Malcolm Tagg - District Governor: "Thank you sincerely for allowing my wife Judith and I the opportunity to have what has been a supremely enjoyable year"

By the time this item is published in Sharing Rotary Stories, my year as DG will be very firmly closing.

From Judith and me, thank you sincerely for allowing us the opportunity to have what has been a supremely enjoyable year.

I never held any ambition to be a District Officer, let alone DG. I can, though, thoroughly recommend it to all. Yes, it involves a bit of hard work but that is amply repaid by the privilege of visiting so many Clubs, attending RYLA, being with a Rotakids club as they received their charter, marvelling, whilst at Louth Interact Charter celebration, at their prosthetic hand project and most recently joining with Leeds Rotaract as they celebrated their Charter. May the enthusiasm of our younger colleagues work its way through to continuing participation in Rotary in future years.

As we’ve visited clubs we’ve been impressed by the huge range of projects from the very small to the very large. Above all, the sense of fellowship stands out.

Any downsides?

Two:

• Travel; on 29^th November Judith and I arrived very late to Ilkley Club’s meeting at Ben Rhydding due to a fog that reminded us both of the London Smogs of yesteryear (yes we can remember the tail end of them). We couldn’t even see the kerb, let alone more than a yard beyond the tip of the car bonnet which made for an interesting (there are shorter more descriptive words I could use) journey!

• I’ve missed attending my own club. I’ve been a few times but not as often as I’d like. It’s amazing how many clubs meet on a Monday like mine does!

District continues to have clubs of significantly varying size and sadly, at 1 July, will lose 3 more. I know that some of the Rotarians displaced from those clubs have gone on to join other clubs or the Yorkshire / North Lincolnshire Hub.

I’m grateful to those clubs which, when I’ve visited, have invited other local clubs to be with them. With 96 clubs it’s pretty much impossible to attend each one individually.

To all the District Officers who’ve made year so easy and pleasurable to contend with – Thank you.

As I’ve been at pains to mention on most of my visits; District, RGBI and RI are merely administrative constructs in place to help us collectively do the real work of helping others, locally, nationally and internationally, whilst having fun doing so. Please use them to make your life easier.

I’m encouraged that many clubs regularly review the ‘what, how and when’ of how they ‘do’ Rotary and, especially that a significant number of those clubs have made changes that are membership friendly.

From our perspective it’s been brilliant. Thank you.