Mary Haugen is the 2025-2026 President of the Prior Lake Rotary Club. If you have never been on a committee with Mary hold on to your hat. While small in stature she has a very large personality and is not afraid to work hard for the greater good. Having joined Rotary in 2017 her family represents a legacy family. Her husband Jack is a founding member of the club, her sons Andy and Kyle, a former District Governor are also Rotarians.
I asked Mary what she thought were the best qualities of a president and her response spoke volumes about who she is. The hallmarks of a good president include the ability to listen, be collaborative, be willing to give people grace and to honor each Rotarians involvement.
One of Mary’s goals is to help members acquire more of a world vision of Rotary as an international organization. There are 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide, 3500 clubs in 200 countries. Quite the resource if you think about it. As an organization there is hardly a project that we haven’t thought of and accomplished somewhere in the world.
During our interview we talked about the different stages of life our members are at. We have some members with young families, and working households that are busy with school, sports and other activities. It is not always easy for some members to make it to a meeting or work on an event.
During our interview we talked about the different stages of life our members are at. We have some members with young families, and working households that are busy with school, sports and other activities. It is not always easy for some members to make it to a meeting or work on an event.
Mary sees opportunities for our committees to work more closely together and share responsibilities. It is not uncommon for our committees to overlap without realizing that we may work on parallel projects or ideas. She sees opportunities for all types of collaboration, but the key will be good communication and seeing what the membership wants to do.
