From President LaRene Cox, “One of the presentations which particularly touched my heart was the Japanese delegation who spoke on the efforts in polio eradication. RI hires workers for $150 a month to go into difficult places without military security to give babies the vaccination.  They are at train stations, expressways and refuge camps.

 

She also noted tennis champion Roger Crawford (rogercrawford.com) was an excellent motivational speaker. He was born with several physical handicaps – only two fingers on one hand and one on the other.  He was also missing his left leg and some toes on his right foot.  But these missing appendages didn’t prevent him from excelling as an athlete.

 

He said, “skillset is what we can do. Mindset is what we believe we can do.  It is also the single predictor of success.”  Direction asks, “how can we do more?”  Goals are a plan determining how we will do something.  Our purpose is our emotional commitment to something.  Our power of clarity determines where we are coming from and where we are going.  And, consistency is more important than perfection.  It’s doing something over and over again and never quitting.”

 

PDG Jim Coleman calls this District Conference “one of the best.  The foreign guests were enlightening including those who provided insight into the behind the scenes of polio eradication.  We were also very privileged to be in the company of RIPN Larry Lunsford … and it was great to see many friends who are part of Rotary District 5420. A highlight was having the number of our club members in attendance.”

 

Linda Baker noted, “In everyday Rotary we focus on our club and district (as we should) but RI can be very complex and difficult to understand.”

 

Dale Desmond was impressed to learn “The Rotary Foundation has raised more than $2 billion in its history.”

Thanks to all who sacrificed a weekend to attend District Conference in an effort to learn more about Rotary.