A Message From District Governor Gregg Giusiana

This is our first newsletter after the holidays.  I truly hope you had a wonderful holiday season.  The holidays were different for us this year, but I hope it was just as meaningful.

 

I am amazed by the work done by the clubs during the holiday season.  The ingenuity of the members, raising funds and distributing holiday gifts, was an incredible accomplishment.  Some clubs gave out gifts, some gift cards, and many used the time to support feeding the hungry and homeless.  I am so proud of all the work this District does.

 

This past month the District continued to be very busy.  The biggest news is that two RI Presidents visited the District.  RI President Holger Knaack addressed the members and took questions in early December.  Past RI President Gary Huang visited us in January.  Both these meetings were open to all the members of the District and were very inspiring.

 

The Rotary Club of Dublin celebrated their fifty-year anniversary as a club.  They did a terrific program on the history of the club and reached out to many members who have moved or left the club so they could be involved.  What a great accomplishment and entertaining event! Thank you President Megan Rouse for letting me be a part of the evening.    

 

We had the Mid-year Leadership Meeting last January 9.  We started off with a very inspirational presentation from Kavita Gupta who talked about her innovative work involving students in the STEM programs.  She also shared about her visit to the Galapagos Islands. For the first time, all the Club Presidents and Presidents-Elect were invited to attend. The District works very hard to ensure a smooth transition from year to year by including incoming leaders in the activities of the current year as soon as possible.  DGE Richard Flanders has begun the training for his year with the recent PrePETS with his Presidents as he prepares for his year.

 

We continued with our Zoom to Learn sessions. John Lipp did a great leadership presentation in December.  If you want to hear from him again, he is the speaker for our District Book Club tomorrow. He will talk about some children’s books he wrote. Register at http://bit.ly/D5170BookClubJohnLipp The next Zoom to Learn Session on Youth Service is on February 18.  This is open to all Rotarians so sign up at https://bit.ly/5170YouthService2.

 

The last month, the District Public Image Team launched its Public Image Guidebook.  This month, they continued their meetings with the Club Public Image Chairs.  This was a very lively session and Maggie Padovani will continue having them through the rest of the year. See her article later in the newsletter.

 

The Foundation Committee continues to be active. We have a new ARCH KLUMPH SOCIETY member in the district. A huge thank you to Jill and Tom Duerig for the generous donation to The Rotary Foundation and to all the past Arch Klumph Society members for their continued support of Rotary.

 

Over a dozen international grants have been approved.  PDG Orrin Mahoney has visited almost half of the clubs to talk about the great work of the foundation.  In the spring, we will be starting out the PolioPlus fundraising drive.

 

The District Conference date has been changed.  We moved it to July 17th at Gilroy Gardens.  We are hoping that this can still be done in person.  It is an excellent location (All outdoors) for in person events and by moving the date we increase our chances of gathering together.  Mark your calendar for this fun event.  More information will be coming out soon.

 

February is World Understanding Month for Rotary.  Peace through understanding has always been a part of Rotary.  Programs such as youth exchange, and international scholars are ways the District participated in World Understanding.  This is a great month to have international speakers at you club meetings to support this theme.  

 

Here are some upcoming events.

Thanks for all you do, keep up the great work and stay healthy.

 

Gregg