District Governor Sean Hogan visits Monroe Rotary

Posted by Greg Starup

on Sep 12, 2012

The most honorable and entirely enjoyable District Governor Sean Hogan and his wife Carol paid an Official visit to the club on Wednesday, September 12th. Assistant DG Linda Murray introduced Sean, and the club presented him with a framed memento of Monroe Rotary Field, and made a generous donation to the Foundation for Polio Plus.

DG Sean presented special awards to two of our members for inspirational service in recognition of the year's theme, "Peace Through Service". Polly Keary for her project called "Vecinos", working with rural schoolkids in Nicaragua, and Neil Watkins for his work and leadership in the Skykomish Valley with food banks in the area, and his work in Africa on Rotarian missions.

Sean shared his passion for Rotary, describing moments in his career that had special meaning and really showed what valuable contributions are made by Rotarians. He challenged the club with four goals for the coming year:

Achieve 10% net growth in club membership. We can do this first by making our club a desirable activity for members, thereby retaining members, and by asking people to become members that we feel will appreciate the opportunity to serve others.
Attract young people by reinventing our clubs and communication methods. (New Generations)
Eradicate Polio by contributing to the Rotary Foundation. To date there have been 128 polio cases reported in the World this year. We are very close, but complacency could allow a resurgence of the disease.
Tell the Rotary Story. Our story is powerful and not told enough. We need to utilize new forms of communication as part of our public relations strategy, as well as strengthen traditional methods, like sharing one-to-one with family, friends, neighbors and colleagues.

DG Hogan also described the upcoming District Conference scheduled in Vancouver from May 30th through June 2nd, 2013, which will be very different from past conferences, including an evening at the Vancouver Aquarium, and Flash Mob dance at the Vancouver Art Museum, and many other fun events.

After the regular meeting Sean met with the Board to perform an informal SWOT analysis. Club Strengths included our ambitious nature and diverse projects. Rotary Field is an outstanding example. Minimal outreach to other clubs and light District involvement may be a Weakness. We have Opportunities to expand the club membership and therefore resources, and many Opportunities for service. I missed any Threats that might have been discussed.

Sean and Carol were very excited to view Monroe Rotary Field, and Ric Carlson provided an excellent description of how the project came about, the many challenges involved, and stories of some of the kids that have played in the league over the years. The next step of constructing bathrooms is beginning now.