Welland Hosts DG Aaron Carlson

At a meeting on July 29th, the Rotary Club of Welland hosted 7090 District Governor Aaron Carlson on his official visit. Area 7 Assistant Governor Collins Acheampong, from the Rotary Club of Fonthill, introduced Aaron.

DG Aaron extended greetings on behalf of his home club, Lockport NY, as well as the District Leadership. He expressed his appreciation for the presence of several Welland Rotarians among the District’s leadership team. Additionally, he acknowledged Past Governor David Alexander for serving as an outstanding mentor during the past several years in preparation for this position.

Rotary’s theme this year is Unite for Good. 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 collective focus has been on membership and securing Rotary's future. Rotary’s greatest asset is our members. One of the things that is really important to know is that Rotary isn't a service club. It's a membership club.

Rotary International has designed a Rotary Action Plan for membership and the District is supporting this initiative. It's important that we have an intergenerational approach in our club membership. We have to be able to bring in younger people. But one of the biggest obstacles I hear from younger members who join Rotary then leave is that there's the Old Guard there, keeping them back from really embracing their ideas. So, I'm inviting Clubs to really think, how can we embrace new ideas, but also keep those legacies that has made the club so successful, and honour those.

As People of Action, we make decisions that are grounded in evidence. This means building the practices, infrastructure, and capacity needed to define, measure, track, and analyze data from our service projects to be more effective. If you have an interest in increasing your club membership, we've got facilitators who will come in and work with you in developing really specific tactics to your own community to help increase that that membership goal.

Aaron is also promoting the Learning Center on the Rotary International website. It's a great resource. Not only do they have sessions for Rotary knowledge, but they also have sessions for professional development opportunities as well. It's a great way to get some continuing education.

Aaron thanked the Welland Rotarians for being a great asset to the community of Welland. District Governor Aaron was presented with a certificate of thanks noting that the Rotary Club of Welland has made a donation of $2,000 USD to Rotary International’s End Polio Campaign as a thank you to our speakers. Since 1988, Rotary has been a lead advocate for the eradication of Polio throughout the world.

Rotary Club of Welland President Ray Tisi presented Aaron with a cheque made out to Rotary International End Polio Campaign in the amount of USD $2,000.

DG Aaron presented Past District Governor David Alexander with a pin representing his becoming a Major Donor to The Rotary Foundation. He also presented him with a Past District Governor pin.