Fellow Rotarians!
Wow, what a great President Elect Training Seminar we had last month!! Kudos to DGE Rich Burns for organizing the event and thanks for all the District Leaders who were presenters and facilitators. Some portions were recorded and will be available for viewing. The District Assembly was held and I am excited to announce that Dan Cox of Sioux City Rotary Club was duly elected to be the District Governor in 2025-26. Nancy Moose was elected to represent our district on the Council on Legislation and Linda Peterson was named an alternate. The budget was tabled for further discussion and analysis, but the district dues will be raised $5 next fiscal year and another $5 in 2024-25. Look for an announcement of a future District Assembly on ZOOM to be held sometime in late June.
May is Youth Services Month. Our district is involved with the Rotary Youth Exchange and RYLA. I am happy to say that our district will be hosting 3 international students next school year and 8 high school students will be attending the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Camp at Maxwell, Nebraska this summer. We also are involved with the 4 Way Essay Test contest. As I made me club visits, I learned of several popular youth service activities. Many clubs provide scholarships, student of the month recognition, high scholastic recognition and a few host Interact Clubs. Last month I traveled to Marshall, MN to say “a few words” at their meeting when their student Rotarians ran the meeting. I gave a key note address to the Le Mars Rotary Club at their senior recognition noon lunch.
Please be working on my goals of membership and giving to The Rotary Foundation. I know my goal of 10% membership growth is ambitious, but it gets us thinking about it. The clubs that remain active today have shown modest growth this year, so I am optimistic. The raffle brought in over $53,000 for The Foundation, so that is working towards my $250,000 goal. Please turn in your raffle sales money soon so that it will be included this year. Let’s finish the year out strong!!
You should have received an email from me reporting Nicole Rawden’s resignation as of June 30th. She has done a wonderful job as District Administrator and will be greatly missed. She has been indispensable to the past six District Governors and Leadership teams. I met Nicole 5 ½ years ago at the District Conference in Le Mars where she interviewed for the position. I knew she was right for the job even though I was not part of the selection process. Keep an eye out for more information about the selection process later this month.
Yours in Rotary!
John Schneider DG 5610