Jim Dunny
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Program for Tuesday, September 23, 2014
The scheduled speaker for Tuesday, September 23 is Vince Mudd. He will speak to us about the San Diego Olympic Commission.
Meeting Assignments
Date
Who Am I
Cheering for Rotary
Sept 23, 2014
Craig Brown
Pete Jackson
Sept 30, 2014
Jean Loo-Russo
Kendra Jeffcoat
The assignment for the Who Am I includes providing the positive thought at the beginning of the meeting and introducing guests and visiting Rotarians during the meeting.
Cheering for Rotary assignment includes selling opportunity drawing tickets.
On Saturday, September 20, over 20 RB Sunrise Rotarians, spouses and family members converged on the Sikes Adobe Historic Farmstead armed with rakes, shovels, a chainsaw, a wheelbarrow and various tree trimming tools. Beginning at 7 am, the RB Sunrise Rotary workforce went to work.
Raking gravel on the path
The first task that our workforce completed was spreading and leveling decomposed granite gravel on the path from the parking lot. Other volunteers did a general cleanup of the area west of the fenced in adobe home. This included stacking stored wood and moving other material behind an enclosure. A Many of us worked on trimming several willow trees and then raking the ground under them to smooth out the ground. Mark Berdan, assisted by a professional tree trimmer, trimmed two palm trees at the rear of the adobe house and removed dead branches from the willow trees. A crew of Rotarians then collected all of the cut fronds and other debris and loaded it into the trailer Mark Berdan brought. Plant cuttings and wood debris was removed to the southern edge of the property where ist is scheduled for removal. Ralph Barbee did preliminary outlining of overflow parking lot for our event next Saturday.
Garden, Creamery and Windmill
Raking gravel on path
Raking and Hauling Away Debris
Sikes Adobe Home from southwest
After this successful work project, the Sikes Adobe Historic Farmstead looked really good. Ann Cooper, the Sikes Adobe Museum Manager for the San Dieguito River Park remarked: "Thank you all so much for the superb job done out at the Sikes Adobe this morning! The trees all look so much better, and I'm sure that you'll have a great event next week. The work done 'behind the scenes' where the RV used to be was a much appreciated added bonus!"
This work project showed how Rotarians working together make a difference in the community because we go beyond the expectations of those we serve.
At the meeting tomorrow morning, there is one bit of administrative business. The resolution is to have the Council on Legislation changed the Manual of Precedures to make the diisrict conference optional instead of being required. As you may know, currently every district governor is required to hold a 2 day district conference. The planning for this event begins in the year before the actual year the district governor serves. The planning takes a lot of time and effort of a staff of volunteers.
However, in recent years, the district conference meetings have not attracted much in the way of attendance. The stated goal of the conference in the Manual of Procedure is for all members of Rotary in the district to get together. However when attendance is well below ten percent of the membership, this goal is not satisfied. It is hardly meaningful the most members of clubs in the district if so few are willing to attend this kind of meeting
At a time when information can go viral in minutes on the internet, the district conference format has probably outlived its usefulness. The required administrative functions for the plenary session could well be done at another district governor designated meeting. The district resources now concentrated on the district conference could then be redirected toward more meaningful local district meetings and additional focused training sessions.
The resolution that I will be presenting tomorrow morning is designed to encourage RI to make the district conference optional. The resolution has the backing of at least 2 recent past district governors. If adopted, each district will have the opportunity to decide for themselves whether to expend the energy to hold a district conference. If the experience in our district is any indication, I think that most districts willl quickly opt out of actually holding a district conference. Your vote tomorrow could be instrumental in changing the way Rotary districts will operate in the future.
