DG Dave’s February Newsletter

Dave’s Diary 

The Monthly Newsletter of the District Governor

2nd February 2013

Club Visioning

It is almost six weeks since my last newsletter which you will recall I sent out early so that you received it before Christmas. Well this one is a few days late, as I have held it back so that I could give an update on the “Club Visioning” Initiative. I have just returned from a District Training Session, led by Peter Davey, the Chair of the RIBI Membership Committee, assisted by Noel Harrison (Sherwood Sunrisers) and Ian Young (Hucknall).
There were ten Rotarians present who have volunteered to act as Visioning Facilitators.

We are only the second District in RIBI to undergo the training and it means that we now have a pool of trained facilitators, all ready and waiting to assist Clubs.

District 1220 is now is a position to roll out Visioning to Clubs and Noel will, within the next few days, be making contact with Club Secretaries, advising them in simple terms of what it is about and offering them the opportunity to apply for it. I would stress that no-one from the District will be suggesting that any particular club should undergo the process. It is entirely up to individual clubs to identify whether or not they think it might be advantageous to them in terms of club programme, public image, project development etc. and thereby, long term, their membership.

Make a point of getting hold of Noel’s information and make sure that your club is therefore aware of what is on offer.

The “End Polio Now” Campaign

Rotary Day is looming large. A number of clubs accepted my offer of purchasing pin-on crocuses for sale inn their area. Many people that I have spoken to over recent weeks however are still either not aware of them or do not understand what they are for.
The basic idea is that just as the poppy is associated with the Royal British Legion and Remembrance Sunday and the daffodil is associated with Marie Curie Cancer Care, then we want the crocus to become associated with Rotary and the “End Polio Now” campaign.

Rotary day on 23rd February is an ideal opportunity to push the crocuses out to your local community. Please let me know if you are interested.

I shall be taking delivery next week of a number of pull-up banners, posters and Rotary newspapers that relate to the “End Polio Now” campaign. These are all excellent PR materials and are available to clubs. If you have any events coming up and can lay on
a display about the campaign please let me know and I will make sure you get the material.

Talking still about the “End Polio Now” campaign, earlier this week Bill Gates delivered the Dimbleby lecture that was featured in full on BBC 1. His speech was all about the need to finish the job of eradicating polio. It was a very stirring speech, in which
he made very positive mention of the valuable contribution that all the members of Rotary International had made towards the campaign. He also stated that he believed that, with appropriate funding, the last case involving the wild polio virus would be achieved by the end of 2015. Time will tell on that, but if anyone is in a position to know, then he is.

Let us in District 1220 do our level best to make an appropriate contribution to the funding shortfall and lets finish the job and move on to the next.

Re-Districting

The RIBI Re-Districting Plan that was the subject of much healthy debate towards the end of last year was presented to the RI Board last month and was accepted in it’s entirety. The RIBI team appointed to address this issue will no doubt therefore shortly begin a detailed re-examination of all the various issues to do with the subject and have undertaken to communicate with the membership before any decisions are taken. So watch this space.

Thanks

Gail and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who sent Gail their best wishes following her recent fall on the stairs at home. She is now more or less fully recovered and back to chasing me around and keeping me on the straight and narrow.
Thanks again.

Diary Dates

DG Dave Ashley