Governor's Message - January 17, 2017

When Change Is Good, Not So Good, and Productive

By Pat and Skip Doyle

Words for the week: change is good (sometimes). Boy, that is sometimes a phrase difficult to swallow.

Why do we mention it in this week's newsletter? Because, as you may have noticed, this week's newsletter arrived Tuesday at mid-morning rather than Monday at daybreak. We are hoping that this slight change will up our readership, exposing more of our members to the important information that our newsletter team puts together each week.

Another change that is not so good is the one in ownership of the Holiday Inn in Boxborough. As you can see from the notice in red at the top of both this newsletter and the district website, ownership has changed and District 7910 Rotary events will no longer be held at that location. We guess you could say we have all been spoiled for many years by the wonderful relationship we had with the management of that venerable location. In the time we have been Rotarians, we have attended at least seven District Conferences and two ESSEX conferences there. Our RYLA program was enhanced because we had a central location at no charge for all of our RYLA-facilitator training sessions. The hotel's decision to not honor existing contracts has adversely affected our district and we are very upset with this development. Please be diligent about checking meeting locations - we do not want people going miles out of their way.

On January 10, we witnessed a change that was very productive. Because the Rotary Club of Watertown's meeting location closes for January, they were forced to change locations. They joined the Rotary Club of Needham for a joint meeting at 12 noon on Janbuary 10, and we were able to present both clubs an overview of the 2017 Multi-District Conference - a.k.a. Quadcon. Joint meetings such as this are a great idea. Why not try one for a change?

Left to right: District Governor Pat Doyle, Needham President Ted Shaughnessy, Watertown President Lilia Weisfeldt, and District Skip Doyle

Six important things to know:

1. The weekly submission deadline for the Newsletter will remain the same: Friday. As usual, text content must be submitted in Word format, and image content, in either JPEG or PDF format. Continue to submit your content to Immediate Past District Governor/Newsletter Editor Jim Fusco at jim.fusco2@gmail.com.

2. Resolutions: The District Resolutions Committee met on January 10 and addressed three changes to the District Resolution that will be proposed and voted on at the annual District Business Meeting, to be held during the Multi-District Conference in Providence, on Saturday morning, April 29. For more information on the District Resolutions, contact Resolutions Chair Doug Detweiller (shown, right) at rotary@detweiler.org.

3. District Nominations: The District Nominating Committee is seeking qualified applicants to serve as District Trustee for 2017 to 2019 and District Charitable Fund Trustee for 2017 to 2020. Clubs and club leadership are asked and encouraged to actively recruit and promote service in Rotary through their members' service as district leaders. The deadline for submitting applications is this February 18. All completed applications should be either e-mailed to Nominating Committee Chair Michael Ellis (shown, right) at mellis0144@comcast.net, or mailed to him at: Michael Ellis, District 7910 Nominating Committee, 88 Coburn Ave., Gardner, MA 01440. Postmarked mail after February 18 will not be accepted. To download the Trustee Nomination Form, click here. To download the Nomination Form Supplement, click here.

4. Rotary Youth Leadership Awards: The RYLA Club Pack has been updated and posted on RYLA7910.org. When you

download it, you will notice changes from last year. Please read the material carefully and direct your questions to Christine Pinney, chair of the RYLA Committee,who may be reached at christine@christinepinney.com. The RYLA season has begun and the RYLA Committee is working to make RYLA 2017 the "best RYLA ever." (See RTLA article in right hand column)

5. Club Planning Worksheet: To download the Club Planning Worksheet, click here.This worksheet is made available to

clubs so they can gauge their progress in achieving the goals they set last July. This month is a good time to review the worksheet and see how far you have come and how much farther you need to go as a club. You may surprise yourselves and realize that you are well on the way to earning district recognition. We recommend the club president appoint the president-elect to be the "champion" of the Worksheet, and to use it as a guide for the club, and to report monthly to the club's membership and board on the club's progress.

6. As your district governors, we have resolved to:

Revisit as many clubs as possible in the next few months.
Help our clubs achieve the goals they set in July
Do all we can to build membership in the district
Plan a grand event to celebrate our Million Dollar Foundation Journey
"Move the ball forward," in harmony, with District Governor-ElectKarin Gaffney, District Governor-Nominee Steve Sager and District Governor-Nominee-Designate Pamela Anastasi
Celebrate all of this at our Multi-District Conference this April in in Providence