Rotary Club of Marana Meeting Minutes
10/15/19
Guests: Candace Greenberg, artist and educator, was introduced to us by Randy. We all enjoyed her kindness and enthusiasm.
Announcements:
- Last day to file taxes.
- November 9th Foundation Training Day ($5) and Foundation Country and Western Dinner
- Two RI, Zone Reps will be joining our District for this event
- Should be fun, educational, and inspiring!
- Tour de Cookie Date Changed to March 14th
- Time to Seek Sponsorships
- Tour de Tucson; November 23
- All hands on deck from 8:00am to 3:00pm
- Richie coordinating with Perimeter, Denise organizing food, Laura coordinating volunteers
- Emerge Center Against Domestic Violence service project Saturday, October 26th from 8am to noon. We will help to beautify and restore their patio and play area. Hope to see many of you there.
Happy Bucks:
- Many happinesses, but this writer forgot she was responsible for notes during the time period and remembers only one: Dan has taken and run with the club’s call to membership recruitment and engagement. Many thanks to him from all of us.
- Also, Lynn’s joke was hilarious today, but to avoid offence, it won’t be repeated.
Today’s Program was presented by Yanick Hicks who spoke with us about Leadership Development
Yanick Hicks is a delightful young man and pharmacist who spoke with us about the development of leadership and its importance. He began with a quote from his mentor and friend John Maxwell: To be influential, smile, share, give, and turn the other cheek.
Following this opening, Yanick shared his story of emigrating from Cameroon with family to the United States at age 16. His transition to high school was difficult; he wanted very much to fit in but was picked on because of his accent and difference. This period changed when he was introduced to alcohol, night clubs, and marijuana. He quickly became socially engaged and had a group of friends. While he felt happy, his grades plummeted. This young man, who had sites on becoming a pharmacist and who had been taught to work hard and to care for his community by his grandfather, no longer cared about his goals, his future, or service to his community.
Having little hope of being accepted to any university pharmacy program after high school, Yannick nonetheless applied to 5 schools. While waiting for responses, a friend recommended and sent him a link to a video. It was a life changing experience for him. A talk by John Maxwell on leadership, growth, and development.
Yannick immediately started reinvesting in himself. He stopped drinking and smoking, and committed himself to making a difference in his own and others’ lives. Yannick was accepted by one pharmacy school. While completing his program, he found his true passion was in leadership. In addition to being a pharmacist, Yannick sought out John Maxwell and eventually joined his organization training on leadership, personal and organizational growth, and development.
Yannick shared with us gems of his trainings:
- The Law of the Lid
The Lid refers to the maximum capacity or robustness of one’s leadership skills.This Lid limits the degree to which an organization under your leadership can be creative, effective, and grow.
- To further develop leadership skills
- Observe the experiences you have and take time to reflect
- Write: What went right, what went wrong, what can we/I do differently.
- Experience new things. 99% of our thoughts are the same as yesterdays. We tend to fill our days with the familiar and routines, which results in automatic thinking. To interrupt this, we must dare to experience new things where we can’t rely on our triggered automatic thinking. In these new spaces is where new development can occur.
Yannick closed his talk by emphasizing the importance of striving to make a difference in the lives of others. Without this perspective, one’s leadership will be very limited and self-serving.
The Rotary Club of Marana expresses our appreciation to Yanick Hicks for an inspiring presentation.
Submitted by Rotarian Mary Straus, 10/15/19