Congratulations to Rotary District 5150 Rotarian of the Month - February 2021, Charley Vogt from the Rotary Club of Ignacio.

While so many wonderful Rotarians deserve high praise during a challenging year, Charley Vogt from the Rotary Club of Ignacio stands out due to who he is as a person, his leadership, and his participation in his club’s initiatives and activities. 

Congratulations to Rotary District 5150 Rotarian of the Month - February 2021, Charley Vogt from the Rotary Club of Ignacio.

While so many wonderful Rotarians deserve high praise during a challenging year, Charley Vogt from the Rotary Club of Ignacio stands out due to who he is as a person, his leadership, and his participation in his club’s initiatives and activities. 

Ignacio’s Rotarians feel lucky that Charley selected their club when he transferred to the bay area to be closer to his son, daughter-in-law and grandson from Shawnee, Kansas in July 2018. Why?  Because, it’s not just what Charley does but about his character and how delightful he is.  He takes on club initiatives with focus and determination while treating others with courtesy and respect. He is the first to give other members praise for his team’s success.  And he makes it fun.

As a result, we overlook the fact that we had to redo his name tag because his name is spelled funny.  We overlook the fact that he dons Kansas City Royals’ and Kansas City Chiefs’ colors on game days. And we take it when he reminds us that the Chiefs won the Superbowl in 2020. As painful as that may be to us 49er fans, Charley is worth it.

He has been a Rotarian for nearly 25 years. He helped charter the Shawnee club in 1997 and served as its president in 2009-10. He also helped to start 3 new Rotary clubs.

At Ignacio, Charley chairs two committees and is a member of 3 others.  Charley serves as Membership Chair and as Public Image Chair.  He is a member of the Youth Committee, the Scholarship Committee, and the Community Services Committee.

Charley and his committee increased membership by 7 since the beginning of this Rotary year because of his tremendous communication and follow-up skills. He makes sure prospective members know about upcoming speakers.  He also holds in-person membership meetings while ensuring social distancing guidelines are enforced. (They quickly showed their faces for the photo only.)

As Public Image Chair, Charley sends press releases out to make sure our club’s efforts are promoted while also being a part of that activity as committee member, such as:

  • Repainting Novato’s 30’ community entrance sign and replacing and rehanging medallions from Rotary and other local community organizations
  • Publicizing our club’s record achievement in contributions of $30,000 for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life to support area cancer patients and fund cancer research.
  • Promoting past Scholarship Recipients and raising an additional $10k YTD toward future scholarship awards
  • Promoting and attending our Young Professional Speaker Series where Ignacio has had people such as a CA State Senator, a C-suite Executive from a division of a nearly $50B company, a Law School Dean as speaker.
  • Weekly food deliveries and Thanksgiving meals to food insecure residents of Hamilton Park Meadows.
  • Coordinating the publicity for the giving of Ignacio’s DDF of $5409 for Covid-19 Relief for Food to North Marin Community Services.  (Charley is taking the picture. Pictured is Larry Curtis our Community Services Chair, John Marshall our Foundation Chair, and the Director of North Marin Community Services, Cheryl Paddack).

Charley reflects the best of us while modestly referring to himself as a Rotarian who loves what he does to help others and not letting Covid-19 get in his way.

We are lucky that Charley is now a Rotarian in District 5150.

Once again, congratulations to Charley Vogt from the Rotary Club of Ignacio as our "Rotarian of the Month" in February 2021!