Tag: Rotary

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Pre-Induction Night… The Best is Yet to Come.

Engage Rotary, Change Lives
Engage Rotary, Change Lives

Tonight may be a first for us.  To my knowledge for the first time in District 5050 history, and certainly for the first time in the past four years, tonight will be the first time that our Rotaract clubs will be holding a joint induction ceremony!  This is a huge step forward for us.  In addition, this is an extra special evening because we will be swearing-in a new full-time board of directors for two new(er) clubs.  The Tri-Cities Rotaract Club will be inducting their first full board since chartering earlier this year while the Rotaract Club of Langley will be inducting their first full board after revitalizing their club half way through this Rotaract year.  A truly proud moment.  For so many members this is the culmination of a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication.  In addition, the idea to hold a joint evening of this nature was brought forth by the Rotaract Club of Chilliwack Fraser who, because of distance from the other clubs in the area, have found it hard in the past to feel engaged with the rest of the district.

This evening marks a new leaf and a fresh step forward for all clubs in the District.  Notwithstanding a great amount of effort from the outgoing boards from each, a heartfelt “Thank You” is certainly due to the previous presidents and their directors for without them these strides forward assuredly would not have seen such a positive outcome.  First and foremost a thank you is due to Suzanna Lopez, Past President of the Rotaract Club of Langley.  For a many number of years Suzanna tried so hard to kick-start her group and lead it back to the glory days that it once knew.  Unfortunately for her this dream was not able to be brought to a reality.  She graciously handed over the reigns to Lexi Vankovich as the interim President for the last half of this Rotaract year before passing it over to the new full-time President Elect Nadine Mross.  It has been a long road but this club has a bright future ahead of it.

The next set of “thank you’s” comes from a special place in my heart as I know what it is like to finish one year and roll directly into the next.  Kimberley Chong of the Tri-Cities Rotaract Club worked hard with a fledgling group to eventually charter the club in this past year and is now rolling full steam ahead into the 2013-2014 Rotaract year.  Riding on the momentum of a stellar first half-year she is at the helm of a seemingly unstoppable force of youth and exuberance!  I know her position well as I walked the same path of leadership with the Rotaract Club of Cloverdale in its fledgling years.  I see great things for this group in the future and look forward to taking part in their journey.

The Rotaract Club of Chilliwack Fraser is on a serious roll and would not be where it is today without the leadership and guidance of Desmond Devnich.  Over the past year Desmond has seen a stark increase in membership and fueled a fire beneath his club to see them set and achieve fabulous new goals.  Des has decided to sit an additional year as President of his club to ensure the momentum continues and that groundwork is properly laid for succession of his club.  Again, I too am in a position such as this as I am set to embark in my second term as District Rotaract Representative.

Last but certainly not least I would like to thank my own President, Janice Khunkhun of the Rotaract Club of Cloverdale.  Jan lead the club, sometimes ostensibly effortlessly, to obtain many large goals.  From PR campaigns to large fundraisers, fellowship to the early completion of goals set forth by Rotary International.  She set goals and not only completed them, she crushed them!  For the first time in club history we had completed items on the Rotaract Presidential Citation within weeks of its announcement.  Not too shabby.  It has been a pleasure working, travelling, and playing along side of her for so many years; Janice, thank you 🙂

Really, all that is left to say is that I am looking forward to the events that are about to unfold.  I am looking forward to connecting with Rotaractors from across our district tonight, but more so I am excited for what is to come.  We are so young yet as a district.  We have a strong history of a few clubs doing exceptional things and we have nowhere to go from here but up.

And that is awesome.

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Active Club Status – Remember to Represent!

adviceIt is with great pleasure that I announce that all of our clubs are currently holding active club status with the mothership, Rotary International.

If you are reading this and you are not a member of District 5050 but are a member of another Rotary District, please take a moment to look through this list to verify if your club is in good standing.  If you don’t see your club there, check this list to verify if you have been suspended due to inactivity or neglect to follow-up with Rotary International.  If you find yourself on the delinquent list but are truly active, have your president contact RI immediately!  Clubs on the suspended list who do not put themselves in good standing by September 2013 will be shut down for good.  And really, nobody wants to see that happen!

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Education Fellowship

RLI Part III

By far, in my humble opinion, the best RLI session so far.  Too bad it was the last one (with the exception of the graduate class that hasn’t been held in this district for at least a year and a half now).  There are a number of reasons that I feel this way based on a number of factors for me personally, let me explain:

  1. Attendance.  Not just attendance to my own club meetings, and the club meetings of my sponsor club, but attendance to as many functions as I can attend.  Ranging from the by-invitation-only events such as PETS, pre-PETS, and area-level leadership meetings, to different training opportunities like Assembly and Membership Seminars, to larger events like D5050 Conference, other District Conferences, Rotaract Pre-Convention, and RI International Convention, to the just because events like GolFun, Foundation Dinner, fellowship events, other club meetings, firesides, fundraisers, community events, you name it.  Over the past number of years I’ve attended all of these and have enriched my life the more for it!  But it’s not just about seeing how many events I can attend in a give year, it’s more so the push for excellence.  This is my way of throwing myself into an organization that has so much to offer through so much to learn.  The extent of information out there is really limitless, you do yourself a disservice by not giving yourself every opportunity to learn and grow through exposure.
  2. Willingness.  Following high exposure to all that the above events and activities offer comes a want and a need from the individual to be receptive to the information.  Passivity closes the door to opportunity, I believe this to be true.  By taking part in any sort of activity, be it Rotary or otherwise, you can gain a wealth of information about a number of things; you simply need to be willing to do so.  Be receptive and the knowledge will flow easily and effortlessly.
  3. Connections.  Through showing people that I enjoy attending functions and displaying that I am a sponge for knowledge, I have had excellent opportunities to mingle with and build relationships with individuals who want to share their knowledge in a number of areas.  This allows me to greatly expand my Rotary knowledge through my encyclopaedia of colleagues who can at least point me in the right direction should I have questions about a number ideas.
  4. Google.  I mean seriously, nearly anything you need to know or have any want to know can be found on the internet somewhere.  There is absolutely no reason why you, I, him, her, five year old, parakeet can’t sit down at a computer (or on your phone) and just look it up!  Granted, and I think we all agree, that if you go on over to the RI website and try to look something up from the opening page, you may find yourself in the far recesses of some programmer’s labyrinth  but if you’re smart about it and use proper search terms, information is your pearl and the world is your oyster!

If I had to wrap that all into one concise term… I’d use exposure.  My exposure to Rotary has left me two steps ahead of the average Rotarian with equal time served in this organization.  So, back to the question at hand,

“Why was RLI III the best session?”

Simply because I knew the answers to 85% of the content that was given to us previously.  What I enjoyed about part III the most was information on club advertising.  PDG Rod Thompson gave a particularly well presented talk on branding and advertising.  The information I gained from that session is good not only on a club level but will also be extended out to our Rotaract district.  Just before the first break as well, DG Sean Hogan had the participants break into groups to discuss how to deal with difficult clubs.  The exercise was good but what I took away from it the most was listening to how others would deal with the same situations then the general discussion as a group on how to deal.  These group initiatives are invaluable and the overall direction of the answer will change with the different group participants.  Our class was particularly good and I honestly value their opinions immensely.

RLI, if you haven’t taken it and it’s offered where you are, I think that it is a series of course worth taking.  If you’ve taken the first or second section and think to yourself oh man, this isn’t really doing it for me but the lunch is good, I say stick it out because the last session should be good!  If you HAVE already taken all sections and would like to discuss any of the material offered, please feel free to contact me!  I love bouncing ideas off of other people, especially when it relates to Rotaract and Rotary!

My name is DRR Jennifer Petrichenko, and I endorse this program!

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September is New Generations Month!

Well, as my summer months come to an end it’s time to ramp up the Rotaract year with new ideas, engaging speakers, service projects and fabulous fellowship!

Are you a Rotaractor here in District 5050 or abroad? Have you reached out to a local Rotary club, Rotarians or anyone in General to let them know about what Rotaract is or what we do? I challenge you to engage these groups and inform them of the exciting things that you and your club are doing this coming year.

Did you know that as a Rotaractor you are more than welcome to visit any Rotary club at any time? I’ll post some of my Rotary visit experiences here in following updates. Other clubs are fun to visit for a number of reasons; you get to know other Rotarians from the area who don’t make it out to the larger functions, you get to see what other clubs do to keep their meeting fresh and fun, and you get to inform everyone about us as a group. It’s all too easy. And you ususally get a meal out of it (which you will likely have to pay for, but whatever, it’s a meal out).

If you would like to attend a meeting anywhere but are a bit reserved to go it alone, just let me know. I’ll join you or rally a group of us together to make an evening out of it.

Fun, yes?

Have a great New Genereations month, I look forward to seeing everyone out and about!

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#RACtalk on July 19th, 2012

If you are available on the morning of July 19th, 2012 between 7:30am and 8:30am, you are encouraged to head over to Twitter to check out the latest international conversation on what it takes to make great Rotaract meetings.
These are awesome opportunities to not only listen in on what others are doing to make their clubs great but you are able to engage in real-time conversations with Rotaractors from around the globe and RI itself! Many of the “major players” in Rotaract tune into these meetings, many of which have been members of very active and successful clubs for upwards of 10 years.

You do not need a Twitter account to follow along, however you will need one if you wish to engage in conversation. To follow the conversation simply go to Twitter and search #RACtalk. This will pull up any and all conversation on that subject matter. It’s as simple as that!

These meetings typically happen every couple of weeks to once a month so you’ll be able to chime into some sort of Rotaract talk through Twitter, or you can go back to old #RACtalks by looking at older posts within that search!
Hope to see you there!

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Update
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The #RACtalk chat was really great… very informative.  If you are interested in what took place in this #RACtalk or any of the previous ones hitting a vast number of topics, check out Rotaract on Storify for highlights from those discussions!

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They Told Us To Take A Hike And We Did

The District 5050 hike was this past weekend over at the Oyster Dome in Washington State roughly 10 minutes south of Blaine on the I-5.  I sat on my porch the night prior and watched a wicked lightning storm in the same area that the hike was to take place in, because of this I wasn’t entirely sure how the day was going to pan out.  By the time the morning hit, the storm had moved on but the clouds were still looming around the mountain. 

Being the particular person that I am, I wanted to ensure that I made it through the border in good time as to not miss out on the adventure (I have missed Rotary events in the States due to poor border planning on my part).  The hike was to start between 10:00am and 11:00am so I was at the border at 7:00am.  With the lightened government regulation and increased goods allowance for items coming back into Canada I know that lines have been longer than usual with people taking advantage of buying lots of cheap goods.  In retrospect, I don’t think I would have gone down quite that early.  With the NEXUS line being only one car long, I was coasting through the backwoods of Blaine at approximately 7:20am.  Nevertheless, I was on time.

Having never been to the Oyster Dome before I took my coffee and my Juke of power up the logging road through the park to check out where the event would be taking place.  To my surprise there was a rough dirt road that took you up to the lookout point, near the half-way point of the hike.  I took some pictures at the lookout and made my trek back down the mountain.  This burned off enough time for me to get back to the meeting point at the Shell gas station just opposite the highway from the road to the park enterance. 

Rotarians from the area started to roll in around 9:45am right up until 11:15am.  Hike organizer Ajay Caleb was there to add direction, Bill Toomey fed the motley crew with his packed lunches, Lynn Gray handled the second half of registration, and our own RTR Pat Bond kicked off the registration process as well as gracing us with her awesome presence.  Me, I shuttled people up the mountain, and I was fine with that.  It’s too bad the barbecue didn’t pan out, but there’s always next year.
Overall the event went off quite well.  There was between 20-25 hikers in all. 

Another district fellowship success!

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A new year, a new website

Welcome to the new home of District 5050 Rotaract!  Whether you have come here to find out more about our great organization, you’re looking for contact information for a particular club, or you’ve just stumbled upon us while navigating through the vast open space that is the internet, we hope that you find what you are looking for.

Over the next couple of months we will be working feverishly to pack this space with as much information as we can to make it your one-stop-shop for Rotaract in the district and beyond.

Not only is this an information source for Rotaract but it is also the home of the District Rotaract Representative who will be updating on their findings through the 2012-2013 Rotaract year.

Please check back often as we will have updated photos of service projects and fellowship events, a calender of events outlining important Rotaract activities, and much more!