Rotarians Celebrate Perfect Attendance Milestone, Honoree's Son

Betty Jo Tompkins was "stunned, absolutely stunned" when she was singled out by her fellow Rotarians at their "fireside chat," special retreat meeting this month at Rotary's Camp Florida in Brandon.

Tompkins on April 11 received a pin for 20 years of perfect attendance at Rotary meetings, but there was something else, too: a piece of concrete, found during landscaping work at the camp for special-needs children.

Concrete.

But not just any concrete, a slab that bore the name of her son, Chris Tompkins, who died in 2005, a week shy of his 35th birthday, after being diagnosed 11 months earlier with leukemia.

"My son was a volunteer board member at the park for a long time," Tompkins said. "Someone must have etched his name into that piece of concrete. It wasn't him, I know that, but it was somebody, probably a camper."

Tompkins said she is not surprised that someone thought highly enough of her son to etch his name in concrete, in an interview in which she also discussed what it takes to have perfect Rotary attendance (see below).

"Chris totally embodied the concept of Rotary, which is service above self. That's the way he ran his entire life," Tompkins said. "He always thought, and he lived his life this way, that you should seek power to do, never power to be. That was his favorite saying. Seeing power to be able to accomplish things for others, not just power for yourself. Status was the wrong reason to seek any power for yourself, whether through work, political activity or community service."

This time of the year is particulary rough for Tompkins, with Mother's Day and her son's birthday so close in time to the date her son died.

"I will never get over losing him and it is very heartwarming to know he left a legacy for a lot of people," she said. "A lot of people tell me they raised their kids the way they saw Chris. Whether two people or 200 people, my son prayed before every meal."

Even at a young age her son was well-traveled. "As a result, he thoroughly appreciated and was grateful for all the abundance we have in this country, which most people take for granted," Tompkins said. "He knew we were blessed."

As for herself, Tompkins takes great pride in achieving two decades of perfect attenance, for which she offers similarly minded Rotarians a host of tips, as noted below:

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What Does It Take To Have Perfect Rotary Meeting Attendance?

• "It takes a commitment to know that you can set a goal," Tompkins said.

• "Perfect attendance when I started in Rotary meant that you had to either attend your local meeting or make up your absence one week before or after your meeting at the business meeting of another club," Tompkins said. "Now you can make up two weeks in either direction, before or after."

• Meeting makeups are allowed online. "Rotary e-clubs are available for business people and for people who might be traveling in their jobs, in a town with no Rotary club or with an illness that might impair their ability to attend a meeting," Tompkins said. "They have wonderful articles written by people from all over the country, on virtually every issue." (See, How To Make Up a Meeting Online.)

• Perfect attendance takes "a sense of self-direction," Tompkins said. "You make up your mind you're going to do it."

• Making up meetings broadens your horizons, said Tompkins, who noted that as a group study exchange team leader with Rotary International she attended meetings in India, where Rotary was giving polio vaccinations. As a delegate to the Republican National Convention Tompkins attended a makeup meeting in Houston, at which the speakers were from the United Kingdom, from both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. "It was really unbelievable, the people who were there from all over the world," she said.