District Governor's Visit

District Governor Dennis McMann and his lovely wife (and fact checker) Donna were our guests at the July 27th meeting. Here are a few excerpts from his presentation:

 

 

Small town boy from northern New Hampshire

Four years in the Army after a year at UNH

Worked his way through college after his return

Short time Rotarian - 11 years

Has retired 6 times, this is the last one!

Had a great meeting with our board last night, it was the best board meeting he's been too, it was interactive and enjoyable.

 

What are we about this year?

John Germ is our president this year, one of the best Rotarian's Dennis has ever met.

John Germ says there are SO many rules in Rotary.  We're working to change the rules, if there are rules in your way, ignore the rules and get the work done. 

#1 priority is to retain members, we gain 100,000 a year, but lose 120,000.  We, as a group, need to engage our members to retain them. 

Engage our members in our communities and make a difference in our community and the world.

 

Polio, last year there were 17 cases of Polio, down from 360,000 in 1986.  We're making a big deal about Polio and the Foundation this year.  If each Rotarian gives $10 more to the foundation we will add $12,000,000 to the fund (1.2 million Rotarian's)

Dennis is a polio survivor, he takes polio eradication very personally.

Donna and Dennis were able to attend an immunization day in India, they immunized 10 million kids under the age of 5 (in one day! (Dennis says they had some help)).  If you have a chance to work at one of these days do it! It will change your perspective and your life. 

 

Pure Water for the World.  Almost all of the serious diseases in the world are caused by bad water and bad sanitation.  In Haiti 2 out of 5 kids die before the age of 5.  PWFTW helps to train people about hygiene and clean water, build the units in Haiti and work with the people to raise awareness. 

The district is putting in $25,000 (with matching grants and donations) we are trying to raise $200,000 to put in filters for 200-500 families in Haiti. 

 

District Conference: Bill Stevens will be Sargent at Arms which is also the entertainment! :-) We're trying to do something different this year, usually have 200 Rotarian's (out of 2,100) who come.  We'll hold our meeting in Nashua this year, it will only be two days instead of three, Friday and Saturday.  Golf Friday morning, lunch, meeting in the afternoon.  Evening is casino night (this is for you Jason!), professional dealers will be running the tables.  We have a room block of $129/night, trying to keep the cost per couple below $600 for the two day event.  April 28-29, 2017, Saturday will be the normal session, exchange students will be there to say goodbye.  Saturday afternoon we'll have a service project working with End Hunger in New England.  You can stay another night at the hotel or head home. 

 

Training: We're trying to setup training on our tools.  Stay tuned for more info.

 

Rotary Leadership Institute, everyone should try to attend as many they can, they have 3 standard courses and 1 graduate level course.  Clubs who have RLI trained members have a higher retention rate than other clubs.  This is a training run by Rotarian's NOT Rotary.  Members who got together to train Rotarian's.  Many clubs pay for their members to attend, $65 - $95 to attend.  October 15, 2016 at Dartmouth Hitchcock for $85 (LINK). 

 

International Convention: The most motivating event Dennis has ever attended (outside of the trip to Haiti and World Immunization day).  June 2017 in Atlanta is expecting around 50,000 attendees.  Go if you can!

 

Dennis was presented with the HUGE cucumber and a (very prized) Rotary flask.