From the Desk of the Past District Governor

The Month of May started off with the celebration of the Middle Island Club’s 50th Anniversary. It was a great evening of fellowship and reflection. On May 7th Rose and I had the pleasure of participating in the Smithtown’s Club 2nd Annual Road Rally. The good thing is we did not finish last and amazingly enough we are still talking to each other. On May 14th I attended the District Assembly at Camp Pa-Qua-Tuck where DGE Irving Toliver and District Trainer PDG Dave Ardam enlightened us on the year ahead, Reach Within and Embrace Humanity. From May 18th to the 23rd I had the pleasure of attending Rotary International Convention in New Orleans with my entire family including Dora our exchange student. I was fortunate to attend the convention as a sitting Governor, President Ray Klinginsmith treated his Governors Class to a cocktail reception in which 324 sitting Governors attended. I ran into a few old friends of our district, Cammie Kaiser and

Susan Wischusen, they send their best to everyone. They are both doing well and are getting adjusted to their new rotary clubs. The International Convention was a great way for us to reconnect with rotary friends we’ve made in our travels over the past two years. We met up with our friends from Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, India and last year’s GSE Team Leader Bo-gon from South Korea. It also gave us an opportunity to make new acquaintances from Brazil, Australia and

Russia. That’s the great thing of being part of Rotary International!!! The High Light of the convention was Bill Gates telling us that his foundations number one priority is the same as Rotary’s, to eradicate polio. A great Rotary Moment of the Convention was the 204 youth exchange students from the mid-west singing “We Are the World” and waving their individual country flags during the opening ceremonies. The combination of great food and music of New Orleans and

Rotary Fellowship was the recipe for a fantastic convention.

 

As I write this newsletter the 18 members of the Indian Friendship Exchange has just arrived in our District and will be living amongst fellow Rotarians for the next 10 days. They are from District 3010 in New Delhi, India where Rose and I visited on our NID. We will reciprocate by visiting them in February of 2012. I encourage everyone to attend the District Staff Meeting followed by the District Awards Night on Monday June 6th to meet and greet the Friendship Exchange Team. Dinner is being served between 5-6 p.m., staff meeting between 6-7p.m. and the awards night

begins at 7 p.m. the cost is $20 per person. You can register for this event online at the District

Website.

 

For the first time ever the Rotary International President is having a “Year End Gala” at Rotary headquarters in Evanston, Illinois from Tuesday, June 28th to Friday July 1st. Highlights of the week include attending a Rotary meeting at the Chicago One Club, (the first club of Rotary), a visit to the home of Paul Harris and a changeover ceremony with RI President and President Elect.

 

A “Year End Forum” is planned for District Governors and all Directors where each person will be given a brief opportunity to reflect on their highlights of their year. The week will end with a “Year End Dinner Dance” celebration followed by a farewell breakfast. Rose and I are very much looking forward to this once in a lifetime opportunity to experience Rotary traditions of the passing of the guard.

 

I have been very fortunate to serve as Governor with a President from the USA, especially one as gracious and approachable as Ray Klinginsmith has been throughout the year. The Highlight of my year was his attendance at our Multi-District Conference. Rose and I have had the opportunity to travel extensively in this 3 year journey of training and serving as Governor to this great district in Suffolk County. I want to thank all the clubs and Rotarians of the district for welcoming me throughout the year and for all the kind words along the way. It has been my honor to serve you and I shall continue to serve during this transition period over the next 2 years to merge our two districts into our new district 7255. We are in good hands with incoming Governor Irving Toliver, DGE Connie Gevinski and DGN Gwenn Ramage-Wons who will be the first governor of district 7255.

 

There is only one month left in this Rotary year to give to Our Rotary Foundation. I encourage ALL clubs and Rotarians to please make your donation to the Foundation. Please keep in mind that the money donated in this year 2010-11 is returned to us the first year of the merge when Gwenn is our District Governor. When the district merges it will be our first year of “future vision” and we will have more control over spending our money locally, therefore the more money

our District donates to the Foundation now, will benefit us in Rotary year 2013-14.

 

In closing I would like to give special thanks to PDG’s Dave Ardam, George Solomon and Fred Notter who have given me their unwavering support over these past 3 years. I also would not have been able to complete this mission without the tremendous support of my family, Rose, Justin, Chelsea & Taylor. Without them there would be no me.