As President, I am most pleased to announce the selection of Tahira Saeed for our club’s Rotarian of the Year award for RY2020-2021.

Her selection was based on the same criteria as was used for the Rotarian of the Month recognition program, namely, the recipient exemplifies the ideals of Rotary; reliable; supportive of club activities; thoughtful of others; first to volunteer; goes well beyond the call of duty.

As I alluded to in naming Tahira as the ROM for July, she has fulfilled each criterion in spades.

First and foremost, Tahira enthusiastically stepped up to fill the critical position of Club Secretary when a vacancy occurred in late July. In addition to carrying out the demanding secretarial duties, she somehow found the time to provide yeoman service in overseeing the agenda for each of the 48 regular Tues. morning meetings, held via Zoom platform, during the Rotary Year. A major component of the latter task involved timely coordination with the 44 guests who greatly enriched our meetings this past year, comprising 27 guest speakers (15 local; 7 national; and 7 foreign), 8 Student of the Month awardees, 6 past exchange students and 1 Unsung Citizen awardee.

The Club Executive recognized from the outset that a major challenge to successfully “weather the COVID storm” would rest on membership engagement, retaining current members and attracting new ones. And to meet this overarching challenge, it would be imperative that our meetings be well-organized with a diverse slate of informative, stimulating and entertaining speakers. Judging from an amazing weekly attendance record consistently running at ~ 75% of our membership (surely one of the highest in the district), this goal was achieved. And for this accomplishment, we have Tahira to thank.

In short, Tahira represents the very embodiment of the time-honored Rotarian service-above-self motto, cheerfully and faithfully carrying out her many duties with dogged determination and quiet efficiency.

Unquestionably, Tahira Saeed is a most worthy recipient of our Club’s Rotarian of the Year award for RY 2020-2021.

Mac Paterson,

President

Rotary Club of Penticton Sunrise