Jeff Welch is the Oglethorpe County Rotary Club’s new president, but he is anything but new to Oglethorpe County.
Welch, a longtime educator-turned-retiree who served as the superintendent of the Oglethorpe County School System from 2003-2009, inherited the club’s presidency for the 2024-25 term on July 1, replacing outgoing president Jean Westmacott.
Welch served as the club’s foundation chair prior to becoming the president, but he’s not new to the organization. In fact, he served as president in 2005-06 and has been involved in rotary clubs in and outside of Oglethorpe County for over 30 years.
“Our motto is service above self, so we try to do projects that will serve the community,” Welch said. “Our focus this year in particular is going to be service in the community.”
Oglethorpe County’s Rotary Club is one of over 45,000 worldwide that make up Rotary International, one of the world’s largest service organizations. The clubs give to local, national and international organizations and causes as part of their mission, in addition to sponsoring learning opportunities and holding weekly meetings open to the public.
Last year, under Westmacott’s leadership, the Oglethorpe County Rotary Club spent roughly $10,000 last year, including a $1,000 disaster aid package with a tent and other living essentials for those in need and a $1,000 scholarship for an Oglethorpe County High School student.
The organization also made donations to local groups, such as the Oglethorpe County Senior Center and the Oglethorpe County Library, among others.
Westmacott said the group also restored three events: a breakfast social in September, a holiday dinner in December and a Valentine’s Day luncheon in February.
“That was great because we haven’t had anything like that since before COVID,” she said.
Welch plans to continue many of these donations and events, but also make intentional use of the club’s weekly programs — held from 7:15-8:15 a.m. every Friday at the Oglethorpe County Farm Bureau and via Google Meet — where speakers from various backgrounds present on a topic of importance to the community.
“I would like to bring in a local business or business-related program to try to highlight our businesses and let the community know about them,” Welch said. “A lot of people are experiencing temperature changes, so I'm trying to bring in a program that will let people know what the scientists are saying.”
The other area of focus for Welch and Westmacott — who will serve as the membership chair in 2024-25 — is recruitment. In 2016, Welch said there were 43 Rotarians, but only 19 are active.
“The more people you have, the more you can do,” Welch said. “Right now, we’re doing pretty much all we can do with the people we have, and I want us to do more.”
Apart from numbers, Westmacott would like to see the club be more representative of the county’s diversity.
“I’d love to see a greater age range,” Westmacott said. “An awful lot of us are getting older, so it’d be really nice to see some younger people and involve some people from the Hispanic community (and) from the African-American community.”
As Welch seeks to serve the county’s needs during his term in office, he said he doesn’t anticipate dramatic change. However, he’s hopeful that he and his fellow Rotarians can broaden the club’s reach.
“I kind of see it as a symbiotic relationship,” Welch said. “We need people in our Rotary Club so we can do more, and people need the Rotary Club. Hopefully, we can provide them with more information about things they want to know about.”
Wyatt Meyer will be a senior at Clarke Central High School in Athens in the fall.