If you happen to travel to Brazil you should definitely take a few days to check out Iguazzu Falls. What a breathtakingly beautiful place. If you are lucky enough to stay at the Hotel das Cataratas, which is located right in the National Park within viewing distance of the Falls, and you are further lucky enough to be staying at the Falls when there is a full moon, then you can sign up for a walking tour down to the Falls at night. There you can see one of the most wondrous and beautiful sights you will ever see. Under the moonlight, you can see a lunar rainbow. Lit by the moonlight, the rainbow turns to a ghostly silver color. Fans of Tolkien would think they were in an Elvish land. You need to be a better writer than I to describe how small you feel watching the Falls by day. But at night it’s even more special.
Interestingly, the rainbow is one of the stars of a visit to the Falls, and by day tourists aim all types of cameras at the many rainbow views and come away rewarded with beautiful rainbow pictures. But it’s almost impossible to capture a picture of the lunar rainbow. All of the photographer hacks like me didn’t capture any image of it at all. How frustrating to know you just experienced one of the most beautiful sights of a lifetime but you couldn’t share it with anyone.
All of which is my (typically long winded) way of saying thank you to everyone who showed up my installation event last Saturday. It went spectacularly well and it seems that a good time was had by all. But due to time constraints I had to hack copious amount of content from my comments that evening. I was very disappointed that I didn’t get an opportunity to review all of the accomplishments of our District Leadership Team leading up to this year. Under the direction of two strong District Governors, Peter Kyle, and Bill Fine, and working within the structure of a well thought-out strategic plan, a whole team of people have accomplished a lot. But almost all of it is “behind the scenes” kind of stuff. Building infrastructure, reorganizing, recruiting strong committee chairs, and redefining long-held policies, isn’t necessarily the most inspirational stuff for most Rotarians….but it is for me.
Therefore, as your intrepid RFA reporter, and new District Governor of District 7620, dedicated to the proposition that you, my loyal reader, needs to be informed about all things Rotary, I am going to now list my highlights of two and one half years of work on the Leadership Team. This list is a tribute to what a team can do when it has a clear vision of what they are trying to accomplish and as you will see, many Rotarians contributed to what has been built.
Here’s the thing. Very few of our Rotary clubs have felt the impact of this change. It is very much like the lunar rainbow at Iguazzu Falls. It’s there, but our Rotary clubs can’t see it….yet. Here’s the list:
Team Accomplishments:
Strategic Plan
Set new goal of $200 per cap giving for APF
New District Rotary Foundation Chair
New District Grants Chair
Restructured our grants team by Area of Focus
Created new eligibility rules rewarding Foundation giving
Recruited all new Development Chairs, including Claude (Polio Plus), Mike Twigg (APF), Rob Brown (Major Gifts), Larry Leahy (PHS)
Recruited 14 Foundation Advocates to support club Foundation Chairs.
Restarted an old tradition of having a Foundation Dinner in the District – great success.
New plan for Leadership Members: DGN does Foundation development, DGE focuses on AG support.
Held two different PR symposiums to help define PR Committee role in the District
Recruited Dawn Wittfelt as District PR Committee Chair
New emphasis on District blog, District Facebook page, social media training, video training
Restarted our new Foundation Newsletter under the direction of Mary Felter and now Pat Kasuda.
Ready, Fire, Aim Rotary blog
New membership chair in Rich Glover, replacing long-time iconic chair, Darrell Nevin
14 Membership Coordinators to work with club membership chairs
New emphasis on club extensions with new clubs in Howard West and Federal City, with two more per year per our strategic plan.
Held our first Immediate Past Presidents meeting to introduce them to District-level service.
We have two new training committee chairs in Mary Nagle and Sean McAlister
Very successful PETS 1, PETS 2, and Chesapeake PETS first time around
Creating a new role for a training committee in the District
New model for smaller regional training meetings
New District Treasurer in Geoffrey Fenner
Installed new procedures for tracking District expenses
Updated our District reporting
Helped rework the District budget
New communications plan allowing District committee chairs to pmail directly to club committee chairs.
7 new AGs in the District
New model for AGs to work with club presidents emphasizing one on one meetings
New model for Anna Mae to support AGs emphasizing one on one meetings.
Developing new District awards created by PR, Foundation, and Membership Chairs that will allow clubs to win awards in specific important categories.
It took a lot of work by a lot of motivated Rotarians to create this list, and I couldn’t be MORE PROUD to be on this team. I think our mission is clear for the 2015-16 year. It’s time to EXECUTE. We have the right people in the right positions at the right time. As RI President, Ravi, says so well…”Our time is now. It will never come again. Be A Gift To the World.” OK 7620 Rotary clubs….it’s your turn! I’m excited to watch all of you make it happen.
YOU CAN GET AUTOMATIC NOTIFICATIONS OF NEW READY, FIRE, AIM POSTS DIRECTLY TO YOUR INBOX BY CLICKING ON THE SUBSCRIBE BUTTON TO THE RIGHT OF THE BLOG TEXT. YOU CAN FOLLOW KEN SOLOW ON TWITTER AT @KENNETHRSOLOW. IF YOU ARE ON FACEBOOK PLEASE “LIKE” THE DISTRICT 7620 FACEBOOK PAGE.