Steve’s Scribbles

District Governor Stephen Lawes

I know I have said this time and time again doesn’t time fly when you are enjoying yourself? It has now been nearly four months since I took office as District Governor, and I can honestly say that they have been four of the most enjoyable months of my life so far.

As I write these scribbles I have visited some 48 clubs at 44 venues, attended 6 charters and fronted one district conference, as well as running a number of meetings including one district council. It has been an honour to meet so many dedicated Rotarians as I have travelled around the district and also to learn of many of the projects that you are undertaking, it is truly amazing what you are all doing under the name of Rotary please keep up the good work.

I can inform you that District have agreed to allow the RC of Buxton to join us following their request earlier in the year, and I have written officially to RIBI giving our consent to the move. We now wait to hear that the proposal has been accepted in the new District they would have been joining. I will keep you informed.

As I mentioned above I was honoured to presided over the District Conference in Llandudno over the week-end of 3rd – 5th October. I wish to thank all those who attended for their support and from the feedback I have received I think we got the programme right for you all. It is difficult putting on events such as these and I wish to thank the team for all the hard work they put in. I was extremely disappointed that Andy Reed was taken ill on the Sunday morning but I can inform you all that I have received an e-mail advising that he is now fully recovered and that if possible he would like to come and visit the district sometime. I will keep you informed on any development.

Membership as we all know is key in our thoughts as we move through the year; I would urge you all to look at all avenues of potential members. We need as many older members as we do young the truth being we need a well-balanced new cadre of members which reflects the communities we serve. We also need to look at retaining as many members as possible and we should be asking ourselves why are people leaving our clubs, have we gone stale? do our programmes offer a good variety? I would like you to look at your membership honestly and say does it reflect what Rotary is all about and does it offer the opportunities to serve as our publicity tells them? Do we meet the four way test regarding membership? If you answer no then I urge you to look at where you are letting your community down and to look at addressing the balance, whether it be by age, race, ideology, colour or gender. If yes I thank you and ask you to keep looking for new members as well.

Finally keep up all the good work I am seeing as I travel around the District. Until my next scribble
YIR Steve