District Leadership Council

DRAFT District Leadership Council Sun Valley Lodge, Sage Room May 15, 2009 Minutes

Convened: 8:04 a.m.

Present: District Governor H. Gene Hoge District Governor Elect Kevin Learned District Governor Nominee Terry Gilbert District Governor 2007-2008 S. Gene Day District Governor 2006-2007 Ken Reglin, Jr. District Governor 2004-2005 Jerry Timm Assistant Governor Kathleen Simko District Secretary Darl Bennett Incoming District Treasurer Nancy Koonce Incoming District Secretary Tricia Nilsson Guest: Greg Podd, Rotary International Guest: Jack Randolph, Rotary International

Excused: District Treasurer H. Richard Cook Excused: District Public Relations Ron Johnson

February 20, 2009 Minutes: Ken Reglin moved to approve, seconded by Rusty Broughton, to approve the minutes of the District Leadership Council. Motion was rescinded. Gene asked for minutes to be sent out in different versions. Kevin Learned moved to have Nancy Koonce and Gene Day to review the minutes of the February meetings with legal requirements and propose at the July meeting a suggested format and revised minutes for this meeting and last meeting. Motion passed.

Financial Report: Nancy Koonce reviewed the financial report (a copy of which is attached to these minutes). Gene Hoge is very encouraged by the financial statement. He complimented Kevin Learned for his work on the budget. Nancy stated that she is working on the format of the budget.

Kevin Learned moved to accept the financial statement, seconded by Rusty Broughton. Motion passed.

District Budget 2009-2010: Kevin noted that the District Leadership Plan provides for development of the budget by the DGE, preliminary approval of the budget by the District Finance Committee and final approval by the Presidents-Elect. He said the budget had been put together assuming no increase in club dues, and assuming that committees which generate their own revenue will produce a surplus to help cover overhead.

He pointed out that the proposed budget had a $400 surplus and assumed a mileage reimbursement rate of $.50 per mile, even though the IRS official rate was $.55.

Terry Gilbert said the budget includes the international convention in Montreal, and he offered to withdraw if necessary to help the budget. Kevin wanted to clarify that his decision to not attend this year’s convention should not be interpreted as a policy but his personal decision.

Rusty described RI’s program where you can donate frequent flier mileage. She suggested we do a similar program at the district level to help forego travel costs. The Board agreed that was a great idea. Tricia Nilsson offered to talk to Jim Manion, a Boise Sunrise member and executive at AAA Idaho, for suggestions of how to set up such a program.

Gene Hoge commended Kevin on his efforts to prepare the budget.

Membership Report: Kathleen Simko reported on activities of the committee since the last District Leadership Council. They have been working on gathering testimonials to be used in a PR campaign. They completed a survey of a majority of clubs in the district. They are working to have each club have a strategic plan for growing membership. They will be using the RI visioning process to help clubs increase membership.

The committee will be holding a breakfast meeting tomorrow morning and are asking each club for a designated person to participate in a July visioning meeting. Not all clubs can or will participate in that event, but they have a goal to have 8 people by October to complete the facilitator training and to go through the visioning training.

Kevin Learned reported that the membership goals submitted by clubs indicate a of 68 new members for next year.

Kevin reported on the status of the Arco club. They were not able to sustain a club, and decided to not to continue. They are not paying their RI dues, so it is likely they’ll lose their charter, but are able to reinstitute their charter with a “reasonable amount of time.”

Public Relations: Gene Hoge reported on the billboard campaign. RI reimbursed the District $9,000. He asked for feedback, and Ken Reglin responded that they were great. Kevin heard comments from existing members who were proud to see those billboards. In Twin Falls, Nancy Koonce commented that members had their pictures taken in front of the billboards. Greg reported that RI has found it to be more effective to give direct assistance to districts to do their own PR campaigns.

2 Kevin reported that Amy Stahl and her committee will bring a proposal to the July meeting to continue the billboard campaign next year. They would like to use the standard RI information but include pictures of local Rotarians.

Kevin also reported that we have a committee on social media, e.g. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. They intend to put a 2-3 paragraph blog entry out each week.

Foundation Report: Rusty Broughton reported that we are at $146,000 for the Annual Fund which is 75% of goal. The annual programs fund led by Marianne Barker believes we will make our goal for the year. Rusty reported we are #1 in the zone (based on the percentage of goal collected to date).

Dick Sagness and Dick Fields have agreed to chair the Permanent Fund Committee. A planning committee is meeting at 5pm this evening to listen to Greg Podd’s description of a Million Dollar Dinner event.

We are at $57,000 of our 3-year $240,000 goal polio goal. Rusty expects we will raise 33% of the goal this year once they get the final numbers.

Rusty noted that Foundation matching grant money for 2009-2010 will be substantially reduced. She is encouraging all clubs to submit matching grant requests to the Foundation on July 1 so that our grant requests will be considered first. She suggested the District continue DDF for international projects anyway. Kevin cautioned the board on the use of the DDF next year as we also need to fund the matching grants and the GSE teams. This will be reviewed in July when there will be a clearer picture on the funds.

Darl Bennett commented that he’s had several people cancel their foundation commitments instead of maintaining both commitments to the foundation and PolioPlus.

Gene Hoge thanked Rusty for her excellent report.

District Leadership Plan modifications: Kevin Learned has distributed the draft and is awaiting feedback. He has included the entire policy on Youth Protection and Risk Management and a few clean-up amendments. Kevin moved to accept the plan, seconded by Gene Day.

Gene Hoge asked if a crisis management plan is included. Kevin responded that Amy Stahl is working with RYLA and Dave Shaw and Kevin expects to have a crisis communication plan after the convention is over. The Board approved the plan as submitted.

Kevin said that plan is owned by the District Secretary and Tricia Nilsson will maintain any changes. Greg commented that he reviewed the plan and said it was one of the finer documents that he’s seen in his Rotary experience. Kevin reported that every committee has a page on the web site, and their content in the Leadership Plan is part of their web page.

3 Risk Protection Status: Gene Day reported that the assignment of Kym Mowery as the District Risk Management Coordinator was a great idea. The modifications that Don Lojak requested were reasonable and were included. They modified the title of Youth Protection Officer to District Risk Management Coordinator to better reflect the responsibilities. Greg Podd also congratulated the District on that document.

Webmaster: Gene Hoge reported that our current webmaster is retiring. Kevin Learned reported that Darl Bennett has agreed to be the District webmaster. Kevin asked that Frank Lara be in our thoughts and prayers, and will be organizing a ceremony to honor Frank and his contributions to Rotary. He will be asking others to help.

Family of Rotary. Kevin shared that Doug Cleveland and Annie were at dinner last night, and their son and daughter are both fighting serious illnesses. He is having a hard time handling Family of Rotary responsibilities, and the District needs to think about shifting this responsibility to someone else and forming a committee that would include Doug Cleveland. Rusty said that Family of Rotary needs a comprehensive plan on the website. Ken Reglin suggested that the club representatives form a committee.

Dictionary Project Gene Day reported the Dictionary Project is moving ahead and that we have a goal of getting a dictionary to every third grader in the district next year.

Conference: Gene Hoge reported that there are 275 registrations to date and may hit 300 attendees, and he thanked everyone for their support on the conference. He expects to have a positive balance from the conference. Gene recognized that this is Jerry Timm’s last meeting on the District Leadership Council

Other: Jerry Timm reported that we have 15 current Paul Harris Society members, and he will e-mail Marianne Barker to see if they have completed their commitment. Jerry reported that he thinks the raffle proceeds will be down from last year.

Greg Podd thanked for including him at the conference. He said we are one of the top districts, and our consistency between District Governor terms of office is important.

Terry Gilbert thanked Darl Bennett for his service as secretary. He also thanked the Family of Rotary for the outpouring of affection and concern after the death of his mother and his wife’s recent surgery.

Meeting adjourned at 10:03 a.m.

4 Rotary District 5400 District Leadership Council Action Item List from May 15 meeting

Item Responsibility Due Date Recast Minutes of District Leadership Council into Gene Day/Nancy July 9, Minutes of Rotary District 5400, Inc. Koonce 2009 Use of frequent flyer miles to reduce district travel cost Tricia Nilsson July 9 Public relations grant proposal Amy Stahl July 9 DDF update Kevin Learned July 9 Crisis management plan Kevin Learned July 9 Family of Rotary plan Kevin Learned July 9