanish Jones (07:30):
Sure, well , as a career, I am an executive
director for Health Alliancefor the Uninsured, so I have a
huge passion for helping peoplehave access to health care and
quality of life, and so thematernal and child health piece
of our areas of focus is reallynear and dear to my heart, as
(07:54):
well as basic education andliteracy, and I would extend
that in broader terms to healthliteracy.
And just as I serve anuninsured population in Oklahoma
and there's estimated one infour people uninsured we have a
lot of people that do not havebasic health literacy,
(08:17):
information on how to take thebest care of themselves and
their families best care ofthemselves and their families,
which can lead to more seriouschronic health conditions like
diabetes and hypertension, justbased on lifestyle changes Sure,
so, being able to be a part ofgoing upstream and helping
(08:39):
people to understand how to takecare of themselves, in turn,
then they can take care of theirfamilies, their communities.
There's a whole snowball, apositive snowball effect to that
.
So thank you for asking that,and I think too, as you made it
more personal for me, I thinkabout how we can personalize the
work that we do in rotary.
(09:00):
I think Rotarians really getout of rotaryary, what they put
into it.
So you mentioned that I'm partof one of the largest clubs in
the world and so it's real easyto just be a lunch participant
and come, listen to reallymeaningful programs, make a few
connections, say hello and thenleave.
But you know, and maybe in somemembers that's maybe what they
(09:22):
want to get out of theirmembership.
Some people, and even in ourclub, we have a lot of
opportunity to sign up to be ondifferent committees, to get
more involved.
So we have a team that's reallyinvolved with the grants.
We have a team that helps withour happy hours, our
socialization, so that we canhave opportunities to, to mingle
(09:45):
and get to know each otherbeyond the luncheons.
Um, we have, you know, thegreeters.
We have people that are, um, wehave a um, pretty robust, uh,
financial piece of our clubwhere we're able to do a lot of
giving, and so we have peoplethat are managing those funds
and helping to do annual givingcampaigns.
(10:08):
And you know, we say you knowthat we all have time, talent or
treasure to offer in thecapacity and, like you said, you
know what are your passions.
So then I'm going to transitionto making a club vibrant.
So what makes a club vibrantand I would say for sure, it's
the people and having a purpose.
(10:30):
So, as you're coming togetherfor your meetings to have that
energy and excitement to make adifference in the world and I
think that's one of themotivating factors for all of us
to really want to be a part ofa service organization is that
we know that together,collectively, we can make a
(10:51):
bigger impact than we canindividually.
Brian Triger (10:55):
No, that's good I was thinking about.
You know I've only been in twodifferent clubs recently
transferred, so again, some youhave great wisdom.
So, based on my minimalexperience, one of the things
that I think can add to or atleast be supplemental to what
(11:16):
you have to say is the biggestimpact that vibrancy of a club
has had on me and has allowed meto support a club in that
capacity, is just caring youknow, sitting next to an
individual and just looking intotheir eyes and kind of giving
that space to figure out, okay,what's going on, how are they
(11:37):
connected into the community,how are they connected to their
club, what are the club dynamics?
You know, when I originallyjoined you know I'm still early
in my journey, but when Ioriginally joined it was it was
networking, right, you know, Ijust, you know, wanted to build
the business, wanted to maybeplay around with nonprofit
addition or exposure and stufflike that, and, um, I think I,
(12:02):
you know it, it has served thatpurpose.
But one of the interestingthings is, uh, building up that
momentum and experiencing someclub vibrancy.
Uh, not only uh built up thattraction so I could get detached
from some of the limitationsthat I had, but also kind of
getting me outside of thatfishbowl, just seeing the bigger
(12:23):
picture and figuring out, okay,there's so much positive energy
there, the vibrancy that youtalk about when you see it in
the you know, the Jeaneans, theMac Patels, the, uh, the Jacks,
the Chilis of the world, the,the Ben's, uh, you know, I can
name so many different people in, in and outside of position
(12:47):
that have kind of inspired meand, um, I just appreciate the
wisdom that you and a lot ofother leadership have to share.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (12:54):
Yeah Well, thank you, and I love how
you're connecting vibrancy towellbeing.
You know there's so muchresearch about being connected
as individuals and weexperienced that as we went
through COVID and we weredisconnected and how well-being
was struck.
People were struggling withtheir overall mental health and
well-being and being a vibrantindividual and also aligning.
(13:17):
I hear you saying you know yourpersonal goals, your
professional goals, yourmotivation for joining Rotary.
So then you know, like you said, you know, looking at the
bigger picture, you know where,when you're in the club or
you're considering a club, it'sgood to know, like, where does
this club want to be in three tofive years?
What is what's their?
What are their goals?
Are they doing some strategicplanning?
(13:39):
Are they inspiring theirmembers to be creative and voice
their opinions and thoughts andideas?
Just you, doing a podcast likethis is very creative and much
needed and outside of the box,which is amazing and then also
developing strategies forincreasing member engagement
(14:01):
over the next few years.
So that's like looking forward,looking club.
You know a vibrant club islooking towards the future and a
lot of clubs do that too withtheir leadership plan, like
they'll already have asuccession plan for who's going
to be there.
You know their, their.
Their vice president becomestheir president, the secretary
becomes the vice president, youknow.
So their leadership.
(14:21):
They already know who theirleadership is going to be
through their board position.
So the next leader can startthinking of what are some goals
that I would like to achieveduring my leadership year.
And there's training, of course, for the president-elects in
different groups, and everymember has access to the
(14:44):
training on the my Rotary pageand we have a wealth of
information there.
Same thing about being vibrantin your personal and
professional goals and, plus, asbeing a good club member.
And we even have a partnershipwith Toastmasters.
So if you're looking to improveyour speaking skills, that's a
great partnership that we haveand free training that's
(15:06):
available as a member.
And then, as you're thinkingabout setting goals, my Rotary
and they call it Rotary ClubCentral actually has a way to
set goals on the platform,online, and that way everyone
can kind of know what the goalsare for the club and for the
(15:26):
district.
You can focus on things thatyour club's already good at and
maybe what can we do to improveit, build on that success and
make it even more successful.
And whether that's a fundraiseror a service project or maybe
just having a really engagingclub meetings.
You can ask club committees andmembers to propose ideas and
(15:48):
goals for you for the club.
So that's another thing too.
So you're kind of lookingforward setting goals and then
also having club assembliesregularly to keep members
engaged and knowledgeable.
So a lot of clubs will devotemaybe a meeting a month or a
(16:08):
quarter and they won't have aspeaker come in but they'll just
say, okay, we're going to talktoday during our meeting about
different topics, and they mighthave table discussions or ask
members to present new ideas,designate times to share
impressions of their club, andso that way too you're getting
feedback with each other andsaying, you know, kind of a
(16:32):
little check-in, how are wedoing, how are things going, and
it gives everybody a chance tohave a voice in your club as
well.
Brian Triger (16:43):
I like that a lot.
I uh, no, thank you so much forsharing this.
Uh, I'm not.
You know, I'm not in leadershipat the moment and I respect
everyone.
That is uh and isn't Um, but itgives me a clearer picture of
you know, a little bit behindthe scenes.
(17:03):
I've had the luxury of hangingout with you know people in the
district level and at least oneperson on the zone level, and I
just love the ability to hopinto different clubs and connect
with people at different levelsand kind of tap into this
information in order to, youknow, just to find the next door
(17:24):
to serve and add a little bitof peace.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (17:28):
That's great, Brian, and I also have a
few more thoughts to share onthis.
So one another thing and thisis what you're doing is
communication, and Rotary has alot of great information on
their brand center and theappropriate way to use the logos
and things like that.
But they have some really greatresources for ways to keep your
(17:50):
website engaging, how to usesocial media to highlight the
work that clubs are doing andthankfully, since we do have so
many resources within Rotary,there's a lot of great training
and suggestions and also justother social media sites that we
can follow and see how peopleare sharing their Rotary stories
(18:13):
.
And a lot of times, actionphotos and the club doing
something is a lot moremeaningful than just a picture
of your speaker in front of yourrotary logo, although that's
good too, because you know youwant to have the brand out there
, but you also want to show theclub doing stuff and making a
difference.
So communication and having apodcast, like you are, Brian is
(18:35):
fabulous.
And then you know you talkedabout leadership and saying you
know you're not really inleadership, but I mean we all
really actually do have aleadership position in Rotary,
because Rotary is an opportunityto be of service and even at
the member level you're a leaderin your community because
(18:56):
you're saying service, being ofservice is important and I want
to make a commitment to that bymy membership in Rotary because
you know you're taking your time.
Generally you have somemembership dues, you may be
giving some additional money andyou have the opportunity to be
kind of the eyes and ears ofneeds within the communities and
(19:19):
bring that back to your cluband say you know, hey, I saw
that there's this thing going onwith the school or this
homeless shelter or this foodpantry.
Maybe we could do somethingthere.
So even at the member level youhave an opportunity to be a
leader in helping to make adifference in the community.
But then also within your clubkind of start looking at the
(19:42):
member level, where would youaspire to grow within the club
and really vibrant clubs workhard to have smooth leadership
transition and really groompeople and doing some mentoring
to help people understand thebasics of Rotary, but then also
(20:04):
to grow their own personalleadership skills within the
context of Rotary.
So that's another thing is withleadership, and then this is
just governance things.
But on the vibrancy side it isimportant for clubs to review
and know their bylaws so thateverybody's following the um,
(20:28):
the mandates of how the club wasset up, like how your um, you
know what are your requirementsfor the number of board meetings
and how many members do youhave on your board and what are
the procedures for makingchanges within the club.
And so that way too, when youhave a lot of different
(20:49):
personalities and somebody mightfeel this way or that way, well
, let's go back to what thebylaws say.
The bylaws say, and then ifthere's a question about how the
bylaws were written or ifthere's something that needs to
be changed, then together theclub can come together and make
sure the bylaws align andsupport the great work that that
club is trying to do.
(21:09):
So that's a little bit of thenuts and bolts on the governance
, but it is important for bylawsto be you know whether they're
on your website or that all themembers have access to that, so
you can understand what theguides are that are driving that
club and making it as vibrantas possible.
And then, as you grow yourcommunication, your leadership,
(21:36):
um, straight, uh, focusing onwhat you do good, making it
great, you continue to developstrong relationships within your
club.
So some uh, so some ideas totry sit at different tables with
different people at themeetings, like we all kind of
get in creatures of habit, right, we'll sit at the same place.
Um, there's a lot of um optionsfor creative club membership
(22:01):
structure.
So some clubs may considerforming or have a satellite club
that meets at a different time.
So maybe if you're a lunchmeeting, your club may have a
breakfast meeting one day a weekfor people who are having a
hard time making it to the lunchmeeting.
So having some alternative clubtimes or satellite meetings is
an option for ways to growrelationships within your club
(22:27):
where you have more engagement,where people can attend.
And then another way to growrelationships within your club
is invite friends and familymembers to meetings, to service
projects and events, and this isa great way to show how
wonderful volunteering is butalso encourage them to join or
(22:47):
help out.
I remember last year, during myRotary year, we gave an award
at the Midwest City Rotary ClubRotary Club Midwest City, and it
was to a family that actuallyweren't even Rotarians but they
had the spirit of Rotariansbecause they do so much
volunteer work for the club andfor their major fundraiser that
(23:08):
they asked if we would you knowpresent this award to them of
how inviting friends and family,business associates to rotary
can get people involved, even ifthey haven't joined rotary yet.
They're a part of a greatcommunity thoughts.
Brian Triger (23:31):
So thought that comes to mind for any, for any
clubs out there that are in theprocess or figuring out a good
starting point to become vibrantor more vibrant.
What out a good starting pointto become vibrant or more
vibrant?
What's a good starting point?
Jeanean Yanish Jones (23:46):
So getting clubs to be more vibrant or
getting more people involved inyour club.
Brian Triger (23:50):
I would say just no specific example, but like,
let's say, a club is, you know,finding itself or staying
stagnant to some extent, butwants to add some vibrancy to
its club.
What would be the first step?
What's the way to inject lifeinto a club?
Jeanean Yanish Jones (24:11):
Well, that ties really great into the next
point I was going to makeanyways, and that is making sure
members are involved and thatactivities that the club is
doing genuinely interests them.
So getting members involved inmeaningful ways.
So if they don't really careand you mentioned how important
caring is as a quality of beinga Rotarian I'd say one of the
(24:35):
key character assets of aRotarian is caring.
But find out why people joinedRotary.
I know Midtown Rotary did a bigcampaign a few years ago on
their Rotary why and they wouldinterview each of their members
why is Rotary so meaningful toyou?
So finding out the motivation,why people love being a part of
(24:59):
Rotary and how it's impactedtheir lives helps to get
engagement.
You can do some member surveysProbably.
My opinion on surveys is to doit more in person and
communicatively versus onlinesurveys, but you could do those
two in a pinch and use resultsto plan projects and activities,
(25:22):
to continue to tailor things tomeet the needs of what the
members are wanting too, becausethe membership clubs are
autonomous, so the membershipreally kind of drives where the
areas of focus are that the clubis going to focus on and also
where people are going to getengaged and feel excited about
(25:44):
what they're doing.
And when you're excited, youhave enthusiasm and you're
telling other people about whata great club you have, and then
also is finding out the skills,gifts, talents of the people
that you have in your club andget people engaged in these
activities.
A really basic example is myhusband, he, jerry Jones.
(26:08):
He, joe, joined the Rotary Clubof Northwest Oklahoma City and
they do the Santa at North ParkMall, which is an amazing
fundraiser, and they also have abeautiful red carpet there that
they put out every year for theSanta booth.
Well, my husband is the ownerof a rug and carpet cleaning
(26:29):
company, so he cleans the carpetfor them, you know.
So, using the skills and assetsthat your members have to help
make, whatever you're doing,your project, your community,
more improved.
I mean, we're trying to makethings better, we're trying to
make the world a better placeand then also giving membership
(26:51):
the opportunity to learn andgain experiences from club
activities that they may nothave ever gotten an opportunity
to be a part of, but being inRotary, you know you can dress
up like an elf and help takepictures down at the at North
Park Mall, which I do everyChristmas because it's super fun
.
Brian Triger (27:09):
I like that a lot.
I mean you're you're followingup with what you said, doing
something that you're, that youenjoy, that you care about, and
having some fun in the process.
It keeps you engaged in theorganization as a whole.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (27:22):
That's right, brian.
So in closing I have a coupleof last things about being
vibrant, and that is coach newand current members in leading
and in leadership and so tryingto get you know how we have
young professionals, newermembers, you know, just creating
(27:43):
a pipeline of really greatleaders within your club.
And then also, another way forengagement is to have
opportunities for smaller groupswithin your club to do
different committee type work,so you might have a committee
that's focused on membership anda committee that's focused on
public relations and maybe onservice projects.
(28:04):
Maybe there's some people inyour club that really love the
Rotary Foundation.
We have such a strongfoundation, highest rating and
charity navigator for beingtrustworthy and the monies that
you give to the foundation go towhere they're intended.
So there's lots of opportunities, whether you're in a small club
or a large club, to getinvolved, to be as involved as
(28:28):
you can.
And sometimes you're goingthrough things, life situations,
where you need to pull back alittle and sometimes you know
your empty nest and the kids arebusy, the grandkids are off and
about and you have some margingap that came in your life and
you're like what could I do withthis time to really make a
difference in the community, andone thing that we all know
(28:51):
about volunteering and being apart of and helping someone else
is that, in return, it helps usfeel really good, too, that
we're we're doing something tomake a difference in this world.
And, um, one of my, my lastclosing thought would be this
that every member should feelempowered to shape your club's
future and make it outstanding.
Brian Triger (29:13):
This has been a great episode.
I really appreciate this.
I'm, and I do listen to theother episodes, but I'm
definitely going to go back andlisten because there's a lot of
really good information here.
I yeah.
No, there doesn't have to be aperfect conclusion, because this
is just a conversation.
(29:33):
So I appreciate you, Janine,Thank you for coming out.
Jeanean Yanish Jones (29:36):
Thank you, Brian, it was my pleasure.
Brian Triger (29:52):
For all of our listeners.
Thank you for continuing tolisten, follow, support.
All of it was my pleasure MonteLibrary, all the Board of
Commissioners, anyone tied tothe Metropolitan Library System
for you know, donating space andtime to allow this project to
continue, and anyone else inbetween.
You know we're all connected.
So thank you to everyone andhave a wonderful evening
(30:13):
everyone.
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