Posted by Penelope Hutton
October has been a very busy month in District 7090. We have been able to complete club visits for all but two clubs and those are on the upcoming calendar. We celebrated Rotary with the first “Rotary Buffalo Bash”. So far, all who attended were extremely happy with the venue, the food, the speakers, the RI President’s Rep and his speeches to us, the guest speakers and breakout presentations, the tour and, of course, the BASH. DJ Milky did himself proud and will be honoring his commitment next summer, cooking on Akron-Newstead Rotarian John Gehl’s new Paul Harris grill for a Rotary event. Having our Rotary Youth Exchange students join us for the entire weekend was a fantastic experience. The dance party saw a number of mid 40s teenagers mixing and mingling with the real teens in their own costumes. Thanks to all who attended and helped us “LIGHT UP ROTARY” on the 25th and 26th of October.
As you know, October has been Vocational Services Month for Rotary. I’d like to hear from some of our clubs about what projects they may have going on or have done in the month to support Vocational Service in the club, community or among their youth. We are SHARING information this year about what we do and we need to let our sister clubs know when we have a special, successful project. Please share these with the Best Practices Manual (contact AG Marlee Diehl marleediehl@gmail.com to share).
Speaking of Vocational Service: as I write this, Dan Smith and Roseanne Morissette and the District Vocational Training Team committee are hard at work, putting together the team which will represent 7090 in the upcoming visit to Rotary District 7020 (Anguilla and St. Maarten), March 10th to 31st, 2015. The 2015 VTT will focus on Sport Education and Literacy. Nominations for team members close on November 8th. For more information, click on http://www.clubrunner.ca/Portal/SitePages/SitePage.aspx?accountid=50043&pid=95204.
A number of your district team members attended the Zone Institute in Toronto earlier in the month and I’m pleased to announce that we received, in the honor of PDG Kevin Crouse, awards for club extension and Polio Plus donations earned during his watch. We also had a chance to meet with classmates and peers in all of our job categories and share information and ideas which will help to make our district stronger and better able to provide the services which our clubs need and deserve. Representing so many Canadian citizens in our district, I was honored to be introduced to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper – a true gentleman and a deserving recipient of Rotary recognition for Canada’s financial support of Polio Eradication. We’ve also announced Rotary District 7090’s first ever “Million Dollar Dinner” which will take place on May 9, 2015. PDG and Foundation Director Karen Oakes and Carolyn Ferguson, Major Gifts Officer | Polio, Development & Partnerships for The Rotary Foundation are hard at work developing a program to recognize and encourage major donations to the Foundation from members of our district. More details will be coming in future months.
Finally, we’ve found out that Rotary really does listen and respond. We are truly a bottoms up organization and the folks in Evanston respond to the concerns of the clubs and districts. In a number of our club visits this year, we discussed the difficulties in completing the Presidential Citation requirements for recognition in RI President Gary’s year. I registered my frustration with the requirements when in conversations with the support team at RI, along with a number of other governors. I’m pleased to let you know that I received notice last week that the requirements have been adjusted. I’ll be forwarding that information to your club presidents in my next (soon to be weekly again, now that the Bash is over) update to them.
So, thanks again for LIGHTING UP ROTARY and thanks for all you do in the name of Rotary.
DG Jack
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