By Michael Bucca, a member of the Rotary Club of

The Central Ocean Toms River Rotary Club

You might think that I, a 32-year-old member of a 110-year-old organization, would be preoccupied with trying to modernize my club’s way of doing things. But remarkably, my experience in Rotary is teaching me to spend more energy convincing my generation – which keeps trying to reinvent everything – that there is much to be gained in the lost art of personal connection.

We all use social media in our daily lives. Without a doubt, Twitter, Facebook, text messaging, etc. has great value in our social and professional circles. But long before there were Wi-Fi connections, laptops, or smartphones, a man named Paul Harris came up with the idea of professional leaders getting together face to face to make a difference in their community. The organization that arose from this modest idea took its name from the early practice members had of rotating meeting locations between their offices.

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