The District Governor Elect, Rotary International, District 9110 Nigeria, Bola Oyebade has told his incoming district officers to brace up for the changes, innovation, and creativity the Rotary district will be experiencing next Rotary year.
"Get ready for changes, Get ready for innovation, Be creative, activate that creativity mind in you and do greater things for Rotary”, DGE Oyebade tells incoming district leaders
The Rotary district prides itself with professional and business men and women who are members of Rotary clubs scattered across Lagos and Ogun states, who dedicate their time, talent, and treasure to the service of humanity. Many of these Rotarians play leadership roles both at the club level and also at the district level.
These men and women pass through series of trainings annually which prepare them for their various roles during the Rotary year. One of such major trainings is the District Team Training Seminar (DTTS), an annual event organized for the top level of management at the district level.
It comprises people that will be occupying Zonal Coordinators positions, Assistant Governors positions, Committee Chairs, and the new position which has just been crafted for next Rotary year- New Club Development Chairs.
This year’s edition of the training was held at Golden Tulip Hotel in Festac, Lagos state on Friday, February 21 – Saturday, February 22 with over 100 incoming district leaders that will be working closely with the District Governor Elect upon his resumption of office as the District Governor on July 1, 2020 all through to June 30, 2021.
And for the very first time in the history of the training, the DGE also brought in the incoming district Rotaract leaders to participate in the training.
DGE Oyebade, while speaking with The Governor’s Newsletter crew at the sideline of the event, stated that a lot of things are changing at the Rotary International level and the district is only matching on those changes.
Stating what Rotarians and Rotaractors in the district should expect when he assumes office as the District Governor next Rotary year, the DGE said, “they should get ready for changes, they should get ready for innovation, they should be creative, and they should also activate that creativity mind in them and do greater things for Rotary.”
Speaking further, he said, “Part of the changes is that Rotaract has now been elevated, and Rotaract is now a type of Rotary membership; what that means is that things have changed. In those days, Rotaract never used to be part of us to the extent of attending our direct training and even making presentations, so things have changed. They are now part of us, and they are even making presentations.
“In the next year hopefully, they will even make more presentations and they will interact with us even much more. This Rotary year, we were able to arrange for only six of them to come in and participate with us fully without barrier and we did not even charge them for it. So yes, they are part of us. They are now a type of Rotary and they will be part of us forever until Rotary International thinks otherwise” he said.
The District Governor Elect noted that “other changes that we will be seeing next Rotary year is that we will be developing in such an anti-nominal level. Gone are the days when we will be thinking of developing by 30% and maybe hitting like 15%/20% but next Rotary year, we will be looking at 50% membership increase.
“We will also be looking at a large portfolio of The Rotary Foundation contribution and we will doing much things in the area of innovation and creativity, that’s what we will be doing”, he added while noting that the task ahead is enormous but the only thing that is constant is change, and he is up for it.
Revealing his goal for The Rotary Foundation which is the foundation arm of Rotary, he stated that his administration intends to achieve $1million contribution to The Rotary Foundation next Rotary year and part of the ways they intend to achieve that is to build on some of the old strategies of direct request from Rotarians. With that, he noted that his administration plan to get about $800, 000.
He further noted that his administration wants to develop people that will be contributing for Arch Klumph Society- these are individuals that have contributed $250, 000 to The Rotary Foundation.
“We are going to develop that heavily”, DGE Oyebade said, adding that there is a special committee that will be going after people that can make bigger donations.
“We will also be looking at corporate donations; corporate bodies as entities making direct donations to our Rotary Foundation; that is what we will be looking at”, he explained.
“Of course, the regular Every Rotarian Every Year (ERY) which is $100 expected to be paid by every Rotarian in the district every Rotary year will come, the regular Paul Harris Fellow- an individual who has contributed $1000 to The Rotary Foundation will come. We will be building also on our benefactor level, so all these, when we add them together, we will get our $1million by God’s grace”, he concluded.
Also present at the training was the District Governor, Dr. Jide Akeredolu who called the training to order, the DGE’s spouse, Linda Oyebade, Past District Governors and facilitators who were on ground to lecture the incoming district leaders.
Mrs. Chinwe Bode-Akinwande of First Bank Nigeria PLC, Mr Omo Ihube, Deputy National Sales Manager of Leadway Assurance, and Assistant Governor John Senaya also spoke to the participants on “Managing a Brand”, “Insurance and You”, and “Public Speaking” respectively.
At the end of the training, the District Governor Elect presented certificate of participation to the District Governor, Dr. Jide Akeredolu who in turn presented a certificate to the District Governor Elect, who further presented certificates to the District Trainer, Past District Governor Kennedy Edjakpomewhe, District Governor Nominee Remi Bello, as well as the Coordinator, DTTS Planning Committee, Assistant Governor Bukola Bakare.
Entertainment was not left out as the participants were thrilled to a night of fun with a lot to eat, drink, and music to vibe to on the first day of arrival.