Welcome to our District Governor
We were privileged to have our new District Governor, John Driscoll, address us last week accompanied by his wife Alison.
John has lived his entire life in Ashburton and they have four children and six grandchildren who also love close to home.
Rotary is a big part of John & Alison’s lives based on service, friendship, fellowship and personal development in what is a very active Club. John sees Rotary as offering great opportunities as it connects people together in order to do great things world-wide.
He admitted to never seeing himself in his new role and credits this to opportunities he has had in the past to take on increasingly responsible roles in various organisations.
He is a strong believer in Rotary’s vision statement which reads:
“Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.”
John’s personal goals in his role are as follows:
- To take opportunities that are offered.
- To strengthen and enliven Rotary clubs.
- To grow and develop understanding of Rotary’s key purpose.
- To inspire our local District.
He sees opportunities everywhere on both a personal and Club level for members to build their understanding of Rotary and gain experiences via the excellent training opportunities available and actively encourages all members to take full advantage of these.
He is a strong believer in building good member experiences where they are taken care of and want to stay with us and suggests that the focus should be on varied experiences and engagement rather than our traditional activities.
While he acknowledges there is a push for finding younger members, John also sees value in promoting the building of Satellites under the guidance of existing clubs and he acknowledged the work of Nick and Arie on this endeavour.
He also acknowledged the recent support focussed on the child obesity programme in Samoa.
John is a strong supporter of the Foundation and noted that the Chair is very happy to come and speak to us regarding its roles and activities.
With respect to our focus on eradicating Polio, John mentioned the incredible support Rotary has received from Bill Gates. He also challenged us to look at developing a find raising activity to support this key Rotary focus going forward.
Other key activities John mentioned were:
- The Youth Exchange Programme with Hans being a great example of this.
- RYLA and the importance of continuing to actively support this.
- The upcoming Ashburton Conference based on the theme “Defying Gravity” which he encouraged us to attend.
In finishing, John quoted the President of Rotary’s key message, “Be the inspiration”, and challenged us to:
“Go well, have fun and be an inspiration.”