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.

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

DG Dave’s January Newsletter

Dave’s Diary 

The Monthly Newsletter of the District Governor

22nd December 2012

Introduction

As I make a start on this Newsletter on 22nd December and look back over the last six months I realise just what a contribution Rotary makes to our communities, locally, nationally and internationally. I have attended so many activities that I have lost count – and been invited to many more that I have not been able to attend. Gail and I have had a thoroughly fantastic time. Yes, there are downs as well as ups, but overall what I have seen from the 58 Clubs in District 1220 has been very positive.

We are now half way through this Rotary year and shortly to start the “downhill run home” so to speak. During the next few months the annual round of training and familiarisation for incoming District Officers, Club Presidents and Club Officers will get under way, re-enforcing our cyclical approach to Rotary.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped me in any way during my period in office so far.

Club Visioning

Following the item about Club Visioning in my November Newsletter, Noel Harrison (Membership) and I were extremely pleased and impressed by the number of Rotarians who came forward to volunteer their time, expertise and vocational abilities to act as members of the Visioning Team. As a direct result we now have sufficient volunteers to get their training off the ground and plans are being made for this to take place very early in the new year.

Many thanks to all those who stepped forward. Let’s hope that their time and effort is not wasted.

If you believe that your club could benefit from the impetus of chance that Club Visioning will bring about, then now is the time to make your case to Noel. I believe that so many Clubs are now looking critically at themselves with a with to improving, updating and recruiting that there is likely to be competition be be among the first few clubs to benefit from this scheme. So, please get in early if you are interested.

Rotary Day – 23rd February 2013

The District has not made any grand plans to celebrate Rotary Day on 23rd February. We have left it for each Club to take whatever steps it feels are appropriate for the event. I do still have left quite a number of spare boxes of pin-on crocuses that can be used in street or supermarket collections etc. The suggested minimum donation being £1 this would give a 75 pence per crocus profit. It is hoped that this symbol of polio eradication will become as common as the daffodil is for Marie Curie etc.

The crocuses will not achieve a profit in my garage and so I would dearly like to get them all out to clubs during the next month. If you would like a box please let me know and I will make the appropriate arrangements.

Diary Dates

Christmas and New Year Greetings

Having kept my Newsletter deliberately short this month, may I please close it by taking the opportunity on behalf of Gail, myself and the rest of the clan who came to Southport (Sarah, Craig, Xanthe, Sebastian, Nicola, Chris, Maddie and Francesca) to wish all Rotarians in District 1220 and their wider families a thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

In the midst of all the celebrations, let us not forget what Christmas is really about – give a thought to the real meaning of Christmas.

See you all in the New Year

Dave Ashley

DG Dave’s December Newsletter

Dave’s Diary 

The Monthly Newsletter of the District Governor

30th November 2012

Re-Districting

Perhaps I am getting paranoid but I seem to be eating, drinking and sleeping Re- Districting. As you are aware “Version 3” of the Re-Districting proposals were circulated to clubs recently, leaving very little time for them to be properly considered before I had to take the views of Clubs in the District to The RIBI General Council for a vote on the subject on 26th November.

Realising that time was limited I informed clubs that if I did not hear anything from them to the contrary before attending General Council, I would take this as a vote for the plan. Several clubs did in fact send me responses, all of which were favourable to the plan. My thanks to them for this.

At the General Council the proposal was fully debated (some may say over debated !) and a vote was taken as to whether that Version should be accepted and forwarded to RI. At the conclusion of the debate there was an overwhelming vote in favour of the proposals, including “Phase 2” of the plan. In the end I voted in favour of the proposals.

This plan will now be forwarded to RI for their consideration in January.

Club Visioning

Over the last ten years, membership of Rotary within RIBI has fallen by over 10%. At the same time our age profile has been increasing year on year. Whilst we have been quite robust in our recruitment of new Rotarians this has not kept pace with the rate of people leaving the organisation. This situation is not unique to these islands. It has been happening elsewhere in the world.

In an attempt to reverse this trend, during the last few years a process called “Club Visioning” has been used in a number of countries including Australia, the United States and France. In these countries it has been successful in making clubs more vibrant, more attractive to potential new members and has given existing members a new “buzz”. It has driven up recruitment and at the same time reduced losses of existing members.

This process is now being made available within RIBI and I have indicated that I would like clubs in District 1220 to take it up if they feel that it might help them to overcome problems that they may be experiencing. A number of clubs have already expressed an interest in it.

In order to take it forward we need, as a matter of urgency, to set up a team of Rotarians to implement it. Such Rotarians ideally would fulfil the following criteria:-

• Have time available to devote to it (up to 2 – 3 hours per week)
• Be flexible in the times they can devote (different clubs – different times of day)
• Prepared to attend a Training Session for the scheme (venue to be decided)
• Able to commit to the process for a period of at least one to two years
• Some experience preferred of presentation and/or facilitation skills
• Some experience of interview techniques would be an advantage
• Be able to start early in 2013
• Most importantly – a positive outlook and a desire to help Rotary succeed.

If you have the qualities that we are looking for, or if indeed you are willing to learn and want to help, please contact Rtn. Noel Harrison (details in Directory) asap – in fact NOW.

Diary Dates

Sponsored Walk by District Governor and others – “H2H Walk”

In order to support Bluebell Wood Hospice and Rainbows Hospice I am planning to do a sponsored walk from Bluebell Wood in South Sheffield to Rainbows in Loughborough. The planned dates are Friday 3rd May 2013 to Monday 6th May 2013 (May Day Bank Holiday). The District Sergeant at Arms, Owen Briggs, and others have already committed to joining me. Any other Rotarians (or indeed non-Rotarians) are welcome to join us, either for the whole walk or just for a part of it. We shall be finalising and circulating the route shortly.

I have set myself a target of raising £5,000 from the walk. The idea is to ask some clubs to hold events along the route of the walk as we pass through their area, mainly during the evenings on 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th but at other times as well if they fit the walk route.

Would anyone who wants to assist in any way, either walking, organising an event,or in any other way please drop me an email to dave.gailashley@tiscali.co.uk

Let’s just hope for dry weather

I have donations of £750 each for the two hospices. Should any club wish to have talks from either hospice or want to make a donation then the contact numbers are for Rainbows – Rtn Caroline Rossin of Newark Castle Club and for Bluebell Wood -Emma Vizor on 07899 845831 or 01909 517368.

Rotary Foundation

Just a quick reminder please to clubs that donations to Rotary Foundation and to the Polio appeal are still urgently needed. Please don’t ignore our own charity that does so much good in the world or the campaign to eradicate polio. I now have boxes of 50 or 100 pin on crocuses for clubs to sell. They cost £12.50p and £25 each respectively and the suggested minimum donation per crocus is £1. That gives a profit to Foundation of £75 on a box of 100. I shall be bringing those that have been ordered and the spare ones to the District Council meeting on 11th December.

Dave Ashley

DG Dave’s November Newsletter

Dave’s Diary 

The Monthly Newsletter of the District Governor

31^st October 2012

DG 2012-2013 David Ashley

Group Study Exchange Team

The Group Study Exchange Team from Nepal has now left us and flown back home, no doubt full of good words to say about their stay in the District. At the de-briefing meeting and their Farewell Party on 19th November, Team Leader Nugal and team members Suyesh, Dipika, Shresna and Roshani all spoke very highly indeed of their host Rotarian families and of the content of their programme. I would like to thank everyone from Rob Gray who coordinated the whole event, the area coordinators, the host families and all others who were involved in the arrangements in any way for the excellent arrangements that resulted in such a great final GSE Team visit to District 1220.

District Conference

The District Conference, another major event in the Rotary calendar has also now passed for another year. Numbers attending the Conference were considerably down this year on previous years (about 700 attended including about 400 Rotarians) and we need to look closely at the Annual Conference for the future.

Organisers of the Conference have to prepare a budget based on the number of people attending and when numbers fall as they did this year it can leave the District with an overspend on the budget. Various members of the organising teams for the conferences this year, next year and the year after will be meeting later this month to discuss the situation and agree on a way forward.

This may well include ascertaining the views of members who do not normally attend the Conference and those who normally do but stayed away this year. Why don’t they attend? Is it the location? Is it the cost? Is it the content? Is it age related? Is it a result of previous bad experiences? We need to know these things if we are to make the conference accessible to all.

One element of the discussion will no doubt focus on the funding of the Conference. We are required by Rotary International to hold a conference, so should the cost of the whole Rotary element of the Conference come from our subscriptions? After all the Conference is open to all members to attend. At present just a proportion is funded by this means, with the remainder coming from the Registration Fee payable by delegates.

Charter Celebrations

We are now well into the Charter season and already a couple of Club Charter Nights have had to be postponed because of such a low take up by visiting Rotarians – a similar situation to the District Conference. I attended a Charter a few days ago where the numbers were just over 60. With the average price of a Charter Night now being (I estimate) in the region of £25 we have to ask “Are the days of annual Charters now numbered? Perhaps we need to have that debate.

The holding of an annual event to celebrate the granting of a Club Charter is not universal. In many areas this does not happen whilst in others just significant anniversaries are celebrated. There may well be other alternative ways of celebrating the granting of a Club Charter. In any case we need to make sure that we cannot be accused of “re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” whilst the ship sinks. Perhaps instead of a charter we should plough a similar amount of finance into promoting our clubs, re-establishing ourselves in our local communities and seeking out new members to carry on the traditional work of Rotary. Just a thought.

District Council

The next District Council meeting will be held at The Novotel on Tuesday 11th December 2012 at 7.30pm. Attendance by voting representatives of all clubs is sought as there will be an important discussion and vote on the Re-Districting proposals mentioned in my last Newsletter. I have today circulated a letter about this to all Club Presidents and Secretaries. It is important if you wish your club’s views to be heard at the Council meeting that you are represented.

We did ask members attending the last District Council meeting to complete an evaluation form. These forms have been collated and the results suggest that the meeting was viewed positively by those attending. Various suggestions were made as to how future meetings could be improved but as with all such exercises some views expressed were diametrically opposite other views. It just shows – “You can’t please all the people all the time”.

Once again there will be presentations by clubs on projects in which they are involved. If your club has a project it would like to advertise to the District via a short presentation at District Council please let me know.

District Website

Have you had a look at the new improved District Website recently? If not spend a few minutes seeing what there is on it that may be of interest to you and if you have any items that may be of interest to a wider Rotary community, please send them to Mark Snape, the Webmaster.

On the website there is a note of the amount raised for District funds (helping to keep subscriptions down) by sales on Amazon through the website. It seems to have been stuck on £2,314 for some time now. Don’t forget – if you are buying anything from Amazon, do it by going onto the District website and using the Amazon link provided. There is no extra cost to you the purchaser. This is simply a donation to us by Amazon.

Sponsored Walk by District Governor – “H2H Walk”

In order to support Bluebell Wood Hospice and Rainbows Hospice I am planning to do a sponsored walk from Bluebell Wood in South Sheffield to Rainbows in Loughborough. The planned dates are Friday 3rd May 2013 to Monday 6th May 2013 (May Day Bank Holiday). The District Sergeant at Arms, Owen Briggs, has already committed to joining me. Any other Rotarians (or indeed non-Rotarians) are invited to join us, either for the whole walk or just for a part of it. We shall be finalising and circulating the route shortly.

I have set myself an ambitious target of raising £5,000 from the walk. The idea is to ask Clubs to hold events along the route of the walk as we pass through their area, mainly during the evenings of 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th but at other times as well if they fit the walk route.

Would anyone who wants to assist in any way, either walking, organising an event,or in any other way please drop me an email to dave.gailashley@tiscali.co.uk Let’s just hope for dry weather

Foundation Seminar

Don’t forget the Foundation Seminar that is being held on Thursday, 8th November at the Novotel, Long Eaton, commencing at 7.30pm. The outgoing GSE Team to Nepal and their Team Leader David Hood from RC of Wirksworth will be there. The main item of business though will be ensuring that Clubs within the District are prepared and qualified to take on projects etc under Future Vision. It is important therefore that all Clubs are represented here. Terry Leivers is able to give you all the information you need.

Birthday Wishes

Honorary Rotarian Reg Dean from the Rotary Club of Wirksworth will be celebrating his 110th (yes that’s right – 110th) birthday on Sunday 4th November. I understand this makes him the oldest person in Britain – unless you know differently. Reg was a Rotarian at Wirksworth for many years before becoming honorary is later life. Until very recently he attended Wirksworth Club meetings on a regular basis.

I shall be visiting Reg on his birthday and taking best wishes from the RI President Sakuji Tanaka. Why don’t you send him a birthday card from your club and help him to celebrate this VERY special occasion.

Yours in Rotary
Dave Ashley

DG Dave’s October Newsletter

Dave’s Diary 

The Monthly Newsletter of the District Governor

31^st September 2012

DG 2012-2013 David Ashley

Well, hello everyone, a quarter of the year has already past and it seems like just the blink of an eye, but so much has happened. I have carried out my official visits to all but eight clubs now and three of them I shall be visiting during October. The RIBI president has spent three very successful days in the District. The Conference is almost upon us and I have just returned form the second RIBI General Council meeting at Alcester. I would like to spend the next few paragraphs outlining one particular issue that was on the agenda there.

Re-Districting within RIBI

Some time ago Rotary International stated their intention of reducing the number of Districts within RIBI from 29 down to 24 and it suggested those Districts that it intended to eliminate. District 1220 was not one of them. Partly as a result of this and partly to address the issue of the declining and ageing membership within RIBI a report was sent from RIBI to RI making alternative suggestions.

One of the suggestions was that RIBI would itself address the number of Districts and would look at a more structured approach to reducing the number. These proposals have now been published to the RIBI General Council in draft format and are now subject to the first round of discussion and review. Within the draft document all the proposed new Districts have been given a letter rather than a number.

All the clubs within District 1220 have been kept together within new District H. {webmaster: this is to aid with the re-oganisation study and Districts will be renumbered later} In addition ten clubs from North Lincolnshire and sixteen clubs from South Yorkshire have been added. These are:-

North Lincolnshire

• Barrow Meridien
• Barton Upon Humber
• Brigg
• Cleethorpes
• Epworth & Isle of Axholme
• Grimsby
• Grimsby Havelock
• Grimsby St. James
• Scunthorpe
• Scunthorpe Pentagon

South Yorkshire

• Abbeydale
• Barnsley
• Barnsley (Rockley)
• Doncaster
• Doncaster St Georges
• Doncaster St. Leger
• Hallam
• Mexborough & District
• Rotherham
• Rotherham Sitwell
• Sheffield
• Sheffield Vulcan
• Stainborough
• Thorne
• Wombwell
• Wortley

The new District would therefore be the combination of all the clubs from District 1220 plus the clubs listed above. This would give the new District a total of 84 clubs instead of the present 59 and just under 2,700 members instead of the present figure of just under 1,800.

There are many long term benefits to enlarging the District, not the least of which would be the financial benefit of having more contributing members making the District finances more stable. There are of course many issues still to decide and agree upon, such as election of officers, venues for District meetings, regalia, incorporating the additional clubs etc. etc.

There is now a period until 12th October to allow present District Governors to present any comments or counter proposals to the Re-Districting Committee so that they can then be considered and where appropriate included in a revised draft report. (The basic intention here is to allow a short period of time to iron out any obvious mistakes in the proposals – one or two of which have already been identified in other areas) The revised report will then be circulated back to all the District Governors and also placed on the RIBI Website.

Clubs will then have a period from 25th October till 9th November to make any representations regarding the proposals.

Following this period of consultation a Final Report will be prepared and sent to RI for ratification at their board meeting on 19th January 2013.

The proposals are due to come into force on 1st July 2015. The proposals will not affect the status of any Rotary Clubs or Rotarians. They will simply change the size, shape and nature of the District to which Clubs will be attached.

Would Club Presidents please bring this matter to the attention of their clubs this week so that everyone has an opportunity to comment should they so wish.

I would appreciate it if any comment could be forwarded to me by email by no later than 5pm on 11th October so that I can consider them and forward them to the Re-Districting Committee if appropriate by the set deadline. Anonymous comment will not be considered.

On a personal note, it seems to me that District 1220 has come out of this exercise as well as could have been hoped for. No clubs are being split off from the main group. I am sure that suitable arrangements can be made to combine 1220 with the additional sixteen {webmaster: twenty-six} clubs, many of which are well known to us in this District in any case.

General News Items

The RIBI President, Rotarian John Minhinick and his wife Sheila were in the District from 10th to 12th
September. They were very impressed by the quality of the projects and presentations that they saw. My
thanks to everyone who was involved in any way with the visit for making it such a success.

District Conference

The District Conference is almost upon us and I look forward to seeing as many Rotarians and their guests as possible at Southport. Whilst you are there, do spend some time in the Rotary Showcase, where we have many stalls and stands of Rotary projects and non Rotary organisations. Free tea and coffee there (and the bar is open) on the Friday afternoon.

Don’t forget that you will need to collect your delegate packs from the showcase on arrival.

Group Study Exchange Team

The Group Study Exchange Team from Nepal is presently in the District until 20th October. They are also appearing at District Conference. They are a really good team. I had the pleasure of listening to their first presentation at Mapperley and Arnold on 26th September. Try and get to see them when they are in your neck of the woods – it really is worthwhile.

Remember, this may well be the last GSE Team from abroad that we see because under Future Vision they will be replaced by Vocational Training Teams, a slightly different animal.

Your Views ?

Over the last few months various members of the District Team have been working really hard to deliver a good service to Rotarians across the District. We are trying to make what we do for Clubs and Rotarians at District level as relevant and appropriate as possible. However, to ensure that we are doing the right things we need your comments and views. I have had very constructive feedback from a number of Rotarians recently about District Council, Conference and various other District events. I welcome this. If you have any views about Rotary topics please let me know. I really do want to know. Without this knowledge we cannot improve

Yours in Rotary

Dave Ashley