District Governor Kevin Crouse, May 2014

DG Kevin’s May Message

A New Star is Born

Thanks to the efforts of Patty Johnson, Pravin Suchak, Angela Hintz, David Johnson, Karen Oakes, David Johnson, Dick Earne and Pat Whalen, fifty people attended an inaugural meeting of the provisional Rotary Club of Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Set in the new multi-million dollar new medical facility in Buffalo, the air was electric with the skill sets of 35 potential new members to Rotary. The evening featured an introduction by Pat Whalen, President, welcomes by DGs Kevin and Jack, an excellent outline of the function of Rotary by Dick Earne, Foundation talk by Karen Oakes, a World Community Service presentation by David Johnson and a personal account of the importance of Rotary by Adair Luhr Amo. The evening concluded with questions, comments and cocktails. We look forward to wonderful things Rotary happening as a result of this inaugural meeting. For more information on this new venture, contact Pat Whalen at pwhalen@bnmc.org 716 218 7151 or PDG Dick Earne. Sponsors of the new club include The Rotary Club of Grand Island, and The Rotary Club of Buffalo Sunrise.

And speaking of membership. Good news is on the forefront. Currently, District 7090’s membership  has increased from 2378 on July 1, 2013 to 2425 as of March 31, 2014. That is a total increase of 47 members to date. Given improvements in retention and a flurry of new members from our very successful PR campaign, this year could be the first year in at least five years that District 7090 actually gained rather than lost members. That is particularly worthy of celebrating given the fact that we have lost an average of 80 members per year over the last five years.  This news is particularly gratifying because 47 clubs this year have actually retained their current membership or increased it. Kudos to the Welland and St. Catharines clubs who have each gained seven members this year.

More congratulations are in order to Paul McAfee, Karen Oakes, Kevin Crosby, Pravin Suchak, Brian and a host of others for their incredible efforts in rescuing this year’s $20,000 PR campaign. The results indicate it was a most successful effort. This year the program, which ended on April 30, reached 2 million people on average three times each. These people were all residents of our district.  15,000 indicated they liked our facebook pages. In total there were over 47,000 likes during this two month campaign. Clubs that grew their Facebook audiences the most were Amherst - 640, Batavia – 545, Brantford – 703, Buffalo Sunrise – 672, District 7090 page – 2217, E Club of SOWNY – 1089 and Fonthill – 478. Congratulations to all concerned for significantly raising our Rotary profile in this district.

Yours in Rotary,

Kevin Crouse

District Governor

Best of Friends District 7090