Voices From Rotary President-Elect Training Part 1

We hit the road to Northeast PELS and hand the mic to presidents-elect, district leaders, and longtime Rotarians who are stepping into big roles. The stories range from hilarious name-tag moments to serious talk on membership, global service, and leading from peace instead of chaos. 
• Live voices from President-Elect Training and why it matters for Rotary leadership 
• What assistant governors do and how districts keep tabs on club health 
• Preparing for district leadership and building a team mentality 
• A Haitian physician’s path into Rotary and what it means to have both received and given service 
• Vocation, faith, and service above self as one integrated life 
• Membership challenges, attendance culture, and why flexibility can strengthen engagement 
• Balancing club traditions with needed change in long-established Rotary clubs 
• Partnering with Kiwanis, Toastmasters, and other service organizations 
• Global grants and international service projects including El Salvador and Ukraine support 
• The leadership lesson that lands hardest: human beings, not human doings 
Most importantly, I want you to remember that this whole thing is on YouTube. The Action to Impact YouTube channel. Check it out. 
If you want me to hit your Pels next year, let me know. Rotarianpod at gmail.com. 

Transcript

On Location At Northeast PELS

SPEAKER_04 0:01

Hi everyone, I'm Gwen Jones, and welcome to another episode of the Action Impact Podcast. Now, this one this week is one that a lot of folks have been waiting for. We made an return engagement to Northeast Pells, that are known as President Elect Training. We got to touch base with some great friends, we got to meet some new presidents, and we also got to talk to the new leadership and to some trailblazing leaders that are about to leave. So I had so many voices and had so much fun that I had to break it into two shows. So this week you're going to meet some old friends and some president-elect. They're all different, they're all from different areas, and they all have, arguably, some different approaches to how to do the job. You're even gonna meet my president-elect, Linda. It's super exciting. Now, there's always quirks in live recordings, as you'll hear. Some voices are a little softer than others, none of them are louder than mine. Oh well, goes with the territory, I guess. Anyway, there's some wise words, some nervous words, a lot of fun words, and I hope you enjoy it. This is one of many shows as I head onto the road. Everything from special events to uh individual meetings to uh conferences and conventions. There's gonna be some exciting roads ahead, but we'll talk about that later. In the meantime, this is part one of our two-part special presentation available on video two of Returning to Northeast Pells President Electric 2026-2027.

SPEAKER_06 1:56

It's gonna be a great year for them all.

Name Tags, Jokes, And Introductions

SPEAKER_04 2:21

How cool is that? I'm gonna introduce you to some past friends of the show, I'm gonna introduce you to brand new presidents, I'm gonna introduce you to district governors, I'm gonna introduce you to district governors that have been district governors before, I'm gonna introduce you to presidents who've been presidents before, and some friends of the shows are here. Tom Gump is here, John Hukko just piped in, Joe Beveridge is here from Russell Hampton, and Haley, not her sister, too bad, is here from Clubrunner, and all of them are gonna come by the studio and say hi. So we have a lot of fun coming up here on location with the Action to Impact Podcast. I'm so glad you joined us. Welcome back, everybody. Okay, James, James Pope. First of all. Last name is Pope.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

Okay, so how often were you teased for being called? How often were you teased for being the Pope?

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Oh, I grew up in a largely Catholic town. Yes. So and uh it was when Pope Pius XII was the Pope, so you're all calling me Pious.

SPEAKER_04 3:37

Oh man, did you we are rocking and rolling? Tina.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Hi. Hi. Give me your full name. All right, I'm Tina White.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

Tina White. I'm with Brompton Rotary Club. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

I am now a D G N D.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

Okay, can I just say, because everybody's done this who's been on the show, I'm I'm talking to all you guys out there. So we all get these great tags, okay? And they have the schedule on the back. Okay. We have these tags, and every single person who I've said, so what's your name? It's like they look at their tag. Like, did it change? No, it's still the same. Thank God.

SPEAKER_06 4:15

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

Today I'm playing the part of Tina White.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

Tina White, Brock to Rotary Club, district governor, nominee designate.

SPEAKER_04 4:23

Friend Jimmy, he's never been on the show before, he's never done this podcast before, so treat him nice. And he is a president-elect. Now, we've already been talking to district governors, we've been talking to big fancy echelons. You're just Jimmy, just Jimmy. And you're about to be president. For where? Where are you? Where are you gonna be the president of?

SPEAKER_00 4:47

I'm gonna be the president for the Uro Club of Weston in Wayland, in Massachusetts. And before I start, Gwen Jones, thank you so much for me. Well, thank you. I'm impressed. This is all what Uro is about.

SPEAKER_05 5:05

And Linda's with me. And I think this one's really cool because I'm actually doing my vocation now. Because this is my rotary. That was that was really inspiring. I I think between the the speakers I've heard so far and the two sessions I've been in, it it's really helpful. The juices are gone. It really is.

SPEAKER_04 6:11

Alright, so this is Philomena. Alright. And yeah, she's she's she is an incoming president-elect, but we have her on the show not only because her headphones won't stay on, sorry about that, but her vocation is what, Philomena?

SPEAKER_02 6:32

What do you do? I am an authorized ordained minister with the United Church of Christ. I serve the first congregational church in Wareham, Massachusetts.

SPEAKER_04 6:45

Wow. So church is in session here on the Unreligious Action to Impact Podcast. And it's good. Did you live up to such name or I was kind of irritated by it?

SPEAKER_01 6:58

You were kind of irritated by it.

Inside The Assistant Governor Role

SPEAKER_04 6:59

Okay, so you weren't necessarily pious, but you were okay yet. We're Catholic either. Well, all right. But you are, however, assistant governor and rotarian. And notice because you have the turquoise shirt on. We've had a couple yellow vests in. I haven't gotten any black shirts in. You are my first blue shirt. Blue shirt, okay. Okay, and blue shirts were very rainbowy here in the northeast. Everybody's got a color cord. In fact, even our lanyards, mine is yellow for$79.30, and yours is purple for$79.10.$79.10. We're very granimal-y here in the Northeast. I've decided to match your color. But I digress. You are assistant governor.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yes. How's that been? It's been good. I mean, it's um sometimes I call it uh all hat and no cattle Texas. But uh we do it it's uh we perform what is I think is an important function. We keep tabs on a couple of two or three clubs, and then kind of let the governor know if there's anything going on that he or she should look into. So because with 40-some clubs, the governor can't possibly keep tabs on all of them. Gotcha. So we have a little place on our web page, which for for those three clubs only I can access and only the governor can access, and then I can go in.

SPEAKER_04 8:32

So it's a little junior secret decoder ring, kind of basically, yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

So that I can be frank with them and not have anybody who wants to look at it.

SPEAKER_04 8:41

Saying, here's my three clubs, and they're awesome, and the rest are awful.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Oh, usually more.

SPEAKER_04 8:47

Well I don't have to. I gotta listen to what she just said. No, I can't say that.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Well, oh no, I for each of the clubs, I'll tell them, I'll rank them on certain uh bases, but uh, you know, how how active they are and what my opinion is in terms of their viability and you know this kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04 9:08

This is interesting because I don't think a lot of Rotarians realize that there is like this level of how you can get on these things, you know.

SPEAKER_05 9:20

What are you then? So because you're because we have we have your you you you were district governor in 2023-24. So you've done that. You've been a president, this is a district governor, you've been a district governor. Are you gonna be doing that again? Or are you here? I was beginning to think if you were like a little like that. Oh, yeah, the power of the yellow mass tell people where to go all the way from Thursday to Saturday. So it's a lot of power. We we need to make sure that if anything is lost, it is found. Yes, it is very weird. It's like they look at their back.

SPEAKER_04 10:16

Like, did it change? No, it's still the same. Thank God. Today I'm playing the part of Tina White.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

Tina White, Broctor Murdery Club, district governor, nominee designate.

SPEAKER_04 10:28

Okay, so everybody get all those initials? Yes, she's not gonna be it next year, you're not even gonna be it the year after that.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

2028.

SPEAKER_04 10:37

2028. Yes. So you get to go to the Minneapolis, Minnesota one.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Yes, which is so funny.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

Now, Tom Pump was just here. So, Tom, we're not dissing Minneapolis, Minnesota.

SPEAKER_03 10:49

No, Tom's my guy.

SPEAKER_04 10:50

Yeah, but it is kind of funny that we're gonna go from Taipei to Dubai. Yes, to Minneapolis.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

Yes, I'm going to Taipei. I'm probably gonna skip Dubai, but I'll be at Minneapolis.

SPEAKER_04 11:02

There you go. Word still out on Dubai for me.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

Especially, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

I don't know. Check out the podcast where we talked about going to Dubai, you guys. Just saying. All right, so you're about to be district governor in three years. Yes. Like, so that gives you time to start panicking.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I haven't panicked yet. I've I've been very lucky. I'm finishing out being an AG. Okay. And I am Nicole Green, is our district governor. I have been her aide. Yeah. So I have had first hand boots on the ground in the trenches learning from her. So I've I do feel a little more prepared. I mean, there's a lot I don't know, but I do feel like I've been in the behind the scenes, so I kind of have an idea of some of it, which I think is a benefit because you know, my fellow classmates, like, what did I sign up for? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 11:57

Well, and Nicole, and Nicole is also a dear friend of mine, so and a friend of the show. So one thing she has really stressed with the rest of her gang this year is to be that support system. Right. And so, do you feel that already, instead of like, I'm not panicking because we're working off of this whole I've got I've got Nicole, she's got my back for the next three years, she's gonna be here.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

We have a good team, and it's a team mentality. I coach my in my other life. Yours. Uh my other life, I I owned a baton studio. Wow. And I've been coaching for 32 years, so I did that for a huge chunk. Baton. Baton twirling. Yes. Oh my god, baton twirling. Like, you know, the babe in the front of the dad. Majorette, yes. Uh majorette to me is like a football term, you know, out on the field. Right. I coach competitive baton twirlers from little ones all the way up to college. But okay, see, that's another show. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 13:00

Oh, like I used to I used to twirl rifles.

SPEAKER_03 13:03

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

In in high school.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Yeah, color guard. It's like this. Color guard. Yeah. Yes. Well, I feel because of that training and and being the coach, I everything I do is like a team mentality. So my other my day job, my boring life is I work in a law office and I run the office. So again, kind of like a team mentality. So in Rotary, I'm all about team. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:29

So you for those who are paying attention at home. Okay. She's gonna be a district governor in like three years. She has a great team. And when she's not doing rotary, she's doing baton twirling and law.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

And law. I don't do the law. I'm not a lawyer. I wouldn't want to be. I'm not a paralegal, wouldn't want to be, but I run in the office.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

I'm telling you, I bet you there's a lot of lawyers that would really love a good baton twirling during some of those.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

My my head attorney, who's also Rotarian, there you go. I have taught him how to twirl. We we twirled at a rotary meeting once.

SPEAKER_04 14:05

Oh well, thank you. And I love to tell your story, and I'm sure right off the bat, I want to say that you have a fabulous accent. Which means, and it's not the usual Massachusetts sweater weta kind of accent. Okay. So tell everybody where you're from.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Yes, I'm I'm for originally from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Wow. But this is very important that you pick that up. It's not that because I have an accent, but it ties to my story. Yeah. So if I may uh move forward about telling my story, please how I got to know the rotary and now I'm uh involved at the president elect level. It's I think for me it's a blessing. It's uh been fascinating. As a kid in in Haiti, the rotary sign is quite pretty visible.

SPEAKER_04 15:06

We've done a lot of work throughout Haiti, yeah? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

It's not only in the Capitol, in Port-au Prince, but also in the backcountry, in the north and where I've been. And as a kid, I used to see the wheel, and it always fascinates fascinates me. And obviously, we used to see it in big sign along with USAID, and uh with projects, sanitation projects, all kinds of projects in the in the country. And when I was a kid, I didn't really understand what it meant, what it meant at the time. Right. And I uh when I was in medical school, by the way, I'm a physician. In medical school, one of my professors was a Wetarian, and he took me to my first ever Udo meeting. It was in uh the club the Pitchonville in Port of Prince Haiti. Pretty uh kind of fancy by Haitian standards and all professional people. It was really my opening when I was uh listening to the deliberations, the projects, and I thought, yeah, I want to be a little turn.

SPEAKER_04 16:12

So so you always so there was kind of a disconnect when you were a kid. So you saw this wheel everywhere, and I would argue that even here in the United States, people see that wheel everywhere. But it wasn't until you were kind of a grown-up that the wheel went with rotary. Is that a true statement?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Yes, and then I and also the mission, what the water is about, it connects connects the deliberations, the projects, the team was discussing at that time, and why the wheel is it was there. Sure.

SPEAKER_05 16:47

Yeah. Okay, so it's given me some great ideas and like what they were talking about, one of the sessions was about membership. And I don't know if you were at the meeting we had a couple of months ago, we had people from the corners and the Beverly Cornors come in. And we just said it's based on what you're looking for, exactly. Yeah, so you know, we've been kind of tossing it around about how we can work together, and at one point somebody said somebody was discouraging that, and from what I've heard today, that's things we want to do. We want to partner with other service organizations, and and it it just makes things better and we can do more.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

I served the first congregational church in Wareham, Massachusetts.

Faith And Rotary Without A Divide

SPEAKER_04 17:44

Wow. So church is in session here on the unreligious action to impact podcast, and it's good because we're gonna talk about it because your vocation, for fans of the show, will know an episode I did called What If Your Vocation is God? Right? And your vocation is God, my father's vocation was God, my father was a minister, so I do know my way around both sides of the cross, okay? And Rotary, traditionally in the past, has been a vocation-based organization doing good in the world. Your vocation is religion. How how are you gonna walk that line, or do you even have to walk that line?

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Quite honestly, it I love the question, but I don't walk that line. I don't, I don't, and when I say I don't walk that line, I mean I don't separate what I do on Sunday from what I do Monday. Gotcha. I I I see it. Well what I do on Sunday not only informs how I see the world, but it but what I also do on Monday informs what happens when I'm in the church, if we can put it that way. So I'm straddling both worlds, but there's not this clear demarcation that I'm in church now, I'm sitting straight and tall, and now I go to work. Because when we separate what happens on Sunday from Monday, we find ourselves living not only dual lives, but we may even find ourselves engaging in behaviors that we wouldn't dare engage in on Sunday mornings. Or we may even turn a blind eye to things that we should be alert to and think, oh, that's none of my business. And yet it very much is. So I firmly believe that God, the one who stirred into the the chaos and created the universe and called it good, right, that God lives not only in the cathedral, but also in the homeless shelters, in the supermarkets, in all the places where we live, where we love. Yeah. Wherever we are, wherever wherever people are, God is there.

SPEAKER_04 20:49

So how many years have you have you worn your rotary pin?

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Since 98, so that means 28 years.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

Wow. Always at the same club?

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Nope. I've actually belonged to three different clubs.

SPEAKER_04 21:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

And uh I've been a you might say a long time or a m not a full member, but a full heavy participant in a couple others. Okay.

Why Membership Keeps Getting Harder

SPEAKER_04 21:13

So then since 98, you've seen us in the 20th and 21st century. How do you think we're doing rotary in general?

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Well, rotary in general is facing several problems, primarily maintaining membership. We've had about the same membership worldwide for I don't know, the last decade or two.

SPEAKER_06 21:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

But it's shifted away from North America into Asia and Africa. It's gone down in in Europe too. Yeah. And it's the result of a number of things. Everybody blames COVID, which had a real impact, but even before then the seemed to be a lot more options for people to do things. Or the idea of spending so much time doing wasn't quite as strong for people. Okay. You know, they had just or people getting really into their careers and stuff like this. So it's well for for example, for a long time, for you know, up until I don't remember when in the 2000s, there was a attendance requirement.

SPEAKER_04 22:18

Right. I remember that. And I used to go to I used to go to board meetings. If I missed one, it kind of sit in the background just so I could make up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Well I've actually in my uh club in Ohio, I got a letter from the uh attendance committee chastising me because I had made up too many. I had missed meetings. I just you say you're required to have a certain number of your meetings at your overattendanced okay so they finally that was just killing some of the you bring in new members. People didn't want to permit every week and we met every week it could have been most of them were at noon. There were some morning and some evening clubs.

SPEAKER_04 23:00

Okay so you've got this great backbone but one thing that I think is very interesting is that and and excuse me for saying this you are younger. Okay. I I yes okay okay you're younger and you and Nicole is you know young girl and you guys are both very out there and I say that it in as the highest form of flattery to Nicole I mean she was she is still willing to just like do it I'm here let's do this okay are you gonna take on some of that as well or are you more alling baton twirler that's gonna be a little bit more you know I I definitely are not the same person.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

No nor do you play one on TV no okay I love Nicole to pieces. I I think there's two personas to me there's you know the baton twirler the outgoing I am I can be energetic but I'm I'm I am a little more reserved okay I would say I am a little more not that Nicole isn't about business she is right but I'm she's just kind of like doing her she's doing yes right so I think my personality is a little less as exciting.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

I think I bring my own special you know fire baton and craziness to well yeah and and what I what I think is funny is that and what I like in some of these districts is that they're going from somebody who can really push some buttons but it sounds to me like you're still gonna be there in you know putting some of those same practices to work right but you're gonna be a little easier because Nicole was a shock to the system. Right. Johnny was a shock to the system you know Alison was a shock to the system you know we had we had a whole group here in the north in the northeast that was a shock to the system.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

And now yeah well and there's someone in between because Nicole's repeating for a year and then we have Carl and then there'll be me. So there's it's a couple years.

SPEAKER_04 25:14

Right. But in other places I know that the rest of this gang really brought in and I think what's very interesting is that nobody said okay now we have a new person we're gonna just chuck all that out the door. Right right which I think is nice.

Updating Traditions Without Losing Respect

SPEAKER_03 25:29

Yeah we we have a great continuity and a great team and I think even in your club right you have to have that because every year you can't just break down the wall and start all over again. But like it what's the point we're gonna get rotary just a little bit just a tiny bit just a tiny bit just a tiny bit just so that your members and the people in your clubs and in your district you know can understand what the heck is going on.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Right he took a picture and he was like you guys look up it would be a great Otarian family do you know about the Watery Club I said of course I do. And I started sharing with him my experience in Haiti and friends said come why don't you come to one of a meeting and that was the hook and that day I was like okay the Waterby family we come to we came we came together and uh we've been uh a member ever since we have a family membership actually wow our daughters are pretty active we have so many events that we do every year we have the cultural anti-cultural we have the Christmas that I mentioned we have the children business fair we have food pantry programs where we would go and every week provide food to you know in all time and with so many other projects so now I have a big challenge of becoming a president of such a great club because one thing I don't want to be too aggressive here but Western Will I club they have been the best have they have been the best club for four or five years in a row except last year in the district.

SPEAKER_04 27:16

So it's we have big what you're trying to tell us you have some big shoes to film.

Building Partnerships Beyond Rotary

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Exactly okay so a the this training here today at uh any uh pals it's uh such a great opportunity for me to learn to learn not only from the great presentation the speakers are also encore presidents that we have here to share the learning the things that we should avoid and I think it's went very well so you know when you when you look at your whole I would say lifespan of rotary in a lot of ways you kind of encapsulate everything that's kind of really great about rotary around the world so you you started off we talked about that you were a kid and you saw that wheel that's correct okay and then you went to going to medical school in Haiti and then all of a sudden it's like come to Rotary you were a foreign exchange student not with us but that's okay where you went to France and you got nailed with it again and then you bought a Christmas tree you know and you got it again and it's finally you're there you're home absolutely so it seems to me that it just was meant to be it's destiny it's destiny I would say it's destiny that way now do we want to do we want to partner with them to make mutual stronger or do we want to partner with them to like if you're if you're if Kwanis is kind of on his way out maybe you'll come a Rotarian or both probably at this point both okay I mean I certainly don't want those members we don't want the downfall of Kowanis let's not let's not put that on actually so my uncle my late uncle was a rotanian and I thought he was a Rotarian but no he was he was a member of Kowanis and no I think I think we're off to a good start with what Connor has put in place and you know we're doing a social event next week with them.

SPEAKER_05 29:20

Yeah so I want to continue along that line and you know let's see where we can go with it. I mean if it means eventually that they they can't sustain themselves as as a club as the Kowanist club I would certainly love to have them join the Rotary but I think for now let's see how that goes. And and we made a partnership we the big umbrella of Rotary International made a partnership with Toastmasters because Toastmasters I remember when I was a kid my father was a Toastmasters Toastmasters was part of my high school and college kind of thing but they kind of believe and they have now pretty much come under the umbrella of of rotary and do everything and a lot of those people are still doing that great work as postmasters that are working with because there are threats that can so we're looking at Kwanis I mean obviously if you're a member of Kwanis you're there because you want to make the world a better place for children you want them to have you know joy and clean water and all those kind of things and if you look at us same thing. So to me it'd be an easy migration.

SPEAKER_04 30:40

I agree so I have heard many Rotarians say especially if they are not practicing spiritually so they're non-denominational we'll say that for them rotary is their church that they feel they have the camaraderie of that social hour after church where everybody's having cookies and coffee and talking about their week okay you have that at a rotary you have in a church you have those those food banks or you have you know helping people all the time churches are doing that and then if there is perhaps spirituality is the just an encompassing word of rotary that is just like doing good in the world which is one would argue a very spiritual practice that our words are service above self.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

So what what do you say to somebody who comes up and says well I I think rotary could is like I use that as my church is that is that something that feels pretty good to you is like there's a place for you to start I yeah I would say I let me put it this way it's not some it's not a comment or it's not a way of being that I would find offensive. Gotcha okay and I wouldn't even try to say well that's a starting point and later on you you're gonna grow by the way on Sunday come see me. Yeah you're gonna grow in into the church there may never be that movement so what although it's not my path right it's somebody else's and I honestly do believe that the God I know the God I love is not sitting there checking off and saying you're a good Rotarian you're a bad rotarian well not only that but that you are doing what I speak for God intends for you to do because it is not happening in a building or a space that we call the church the temple the synagogue right that's not my path gotcha but it may be somebody else's way of connecting with the divine they may not use that language right and and for me I'm fine with that I'm fine with that so so that's great if so if if you don't mind if you like some of these old school things you even wanted to bring back happy bucks you said but attendance that's not a big deal what what is your feeling when you when you have then these some of these district governors that want to really bring in some real radical change how accepting of that are you?

SPEAKER_04 33:53

No I'm fine if it works I mean it's uh so you're like I'm giving you 12 months if it works well your your year itself that you have the the color shirt that's for district governor and if somebody wants to just pick it all up and throw in a whole new plan you feel as somebody who's been in rotary as long as you have if some of those if after that 12 months you go hey some of this stuff really worked you're okay with that change? Yeah I mean assuming it goes along with the uh basis of rotary yeah I'm not saying okay the new rule is everybody is nude at rotary meetings no I'm not saying that but I'm saying you could say something like we're gonna have no meetings in person.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

We're all gonna do them all online. Okay. Well if that works that's fine. And I that could be a lot of fun.

Global Grants And Bigger Impact

SPEAKER_04 34:44

During COVID I had a lot of fun with rotary because online yeah a lot of people went to meetings that they had never even dreamed of going to and and canak still sh holds the Rotary International President at that time still holds the record of going to the most clubs of any international president.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

I bet that's that well I went to three meetings a week I went to my previous um club in Westford my current one in Lowell and then I used to go to Germany to teach a couple times a year over 13 years and I was the active participant in that rotary club. I had to get up at six o'clock in the morning.

SPEAKER_04 35:24

Well have a cup of coffee and off to Germany you go. Flip it on and there they were one last question and I thank you so much for being a part because you are Haitian and because you've had that more international view of rotary your whole life are you gonna bring some of that how how is your ancestry and your growing up and really feeling the benefits of rotary are you going to bring that into your presidency because you actually get to know what it feels like.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

Yeah you get to be on the other side and I think there's a lot of Rotarians out there that we we get the we get the endorphins from the giving part but not as often do we get it from the receiving part and you've had the opportunity of both so does that give you a certain perspective as president that you can you know enhance and help with your other rest of your team and your and your and your group absolutely we have an amazing group the our club's been there for several decades the impact is pretty local or probably local regional I would say more so because we do a lot in the our immediate communities but I think it's about time for us now to go beyond Western Williams and get uh an impact more broad internationally recently uh for the past few years one of the our biggest impacts has been in Ukraine I don't want to speak too much about it because we are all by four four was mentioned earlier in the keynote speaker today as uh one of the key players in that effort and also we have a past president and many others that have played a role and generated millions of dollars well to help Ukraine. So we have had impact globally as a club but I think we should continue to build on that and uh have a reachable impact and this is one of my aspirations and hopefully we can get can get it holding right you know and a lot of transparency like that's there's no behind the scenes Wizard of Oz curtain thing like it there's none of that.

SPEAKER_04 37:42

That'd be cool though.

SPEAKER_03 37:43

Yeah you know with the effect kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04 37:46

So are you already playing stuff?

SPEAKER_03 37:48

I mean because you've got yes and no so my class are anybody wearing the yellow vest yeah Christine was here telling us because it has pockets remember Christine has pockets does it has all kinds of sounds it has pockets we love pockets anyone wearing a yellow vest this weekend other than Christine and Mike are DGMDs. So gotcha our group we're coming up with a name we have to have a cool name like you know like it's a lot of responsibility we're working on it that's right we stick in the podcast we named it once actually named it twice but I've named it it's done I don't have to have a theme anymore well I mean a theme song is good right like a long album song yeah but we we've been playing around AI is great my phone keeps blowing up with all the new like what about this what about this we're trying to come up with our name but we've we've this weekend especially we're we're really getting to be together and bond since we're so far apart and all over the place. Right so we we're we are working on things um we have our notebooks and our notes we just kind of joke every time something that we think we're of I'm like write it in the notebook. Write it in the notebook and I do have a notebook that I write everything down because you know I can't remember it all.

SPEAKER_05 38:59

So you're going into a club that's been around for a very long time. 105 years. Yeah 105 years wow see I didn't even know 105 years and you know somebody asked me this morning and I thought it was 23 and then I looked at my shirt later and it's 1921. Wow so yeah it's been around a long time it's been around for a long time so we've talked to a lot of other presidents and what has come up is something that I think is very profound and very much a part of our group which is we still run our road record like it's 1941.

unknown 39:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 39:41

I don't believe we do attendance anymore yeah they do okay so so whoever's watching this remark my attendance and my partner's attendance I know that already still do attendance when I say we do attendance it's not to be punitive I mean and I know you know I don't know how many years ago it was but I know at one point you it attendance was mandatory right and I think that's what kept a lot of people away right that people can't make that time commitment you know one of the things one of the other president elects brought up was you don't have to come to every meeting but show up on the donor service project. Or just show up I I mean a club that I used to have a wonderful member of the recovery alcohol. We met literally I didn't think it was like every definitely we sort of we do five look at he's already getting nervous we do five and as one of your newest numbers why was that shocking because the money half of the money goes to whoever wins you know how that works we have to get the joke. But the other half of the money is it goes back into the club so you so and I know we haven't done it in the survey but your club loves the way that works those old school time that old time kind of way of doing it is what makes our it is what we like about I'm not saying this isn't no no I'm just trying to think because I'm I'm here to tell you as as and I'm trying to it sounds not the TMZ gotcha part of the show no no no no no but I will say is that our club and I know there's a couple other clubs in there's one club that I talked to on a podcast from Minnesota that still sings from the Rotary songbook. Oh I didn't know there was one there's a Rotary songbook so they still sing songs from the Rotary songbook so they're even like there is some real some real like die hard this is the way it's always been well I don't I don't believe in that this is the the way it's always been okay I also want to be respectful of the people that have been members of the club for a long time do I want to make some changes absolutely but it there's a fine line there as far as we want to respect our past exactly while moving on to the present how do you think we can how do you think you're gonna have that that that is to be determined you are a pastor is that proper word okay we have a very dear friend of the show who is a who's an archdeacon of the San Francisco Catholic Church.

SPEAKER_04 43:23

So you are you are one of many spiritual people and he said to me that the reason why he picked Rotary is because it felt the closest to his teachings and he said wherever I am as a Rotarian it fits just the same he says putting on my Rotarian at work shirt is just as important to him as putting on his ropes because they are both doing the same thing and that's making the world a better place. What do you think about words like that?

SPEAKER_02 44:02

I hadn't thought about it that way, but now that you ask, why do I show up every Thursday morning at 7 a.m.?

SPEAKER_04 44:12

Yes, okay, yeah, just alone from 7 a.m. At 7 a.am.

SPEAKER_02 44:17

Right. And I do so because I'm gonna meet people that I'm gonna share a meal. Break bread around a table with people that I care about, that I love, they love me, and the conversation around that table will not be just about us ourselves. It will all it will be about that. Right. You know, how's your family and all the small talk? But it will quickly move beyond us to something that's larger than us. Right. We'll talk about our community, we'll talk about the larger rotary family that we are a part of, that we're not just a small club in a small town doing small things. But all of that will be connected to something larger than ourselves.

SPEAKER_04 45:31

So you really embrace that international part of Rotary International.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

I absolutely do. I think if my club was just my club, I don't think there would be enough there to hold me. Okay. I have been on mission projects. My second year in Rotary, I wrote, and you'll see this is back in the day, a global grant.

SPEAKER_04 46:01

I love it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

That involved one, two, four rotary clubs, mine plus three others. And it was a project to purchase diagnostic equipment for an eye clinic in El Salvador. Wow. I had been going to El Salvador with another of us, actually with my local church. Gotcha. And I brought this project to my club and convinced well, not convinced them, but they embraced it. Right. And that club actually put up$10,000 that was matched, I call it magic money with the district grants, the global grants, DAF, donor revise funds. Right. And they got the piece of equipment. That's fantastic. Yeah. And so people with diabetes can have the test and cataracts removed and all of that. And that makes you feel good. It did, it did. And it made me feel good because it demonstrated one person having an idea, but not trying to go at it solo. Wow. Involving other people and getting them excited about a place and a people that they had never met. And so they trusted me to be their eyes and hands in El Salvador. My club did.

SPEAKER_04 47:49

Wow. Well, President elect, Jimmy, thank you so much for not only for just having a really cool story. I mean, you're going, you like I was joking because I really don't think you had a choice. You had to be in Rotary. You you weren't given a choice. Rotary just kept hunting you down until you joined us.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

No, I think a service, a laugh of service is really the best blessing someone can have. And as a physician, I can it's part of it. We don't serve uh.

SPEAKER_04 48:20

It's like in your DNA. Literally.

SPEAKER_00 48:22

And the rotary is provided the the best vehicle to do that with so many areas of focus. The good thing with watery, it's that one area, it's that one cause. It's many important cause that will m move humanity forward. And this is really the true, true, true, true uh blessing and in fact. Okay, okay. Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you so much for having me and uh Gwyn. Keep keep up the good work. Thank you. I will.

SPEAKER_04 48:51

I'm not gonna say you're not a cheerleader, but your approach is just so elegant, is the one that comes to mind.

SPEAKER_02 48:59

Well, it you you know, it it's it's a blessing and a challenge.

SPEAKER_04 49:07

And I say that because I say that about the other end, about being so we out there, yeah, that sometimes that can be challenging.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

Well, because we we live in a society that that is very noisy, chaotic, and there I say it again, noisy. Yep, and we're not terribly comfortable, number one, with silence. We're very uncomfortable with silence. We think we have to fill that space with doing. And somebody once said to me, might have been a spiritual director. I I don't think I made this up. We are human beings, not human doings. Right. And and so my my my style and and that's how I approach my world. I just this morning I was having breakfast with another Rotarian. We were just talking about our day and the busyness of it all. And I just kind of mentioned, I said, well, the way I ease into my day. I don't charge into my day. It's just the way I guess I I grew up. I did not grow up in a noisy, chaotic house. My my my fam my home was very structured, orderly, not in a militaristic fashion.

SPEAKER_04 50:46

Right, but a place where everything and everything in this yeah yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:51

And and so that just bec has become part of how I enter spaces.

unknown 50:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:59

I think you're gonna be a really amazing president. I'm fascinated to find out how this different approach really works in your club. And I I I mean that with the highest respect in the world because we've all been at Pell's where they're supposed to rah-rah you up, and you're gonna go, I'm I'm rah-rah.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

I am okay.

SPEAKER_04 51:25

So you're rah-rah.

SPEAKER_02 51:26

I am very rah-rah.

SPEAKER_04 51:28

But but you're gonna go back to your people, and it sounds to me that you're gonna find help people find the beauty in themselves, and we're gonna go out and make the world a better place. Like it's a different approach.

SPEAKER_02 51:43

Yeah, I I also have always believed that what we need to do what we have to do, that it it it it's already present within us. Okay. And sometimes my task is to help you to discover that, not to not to tell you, but maybe perhaps to show you. Gotcha. Or or to help the the wisdom that you need, or that the we, the collective we. We we we already know what it is. We just need to have it unfold and discover the joy, the wonder, and and ask the right questions.

SPEAKER_04 52:48

Come back and talk to me next next year, if not sooner, because I would love I'd love to know how this approach works. Because I think I think there's this, you know, a lot of people forget that sometimes uh this the stream may seem really calm. There's a lot of energy underneath that water there that can do just as well. So rah-rah comes in all shapes and sizes.

SPEAKER_02 53:14

Thank you. I I I am very in fact, my husband says to me, Wendy, you need to slow down. You you're gonna give yourself your husband needs to meet me because I think you're very calm. No, he doesn't mean I'm not calm, but he just means I'm very, I'm very energetic. I mean, I'm always thinking, you gotta do this. Let's what about this? What about that? I've got like 10 projects going on all the time.

SPEAKER_04 53:41

But you but you're coming at him from just a place of peace. Yes, yes instead of a place of I gotta get it done.

SPEAKER_02 53:46

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 53:47

And from a place of I want to get it done.

SPEAKER_02 53:48

Yeah, yeah. I I don't I don't work from chaos.

SPEAKER_04 53:53

Don't work. So there you go. There's the takeaway from the whole weekend. All the presidents don't work from chaos.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

Work from a place of peace and stillness.

Closing Notes And How To Watch

SPEAKER_04 54:09

Come from a place of peace and stillness. What do you think? Now, I tell ya. Thank you. Let's just, let's just, not I tell you, let's just start with thank you. I get really jazzed when I go on location and especially when I hear from our next generation of leaders that are coming. These presidents were all excited. These presidents all had new ideas, and some of our chaperones and others that came and talked to me in the booth, they're very excited to know that Rotary is still strong. Rotary has still got lots of ideas. Rotary, however, sometimes needs to get out of its own way. But uh, I think it's doing okay. Everybody went home energized. Everybody went home ready to rock and roll. But there was another group of people that have a lot of leadership ahead of them and a lot of shoes to fill, and that would be our next year's leadership, district governors. I got to meet four out of the seven, because let me tell you, it was really busy for them at the end of the time of the weekend for them to stop by the booth, but I did have a chance to catch all the delinquents together. So next week, super exciting, you're gonna meet your new district governors. We're gonna hang out with those delinquents one more time. And most importantly, I want you to remember that this whole thing is on YouTube. The Action to Impact YouTube channel. Check it out. So even though this one on the audio file kind of jumped around to all different people, if you check it out on YouTube, maybe it might even make some more sense. And of course, on YouTube, you can translate it into all different languages. Let's make it perfectly clear. Just because this was Northeast Pels doesn't mean that there are not Pels that go on all over the world every single year. So check it out on YouTube. It's a lot of fun. And check us out next week for part two of Voices from Northeast Pels. And uh by the way, if you want me to hit your Pels next year, let me know. Rotarianpod at gmail.com. See ya next week.