Can you believe it?  After 12 months of intensive planning our year together in Rotary has launched.  I am grateful for those of you that have stepped forward to answer the leadership call.  Your talents and skills are priceless. I’m also grateful for the support we receive from you, the individual Rotarian, which is truly the strength and backbone of this worldwide organization.

What an exciting year we have planned! I’ll tell you right up front; the most important part of this Rotary District; is you.  Virtually everything that is planned for this year is focused on helping you in some manner.  This fits our basic theme…“Fellowship and Networking” because this is what we are all about.

Our Rotary International President Kalyan Banerjee has challenged us to emphasize three points: Family, Continuity, and Change.  WOW! That’s a tall order.  Family is pretty straight forward. It’s the basis of our whole society.  We will focus on how we strengthen our families and celebrate this as our year progresses.

One would think continuity and change would be the most incompatible.  The challenge is to have continuity and change at the same time.  We will accomplish this by focusing on what has worked well in the past, while at the same time expanding on it and taking it to a higher level in the future.

Our signature project this year involves networking.  We will reintroduce the concept of Rotarians doing business with Rotarians and send the strong message that it’s alright to talk about it.  In support of this networking we will introduce a revolutionary internet based tool www.RotaryYP.org which will connect you with a Rotarian… “Butcher, Baker or Candle stick maker.”  This tool will help you find a Rotarian who is doing business within 50 miles of your very own zip code.

I didn’t say it would be easy.  This reminds me of a quote I recently read: “If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”  Trust me our path will have obstacles because in District 5230 from the Pacific Ocean to the great Sierra Nevada Mountains, we are going somewhere.