District Governor Tom Boylan on the Environment, Membership, and Mental Health
Our speaker for September 7, 2023 was District 5130 District Governor Tom Boylan. Tom joined Rotary in 1998 in the Santa Rosa West club, moved to the Windsor club in 2006, and has been in leadership positions for 14 years; 8 of those years in marketing and web development with the Zone. Tom was introduced by Assistant Governor Marilyn Lira (pictured below).
Tom’s DG visit focused on 3 specific areas: the environment, membership, and mental health. Tom included the environment as an issue because he wanted to continue the great work of last year’s DG, Jennifer Strong. Tom believes that the strong effort put toward environmental issues last year should be expanded upon and made part of his own year of service as DG. There are so many environmental issues confronting us that we are truly in the ‘eye of the storm.’ Hurricanes, fires, floods, and extraordinary and unprecedented heat are now commonplace. There is no greater threat to humanity than climate change, and as people of action we Rotarians can and must do something about it. Tom pointed out some amazing speakers from District 5130, including Barbara McChesney (Windsor), who speaks about the pervasiveness of plastic nanoparticles in the oceans and Salvador Rico (Ukiah), who speaks about river clean ups and efforts to reconfigure reefs. The District is going to continue giving awards to clubs who show strong environmental efforts. Clubs will now have 4 environmental goals and the award will be $600.
On membership, Tom told us how he first got introduced to Rotary. Like most of us, he got started with an invitation from a friend or business acquaintance to lunch or breakfast. Tom was first invited to lunch at Santa Rosa West in the old Los Robles lodge. At that first meeting they passed around a hat for donations to Chilean earthquake survivors. At another meeting a Rotarian asked them all to bring in shoes to be distributed to kids in our community who could not afford them. Tom was hooked by this level of community involvement. But the reason Tom has stayed so long in Rotary is simple; it’s about friendships with other like-minded people. Tom issued a challenge to all Rotarians in the District: Invite someone to a meal, event, or a project, not to a Rotary meeting. It works!
Rotary International’s President, Gordon McInally, has made mental health a focus of his presidency as a key part of his message of creating hope in the world. He wants Rotary to work to improve access to mental health services throughout the world. Gordon knows how important mental health is; his own brother committed suicide. District 5130 now has its own mental health website at https://mentalhealth5130.org. Tom reminded us that “Mental health is a health issue.”
Thank you, Tom, for the inspiring presentation. Your long history in Rotary and Rotary leadership, and your obvious love of Rotary causes, is going to help make District 5130 even better!
Click HERE for a limited time recording of Governor Tom's presentation.
