By Robert Barron, Staff Writer
Enid News and Eagle
ENID — Through the persistence of President John Martin, every member of the club became a member of the Paul Harris Fellowship. The Paul Harris Fellowship is named after the founder of Rotary. To be a Fellow, members must contribute $1,000 to the fellowship, for which each member receives points, which can be passed on to fellow members. Enid Rotarians pay $25 per quarter to the fellowship, and some longtime members have accumulated a large number of points.
“You can’t use those points for yourself, they must be passed on to another member,” Martin said.
Some Rotarians who are tenured club members have accumulated as many as 40,000 points. As president of the club, Martin volunteered to distribute the accumulated points to all members of the club so everyone would be a member. Some members who have joined since the induction date are not yet Paul Harris Fellows.
The Rotary Foundation is a charitable arm of Rotary International and has given millions of dollars to needy areas around the world, including Haiti Earthquake Relief.
The Enid club had 150 members when Martin started and he established a list of how many points each member had, and determined how many they needed to become a member, placing all the figures on an Excel spreadsheet.
He sent some transfer of point forms to Rotary International headquarters, then five new members joined in January and he completed those and also sent them.
“It’s a recognition to say they belong to the foundation, but it was a nightmare to do,” Martin said.
In the beginning it was easy to transfer points from one member to another, but as he continued and points became more scarce, it was more difficult. Martin said he used 400 transfer forms, and as of July 1, all members were Paul Harris Fellows. They will be recognized at the club valentine’s party Feb. 15.
Martin said the project took more than three months to complete, and he had assistance from a member in Kalispell, Mont., who had experience with transfer forms. Martin had never seen the transfer forms before and he worked part of every day for a couple of months. The transfers had to be done by July 1, 2009, or they would lose the points.
Enid is the second-largest Rotary club in the district with only the Oklahoma City downtown club larger.
“There aren’t many large clubs like Enid who are 100 percent. I will continue to encourage members to give to the foundation. We were fortunate that we still had the points from some members who are deceased,” he said.
Rotary Foundation sent 5,000 earth boxes to Haiti and also is working on a project in connection with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to raise $100 million within three years as part of a matching grant to eradicate polio worldwide.
Another project is to provide clean water everywhere in the world. The Enid club has joined with a club in India to develop clean water sources.
Rotary International was founded in 1916 in Chicago and the Enid club was founded in 1919.
