Rotary District 7030 PETS & Conference 2019

DG Dominique and Rotary Team Guadeloupe went all out to make every Rotarian welcome and to put on leadership training and conference that they can be proud of.

 

PETS opened up on Wednesday with DGE Trevor presenting on the RI President Elect Mark D. Malony's theme - 

He laid out the new Strategic thinking and blended in Maloney's strategic focus and the goals to achieve that focus.  DGE Trevor Blake then went on to outline the District's strategy and goals for 2019/2020.   In addition to growing membership by 3.5% focused on under 40s and female members, it is the District's goal to end the next Rotary year with every club (currently 72) in the District having at least one Rotaract Club, one Interact Club or one EarlyAct Club. With regard to the Rotary Foundation, DGE Trevor aims to raise the District's giving to US$400,000.  To achieve this he has challenged every Rotarian to give a minimum of US$100 to the Foundation.  Clubs are required to find one new Paul Harris Society member (US$1,000 per year) and to donate a minimum of US$1,500 to Polio Plus. Clubs are asked to pay particular attention to Public Image in the coming year with a reference to the "People of Action" campaign.  DGE Trevor has asked clubs to focus on Youth at Risk and Diabetes in the coming year.

 

There were many informative presentations throughout PETS and we were treated to the story telling genius of the RI President's Representative, RID Olayinka (Yinka) Hakeem Babalola and he is an act, hard to follow.  PETS came to a close on Thursday afternoon and the conference got under weigh that evening with the usual flag ceremony. The venue was The Memorial Act museum and we were treated to the most incredible voice of Guadeloupe's own opera singer Leila Bredent - outstanding.  Maurice Saad, the MC for the entire conference was outstanding.  The Flag of Saint Lucia - The Anthem was sung in Creole and English which is not strictly correct, but the French are sending us a message of friendship! Ours was the only Anthem to get this "special" treatment.  The gesture was accepted in the true spirit of Rotary friendship!

 

RID Yinka presented on The Rotary Foundation(TRF) and revealed that the Caribbean has donated about US$3.5 million to the Foundation over the last five years.  He told us that this went into the "magic box" and the Caribbean received over US$23 million over the same period.  The take away is that there is no better way to contribute to the work of Rotary than to do so through TRF.  The work of Rotary is magic and Rotarians are magicians he said after painting a picture of children watching water come out of a Rotary well for the first time - in their eyes, he saw magic!  The Caribbean has truly benefitted over the years, receiving nearly seven times what we have donated!

 

On Saturday, PDG Tony Watkins presented a summary of the rulings by the Council on Legislation (the summary was published in the bulletin and included below for those who may have missed it - also on website), and of course we ratified the appointment of Sonya Alleyne as DG for the year 2021/2022 The future of D7030 is in good hands!  Saint Kitts gave us a snapshot of what to expect when we visit for the Conference in 2020 where we will "arrive as visitors and leave as locals"

And President Lenita presented a short video on the Prosthetic Limb project which was well received.

 

The parties were great fun with a very French flavour as one would expect.  At the closing party, DG Dominique honoured her team and gave out some recognition to the clubs and Rotarians in the District that merited mention.  We are immensely proud of RC Saint Lucia under the leadership pf President Soraya as they deservedly won Club of the Year as well as the award for the largest percentage membership growth.

DG Dominique with Conference MC Maurice at the closing party  PDG Roger Bose enjoying the moment with DG Dominique and Rebecca 

 

 

Not to forget George the pet who was sadly refused entry to PETS for non payment of registration.