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 rewarding work supporting the Club and the local Community, but I never envisioned that one day I would be leading the district.

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, 11 years have flown by, and dawn was breaking on Sunday 26th June 2022 - District Hand Over Day.  I woke up bright and early, sweating, and my initial thoughts were - this is just another hormonal episode! I do remember hearing at some point that only horses sweat, men perspire and ladies merely glow.  Try telling that to the hormones!

Then I remembered, this was District Handover Day and not a day for hot sweats!

I began to think about how I, as an ordinary, humble person had got to this point, taking over a District full of amazing volunteers and I that I was going to be the Leader.

After an emotional couple of minutes, and I admit I did shed a tear or two, (yes, this also happens because of hormones,) they have a lot to answer for, I came back down to earth and remembered that being District Governor doesn’t change anything really - I am merely joining a bigger team, with the opportunity to assist, steer and guide the Clubs within the District through the next 12 months. With, of course, the added bonus of making lots more friends.

The handover event was held at Sizergh Castle just outside Kendal.  The weather was typically British and you didn’t know from one minute to the next whether you’d need umbrellas or sun cream. The guests were entertained with great live music from a local Jazz Band and all enjoyed the excellent barbecue style food.

More importantly there were people from every corner of the district who made it a very special, lovely day. There were some people who I’d never met before but who I now consider new friends. It was a truly memorable day, one that I will treasure for a long time.

When I eventually arrived home I took my shoes off, treated myself to a strong drink and smiled, remembering how the journey had started.

District Governor does have a ring to it, and for the next 12 months it’s me - Kath B

Popular posts from this blog

Week 6

Image
  Dear Friends, the beginning of August already! Time appears to be moving along at an ever increasing fast pace. For those who have had the opportunity to listen to Rotary Radio UK you will have heard the start of many messages from me as well as many others from around the District. We are very lucky that Rotary Radio is being dedicated to District 1190 this month. Grab yourself a coffee and tune in as it’s really easy listening. This week I have been having meetings with both Public Image and Membership Leads, it’s been great to talk about the work being carried out around these two very important aspects. Much of the discussion has been about how we can involve Club leads to help us look at new ideas and putting those ideas into practice. The focus being aimed not as tasks for individuals but Clubs working as a Team. We are now putting together a list for the next order of “Purple for Polio” Quality Street tins which I will place during September. Please let our District ...
Read more

Week 7 & 8

Image
  Well, what a very busy, but enjoyable, couple of weeks that has been. Am 2 months in to my DG-ship and where has the time gone? It’s hard to believe we’re hurtling towards the end of August and already some shops are talking about Christmas. Even work have been sending out invitations to Christmas parties and my local Club are asking about Santa’s Sleigh duties!! We had the District Executive meeting on the 8th of August and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. To get myself prepared I read what seemed like a book of papers beforehand. I then decided I’d be better off printing them out, not something I like to do to be honest, but wanted to be prepared as best I could. I remember once going to the Home Office to deliver a presentation to a Parliamentary cross-party Committee on the subject of vulnerable families. Unbeknown to me I was to deliver my presentation from half way up an open stairwell to the seated Committee below. As I climbed the stairwell I was that nervous I...
Read more

Weeks 22 - 23 Wishing you A Merry Christmas

Image
Hello everybody and apologies for not updating this site for a couple of weeks, here’s a two-week update from a very busy Rotarian and District Governor. You will be glad to hear the sale of the children’s clothing which were donated to us by a wonderful lady, Sally, has now finished. Sunday 4 December saw me together with Linda Lambson, set up the last of our clothes sales. It has been a hard slog but one we have enjoyed doing together and worthwhile for our nominated causes. As a result of the sales, we have raised enough funds for £1000 to go through District to support Ukraine; £1000 to my charity this year - Polio; and the rest going towards a pot of money for any Club to be able to give a small donation of food or energy vouchers. This will be a one-off pot of funding and it is expected to pay out around £50 per each application. This may not sound a lot but to some families this would pay for a good Christmas lunch. On Wednesday 23 rd November I was fortunate enough to ...
Read more