Kath's DG Buzz

  Dear Friends, I hope you all have had a good week. I must admit I have learned a few new things this week and it’s been a bit of a challenge. I started the week with two informal evening meetings with a number of Club Secretaries looking at ways of improving communication between District and the Clubs. I particularly wanted to look at the tools and resources used to do this and how to improve things for the better. I was also keen to explore what things were barriers to communication and what changes, if any, could be made. There is always room for improvement in any system and I want to make sure we are doing the best we can to provide effective communication. Every organisation must evolve as technology moves forward at a tremendous pace and if Rotary is to keep up, we must welcome and accept change as a positive thing, it is good to share ideas in this kind of conversation. There were lots of good ideas and suggestions made and I now realise just how much hard work Club Sec

 Week 4 The last seven days has been yet another busy week juggling Rotary, work and home life (in that order of priority!). On Tuesday I attended the Finance meeting and I now know just how much hard work all the members of this team do. Their work is of tremendous benefit to our District. It has certainly made me realise that I would be of no use to my Club or The District as Treasurer, things would really be in a mess very quickly. I would just like to express my sincere Thanks to the whole Team, you do a fantastic job. On Wednesday I attended the District Foundation Meeting, a first with John McGill at the helm. Though to be honest you’d be forgiven for thinking he’d been there a long time, I wonder why that was? He has probably had to live and breathe it for so long, with the wonderful Val being the lead for years. I really enjoyed this meeting, everyone taking part was so enthusiastic and committed to continuing the fight to support the eradication of polio. There was also a

  Week 3 of Kath’s Blog In my last Blog I mentioned I’d had contact with a Rotarian from Thailand, more specifically the Rotary Club of Eastern Seaboard. The gentleman was making contact on behalf of his sister Sally, who wanted to donate a quantity of children’s clothing. Last week I travelled to Chorley with another member of Carnforth Rotary and met up with the wonderful Sally. I honestly couldn’t believe what she was prepared to donate, a large quantity of brand new children’s clothes. These clothes are of excellent quality and it was easy to see the value of them. I have previously bought some of these clothes from a shop in Lancaster so I have first-hand experience of the price they can command. I was genuinely overwhelmed by her generosity. The job now is to take stock of what has been donated and to decide the best way of using these garments to help as many young people as possible. Just some of the people we hope to help will be Ukrainian families in the UK, refugees an

 Week 2 In nature the Queen Bee watches over all her worker bee’s slogging away in the hive. In Rotary that is honestly not true. Two days into the new DG post saw me, with my fellow Carnforth Rotarians, with sleeves rolled up assisting at the Carnforth Gala. I was given the unenviable task of running the very popular Tombola stall. It was a lovely warm day and the turn-out was huge. The stream of people wanting to try their luck on the Tombola was constant all day and my colleagues were equally busy running the Coconut Shy. This stall was also incredibly busy and some of the Mum’s and Dad’s got very competitive as they always do. All in all in was a great day to promote Rotary Action at its best and if any Club is need of an extra pair of hands, give me a call. On Monday I wrote to all the new Members within the District and it really did put a smile on my face. It was a great opportunity for me to welcome them in to Rotary, the best voluntary organisation in the world. To all

Welcome fellow Rotarians and Friends to this, the first instalment of “Kath’s Buzz”. Kath’s Buzz is a blog, which I hope will work better than sending out many emails to you all. It is my intention to regularly update this blog throughout the coming year. My idea it to share things with you that may be of interest, share some photos and some of the comical moments that I am sure will happen during my journey as District Governor - I do seem to have more than my fair share of these moments. I’m going to start at the beginning, but will keep it brief; Almost 11 years ago I decided to join Rotary as I wanted to belong to a ‘Service Organisation’ that supported the local community I could relate to.   The Rotary ethos of ‘Service above Self’ fitted and I saw it as an opportunity to help make a difference, with the bonus of meeting lots of like-minded people and making new friends. Having joined Carnforth Rotary Club as the first female member I anticipated plenty of hard but reward