Finding Leaders For The District
In 2014-15 as District Governor of MD36-E, I was honored and thrilled to have the “one time” experience of being the DG. Well, here it is 2022-23 and here I am again the DG of MD36-E. For anyone unaware of how this situation came about, the DGE Jan Slusser, and 1VDG Jerry Gomez, both resigned their positions due to health reasons. At the District E convention, Lion Paul Novak was elected to 2VDG, but we were now minus a DGE and a 1VDG. It became necessary to put someone into the position, and unfortunately an eligible candidate could not be found. Thus came the procedure of appointing a PDG into the position, and because of new changes in the Constitution and Bylaws this became a challenge as well. End result was that because I was willing to step forward, I received that honor.
Now you would think this would be an easy task considering I had “been there, done that” before, but I can assure you that is not the case. And even though I traveled with PDG Carolee Blatter during her year in 2019, since my time in office 8 years ago, there have been many, many changes. And having the appointment confirmed just 3 short weeks before international convention, as well as having missed some very important district trainings, it has been quite the effort to fill the cabinet positions, take the necessary on-line training, set up the district goals, get ready for the additional training taking place in Montreal Canada, and get an itinerary set up for a visitation to each and every club in the district. But things are progressing right along. My thanks to those of you whom I have contacted that have agreed to take a cabinet position. My visitation schedule has been set up based on information submitted by each club this year to LCI. I will be sending out a proposed visitation schedule soon, and contacting you to verify the planned visitation date.
There ae some fairly big hurdles to jump this year, but I feel our biggest one is in finding leaders for the district. I know that in every club there are potential leaders. As a district, we just need to find a way to let them bring forth their abilities and step up into leadership positions. Many of our problems, I know, stem from the pandemic over the past 2 years which has wrought many changes to our clubs and our communities. Now we must start looking forward and creating our new normal. Amongst the things I look forward to this year will be better attendance at our cabinet meetings, better communication between clubs and the District Governor, and some good training. More than anything else as we go into this year together, I want us to enjoy every moment of it with fun and fellowship as We Serve.