The President’s ​Aide

story by: TOM GUMP,

AIDE TO ROTARY INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT, STEPHANIE URCHICK

The name’s Tom Gump.

Tom, like Tom Hanks.

Gump, like Forrest Gump.

I sometimes introduce myself to Rotary members with this lighthearted ​reference to the fictional Forrest Gump and the 1994 eponymous movie, which ​earned Hanks an Oscar. I usually get a few laughs. It helps people remember me.

I wonder if this attempt at a little humor impressed Stephanie Urchick, Rotary’s ​president.

I first met Stephanie five years ago when she was an RI director-elect and spoke ​at a presidents-elect training seminar in Ames, Iowa. I was assigned to be her ​aide and driver for the weekend event. She was supposed to fly from her home ​outside Pittsburgh to Rochester, Minnesota, and then on to Iowa, where I would ​pick her up and drive her to the seminar. But a travel agent had mistakenly ​booked her on a flight to Rochester, New York, nearly 1,000 miles away by car.

To be honest, I was a bit nervous when she at last arrived in Iowa and got into my ​car, especially when she mentioned she once wanted to work for the CIA or the ​FBI. Would she act like the taciturn, badge-flashing detective Olivia Benson in TV’s ​Law & Order: Special Victims Unit? On top of the flight snafu, I, a resident of ​Edina, Minnesota, made a couple of wrong turns. But she never lost her patience. ​Once we started talking, I found that “agent” Urchick was warm, caring, and ​down-to-earth. That impressed me, and I suppose she was impressed with me, ​too, because I persevered, like Forrest Gump, and eventually got us to her ​destination without much delay. She remembered me.

In late 2021, after Stephanie finished her two-year term on the RI Board and I ​finished my term as governor of District 5950, she invited me to join her on a ​speaking tour to inspire Rotary clubs to create vibrant cultures that would grow ​our membership. We conducted our talks via videoconference meetings and ​when possible traveled to visit members in person. So we bonded over our ​passion for Rotary.

It was easy to see then what a great leader she is. Her ideas for making the club ​experience irresistible are visionary. So, I wasn’t surprised when she told me in ​early 2022 she was planning to run for RI president. I offered my full support. ​When she was selected as president-nominee later that year and appointed me ​as her aide, I was excited to have another opportunity to assist my friend and ​serve Rotary.

I GREW UP IN ATLANTA, not far from where some of the scenes in Forrest ​Gump were filmed. When I was in college, my dream was to become the director ​of a nonprofit. But I ended up taking a job at IBM and then going to law school. ​My first job out of law school was as an assistant district attorney in Gainesville, ​Georgia.

In 1996, I tried to join Rotary. The local club only allowed one person per ​classification. Since my boss, the district attorney, was already a member and ​occupied the “law enforcement classification,” I was denied. Of course, we are ​much more inclusive and welcoming now.

I circled back to Rotary in 2013 after my neighbour invited me to his club about ​two dozen times. I went to my first meeting and was hooked. Many people join ​Rotary for one reason and stay for another. I became a member because I love ​that you can make friends at Rotary. If your club has 100 people in it, you ​instantly have 100 new friends.

After my first international service project, a trip to Honduras to help put in a ​water system, I decided to stay with Rotary because of the focus on service. I ​made up for lost time, first heading up Camp Enterprise in Minnesota, which is ​similar to the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program, then serving as club ​president and eventually district governor.

Part of Rotary’s appeal is that you can find a cause and like-minded professionals ​to make things happen. I’m not a military veteran, but I helped charter the first ​Rotary club to serve veterans. It has been replicated in other parts of the world ​and helped inspire another Rotary club that focuses on suicide prevention. I also ​worked on forming the first club devoted to ending human trafficking, and now ​there are several similar clubs.

Rotary is like family already, and to have your own family in it too is a double ​blessing. My wife, Catherine, joined the Rotary Club of Edina in 2019. Our son, ​Andrew, belonged to his high school’s Interact club.

SO WHAT DOES AN AIDE to a Rotary president do? You might be imagining ​someone who arranges or provides transportation, like I did for Stephanie in ​Iowa, or someone who holds coats, fetches drinks, or offers a pen for ​autographs.

I sought guidance from my predecessors and mentors, people like Trustee Larry ​Lunsford, Past Rotary Treasurers Mike Colasurdo and Andy Smallwood, and past ​RI Directors Brad Howard and John Smarge. I particularly cherished the advice of ​my friend Don Mebus, a past RI director who offered a myriad of suggestions, ​including tasks ranging from stocking the president’s condo in Evanston with ​snacks to vetting president’s representatives for district conferences and ​everything in between.

Of course, there are no small tasks, not when they are adding up to something ​important, like eradicating a disease or transforming communities. Being an aide ​to the RI president is like anything else in Rotary — you can learn a lot if you ​make the most of it.

A Rotary president’s term of service is really almost three years: nine months as ​nominee, a year as president-elect, and a year as president. Stephanie is not only ​my boss, she’s a friend. I never want to let her down. I am treating my position as ​aide as a full-time job.

As an attorney, I used to think that if I read and mastered all Rotary policies and ​procedures, I would grasp what is going on in our organisation. I quickly learned ​that besides the hundreds of pages of written rules, there are hundreds of ​unwritten rules. I needed to learn both and become familiar with the individuals ​involved in crafting them.

The first step is listening. Rotary is run in part by committees that make ​recommendations to the RI Board, so I am sitting in on as many committee ​meetings as I can. Each one has taught me something about how our ​organisation runs and how it is addressing challenges, including finding ​innovative ways to grow our organisation.

The more I learn about our organisation, the more I can help Stephanie. As a ​sounding board for the president, I strive to be someone she can trust and ​bounce ideas off of. Someone who thinks like her but can also think differently ​and can offer different perspectives. Every decision is hers, but everyone needs ​somebody to talk through matters with.

It is a special opportunity to accompany Stephanie on some of her travels around ​the globe as she meets with and inspires our members. We’ve already traveled to ​countries such as England, Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Mexico. We have ​met world leaders to advocate for polio eradication and other Rotary efforts, but ​nothing is more rewarding than witnessing the work of our Rotarians and ​Rotaractors, or placing the polio vaccine drops in a child’s mouth and seeing the ​look of relief on a parent’s face.

Sometimes, due to flight delays, we arrive well past midnight, but there are ​always Rotary members greeting Stephanie like a celebrity, with banners, ​flowers, and gifts. I instinctively step out of the picture. Like my predecessors ​suggested, I take the flowers, taping business cards to each so thank you notes ​can be sent. I snap photos. Sometimes, I act like her bodyguard, making sure she ​doesn’t get pushed when people jostle for selfies with her. Like my predecessors, ​I watch with a satisfying smile when my friend, who has served Rotary for 32 ​years, is at the center. She is the inspiration.

With Rotary, as in life, little of importance gets done alone. That’s why I prefer to ​say “we” instead of “I.” I’m proud to have helped, but also proud to have help.

If Forrest Gump sees life as a box of chocolates, I see my experiences and ​friendships in Rotary as magical sweet memories.