DGE Activities November 2011

DGEs at Tawa training

There seems to been an endless number of courier boxes turning up from RI full of Rotary training material and information!  The heavy focus for Chris and I this month has been on completing Presidents Elect training and on 13 November we completed the second PE training session in Tawa.  Again, another successful day with lots of positive feedback.  PEs will now attend South Pacific PETS in Auckland in March next year which will see the PEs from across New Zealand coming together for a weekend - great sharing opportunity of ideas and aspirations.

Training well under way

Another highlight this month has been attending a Multi District Governors Elect (GETS) training in Brisbane for 3 days followed by District Institute for 3 days.  GETS saw 22 DGEs from Australia and 6 from New Zealand, along with DGNs, and DGs coming together.  We were lucky enough to have RI President Elect Sakuji Tanaka and his wife Kyoko with us for the week.  Sakuji and Kyoko were delightful to be with and although their English was a little difficult on a one to one all Sakuji ‘s speeches were delivered in English and well received.  Several impromptu hakas were performed (to counter the didgeredoo!!!), good training for International Assembly in January.

Following GETS District Institute was held.  One of the features of Institute this year was the invitation to several hundred emerging Rotary Leaders to attend.  A number of inspirational speakers gave talks on various aspects of Rotary and Rotary projects but perhaps the most memorable was a young 23-year-old refugee from the Congo who had overcome great odds to study towards becoming a teacher.  He spoke of the war in the Congo and losing most of his family and the opportunities that Rotary had given him through RYLA.  He is now in ROTORACT and plans to join Rotary.

With Sakuji and Kyoko

The past month has also been a time to start looking at the District Committee structure.  I plan some changes to align the District structure more with the RI structure.  We have also been working with District Chairs to put committees together.  By the end of the year we hope to have all committees in place so that work can begin in putting next years Directory together.

Five DGEs from NZ

And finally, with International Assembly a little over a month away in San Diego, we have been getting prepared to meet all of the other Rotary 2012/13 DGs.  Prior to this we are being hosted by a District in Florida for a week immediately following Christmas.