Ted Baker: I'm Ted Baker and this is Geneva Rotary Radio, our monthly spotlight on the Geneva Rotary Club, of which I'm a member, and so is my guest, in fact, he's the next president of the Geneva Rotary Club, Ethan Fogg, good morning.
Ethan Fogg: Pleasure to be here, Ted. Thank you.
Ted Baker: Let's learn a little bit about you. I know you from the YMCA, you've been on the radio before, you've spoken to our club before you became a member. Just give us a bit of your life background.
Ethan Fogg: Wow. Well, born and raised in the Finger Lakes, Seneca County, and like all the kids in my family, we all ran away when we went to college, and I was the youngest, and I couldn't help but come back to this most beautiful part of the Northeast, and since that time, I've worked for several regional employers that most of us would know, and I've been able to advance my education, Paul Smith's College, Finger Lakes Community College, ultimately Cornell for my undergrad, and SUNY Brockport, so New York, born, bred, and educated.
Ted Baker: You call yourself a convener and an explorer, those sound like good qualities for a new president. Explain a little further what you mean by that.
Ethan Fogg: Yes, sir. You've been doing your homework. Well, for, I'm going to say about 45 years, I'm going to turn 60 this summer, for 45 years, I have been, whether it be professionally or as a volunteer, the one in the room who says, hey, come sit next to me, and let's go explore that over there. I've done it, I really unlocked most of that when I went back to college in my early 30s, and within one semester, became involved in student leadership, and would ultimately be president of student government, not only for Finger Lakes Community College, but for the ILR School at Cornell when I arrived there. And through, apropos of our work in Rotary, I have found that so many of the opportunities that have defined my personal and professional life, whether they bring me joy, or bring me skills, or bring me opportunities to move forward and upward, it's been the volunteer opportunities. Yes, I've appreciated all of the work opportunities I've had, but they're often very, very clearly defined laneways in which you're expected to contribute, whereas most volunteers, their limits are only defined by their interests and their aptitudes. So I have always been attracted to volunteer service, and I grew up in a house where one is expected to budget for charity, and one is also expected to schedule time in their life to give back.
Ted Baker: You were a member of the Seneca Falls Rotary Club before joining Geneva. What can our club learn from Seneca Falls?
Ethan Fogg: Oh, well, let's not skip a couple of steps here. I've been a member of Seneca Falls, Clifton Springs, Canandaigua, and now Geneva, because I don't think I'm the only person whose professional path takes them to one community and then another over time. So something I learned early in Rotary is part of how you can feel welcome and productive in a new community quickly, and yes, this is a shameless plug for the value of Rotary to new friends in Geneva, a great way to meet people and get connected and learn local culture and contribute to it is through your local Rotary Club. So my father sponsored me into my first club, which was Seneca Falls, and ultimately as my career moved across the region, I was president of the Clifton Springs Club, and I've been on the boards of Canandaigua and now Geneva, and what I learned from all clubs is there's no one right way. Some clubs are very involved in international service projects, you know, helping individuals and groups in third world countries enliven their local economy, either through extending their agricultural year or through building schools and sourcing, you know, professionals who can help elevate the level of local understanding of things on the world table, not just, you know, bringing Western beliefs to a third world country, don't mistake me, but helping people refine their own beauty and vision and capabilities. And back to your question, what one club might learn from another, there are examples like Seneca Falls and Clifton Springs Clubs work together, they jointly sponsor an event, I'm sorry, a project in Malawi, Africa, and they don't necessarily go there every single year. They try to, they try to send delegates, but they also, they have a working relationship with individuals on the ground, and through the miracles of things like Zoom communications and email and other real-time electronics, they're able to keep a finger on the pulse of their investments, and they leverage investments, speaking of local manufacturers of materials that are, frankly, impossible to get in some of those areas, to name a name, Gould's Pumps equipment are actually hurried by human beings from the Seneca Falls Club, you know, planes, trains, automobiles, to get these things to where you can't be in Malawi, Africa, and order off Amazon. It doesn't work that way. So, the human beings that set aside their own personal comfort, you know, I mean, we're talking 28 hours of travel just to get to Malawi, even if you have nothing in your hands or nothing in the hold of the plane. And again, it's not that that's the only club doing interesting things, that's something I learned early from my father in Rotary was the power of visiting other clubs, that no matter where you call yourself a member, to this day, I'll say it on the record, to this day, if I have space available on a day other than when the Geneva Club meets, I like to attend the Seneca Falls Club. They have been part of my life, people in that room have been in my life all my life. So not only can I catch up with old friends, I can share dates and information about special events hosted by the Geneva Club. I can inspire them to get in a car with me and maybe drive to an event that's going to be hosted by the Rochester Red Wings for Rotary this season. So I think of it almost as bees in the flower garden. We hop club to club to club and we take something with us and we get something when we're there and we take it with us when we go somewhere else.
Ted Baker: Every president puts his or her stamp on the club within the framework of Rotary. What are some of your priorities? What are some of your plans for your year as president?
Ethan Fogg: Thank you. The first, I suppose, would be to sustain. Those who've served the club before me have done a lot of really important things. We have a good quality club with long service. Members are with us for long periods of time. I use that as a health indicator for any organization. Our membership runs broad and deep. So slow growth, I think, is something to consider, whether it be in membership or event participation or even financial capacity. Incremental growth, I think, is lower risk. And in a volunteer organization, our strongest capital is our people. So I'm not looking to rock the boat in any way so much as it is to maybe make the boat a little bigger and a little bit more seaworthy in the event something unexpected might occur. And also, while we're doing that, while we're keeping it strong and forward moving, something I've done as a convener and an explorer, as you said earlier, I'm a firm believer, I'm an advocate of strong and durable infrastructure, you know, whether it be in a community or an organization. And something that I will be taking some time to look at is, are our electronic communications and our print communications and our program calendar and even our program content, are they easily understood? Are they accessible to folks that may not currently be a member, but they're curious about what we have to offer? And something else that I do take some credit for in other environments is making leadership roles more appealing, that I think there's an invisible wall between the average member of any organization and its administration or its leadership. And I think that wall is built by often misunderstandings of what the expectations might be, or the bandwidth required, or I think a lot of people imagine being in the front of the room as a lonely exercise. And in some other organizations, I have been quite proud to, I wasn't proud to run unopposed for a position, but I was proud that at the end of my term, there was healthy competition to succeed me. And that's something that I would like to spend part of my year on, not alone, but to work with the club to help learn how can we make being an officer or a board member more approachable? How can we clarify what it really means? How can we help people understand the time demands and the personal as well as professional rewards from that kind of investment? And to really reinforce that the multiplier in there is immense, the gratification, the ability to look back and smile and the memories that you built and the friends and the skills for whatever might come next.
Ted Baker: You touched on messaging and misconceptions, and that's, I want to thank Phil Beckley, who has been the chair of the image committee for a number of years. He's got a lot of things on his plate. I agree to step in and take that role. And one of the things I want to do is be more public facing and get that message out to the public. So what do you think members of the public don't know, maybe, and should know about what Rotary is and what it does?
Ethan Fogg: Wow. The one I'll start with that is relatively recent, folks who may have old understandings of Rotary, because some things have changed in the last decade, is that weekly, faithful attendance is not a requirement. It's something we aspire to. We would love to have you there as often as possible. In the old days, there were awards for 100% attendance, and frankly, I've heard horror stories about people terminated, people who lose their membership privileges because they didn't attend enough. And like I say, while we would love to have people in the room every chance they can, we are mindful that the workplace has changed. It's not as easy for people to excuse themselves for an hour or, when you add transportation, quite possibly 90 minutes in the middle of the day. And also, the charter, and this is Ethan speaking, not Rotary International speaking, but my understanding of the charter of Rotary is to do good things in one's community. Our charter is not to have lunch together once a week. That's part of how we get to where we're going, but that's not our job. We're not asking you to join a lunch club. We're asking you to join a civic organization that convenes, most often once a week and usually around a meal, but that's just to help you economize on that time, that it's one more thing you can get done during that same hour. You can eat and you can connect and you can learn how we're changing lives in Geneva and Ontario County and across America and in third world countries where polio is still a risk. And we do it all for a few dollars a week.
Ted Baker: We've run into that in our club, exactly what you're talking about. We have a couple of Rotarians whose work commitments don't allow them to attend a lunch meeting, yet they're fantastic Rotarians and we want to keep them in and we want to keep them involved.
Ethan Fogg: I would agree. And for those who've never participated as a guest or a member of the Geneva Club, part of the narrative that accompanies the induction of a new member, we do say aloud that while we can make you a member of Rotary, we cannot make you a Rotarian. And really the spirit behind that is any of us can join any organization. We can wear a jersey for the team or whatever, but the message, the nugget in that comment is that being a Rotarian is a personal commitment to service above self. It's the willingness and interest and ability to set aside a certain degree of personal comfort or set aside a certain degree of personal resources in the name of something larger than yourself. It's not a religious organization, it's not a political organization, but it's a cultural organization of people who believe that by doing good for people we may never meet is good for everybody.
Ted Baker: If you'd like to learn more about Geneva Rotary, we meet on Wednesdays at 12 noon at Dana's Time Out downtown on Hamilton Street. The third Wednesday of the month is an evening meeting. We just had that. We'd like to teach you more about Rotary. And Ethan, I've sat with you in the board meetings and you're a thinker and you are definitely a convener and an explorer. Look forward to your year as president.
Ethan Fogg: Thank you, sir. I look forward to it as well.
