Synopsis of the District Assembly by Greg Sund, DGE
The day started for both Assemblies with a welcome from District Governor Elect Greg Sund.
Greg addressed several subjects including encouraging clubs to conduct mental health walks in their communities during May which is Mental Health Month. He also encouraged clubs to consider sponsoring a program called Mental Health First Aid in their communities. The organization that usually conducts Mental Health First Aid in Colorado is found at www.mhfaco.org. He said he has taken Mental Health First Aid and found it well worth attending as a means of raising awareness of mental health issues, especially suicide. He added this this course is first aid, it does not train one to be a counselor. He said he is promoting mental health awareness because this is a primary program of Rotary international President Elect Gordon McInally.
Greg recommended clubs check out justserve.org which is a website they can use to list, describe, and promote all of the programs and projects their club is doing in their community in case non-Rotarians want to check them out.
Greg said starting in July, our District will have its first District Peace Chair. He said this person will be Andy Sweet of Grand Junction. He recommended that Rotarians consider taking the Positive Peace Academy that can be found through the Rotary website. He said this course raises awareness of levels of peace around the world but added that in reality peace begins at home. He said there are many people in your community you have not met. He said by getting to know more people in your community, peace is enhanced.
The goal for membership in the district is to double membership. Greg said he does not expect this to happen in one year but does expect it within the next ten years. He said this goal does not mean each existing club needs to double in size to achieve the goal. It includes promoting retention, growing clubs, establishing new clubs, satellite clubs, and other programs. Finally, he suggested the clubs check out the new satellite club concept called impact clubs. He said impact clubs can be stand-alone clubs, satellite clubs that could become independent at some point, or are satellite clubs that are established to do things in the community with no plan to separate from their sponsoring club.
(This is part one of several parts of the DGE's report on the District Assembly)