The Exchange Club of Lake Highlands will look to prioritize community service and member engagement under its new president.
Bill Boyd, pictured front, joined by Torres on the right.
Bill Boyd’s term officially began on July 1, although he spent the last year involved in various facets of club operations as president-elect. He is taking over for John Torres, who he credits with record Oktoberfest Dallas attendance and the distribution of over $150,000 in scholarships.
As the club’s 68th president, Boyd will be tasked with overseeing events like the Fourth of July Parade, scholarship disbursement, the club’s civic involvement, membership engagement and the distribution of police and fire awards.
“John’s a banker by trade,” Boyd told the Advocate. “He is a great delegator. He got a really good team in place and trusted them to do a real good job. He did an excellent job of leveraging the unique strengths of each of his directors, and that’s something that I really am trying to make sure that I carry forward.”
Boyd moved to the area with his family in 2016. Since leaving corporate work as a CPA for firms like Frito Lay, he’s focused on small-scale commercial real estate and civic involvement. He’s previously held club leadership positions in communications, programs, membership and service.
In his inaugural speech, the former community service director laid out a vision for the club centered around “hands-on” outreach in the community.
“One of the things that I’ve said while recruiting for years and years and years is that we do a lot of good and have a good time doing it,” he said. “And, you know, it’s fun. Oktoberfest is a blast. Working with a group of guys on different stuff is a lot of fun. So one of the things I’m challenging (the community service director) with is I want dedicated hands-on service.”
He cites neighborhood schools like Stults Road Elementary and Lake Highlands nonprofits, including Forerunner Mentoring and Feed Lake Highlands, as examples of opportunities to expand the club’s service portfolio.
A tangible example of the emphasis on community service is the Exchange Club’s newly formed emergency response team. Headed up by Oktoberfest chair and City of Plano Fire Captain Brad McCutcheon, the 12-member group will supply itself initially and respond to major weather events as needed.
“Brad’s got a step by step plan on, if there is the next big wind storm, we activate the available people, we’ll see if they’d have to have help at their own house, because if you have a tree down on your own roof, you’re gonna take care of that first,” Boyd said. “So basically, the thing would be, help any members to continue to take care of their stuff as quickly as possible and then get out to the community.”
For him, community engagement goes hand-in-hand with membership engagement. At 48 years old, Boyd is on the younger side of the Gen X group that has led the Exchange Club for close to a decade. He sees service projects and programming as ways to continue to engage younger members as part of a “generational shift,” he says.
“We have to keep looking towards younger members, and Gen X and millennials are just different, and millennials to Gen Z are even more different. So that’s really where I see that we need to make sure that we engage people in that younger 40s and 30s group.”
A shift may be part of what he’s trying to accomplish during his tenure, but he also wants to continue recognizing first responders, supporting local nonprofits with community grants and organizing civic forums.
When asked what he sees as the club’s role is in the community, his answer is clear: consistency.
“The schools know that we’re there. They know that we’re there for them, that we’re going to recognize their teachers, that we’re going to recognize their kids, that we will be providing scholarships for our other seniors. When there’s a problem, people can come to us.”
