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

Our Official Visit to the Hedke-winning Trenton Club

This past Monday, Sue and I were honored to visit the Trenton Rotary Club, winner of the 2007-08 Dick Hedke Award. The award, named after the late Detroit Rotarians and Past Rotary International President Richard Hedke, is presented each year to an outstanding Rotary club in District 6400, a club that exemplifies balance and functions at the highest level in a variety of areas.

Assistant Governor and Trenton Rotary past-president Kyle Stack and I are seen here with 2008-09 club president Joe Hoshaw.

Register now for District Conference on Mackinac Island!

Sue and I would personally like to invite you to join us for our District 6400 Conference at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, April 30-May 3, 2009!

Some of the members of the Conference committee recently participated in a site visit to the Grand to consider logistics for the 3-day event. At left (standing in the back) are Sgt.-At-Arms chair Bill Swasey, DisCon Co-Chair Larry Wright and Registrar Sarah Wright, Special Activities chairs Jill & Jim Karolyi, and Promotion & Marketing chairs Sherry & Mike McCullough. (Middle Row) Sylvia and DisCon Co-Chair Roberto Sanchez. (Front Row) DG Bruce & Sue Goldsen.

To get more information and register online now for DisCon 2009 at the Grand Hotel, click here.

District Governor's Golf Outing Fun!

The 27th annual "District Governor's Golf Outing," sponsored by the Rotary Club of Detroit, was loads of fun, on a beautiful autumn Wednesday at the Kingsville Golf & Country Club in Kingsville, Ontario.


Nearly 90 Rotarians from across our District participated, with the proceeds from the outing going to the District 6400 Foundation's support of international service projects. My thanks to all who joined us. In the photo, Adrian Rotarians Mike Olsaver, Floyd Rodgers, AG Mark Murray and Kevin Keller took a moment to pose with me in between their long drives.

I Know It's Been Awhile...

...but Sue and I have been on the road quite a bit lately! So it's time to play "catch-up" with DG Bruce's Rotary District Tour.

Since I last posted here, we've had another 10 official visits with great Rotary clubs across Super District 6400. Sue and I visited the Rotary Club of Canton on September 22nd. Smiling along with us are AG Wayne Titus, President Ken Beardsley and Canton's Rotary Youth Exchange student, Laura Aviles.

Next, we joined the Monroe Rotary Club for lunch on the 23rd. AG Jim Morr and President Steve Pipis posed with me after the meeting, where I learned about the many wonderful projects the club does in and for the Monroe community, including their participation in the upcoming "CROP Walk for Hunger" and inter-club "Bed Race"! They're also sponsoring our District's newest club, the Dundee Area Rotary Club, which will be formally presented its charter the evening of November 5th. More on that soon.