President Elect Training

I just got back from spending all day Friday and half the day today at what is know in Rotary as PETS (President Elects Training Seminar).  It's multi districts so there were I am guessing around 200 or so incoming presidents for club's all around NYS.  I am really happy that I went to PETS, I am even more excited about what our club already has accomplished and can do in the future.  Met some wonderful people too !!

My mind has been going 10,000 miles a minute these last few days with ideas, concerns, are we doing things right?, am I going to do a good job?, what can we do better?, ...... I think the greatest thing about PETS was meeting other PE (President Elects) and hearing that for the most part they are thinking the sames things. 

What made me feel really good was that most of the things that our club should be doing, we already are :)  so kudos to the ERC (ElmiraRotaryClub) for being at the forefront. 

There is still a lot of planning to do and I am very grateful that I have an inspiring, excited and active board and committee chairs that want to see our club move to the next level too!  Without these folks, I couldn't even imagine accomplishing what we have already and what we hope to do in the future.  :)

Rotary's theme for the 2011-2012 year is "Reach Within to Embrace Humanity" The biggest thing I took from Kalyan Banerjee, RI President-elect theme speech was when he said "In this life, you will find we may not always be able to do great things. But we can always do small things, with great love." and he also talked about change being one of the 3 focuses for this year... " So, let’s look at the things that we can do better, things that we should be changing, and things that we haven’t started working on yet. I believe we must have the wisdom and courage to see these and identify them and engage ourselves in them. Indeed, I believe we are in Rotary to change the world, for why else would we be Rotarians? We believe our future will be better than the past. I’m so fond of quoting Mahatma Gandhi, who said:  “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” And so, our third emphasis in 2011-12 will be change, and we start by being the change we wish to see in the world ourselves. If we wish for peace, we start by living in peace ourselves, in our homes and in our communities. If we wish environmental degradation to stop, if we wish to reduce child mortality or to prevent hunger, we must be the instrument of that change — and recognize that it must start within us, with each of us."

Here is a link to part of his speech 2011-2012 RI Theme Speeach "Reach Within to Embrace Humanity"