DG Dave’s final newsletter

Dave’s Diary 

The Monthly Newsletter of the District Governor

30th June 2013

June has been a funny old month. The love hate relationship I have with technology has got no better. It started with my car breaking down and me having to wait almost five hours for the recovery service to arrive. (A long story) It followed with me dropping my mobile phone into the water butt on my allotment and ended with my computer crashing just after my return from the RI Convention in Lisbon resulting in me losing lots of data.

As I start to write this, my last newsletter, as District Governor at 5.50am on the last day of June and looking forward to the District Handover at lunchtime today, I have been reflecting on my year in office. I did not set out with a big shopping list of things that I wanted to achieve, but I did ask that Clubs should give attention to their local communities, as indeed DG Gordon had done the previous year. In that aim I am sure I have been successful.

I also wanted to improve the relationship between the District and the Clubs, something that I perceived as being lacking. To this extent I have attempted to improve the format of District Council meetings, with various changes being made over the year, introducing speakers from Clubs bringing forward projects they have been involved with etc. I have also tried wherever possible to reduce the formality of meetings, ensuring that they achieve their aims whilst at the same time creating a sense of togetherness. I hope I have achieved this, but that is for the membership to decide.

The year has been full of activity for myself and Gail. We have attended literally hundreds of meetings and events together and I have been to many more myself. We have been made extremely welcome by all the clubs in the District and to thank everyone involved for this.

There have been many highlights – The GSE Team exchange with Nepal, the District Conference, the Hospice to Hospice Walk, the club meetings and charters, the fund raising events, visits to the Inner Wheel, the social occasions etc etc. I could go on.
I would like to take the opportunity of thanking every Rotarian in the District and all our friends and supporters for all the friendship and support they have given and for their messages of goodwill to Gail and myself as we come to the end of our year in office.

Finally may I wish DGE Peter every success as he takes on the role as Governor of District 1220 for 2013/14 seeking to “Engage Rotary Change Lives.” I am confident that you will give him and his wife Carol the same level of support and encouragement that Gail and I have received.