The many roles of a presidential aide
Alongside the serious business of serving a Rotary president, Tom Gump leans into a steadfast friendship
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.
As aide to Rotary President Stephanie Urchick, Tom Gump relishes the opportunity to assist on her travels around the globe.
Photo credit: Monika Lozinska
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 neighbor 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.
Image credit: Martin Tognola
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 organization. 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 organization runs and how it is addressing challenges, including finding innovative ways to grow our organization.
The more I learn about our organization, 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.
Tom Gump is a member of the Rotary Club of Edina/Morningside, Minnesota.
This story originally appeared in the July 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.