District Governor's Update - March 2022
Apr 9, 2022
March has been an incredibly busy month for me as your District Governor. The month started with me assisting District Governor Elect Karl with 3 sessions of our post PETS training and the preparation of the District budget. I also had to relocate our planned in-person Past District Governor meeting from Osoyoos to Chelan due to the unavailability of meeting rooms, hotel rooms, and restaurants at the times we needed them. This relocation also required finding a testing solution for attendees that would allow them to return to Canada.
My committee and I started to open registration for the upcoming District Conference. We discovered that we had missed a step – you have to have a bank account to deposit the fees into for the credit card system to work. With some great assistance from Duane Monick, we got that problem solved and have got the registration working and going forward. For those of you who have never been to a District Conference, you really should give this event a look. Our conference is going to be a lot of fun, a lot connecting to old friends, making new friends, learning some amazing things about this incredible organization we are part and things you may not know about the Wenatchee area. We guarantee you will find something valuable and inspiring. Be sure to look at the conference item in this newsletter and open the link to Michael Caruso. This 2 minute video will give you a taste of what you are going to see on Saturday when Michael dazzles us with fantastic, high energy presentation.
During this time, I also spent two evenings working with our club members staffing a concession stand at our local hockey arena. This new fund-raising opportunity has been really positive for our club, both its members, and is also really good for our public image and the opportunity to share the good we are achieving. I also had the great pleasure of inducting 8 new members to our club.
I had to assume a bit of unexpected work as my home club’s President Elect and a key organizer of this year’s District Conference announced she was leaving Wenatchee for a career opportunity. I am excited for her opportunity but sad to see a good friend and Rotarian go. It has been very heartening to see Rotarians step up and step in when they are needed. Very capable individuals from many of our local clubs have volunteered fill the gaps that Katie left on our Conference committee. We are also blessed that we have an exceptional Vice President who has stepped up to be our club’s leader.
While all of this was going on in the Rotary world, during the first half of the month, I was working with our state legislators to obtain funding for a critical transportation linkage and flying back to Washington DC to work with Congress to fully fund the infrastructure bill they passed in December. I am be thrilled to report that we were successful in obtaining the last $85 million needed for the road, bridge and trail system from the State and Congress fully funded the appropriations bills, which released billions nationwide and will permit my agency to go from 15 electric buses to 42 in the two years.
The third week of March, the Governors Council put together a compendium of relief activities that Rotary and Rotarians are involved in support of Ukraine. We made the decision that rather than create our own channel, we would support the very effective efforts of Shelterbox, the Rotary District which is Poland, the District which is the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Moldova and the Rotary clubs of Kiev and Lviv as well as a number of other programs. We also prepared for and held our annual Spring Club Training Event. We had about 160 people participate and the reports from the attendees was that they found it useful and worthwhile.
The fourth week of March, we held a live and hybrid Past District Governor’s meeting in Chelan. This meeting is usually held in October, but we delayed it until we could host a live meeting. We had a very convivial gathering on Friday evening and started with our business at 8:00 am on Saturday. At 10:00 am we convened our 3rd quarter District Business meeting. We shared several items that will be considered for action at the General Business Meeting at the District conference on May 15th. In the afternoon, a panel of the Governor’s council, a Past Governor and two Past Club Presidents interviewed our candidates for the District Governor Designee – that is the Governor in 2024-25. The panel selected Past President of Chelan club, Tom Tochterman as the presumptive designee (absent any timely protests from a club).
The last week of March was spent preparing for Blue Denim training. This is peer training program that is hosted by the 10 Governors that make up the Pacific Northwest President Elect Training Seminar (PETS). So, myself and my counterparts host a 2 & 1/2-day training event in Seattle for the Governors Elect, Governors Nominees and Governors Designees and their partners. This event was rescheduled from January and had to be relocated to a different hotel as well. I think it went off well, but I think you can see, it has been a busy, but really good, month.
Yours in Rotary service
Richard DeRock
District 5060 Governor