Category Archives: Training

Featured Keynote Speakers for District Assembly on 4-13-2013

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We were extremely fortunate to have two quality and engaging keynote speakers, First Selectman Michael Freda and Dr. Pam Hopkins, for our Rotary D7980 District Assembly this weekend  at the Adanti Center at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

  • Selectman Michael Freda, an honorary North Haven Rotarian and a SCSU Alum, will discuss the differences between managing and leading and provide inspirational stories from his career.
  • Dr. Pam Hopkins, a management professor at SCSU, will facilitate an interesting program on proactive change management with examples of how Rotary club leaders can push outside their comfort zones to get new and interesting projects done.

A draft of the program book and the agenda for the event can be downloaded as a PDF

We are just about ready to close down registrations, $50 per person, so please contact me right away if you wish to register.

Rick Bassett – District Governor Elect

Planning for the D7980 Rotary 2013-14 year

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Do you see your photo? Drop us a comment.

Do you see your photo? Drop us a comment.

When most people think of what a Rotary District Governor does images of all the club visits and the amount of Rotary Chicken meals consumed often come to mind. I like to look at it as 3 years of getting ready (learning and planning) and 1 year of executing.

An incoming District Governor (DG-Elect) has to arrange  for many events long before their year even starts. Events such as: Pre-PETS, PETS, District Conference, District Assembly and District Installation (Pass the Gavel) to name a few.

At times it seems as if all of these events run together into a big blur and it is often challenging to get people excited about arranging agendas, outcomes, menus and venues a year or so before they happen. I’ve been lucky to get the help and support of my Rotary Club, North Haven Rotary, during this process and about a dozen dedicated Rotarians from other clubs in the district but still it is a big job.

What makes this process especially challenging is my overarching goal that each of these events provide some significant value to the attendees relative to the resources (time and money) which each will expend. I am striving to keep the costs as low as possible for the nicest places possible.

With GETS, International Assembly and Pre-PETS behind me I was finally able to get these big things off my plate this week:

  • The contract for the May 2-4, 2014 District Conference @ The Mystic Marriot
  • The contract for the April 13, 2013 District Assembly @ Southern CT State University
  • The contract for the July 1, 2013 Pass the Gavel @ Anthony’s Oceanview in New Haven

I’m looking forward to these events coming off nicely and am happy that I have so many dedicated volunteers who are willing to help make them successes.

Chugging along as NE PETS Registrar

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The NE PETS Registrar grinding away at the data.

The NE PETS Registrar grinding away at the data.

After a fun filled week of Rotary I sat down around 6pm to clean up the email addresses and data for the 8 districts (7780, 7850, 7870, 7890, 7910, 7930, 7950 and 7980) for our multi-district PETS. It is now about 5.5 hours later and I just sent out the 3rd round of reminder notices to all of the unregistered PE’s, AG’s, Facilitators and Committee members. Unfortunately this round of invitations received twice as many email ‘bounces’ than the previous 2 rounds did, which is not a good sign.

NE PETS is designed to train incoming Presidents and Assistant Governors, which number just over 500 in all, for the leadership positions that they will assume on July 1st.

We have just over 50% of the expected attendees registered with the event coming up in just about 6 weeks. It would be great (and extremely considerate) if the fence sitters would jump on in and just complete their registration now so that we can spend our time planning the event rather than chasing attendees.

D7980 Pre-PETS – the final preparations

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Pre-PETS is the beginning of the training journey for incoming Rotary Club Presidents

Pre-PETS is the beginning of the training journey for incoming Rotary Club Presidents

I’ve been putting the finishing touches on the two upcoming Pre-PETS events (Wed @ Fairfield University) and (Thurs @ Connecticut College). We have about 85 people registered for the the two events this week.

For the Home-gamers; Pre-PETS is the first step  in the training journey for the incoming Rotary Club Presidents which will take the leadership helm of their clubs on July 1, 2013. It is also the first step for incoming Assistant Governors

Pre-PETS gets everyone thinking about what is ahead and prepares them for the multi-day PETS training in March that will be held in Framingham, MA.

Putting together my part of the content (available in our gift shop on Friday) has been challenging as Rotary International has so many programs and initiatives that I did not scare want to scare away of our future leaders by hitting them with a massive data dump. So a high level overview of digestible material combined with a few laughs and a nice Rotary Chicken dinner should get this group of leaders off of the ground nicely.

I’ll post an update this weekend, hopefully with a photo or two, on the outcomes.

Rick Bassett – District Governor Elect