Welcome Sean Hogan District 5050 Governor

Sean Hogan was born. The year was 1960 and the place was New Westminster, BC., which, at the time was part of our Rotary District. Sean's parents, apparently anticipating the creation of District 5050, moved to Surrey, BC in 1965.

Sean decided to become a lawyer at a young age - basing his decision on the assumption that he would be able to talk a lot, to have people listen to him, to earn a lot of money and to gain respect. Sean has proudly achieved his first goal of talking a lot, having visited Ireland in 1974 to kiss the Blarney Stone and receive the "gift of the gab". The certificate hangs in his office.

Sean met his wife, Carol, at a disco, in 1980. They were married in 1984 and celebrated their 25th Anniversary in 2009. The many improvements in Sean since 1980 are solely attributable to Carol. The remaining deficiencies (along with his sense of humour) remain Sean's responsibility. Sean and Carol have three children - Neil, John and Mary - and recently welcomed Neil's wife, Alex, to the family.

Sean attended his first Rotary meeting in 1986, and joined the Rotary Club of North Delta on June 14, 1987 (his 27th birthday). He has remained a member of the same club ever since. The club has accepted this with grudgingly good grace.

Sean spent his first thirteen years in Rotary serving at various club positions - including as Club President in 1993/4. He became involved at the District level when he joined the RYLA Committee and attended his first RYLA in May 2000. Then Sean made the usual mistake by missing his third Committee meeting and finding out at his next club meeting that he had been elected as RYLA 2001 Chair.

Attending that first RYLA was a major turning point for Sean, both personally and as a Rotarian. Sean saw how Rotary can truly transform lives and learned how everyone has tremendous potential if we can only ignite their passion and enthusiasm.

For RYLA's 25th Anniversary in 2006/7, Sean visited every club in the District to make presentations about RYLA, and was impressed by the quality of individual Rotarians and their clubs.

Sean has also served as the District Youth Programs Coordinator, the International Convention Chair for Montreal 2010 and New Orleans 2011, as instructor with the Rotary Leadership Institute, and as an Assistant Governor. Sean will be District Governor in 2012-2013, unless the Mayan Calendar thing really does mark the end of the world, in which case his term will be just 6 months.

Sean and Carol participated in an international service project (installing libraries and computer labs) in Kenya in 2009 and returned for another project in 2011.