Our guests today were: Ramsey County Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire and Assistant District Governor Sandy Campbell.

 

Remember that the CPY Game Night is this Friday, 6PM, at the New Brighton Community Center.

 

It looks like we will have a great turnout for the Rotary Foundation Dinner this Saturday at the Delta Hotel in Minneapolis.  Mayor Val Johnson has provided a huge number of sweatshirts imprinted with motivational messages to be sold at the dinner as a fundraiser for the Foundation.  Contact Cindy if you can help transport some boxes of sweatshirts to the dinner.

 

Nyle Zikmund passed out copies of the latest paper edition of the Club Directory.  More copies are available if you need them.  Special thanks to MaryAnn Bawden for producing them.

 

Cindy Carlson reported that the “One Rotary Summit” last weekend was a great source of information about Rotary for new Rotarians as well as more seasoned ones.

 

Assistant District Governor Sandy Campbell introduced District Governor Paul Perez.  DG Perez joined Prior Lake Rotary in 2003, has been active in all areas of local club administration and served as Prior Lake’s president in 2013-14. Paul’s wife Susan has also joined Rotary to see firsthand all the fun that Paul was having.  Their children have been involved in Interact and Rotary Exchange and the Perez’s have been Rotary Exchange host parents. 

 

Paul revealed Rotary’s new Vision Statement:  “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.”   He broke the statement apart to emphasize each part.  Together we see a world where people unite emphasizes the collective power of Rotarians working together.   Take action to create lasting change emphasizes the importance of sustainable service initiatives.  Across the globe highlights Rotary’s international efforts.  In our Communities spotlights the importance of local Rotary programs.  And, finally Create lasting change in ourselves focuses on how we are transformed by serving others.  Rotary International President Mark Daniel Maloney’s theme for his presidency, “Rotary connects the World”, perfectly summarizes this new Vision Statement.

 

Paul has four focus points as District Governor: Growing Rotary, Growing Giving, Growing Service and Growing Connections.  Growing Rotary of course means focusing on membership growth.  Growing Giving focuses on increasing contributions to the Rotary Foundation programs like Polio Plus.  Finally, Growing Connections focuses on our need to strengthen connections both within the club and outside of the club, using both modern technology as well as good old fashioned face to face communication to promote Rotary’s “Service above Self” motto.

 

 Questions after the presentation revolved around Rotary’s Anti-Human Trafficking efforts, so I’ve included a link to the Rotary Anti-Trafficking Website.  Click here to go to the website.  President Dennis Connolly and DG Paul Perez are shown below.