Posted by Jocelynn Briggs on Oct 09, 2017
District Conference Highlights—Biker Extravaganza
Drew enjoyed the District Conference at Blue Mountain in Collingwood.  As you can tell he let his Biker Bad A$$ out.  As President Elect he really enjoyed the new ideas about membership retention.  The one major thing he brought away from the conference was that change is needed.  Change is never easy, but it is needed to stay relevant and bring more people into the Rotary Family.  Drew plans to bring change to his year as President.
 
Mary Rashleigh emphasized that 1989 was the year woman joined Rotary.  Now the focus is on families.  The ideas at the conferences included having clubs be more family oriented.  Common theme and Rotary focus was change.
 
Dave Van Gelder enjoyed the Villiage and fellowship.  He won Best Dressed at the GALA.  Everyone should attend the Deerhurst District Conference.
 
Lou Luvison learned that the fellowship equals drinking.  He enjoyed the new ideas about Communication and the different ideas to attract youth involvement.  Only 10 clubs had exchange students this year in the 7010 district. 
 
Jen Simpson said the best thing about the District Conference was the fun, fellowship and the pole dancing of those who will not be named.  The enthusiasm and the commitment to attract Youth and young people was contagious.
 
Jen Jerrett found out that the Canadian membership has been declining, but increased all over the world to make up for the decline.  Ideas to increase membership in North American included joint business membership, specific membership fees for families or different demographics.  The conference lighted some fires in the bellies of those Rotary members that attended.
 
Nick P from the morning club loved the author who told his story about the Polar Bear.  He left his story off with a cliff-hanger and that meant everyone bought his book.
 
Brent enjoyed the speaker that had been a Rotarian for 28 years.  He was a Rotarian for ½ his life and the message he brought to everyone was how to slay the dragon.  To slay the dragon, you need to buy this Rotarian speaker a scotch.   Brent bought him a scotch!
 
President Kim loved being around 400 other Rotarians.  All different stories of service above self were so inspiring.  We all have and had the Power/Influence to do good.  Kim enjoyed the vibe and Club culture.  The most important thing she came away with was the desire to make Rotary less of a networking group and more a social involvement group that contributes to positive change both locally and abroad.
 
Ron Strickland recapped a story about Ron Hogard encounter with fellow Canadian Don Cherry.  Ron learned that it is important to know your audience.  Some jokes were made about woman…oops.  Ron also learned that our club had received 2 District Grants.  We received the funds for the wells in Malawi and Brandy’s Nepal project.