#0018 - Jeanean Yanish Jones

Unlock the secrets to creating vibrant and impactful Rotary clubs with insights from Jeanean Yanish Jones, Past District Governor and member of the Rotary Club of Oklahoma City. Join us in this enlightening episode of the Rotary Spark podcast as Janine shares her passion for maternal and child health, and how Rotary International’s seven core areas of focus—ranging from peace and conflict prevention to environmental support—guide clubs in making a meaningful difference. Discover how aligning club activities with personal interests and community needs can harness the power of district and global grants, paving the way for transformative projects.

Empower your Rotary club with strategies to boost engagement and vitality. We explore the importance of setting goals, strategic planning, and leadership succession to ensure future success. Janine and I discuss how understanding each member's role and fostering personal connections create a supportive and energetic club atmosphere. Hear how partnerships with organizations like Toastmasters and tools such as Rotary Club Central fuel personal and professional growth. By conducting member surveys and offering leadership development opportunities, your club can thrive, sparking excitement and leveraging the unique talents of its members for positive global change.

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Rotary Club Areas of Focus

Brian Triger 0:00

Welcome to the Rotary Spark podcast . I'm your host , Brian Triger . With me today is the past district governor , Jeanean Yanish Jones , also a member of the Rotary Club of Oklahoma City . How are you doing today , Jeanean ?

Jeanean Yanish Jones 0:13

Very well , Brian . Thank you so much for hosting this wonderful podcast and thank you for having me on here .

Brian Triger 0:20

My pleasure . So let's just jump right in and tell us a little bit about Rotary .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 0:26

Sure , so , as you mentioned , I am the immediate past district governor for District 5750 , which is northwest of the area of the state , so we're Northwest Oklahoma clubs . There's about 33 clubs in our district and it was really an honor to get to serve in this capacity . And Rotary is incredible at the training and resources that they provide to the members but especially to the leadership and a couple of things that I feel like are really important to share with clubs and in the toolbox that I think really clubs be extraordinary is the vibrant being a vibrant club and it's a leadership plan for clubs to look at and kind of evaluating the work that they're doing , what their club represents as a personality in their community and service group that's making impactful service projects to their community , but then seeing , like , what are the things that we're doing well , what are some things that could use improvement ? And then continuing to build on that year after year , plus using the strengths of the members in your club and to attract new members .

Brian Triger 1:54

I love that . So , and aside from your leadership skills and your academic and professional qualifications , as a member of one of , if not , the biggest rotary club in the world , as well as one of the most vibrant , I believe that there are a lot of resources for our district specifically to draw on to get there .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 2:17

Sure , and so for members or prospective new members , it's really important you know , when you're trying to evaluate and find a club to be a part of that , you find one that aligns with some of the areas that you are that are important to you . Like , rotary has their seven areas of focus , but different clubs kind of focus on specific areas of focus within those seven areas . So some clubs are more involved with their local schools . So that hits the area of focus of basic education and literacy . Of course Rotary does these things not just in the community but also in the world , and Rotary clubs , individual clubs , can also be a part of larger projects with district grants and even global grants . So , for example , I'll just tell you the seven areas of focus for Rotary are peace and conflict prevention . Rotary encourages dialogue to promote understanding and trains leaders to prevent conflict . You know , a world peace mentality .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 3:24

Secondly , disease prevention and treatment . Rotary works to stop the spread of diseases like HIV , aids , malaria and polio . And of course , polio is Rotary's major accomplishment , claim to fame with the Bill Gates Foundation matching dollars that we've helped to end polio worldwide and that's a big feather in the cap of Rotary and something that we're really proud of and continuing to fight polio . Thirdly , water , sanitation and hygiene . There's many countries around the world that don't have basic water , sanitation and hygiene , and to get to be a part of that solution is amazing . Fourthly , we're very passionate about maternal and child health . Rotary works to improve the health of mothers and children . Not everybody knows that .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 4:19

Fifthly , basic education and literacy . I mentioned earlier working to improve access to education for all children and adults . Education and literacy are both stepping stones to be able to provide for your families to have quality of life and to do something for the next generation in your communities , as well as be able to advance communities through education and literacy . Sixth is community economic development . Rotary works to create opportunities for work and grow local economies .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 4:58

Then there's some really amazing projects that you can research about things that Rotary has done . I'm just thinking about even farming . There's a lot of farming projects that have been done so people can grow their own food and be self-sustaining in their communities , in nations , especially underdeveloped nations around the world . And then supporting the environment Rotary works to address environmental issues and help to improve the environment in the world , and I know one of the projects our current district governor is really passionate about is a river project and I think it even extends to oceans , but just cleaning the pollution out of the waters in our oceans and along our rivers , especially in underdeveloped countries that don't have the infrastructure to support local rubbish and garbage pickup , and the impact that having that type of waste in their communities has on individuals and their health . I've said a lot , brian . Did you want to jump in ?

Brian Triger 6:11

I was just listening to everything that you had to say and listening to just kind of the structure of all of the areas of focus . At the end of the day , for me one of the most important areas of focus is peace , but I also recognize that the other areas of focus are required in order to have a full comprehension of not only what that means but how to get there . So it's interesting to see , just to visualize as a Nuberitarian kind of , the intersection of the kind of the requirement of understanding the fundamentals to really humble oneself to be part of of that solution . So I was just doing some internal reflection while you were chatting , out of curiosity , because , no , from the time that I joined to now , you know , as I've met you several times , I've seen you connect to many , if not all , of the areas of focus . Is there one area of focus that is either closer to your heart or maybe tied to a focus on something that you'd like to spotlight right now ?

Jeanean Yanish Jones 7:30

Sure , well , as a career , I am an executive director for Health Alliance for the Uninsured , so I have a huge passion for helping people have access to health care and quality of life , and so the maternal and child health piece of our areas of focus is really near and dear to my heart , as well as basic education and literacy , and I would extend that in broader terms to health literacy . And just as I serve an uninsured population in Oklahoma and there's estimated one in four people uninsured we have a lot of people that do not have basic health literacy , information on how to take the best care of themselves and their families best care of themselves and their families , which can lead to more serious chronic health conditions like diabetes and hypertension , just based on lifestyle changes Sure , so , being able to be a part of going upstream and helping people to understand how to take care of themselves , in turn , then they can take care of their families , their communities . There's a whole snowball , a positive snowball effect to that . So thank you for asking that , and I think too , as you made it more personal for me , I think about how we can personalize the work that we do in rotary . I think Rotarians really get out of rotaryary , what they put into it . So you mentioned that I'm part of one of the largest clubs in the world and so it's real easy to just be a lunch participant and come , listen to really meaningful programs , make a few connections , say hello and then leave . But you know , and maybe in some members that's maybe what they want to get out of their membership

Club Vibrancy and Engagement Strategies

Jeanean Yanish Jones 9:25

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Jeanean Yanish Jones 9:25

Some people , and even in our club , we have a lot of opportunity to sign up to be on different committees , to get more involved . So we have a team that's really involved with the grants . We have a team that helps with our happy hours , our socialization , so that we can have opportunities to , to mingle and get to know each other beyond the luncheons . Um , we have , you know , the greeters . We have people that are , um , we have a um , pretty robust , uh , financial piece of our club where we're able to do a lot of giving , and so we have people that are managing those funds and helping to do annual giving campaigns .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 10:08

And you know , we say you know that we all have time , talent or treasure to offer in the capacity and , like you said , you know what are your passions . So then I'm going to transition to making a club vibrant . So what makes a club vibrant and I would say for sure , it's the people and having a purpose . So , as you're coming together for your meetings to have that energy and excitement to make a difference in the world and I think that's one of the motivating factors for all of us to really want to be a part of a service organization is that we know that together , collectively , we can make a bigger impact than we can individually .

Brian Triger 10:55

No , that's good I was thinking about . You know I've only been in two different clubs recently transferred , so again , some you have great wisdom . So , based on my minimal experience , one of the things that I think can add to or at least be supplemental to what you have to say is the biggest impact that vibrancy of a club has had on me and has allowed me to support a club in that capacity , is just caring you know , sitting next to an individual and just looking into their eyes and kind of giving that space to figure out , okay , what's going on , how are they connected into the community , how are they connected to their club , what are the club dynamics ?

Brian Triger 11:44

You know , when I originally joined you know I'm still early in my journey , but when I originally joined it was it was networking , right , you know , I just , you know , wanted to build the business , wanted to maybe play around with nonprofit addition or exposure and stuff like that , and , um , I think I , you know it , it has served that purpose . But one of the interesting things is , uh , building up that momentum and experiencing some club vibrancy . Uh , not only uh built up that traction so I could get detached from some of the limitations that I had , but also kind of getting me outside of that fishbowl , just seeing the bigger picture and figuring out , okay , there's so much positive energy there , the vibrancy that you talk about when you see it in the you know , the Jeaneans , the Mac Patels , the , uh , the Jacks , the Chilis of the world , the , the Ben's , uh , you know , I can name so many different people in , in and outside of position that have kind of inspired me and , um , I just appreciate the wisdom that you and a lot of other leadership have to share .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 12:54

Yeah Well , thank you , and I love how you're connecting vibrancy to wellbeing . You know there's so much research about being connected as individuals and we experienced that as we went through COVID and we were disconnected and how well-being was struck . People were struggling with their overall mental health and well-being and being a vibrant individual and also aligning . I hear you saying you know your personal goals , your professional goals , your motivation for joining Rotary . So then you know , like you said , you know , looking at the bigger picture , you know where , when you're in the club or you're considering a club , it's good to know , like , where does this club want to be in three to five years ? What is what's their ? What are their goals ? Are they doing some strategic planning ? Are they inspiring their members to be creative and voice their opinions and thoughts and ideas ? Just you , doing a podcast like this is very creative and much needed and outside of the box , which is amazing and then also developing strategies for increasing member engagement over the next few years . So that's like looking forward , looking club . You know a vibrant club is looking towards the future and a lot of clubs do that too with their leadership plan , like they'll already have a succession plan for who's going to be there . You know their , their . Their vice president becomes their president , the secretary becomes the vice president , you know . So their leadership . They already know who their leadership is going to be through their board position . So the next leader can start thinking of what are some goals that I would like to achieve during my leadership year . And there's training , of course , for the president-elects in different groups , and every member has access to the training on the my Rotary page and we have a wealth of information there . Same thing about being vibrant in your personal and professional goals and , plus , as being a good club member . And we even have a partnership with Toastmasters . So if you're looking to improve your speaking skills , that's a great partnership that we have and free training that's available as a member .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 15:08

And then , as you're thinking about setting goals , my Rotary and they call it Rotary Club Central actually has a way to set goals on the platform , online , and that way everyone can kind of know what the goals are for the club and for the district . You can focus on things that your club's already good at and maybe what can we do to improve it , build on that success and make it even more successful . And whether that's a fundraiser or a service project or maybe just having a really engaging club meetings . You can ask club committees and members to propose ideas and goals for you for the club . So that's another thing too .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 15:52

So you're kind of looking forward setting goals and then also having club assemblies regularly to keep members engaged and knowledgeable . So a lot of clubs will devote maybe a meeting a month or a quarter and they won't have a speaker come in but they'll just say , okay , we're going to talk today during our meeting about different topics , and they might have table discussions or ask members to present new ideas , designate times to share impressions of their club , and so that way too you're getting feedback with each other and saying , you know , kind of a little check-in , how are we doing , how are things going , and it gives everybody a chance to have a voice in your club as well .

Brian Triger 16:43

I like that a lot . I uh , no , thank you so much for sharing this . Uh , I'm not . You know , I'm not in leadership at the moment and I respect everyone . That is uh and isn't Um , but it gives me a clearer picture of you know , a little bit behind the scenes . I've had the luxury of hanging out with you know people in the district level and at least one person on the zone level , and I just love the ability to hop into different clubs and connect with people at different levels and kind of tap into this information in order to , you know , just to find the next door to serve and add a little bit of peace .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 17:28

That's great , Brian , and I also have a few more thoughts to share on this . So one another thing and this is what you're doing is communication , and Rotary has a lot of great information on their brand center and the appropriate way to use the logos and things like that . But they have some really great resources for ways to keep your website engaging , how to use social media to highlight the work that clubs are doing and thankfully , since we do have so many resources within Rotary , there's a lot of great training and suggestions and also just other social media sites that we can follow and see how people are sharing their Rotary stories . And a lot of times , action photos and the club doing something is a lot more meaningful than just a picture of your speaker in front of your rotary logo , although that's good too , because you know you want to have the brand out there , but you also want to show the club doing stuff and making a difference . So communication and having a podcast , like you are , Brian is fabulous .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 18:37

And then you know you talked about leadership and saying you know you're not really in leadership , but I mean we all really actually do have a leadership position in Rotary , because Rotary is an opportunity to be of service and even at the member level you're a leader in your community because you're saying service , being of service is important and I want to make a commitment to that by my membership in Rotary because you know you're taking your time . Generally you have some membership dues , you may be giving some additional money and you have the opportunity to be kind of the eyes and ears of needs within the communities and bring that back to your club and say you know , hey , I saw that there's this thing going on with the school or this homeless shelter or this food pantry . Maybe we could do something there . So even at the member level you have an opportunity to be a leader in helping to make a difference in the community . But then also within your club kind of start looking at the member level , where would you aspire to grow within the club and really vibrant clubs work hard to have smooth leadership transition and really groom people and doing some mentoring to help people understand the basics of Rotary , but then also to grow their own personal leadership skills within the context of Rotary .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 20:11

So that's another thing is with leadership , and then this is just governance things . But on the vibrancy side it is important for clubs to review and know their bylaws so that everybody's following the um , the mandates of how the club was set up , like how your um , you know what are your requirements for the number of board meetings and how many members do you have on your board and what are the procedures for making changes within the club . And so that way too , when you have a lot of different personalities and somebody might feel this way or that way , well , let's go back to what the bylaws say . The bylaws say , and then if there's a question about how the bylaws were written or if there's something that needs to be changed , then together the club can come together and make sure the bylaws align and support the great work that that club is trying to do . So that's a little bit of the nuts and bolts on the governance , but it is important for bylaws to be you know whether they're on your website or that all the members have access to that , so you can understand what the guides are that are driving that club and making it as vibrant as possible . And then , as you grow your communication , your leadership , um , straight , uh , focusing on what you do good , making it great , you continue to develop strong relationships within your club . So some uh , so some ideas to try sit at different tables with different people at the meetings , like we all kind of get in creatures of habit , right , we'll sit at the same place .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 21:56

Um , there's a lot of um options for creative club membership structure .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 22:03

So some clubs may consider forming or have a satellite club that meets at a different time .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 22:09

So maybe if you're a lunch meeting , your club may have a breakfast meeting one day a week for people who are having a hard time making it to the lunch meeting .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 22:16

So having some alternative club times or satellite meetings is an option for ways to grow relationships within your club where you have more engagement , where people can attend . And then another way to grow relationships within your club is invite friends and family members to meetings , to service projects and events , and this is a great way to show how wonderful volunteering is but also encourage them to join or help out . I remember last year , during my Rotary year , we gave an award at the Midwest City Rotary Club Rotary Club Midwest City , and it was to a family that actually weren't even Rotarians but they had the spirit of Rotarians because they do so much volunteer work for the club and for their major fundraiser that they asked if we would you know present this award to them of how inviting friends and family , business associates to rotary can get people involved , even if they haven't joined rotary yet . They're a part of a great community thoughts .

Creating Vibrant Rotary Club Engagement

Brian Triger 23:31

So thought that comes to mind for any , for any clubs out there that are in the process or figuring out a good starting point to become vibrant or more vibrant . What out a good starting point to become vibrant or more vibrant ? What's a good starting point ?

Jeanean Yanish Jones 23:46

So getting clubs to be more vibrant or getting more people involved in your club .

Brian Triger 23:50

I would say just no specific example , but like , let's say , a club is , you know , finding itself or staying stagnant to some extent , but wants to add some vibrancy to its club . What would be the first step ? What's the way to inject life into a club ?

Jeanean Yanish Jones 24:11

Well , that ties really great into the next point I was going to make anyways , and that is making sure members are involved and that activities that the club is doing genuinely interests them . So getting members involved in meaningful ways . So if they don't really care and you mentioned how important caring is as a quality of being a Rotarian I'd say one of the key character assets of a Rotarian is caring . But find out why people joined Rotary . I know Midtown Rotary did a big campaign a few years ago on their Rotary why and they would interview each of their members why is Rotary so meaningful to you ? So finding out the motivation , why people love being a part of Rotary and how it's impacted their lives helps to get engagement . You can do some member surveys Probably . My opinion on surveys is to do it more in person and communicatively versus online surveys , but you could do those two in a pinch and use results to plan projects and activities , to continue to tailor things to meet the needs of what the members are wanting too , because the membership clubs are autonomous , so the membership really kind of drives where the areas of focus are that the club is going to focus on and also where people are going to get engaged and feel excited about what they're doing . And when you're excited , you have enthusiasm and you're telling other people about what a great club you have , and then also is finding out the skills , gifts , talents of the people that you have in your club and get people engaged in these activities .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 26:03

A really basic example is my husband , he , jerry Jones . He , joe , joined the Rotary Club of Northwest Oklahoma City and they do the Santa at North Park Mall , which is an amazing fundraiser , and they also have a beautiful red carpet there that they put out every year for the Santa booth . Well , my husband is the owner of a rug and carpet cleaning company , so he cleans the carpet for them , you know . So , using the skills and assets that your members have to help make , whatever you're doing , your project , your community , more improved . I mean , we're trying to make things better , we're trying to make the world a better place and then also giving membership the opportunity to learn and gain experiences from club activities that they may not have ever gotten an opportunity to be a part of , but being in Rotary , you know you can dress up like an elf and help take pictures down at the at North Park Mall , which I do every Christmas because it's super fun .

Brian Triger 27:09

I like that a lot . I mean you're you're following up with what you said , doing something that you're , that you enjoy , that you care about , and having some fun in the process . It keeps you engaged in the organization as a whole .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 27:22

That's right , brian . So in closing I have a couple of last things about being vibrant , and that is coach new and current members in leading and in leadership and so trying to get you know how we have young professionals , newer members , you know , just creating a pipeline of really great leaders within your club . And then also , another way for engagement is to have opportunities for smaller groups within your club to do different committee type work , so you might have a committee that's focused on membership and a committee that's focused on public relations and maybe on service projects . Maybe there's some people in your club that really love the Rotary Foundation . We have such a strong foundation , highest rating and charity navigator for being trustworthy and the monies that you give to the foundation go to where they're intended .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 28:21

So there's lots of opportunities , whether you're in a small club or a large club , to get involved , to be as involved as you can . And sometimes you're going through things , life situations , where you need to pull back a little and sometimes you know your empty nest and the kids are busy , the grandkids are off and about and you have some margin gap that came in your life and you're like what could I do with this time to really make a difference in the community , and one thing that we all know about volunteering and being a part of and helping someone else is that , in return , it helps us feel really good , too , that we're we're doing something to make a difference in this world . And , um , one of my , my last closing thought would be this that every member should feel empowered to shape your club's future and make it outstanding .

Brian Triger 29:13

This has been a great episode . I really appreciate this . I'm , and I do listen to the other episodes , but I'm definitely going to go back and listen because there's a lot of really good information here . I yeah . No , there doesn't have to be a perfect conclusion , because this is just a conversation . So I appreciate you , Janine , Thank you for coming out .

Jeanean Yanish Jones 29:36

Thank you , Brian , it was my pleasure .

Brian Triger 29:52

For all of our listeners . Thank you for continuing to listen , follow , support . All of it was my pleasure Monte Library , all the Board of Commissioners , anyone tied to the Metropolitan Library System for you know , donating space and time to allow this project to continue , and anyone else in between . You know we're all connected . So thank you to everyone and have a wonderful evening everyone .