08/19/16 Rotary District 7780 Governor Marge Barker
Posted by Tom Talbott
It was our pleasure to welcome our District Governor, Marge Barker to the podium this week, to hear her updates and vision for District 7780.
Call the Fashion Police! Marge began by stepping out front to model the official Rotary 2016-17 jacket, the choice of our RI President John Germ (from Chattanooga, TN). At issue – all jackets issued were tailored for men, much to the chagrin of Marge. Shedding the garment, she displayed a nice, bright Rotary scarf, much more to her liking!
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She thanked us for the opportunity to join us for lunch, and prefaced her talk by indicating she would fly without notes. Preparation for her 40 District club meetings usually involved visiting each club’s website/facebook or newsletter. Marge promoted the value of these tools, noting the out-of-town visitors do, in fact, utilize this information. At her South Portland/Cape Elizabeth Club, she credited the media sites in bringing in 5-6 members in the last couple of years.
Referring to Portland, she called our work and various projects, “legendary.” Thank you, Marge! Our range of causes was recognized, from our 3H project in the Dominican Republic, CHE, and many others. We do good work.
Marge also applauded our friendly “New Member” drive this past year with the Portsmouth Rotary Club. Being diplomatic, she did not side with either club in terms of declaring a winner. In her words, District 7780 won. OK – fair enough, but let’s set the record straight. We won!
Marge moved on to updating us on District news. First, a first – Visioning Meetings will be held to guide us in a 3-year strategic plan, with anchor goals and expectations. The value is to provide individual club presidents with more structure, more focus in their planning, compared to having everything start and stop on the basis of each year. She described it as a framework of common goals. There will be three District Vision meetings: Sep 15 at Husson College, Nov 13 in Portsmouth, and Jan 17, TBD. The expectation is to have 30 Rotarians at each meeting representing their area, no overlapping in attendance. The goal is to have 2/3 general membership, and 1/3 club leaders. Invitations were sent Aug 3 and 12, and a general questionnaire went out this past week to all members. Success depends on participation!
More important dates of note:
October 22, 2016: Purple Pinky Day. When a child is vaccinated, their pinkie is dipped in purple ink as an indicator they have received the vaccine. Marge is encouraging clubs to hold an event, and to share the word with our community as to what we, and Rotary, are doing. Together, as a team, Rotary serves humanity.
October 24, 2016: Polio Eradication Day. We all know of the huge strides and success, but there are new worries. The World Health Organization recently found 2 new cases of paralyzing polio in Nigeria, an area that had been celebrating 3 years of being polio free. Essentially, we moved backwards. As noted by RI Chair of the PolioPlus Committee,Mike McGovern, “We are resilient. If you’ve ever seen a child with polio, you’ll know the importance of our fight.” The program needs all our support to continue building resources. (For those of you who don't know, Mike McGovern is from Marge’s home club of South Portland/Cape Elizabeth.)
November 10, 2016: Official District 7780 100th Anniversary!
February 2017: World Understanding and Peace Dinner. Marge is hoping to have clubs collaborate in celebration of the District’s 100th Anniversary.
May 18-21, 2017: District Conference at the Samoset Resort, Rockport, ME. This is “about you” she said. “I’m not inviting speakers from R.I. This is about us, what we’ve done, and what we can do.” There will be a 5k Road Race with proceeds going to PolioPlus among the many events. She hoped to see a strong turnout from the Portland club.
June 10-14, 2017: Rotary International Convention – Atlanta, GA!
Marge spent a few moments on public relations. Noting that Past District Governor Sheila Rollins has worked to develop four competitive grants of $250 each for clubs that need assistance in getting the word out about their club. The membership committee is counseling clubs on developing new members, as well as retention of current members. She pointed to our own Kris Rosado, who is serving as an Assistant District Governor this year, as a great resource for all these needs.
“Reading is to the mind, as exercise is to the body,” says our District Governor. Marge’s goals – Membership and the Foundation were clearly evident during her talk. With equal vigor was her commitment to literacy programs. “Unfortunately, young people seem to be reading less. This affects their intellectual development.”
Rounding out her talk, Marge focused on the International scene. The Council on Legislation met and introduced a new slate of ideas and changes regarding the rules of club membership. She added that Past District 7780 Governor Peter Johnson was there representing us. Out of those sessions, recommendations were made that allowed more flexibility in attendance rules, a nod to the times we live in. The sentiment was that attendance is not the benchmark for being a valued and productive Rotarian. Clubs will have more freedom in setting dates for their meetings. If you want to read more, click on: https://www.rotary.org/myrotary/en/news-media/council-grants-clubs-greater-flexibility-meeting-membership
On a parting note, Marge announced that our Portland club had a solid average of $144 per capita giving to the Rotary Foundation, above the District average of $130. That is impressive, given that we are one of the larger clubs. Nicely done!