Churchill HS Interact

Had a great time with the 25 or so Churchill High School (Livonia, Michigan) Interact students Monday afternoon. They're planning a local Peace Conference in Livonia, an idea that came from attending last year's Rotary Presidential World Peace Conference in Windsor.

You can read more about Ryan Stevenson and Kate Lang, the co-presidents of the Interact club, in this great Detroit News profile of them from two years ago. The future of Rotary is bright with young people like Ryan, Kate and the dozens of other Rotary Interact leaders across Super District 6400!

It's Been Awhile...

Wow, didn't realize I hadn't made a post to this blog in such a long time!

Sue and I have had a busy couple of months traveling around Super District 6400, attending club events like the Trenton Beach Blast. It was my first occasion to don a grass skirt, and it wasn't nearly as itchy as I expected.

District Governor Elect Neil McBeth is busy putting together the leadership team for 2009-10, and among the many learning events he has planned, you'll want to make sure you attend District Assembly on April 18th at the Holiday Inn Southgate.

The prior evening, April 17th, we have our very special district-wide PolioPlus fund-raiser dinner/auction, featuring our keynote speaker, immediate Past Rotary International President Wilf Wilkinson and his wife Joan, a polio survivor! Tickets are only $35.00 per person, with discounts for tables of 8 and 10 or more. To get tickets, please email me and I'll make sure to them to you pronto!

We're only a few months away from our District Conference, April 30-May 3, 2009, at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. We have 500 Rotarians, family and friends registered to join us - how about you? To register, just click here.

That's all for now... keep celebrating the difference you make in people's lives as we Make Dreams Real for the world's children!

Welcome Dundee Area Rotary Club!

It was a glorious evening last Wednesday, as Super District 6400 welcomed its newest club, the Dundee Area Rotary Club! I was very happy to present Charter President Rachel Lloyd with the club charter, signed by Rotary International President D.K. Lee.

Area 7 Assistant Governor Jim Morr did a wonderful job as Master of Ceremonies. The club's sponsor is the Rotary Club of Monroe, and its Special Representative, Deanna Sobocienski, did an incredible job guiding the 24 charter members through the process.

In addition to the club's charter members receiving their charter pins and membership certificates, PDG Dave Carpenter made the evening even more special by inducting two additional members, bringing their total membership at inception to 26!!!

Representatives were on-hand from many different clubs across our district, and several presented gifts to President Rachel and President-Elect Bill Knopp. Pictures of the evening are on our district website, www.rotary6400.org. Check 'em out!

The club meets Thursdays at Noon at the Old Mill Museum in historic downtown Dundee, Michigan. Why don't you stop by for a make-up? Their food, catered charter member Scott Heck, is delicious!

And Now...The Rest of the Year!

With Sue and my trip to Westland Rotary (here I am with Westland President Julie Brown and AG Lois VanStipdonk) last Thursday afternoon, the official visits are officially over! And while it's a relief on the one hand, there's also a sense that we'll miss the fun of traveling from club to club and hearing about how Rotarians throughout Super District 6400 are changing people's lives!

Certainly Sue and I will be attending many more club projects, new member inductions, events, new member inductions, fund-raisers and new member inductions (did you notice the subtle hint?). So please make sure you invite us to attend those special occasions.

Another thing that we'd like to do is visit some of the Interact and Rotaract clubs in the district. Interact in particular is thriving this year at a number of high schools - if your club hasn't discovered the joys of sponsoring a club, perhaps you could make that a goal in 2008-09.

Next up: RYLA!

The Final Official Visits...

Coming up this week, Sue and I will be completing our "official" District Governor visits for which we are responsible to Rotary International. Carleton, Livonia AM and Westland wrap up what has been an incredible experience, as we have discovered the myriad of ways that the 50 (soon to be 51 with the addition of the new Dundee Area Rotary Club) District 6400 clubs make a difference in people's lives!

Last week, we visited clubs in Harper Woods, Lincoln Park and Detroit (that's Asst. Gov. Liz Smith and president Jay Ganatra with me).



Sue and I also had the opportunity to enjoy Windsor-Roseland's annual "Wines of The World" event Friday evening. Not only is this a huge generator of funds for the club's projects, but the sold-out party featured terrific food from nearly a dozen Windsor-area restaurants and caterers and tasty wines from a selection of wineries around Ontario and across the globe. I highly recommend you plan to attend next year's gala!



Finally, we spent Saturday evening at the annual Youth Exchange Halloween party at Westland Rotarian Ann Elliott and husband Joe's beautiful Dearborn home. The kids had fun eating chili, drinking cider and carving pumpkins; they wrapped up the evening with a brief neighborhood "trick-or-treat" and a trip to the Westland Jaycees' Haunted House.


Next up for the District - the charter ceremony for the Dundee Area club next week (November 5th) and Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) November 13-15!

In the Homestretch...

We've been a little busy since the last blog post... in October, there have been official Governor's visits to Grosse Pointe, Tecumseh, Woodhaven & Brownstown, Taylor, Adrian Morning, Dearborn, Harper Woods and, today, Detroit.

Also, I attended an organizational meeting for a new club in Riverview, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Trenton, and inducted two new members into the Rotary Club of Livonia.

Finally, last Thursday the 16th, we had our annual Membership & Foundation Seminar and Interact Symposium, with over 160 Rotarians and Interactors in attendance! Fantastic turnout, and many specific, practical ideas were shared.

Click here for a link to the summary of what was discussed in the Rotary Foundation portion of the evening. And you can find the Interact breakout notes here. The membership ideas will be available in my next blog posting.

Many thanks to Susan and David Mehregan from the Rotary Club of Monroe for sharing some of the successes their club has had in membership and Foundation education and giving feeding off of each other, and to District Rotary Foundation Committee chair Bob Gallagher and Membership Chair Chris Hardy for putting together two terrific programs.

Special appreciation goes out to the Area Membership Coordinators and Area Foundation Coordinators for their role in facilitating the breakout sessions.

The Area Membership Coordinators are:
Area 1 - Roger Hull; Area 2 - John Williams; Area 3 - Art Quintal; Area 4 - Tom Crowe; Area 5 - Beth Stewart; Area 6 - Wes Mator; Area 7 - Susan Mehregan; Area 8 - Rich Donner; Area 9 - Jill Marontate; Area 10 - Darren Winger.

The Area Foundation Coordinators:

Area 1 - Amy Gennaro; Area 2 - Mary Ann Snodgrass; Area 3 - Deb Green; Area 4 - Jerry Sawicki; Area 5 - D.J. Boyd; Area 6 - Neal Ballheim; Area 7 - Paul Howey; Area 8 - Jeff Juby; Area 9 - Jim Cosgrove; Area 10 - Shiva Koushik.

Thanks to all of the Rotarians who attended this very important evening. Please make sure you share these ideas with our clubs who weren't able to be there!

October Buzz from Bruce is Here

There is a link to my monthly podcast on the District 6400 website, but I thought I'd make it available here for you to download and listen to at your leisure. It's an opportunity for me to showcase Sue and my vocation, radio broadcasting, and also communicate news about what's going on in and around our Super District 6400!

Hope you enjoy it.

Listen to the October Buzz from Bruce