Our keynote speaker today is Darin Atteberry, City Manager for Fort Collins, Colorado. He has worked in Fort Collins for more than 11 years, as City Manager for the past three and a half years and Assistant City Manager for 8 years. As City Manager, Darin has led the City government through a time of transformational change, moving the organization from a “trust us” model to one that uses a data-driven, performance based approach. Darin is an advocate for community collaboration and has built strong relationships with both public and private sector partners.

Moving away from his city duties, Darin will share why he was drawn to Fort Collins as a place to raise his children, practice his profession and make a difference. Our conversation will focus on arriving, staying and contributing to a bright future for all.

Darin will touch on what great things are here now and what lies ahead. There are great opportunities ahead in many professions, vocations and pursuits. This would be a great meeting to bring a young professional as a guest.

Prior to coming to Fort Collins, Darin worked with cities in California, Washington, and Georgia. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in City and Regional Planning from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California, a Master’s Degree in City Planning and a Master of Science Degree in Civil Engineering, both from Georgia Tech.

Please consider inviting a prospective member as a guest to our meeting on March 12 and share in the fellowship of Rotary! .

The topic will be: "Religion in History: Its Origins and Purposes."

Todd thanked the club for the honor. He said that he gave Army ROTC a chance when he saw how dedicated and excited his roommate was to get up at 5:30 am twice a week for ROTC. He said that that was not normal college behavior. Todd said that he loved the Army ROTC program and how IT and more importantly the people in IT inspire him. Todd mentioned the people who he admires and who want to do what their country needs no matter how unglamorous or how demanding it may be. And he mentioned those in the program who show uncompromising integrity and the most solid work ethic he has ever seen. Those ROTC members are the reason that he was nominated for this award and so his thanks go to them for inspiring, leading and pushing him to do his best.

After Linda thanked the club for the generous welcome and gave us a few examples of her first few meeting as one of the first females in the club, she gave us a presentation about the value of volunteering and about some statistics on volunteering in our country. She mixed into these two subjects how women have indeed played an important role in this area.

Linda said, “we all know the value of volunteering. Let us note with certainty that without volunteering, we would not likely have the strong quality of life we enjoy. It is a way we grow and develop as a community. Volunteering is as important to those who serve as it is to the recipients. Volunteering enhances the skills of leadership, communication and the ability to develop resources. Those powerful skills and work habits are routinely added to resumes and extend careers.”

Linda then gave us a lot of information about the changing levels of volunteering in the country and about who does and who does not volunteer and how much volunteering is done. For example, in the study she referred to only 28% of people in our country volunteer and the rate of volunteering is declining. The lowest level of volunteering is among those in their early 20’s and those about 65, excluding groups like ours.

To close, she told us a story about an experience she had as the chairperson of United Way many, many years ago, when she was to give a speech at the opening of the campaign. When she hesitated at the beginning of her presentation, her co-chair gave her a card with a comment on it. Linda read the comment to us. It said, one of the last messages of Cardinal Gibbons was to say that, “young men expect great things; turn back the pages of history and you will find that men who planned great things, worked for great things, expected great things, where the ones who achieved great things. There is something magnetic about great expectations.”

Linda finished by saying that she has kept that card in her purse since that time and refers to it often. And she looks forward to volunteering more and working with us for this community. Chuck finished our program by giving us some information about the numbers of women in Rotary and about some now in the highest leadership positions.

Warren and Genny Garst Wildlife Collection at CSU Click here or on the "tiger."

Rotary District 5440 Home Page - We recommend browsing this page particularly the links to other Clubs in District 5440 as your time permits.

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Copyright © by Warren Garst, Lannie Boyd and Alan Ashbaugh for the Rotary Club of Fort Collins, Colorado, March 12, 2008