It is my great honor to serve as your District Governor during this 2024-2025 Rotary Year. I look forward to experiencing the Magic of Rotary together with you. I’m happy to partner in this journey with my wife, Mona Hartman.
In District 5110, we have 62 clubs, 4 Rotaract clubs, and 20 Interact clubs. We are nearly 3,000 members strong.
Our District stretches across the southern 2/3rds of Oregon and dips into Northern California — an area of nearly 50,000 square miles. We are home to diverse regions from the coast to high desert, and from lush mountaintops to green valleys. Most importantly, we are home to hard-working, dedicated, volunteers. It is here, within our own district, that we created the concept of a PolioPlus Society, that is now replicated throughout the Rotary world – thank you Harriett Schloer!
This year, we will focus on training and learning opportunities throughout our district. We will take our district leadership and resources directly to our members, bringing events such as our well-designed Rotary Leadership Institute or RLI and Regional Rotary Foundation Recognition Events to your areas. To me, it is important to recognize, thank, and truly appreciate the great work, effort, time, and talents – the donated treasures of our members.
We Rotarians provide a highly specialized, experienced, elite, and proficient service product sought after by others in our communities. And with more members, we can do even more for our communities. It is not enough to just keep our members engaged, we must also grow our membership and expand the good we do in the world.
This year, we continue with Rotary International’s Vision Statement and Four Strategic Priorities
Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.
Our Four Key Priorities focus on Taking Action for Change in the following areas:
- Enhancing Participant Engagement
- Increasing our Ability to Adapt
Increasing our Impact means putting our measurable resources behind programs that will have the greatest impact, bring about lasting change, and align with our areas of focus. Examples include our work to eradicate polio, encourage the use of District and Global Grants, funding Peace Fellows and Global Scholars. Much of our funding comes from our donations to PolioPlus, the Annual Fund Share, and gifts to the Rotary Foundation Endowment.
Expanding our Reach means we are committed to exemplifying our communities, embracing our diversity, while providing for equity and inclusion to all. We will need to grow our membership and participation, create new channels into rotary, increase our openness and appeal, and build awareness of our impact and brand. Let’s make clubs new again. Let’s embrace new club models. Let’s achieve more, by doing fewer, but better planned projects, with more impact. Let’s find allies everywhere. Let’s embrace new technologies and be open to change within our own communities.
Enhancing our Participants’ Engagement means we are here to support clubs, to better engage members, and, offer new opportunities for personal and professional connections. All this requires that we actively bring in new members.
Increasing our Ability to Adapt means looking at ourselves and building a culture of research, innovation, and the willingness to take risks. Let’s streamline governance, our structure, and processes. We can bring about a more diverse decision-making process through effective communication and working together. All of this can be developed and supported through an up-to-date, rolling three-year strategic plan.
Much of our work requires materials, products, and investing in inventory. We are fully aware that our projects require increasing our donations to The Rotary Foundation via the Annual Fund Share, PolioPlus, and the Endowment. I have every confidence that we can rise to this challenge and continue to do more great work locally and abroad.
Mark your calendars for November 2nd, 2024 for our Annual Foundation Recognition Dinner – more information coming to you soon.
Lastly, please consider this my formal invitation to join us as we celebrate our district and accomplishments at our Grants Pass District Conference, May 16th through 18th, 2025.
As we venture into this Rotary Year, let’s enjoy the Magic of Rotary!
Yours in Rotary Service and Spirit,
District Governor Nelson Maler and Mona Hartman
