President Wilf receiving the District 7020 Magic of Rotary District Conference shirt in Ft. Lauderdale
On Friday and Saturday of last weekend, 430 Rotarians form Zones 33 and 34 joined President Wilf Wilkinson for his Presidential Membership Seminar in Ft. Lauderdale. The program was outstanding and everybody in attendance indicated that the time and effort to attend was well worth the while.
The major points were simple. Due to the statistical data and trends it is clear that Membership Development is one of the most important elements facing the future of Rotary, Our Zones are up 187 new clubs but membership is down 4600 members. District 7020, although marginally up in members over the last 4 years; 99 members over 2003, this was achieved by the chartering of 9 new clubs in the period. 35 of our 68 clubs have less members today than they did in 2003, so we have a challenge ahead of us as well.
Although the issues of recruitment and retention were addressed from a number of angles, the basic message as I understood them were; Membership Development is up to every single Rotarian and in as much every Rotarian is expected to make the effort necessary to recruit new members. The acronym “MGM” Member Get Member rang loudly. Another acronym “AAA” also got its share of attention, Ask, Ask, Ask !!!!
The Haiti Task Force met again with Charles Adams about the water project in Haiti. Fortunately I was able to have the company of DGN Errol, DGE Rupert, ADG Alastair, RID Barry, Roger White, St. Thomas, Nathan Carmack DG 6910 as well as the Task Force Members to hear what had to be said.
Although the plans that Pure Water for the World have for Haiti are beneficial to Haiti, our involvement and the use of Rotary Foundation Funding we believe requires that we have a master plan for the roll out of their program. RID Barry has gone back to RI to get their advice and assistance on that and the Task force Team was going to process the two existing projects and grant applications.
After a hard days work!
A number of us went to dinner after the Presidents Membership Seminar. Pictured below is one of the two tables.
Its not all work and no play.
Carla and I went to visit our very best friends Johnny and Linda Sands who are temporarily staying in Charlottesville Virginia. We were able to spend a couple of great days with them. Here we are at Barboursville Winery at the foot of the Shenandoah National Park. We also got to take in a Rotary Meeting on Tuesday Night. The timing was great, my classmate DG Travis White D7610 was doing his official visit, so I was able to present DG Travis and President Doug McGowan with a District 7020 Pin. Doug was very helpful in setting up Johnny and Linda’s stay in Charlottesville.
Carla and I are on our way back to Nassau, currently sitting in the Charlotte North Carolina Airport. We will be back in Nassau until Monday a.m. at which time we will depart for our Haiti visits.
We’ll keep you posted from there.
DG Dick
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