President Elect Training Seminar (PETS) is held each spring throughout the Rotary world to prepare incoming club presidents to lead their club for the following Rotary year. Those who attended learned about the theme incoming RI President Holger Knaak has selected for the 2020-21 year: "Rotary Opens Opportunities."Dan Coons, who will lead Mesa West in 2020-21 was in attendance, and Bob Zarling attended the President-Nominee sessions.
Chris Krueger led a model club meeting and actually inducted a new member into the Tempe Downtown Rotary Club. John Pennypacker and Allan Cady worked at the Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) vendor table. Polly is Chair of RLI, an institute program that has a curriculum of three one-day sessions to teach emerging leaders about Rotary beyond the club level. Many existing District 5495 leaders are graduates of RLI. Wayne General was the official photographer. Donna Goetzenberger gave an impassioned speech about Youth Exchange and introduced the inbound, soon-to-be outbound, and ROTEX (returned) Youth Exchange Students during a flag presentation ceremony. Lucinda General was a facilitator as well as serving as the 2019-22 Rotary Coordinator for Zone 26. Jeanie Morgan facilitated a "Money Matters" session for the 2021-22 Club Presidents who attended.
Art Harrington of the Prescott Sunup Rotary Club spoke about leadership skills necessary to lead volunteers noting that a successful manager in business may be surprised at the results they don't get if they fail to understand that volunteers need to be inspired, respected, and empowered to succeed and they need to be appreciated by their leadership team.
Those who attended heard from powerful keynote speakers. Alan Mallory told about New Heights in Human Performance and Leadership as he told of his family's adventure Climbing Mount Everest. Many of the planning and execution skills in successfully completing such an expedition directly relate to skills needed to do the difficult work Rotarians do around the world.
Friday evening, Glynn Gilcrease, a member of the Tempe South Rotary Club presented an excellent speech impersonating Abraham Lincoln. In his speech, he related the principals and four-way test of all the things we think, say and do to situations he faced prior to and during his term as President of the United States.
Saturday, following lunch, John Pennypacker had the privilege of introducing Anne Lee Hussey, a polio survivor and impassioned worker to eradicate polio. Her story is powerful in helping Rotary leaders know why being close to succeeding is not enough. We need to persevere until the job is done. Anne Lee is a member of the Portland Sunrise Rotary Club in Maine.
Allan and Polly Cady and John Pennypacker were active in making sure the keynote speakers' needs and transportation were taken care of. Wayne General was the official photographer making sure the incoming leaders had good photos for their websites, Facebook and other social media.
Each year, each Rotary Club and District gets a new leader. With quality training like our Assistant Governors, Presidents-Elect and President Nominees received at District 5495 PETS, District Governor-Elect Elizabeth Mahoney should have a great team of Club Presidents and Assistant Governors to help clubs open doors of opportunity through Rotary during her year. The skills they have acquired will enable them to succeed and accomplish more in other areas of their lives and most will very likely be there to support each succeeding new class of Rotary leaders.