At our recent Club Assembly, this year’s Chairperson for the Vocational Services Committee, Dan Roads gave a rundown on activities planned for the year including long-running programs in addition to a handful of possible new activities. The following is his recap:

 

Scholarships                                                                                                                                                                                                      
Goal:
  Award 2 four year scholarships of $1,000 per year to area graduating seniors as well as 1 two year scholarship for an Elmbrook area student enrolled at WCTC. The Committee interviews applicants and decides the recipient for the four year scholarship, while WCTC selects the recipient of the two year scholarship.

Interact Club
Goal:  Mentor and assist a community service driven organization within Brookfield East High School. 

World Affairs Seminar
Goal:
  Sponsor two students to the annual World Affairs Seminar at Carroll University. The 2014 seminar was titled “World Health: Issues and Responsibilities”.    

Wisconsin Leaders of Tomorrow  
Goal:  Select and two students to this seminar which “encourages and applauds high school juniors who are outstanding citizens, students and leaders. This is intended to develop the skills needed to prepare them for college application and enhance leadership traits”.

Wisconsin Business World
Goal:  Send 2-3 students (depending on registration costs and any discount the club might receive) to the Business World Seminar at Edgewood College in June of each year.  This program is in part sponsored by the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Classification Talks
Goal:
  On an ongoing schedule of every 2-3 weeks have one club member present a brief 3-5 minute talk at the regular Friday meeting. The meeting would consist of a personal profile as well as an overall summary of their business/professional history.  Anecdotal information is encouraged. Ideally, the talk would be 50/50 between personal profile and business history.                                                                                                                                                                              

We also looked at the projects ERC and the Vocational Committee has taken on. All except the Classification talks are youth oriented and not taking anything away from these activities, I wonder if there aren’t projects we can consider that focus on community business people? The following ideas are intended to move us in that direction.

Possible New Programs and Ideas

  • Create a liaison between ERC and the local Chamber of Commerce to see if ERC can provide assistance or sponsorship to any Chamber events or projects. I’ve asked Sally Piefer and Wally Smanski to join me in a meeting with club member Carol White at the Chamber to discuss possibilities.
  • Establish a Brookfield Chamber of Commerce award (sponsored by ERC) to local business of the year based on our ideals of the 4 Way Test. ERC would provide a plaque each year and encourage local newspaper coverage. This will be discussed with Carol White to determine what the Chamber’s appetite is for such an award.
  • Work with Brookfield East Interact officers to bring their parents to an ERC meeting in hopes of creating interest and new members. This will be introduced to Interact once the school year starts.
  • Talk with Waukesha, Mayfair, Hartland and other Rotary Clubs about combined projects where we can assist or take ownership.
  • Establish a Teacher of the Month Award – John Schesta has suggested this and I’d like to hear more so we can look into this and get the Committee’s thoughts.
  • Look into creating Citizen of the Year Award – Gary Gilmore raised this issue and I’d like the Committee’s thoughts.
  • Sponsor an essay contest at the two high schools based on the student’s views of the 4 Way Test. A $500 one year scholarship would be given (one available for each high school).
  • And finally, we are moving forward with gaining approval for an Interact Club at Brookfield Central High School. The current status is that this requires Student Council approval which means we’re a month away from getting on the agenda for approval as the Student Council still needs to be voted on once school is in session. We do have an interested group of students trying to make this happen. 

If anyone has questions or would like to help with our efforts, please feel free to contact me.

Dan Roads

Vocational Service Committee Chair
Rotary Club of Elmbrook (Brookfield)

 
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