The New Year represents something amazing for organizations like Sertoma. It’s the opportunity to start fresh and reset our priorities. It’s a time where we can refocus our mission impact, seek out new opportunities to form partnerships and find new ways to serve the hard of hearing and our communities. Just like you set personal resolutions, I encourage you to set a few Sertoma resolutions and share them with your club. Take some time at your January meeting to discuss individual and club goals for the year. You never know what’s just around the corner.
Need some help getting started?
1. Increase Community Engagement
Resolution: Expand our impact by organizing a new community service project this year, perhaps focusing on issues such as hearing health, accessibility, and local outreach. The emphasis here should be on volunteer service, not fundraising or simply writing a check.
2. Strengthen Partnerships with Local Organizations
Resolution: Nurture relationships with other community organizations, healthcare providers, and advocacy groups to maximize resources, share knowledge and collaborate on initiatives that address challenges in your shared community. You might even consider meeting or collobarating with another local service organization in your area. The power of service is greater in numbers -- it's amazing what can be achieved when working together!
3. Make Fundraising More Intentional
Resolution: Set specific goals for your favorite fundraising campaign. Figure out why it is personal to you and/or the club and then create new ways to raise awareness about the cause. Reach out to your local public radio station, write a letter to the editor of the community newspaper, ask to speak at an upcoming business networking meeting, try to find a new sponsor or two – the point is just to try something new for an already existing initiative that could use a little more love.
4. Promote Awareness of Hearing Loss Risks
Resolution: Hearing loss impacts more than 50 million (1 in 8) Americans, and an estimated 60% of Canadians over the age of 19 have some kind of hearing-related issue. Sertoma International carries a hearing health mission to help serve and support these growing populations. You can serve as a hearing aid collection point, share information about noise-induced hearing loss with students using our SAFEEars! support materials, host a free hearing health presentation at a local senior center or community event, collaborate with local audiology students and professionals to offer hearing screenings, and more. The possibilities are endless!
5. Support Club Growth
Resolution: Focus on growing the club by recruiting one new volunteer and/or member to your club. Progress happens often in small increments, so set your recruitment goal this year with just one member. If you know you can bring in more than that, awesome! However, that is likely not the reality for everyone. But most of us know at least one new person who might be willing to lend a hand at an upcoming fundraising event, spend a few hours volunteering during a service project, attend a club meeting for the first time or join your club family. We just need to put in the required time and effort in making this a priority. Bonus points if you can convince others in your club to do the same!
What other Sertoma goals do you have for 2025? We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the Sertoma Member Corner on Facebook.