From the desk of Vice President,

ROTARY DISTRICT 5280 LONG RANGE PLANNING COMMITTEE REPORT

By: DAVID B. MAXWELL for December 10, 2002, Meeting at El Segundo

I am submitting this written report to the Venice Marina Rotary Club for our general information.  I am in a District Mentoring Program under the direction of Past District Governor Bob White.  He invited me to sit in on today’s Long Range Planning Committee Meeting, so there I was listening to the leaders of our District to learn.  Committee information is found in this year’s district booklet on pages 184-185. 

The Agenda was limited.  Committee Chairperson that serves per the District by-laws is the last year’s District Governor, which is Leonard Wasserstein.  He had several persons such as myself there as well as approximately 15 members for the committee.  It is reported the Rotary International changed its by-laws about member restrictions.  Now a person can be a member of any club without that person living or working in the “club area”.

A Report was presented for the SHARE Process that will affect the 2005-2006 Program Year.  This is money that comes back to the District for allocation and use in the District for Ambassadorial Scholars and Grants to for approved projects by District Clubs, as is allocated by the then serving District Governor. 

Chairman Wasserstein then wanted the Committee to review its new process for choosing District Governor Elects.  Apparently the Committee worked for some time to change the make up of the District Governor Selection Committee to include 3 former Presidents of District Clubs, one each from the small, medium and large clubs as part of an “inclusion process”.  Chairman Leonard felt that these 3 Past Club Presidents did not have the working knowledge of the District nor of the people who were nominated to be selected for District governor; he feels therefore that these 3 persons were and are not qualified to serve and thus should be replaced in the committee makeup.  A spirited debate and discussion ensued.  He appointed a new subcommittee to look into this matter with Kathy Turner at LA5 as Chairperson.

My observation of this process shows that there is a minority in the District, which believes that the running of the District should be limited to those who are part of the in crowd.  PDG Carol Wiley stated that this inclusion process brings “fresh ideas” and “new light” to the nominating process, an interesting choice of words. 

In my opinion, spreading the running of the District to more and new clubs is a positive action that should help the clubs to prosper.  It seems to me that the District serves to help the individual clubs prosper and grow.  It should not be a “them and us” relationship.  I can see where this new process is a positive move for the individual clubs.  Candidates for District Governorship just have to make their cases with the knowledge of this new nominating committee makeup.  In fact, now it becomes less of a “good old boy” process and more of merit based process.  A solution to the issue is to have the committee selected and trained sooner instead of being killed.  It will be interesting to see how this battle of wills is resolved.

What was of greater interest to me is the fact that the Long-Range Planning Committee has no plan of action or direction.  Apparently it has never been properly formed and directed since its creation some 10 years ago.  I have served as committee chairperson for a Regional Planning Commission Long-Range Growth Committee.  We were interested in what could happen and what the community wanted to see happen-roads, sewer, water, growth, industrial parks, etc.  Our job was to brainstorm not implement.  Most of what was discussed at this meeting was not planning matters but rather implementation.  This could be an important committee for our club because it can help us grow and prosper with new procedures, ideas, etc.  In fact, the lack of direction and focus I saw and heard made me realize even more so that President Willie did a great job in setting up her agenda for the year and that I better follow our past presidents actions or I will have the lack of focus and direction exhibited by this committee.  Yikes!!

My recommendation is for this committee to now focus on establishing a procedure for seeking ideas, thoughts, input form other District members and then working on these matters.  What do we want our Rotary District and our Rotary District Clubs to look like in 5, in 10, in 15 years?  How do we get there?  How do we better serve our communities?  The District should give more detailed responsibility and direction of what it wants from this committee, and then it needs to have this committee meet monthly with open forum input from Clubs and Rotarian members.  There is a lot of brainpower stagnating on this committee.  The next meeting is March 18, 2003.  I am sure that Committee Chairman Leonard and District Governor Rick will move this committee forward in a positive productive fashion.  It was stated that this committee has not even met one time in some past years.  So what is now happening is a good start.  To me, operation, finance and planning are the lifeblood of an organization.

I enjoyed the District Committee Meeting Experience.  It was very informative.  I am trying to gain all the knowledge I can to better serve our Club.  We have a great group of women and men who do make a difference in the lives of many people.  For this I am proud and humbled by the opportunity and responsibility to serve as your President in 2003-2004.  I look forward to your support, ideas, laughter and joint participation in our club’s activities and business.  I trust this short report will give each of you a flavor of District Activities.  The next District breakfast is in January.  I support President Willie in her urging those of us who have not attended a District Breakfast meeting to attend.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 JUDGE MARY

Our own Mary Richert has been chosen as one of Nine Judges for this year’s Marina Tournament of Lights.  Her lovely picture is on Page B9 of the December 12, 2002 “THE ARGONAUT”.  Lovely smile.

A nice article was written about her and I am typing it here word for word form the Page B9 article.

“Mary Richet has been the director of operations for 11 years of the Venice Family clinic, the nation’s largest free clinic.

She has served as president of the Venice Chamber of Commerce for the past two years.  During that period, she has implemented a very successful Breakfast Speakers program and increased the chamber’s membership by 25 percent.

As chamber president, she has also worked to provide the local business community with direct linkage to government and business resources.

            She serves as the co-chair of the pacific Area Community Police Advisory Board to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is membership chair of the Pacific Area LAPD Boosters and a member of the Venice marina Rotary Club.

She holds a degree in urban planning from Cleveland State University and was earlier a commercial planner for the City of Cleveland, director of an economic development office in Pennsylvania and project manager for a large building and development firm in New Hampshire.”

A nice honor for our own MARY. Congratulations!!!!

Letters to the Editor:

                                             THANK YOU

I had the privilege to talk with each and every club Member about serving on a committee and or office position in the coming 2003-2004 Club year.    I am proud of each and every club member and I was very grateful that not ONE person declined to serve in a capacity.  This speaks volumes about the quality of members we have in the Venice Marina Rotary Club.  I feel very fortunate to be a part of this group.  I hope that I will serve the Club in a professional manner.  You deserve that. 

I want each and every Club Member to realize and know that I am deeply grateful for this support.

Yours in Rotary,

David B. Maxwell

Hi Tom,

Would you mind letting your club know that we still have plenty of space for
the RI President's reception on December 29th?

Interested Rotarians should call or email the district office so that their
names can be added to the reservations list.  Payment of $35.00 can be sent
directly to the office address.  Thanks for doing this for me.

Janet Chabola