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First-Time Seminar Deemed a Success |
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 District 6150 Governor-elect Owen Lusk hosted the President-Elect Planning Seminar (PEPS) on Saturday, October 17 from 9:00 to Noon in the student center at the Searcy campus of ASU-Beebe. Seventeen clubs were represented.
The DGE took a risk in having the seminar. You know-- it had never been done before. He also challenged the participants in the seminar to take risks. At the end of the seminar, all were pleased with themselves.
This first-ever seminar for our district was offered because DGE Owen had noticed as a club president and as an assistant governor that most PEs were, as he put it, "behind before they ever started."
"They don't hear until March at PETS (president-elect training seminar) that their job is actually an 18-month job, and it began 3 months earlier in January," Lusk said. "So we just need to do something to help them before their job actually begins. "
As one participant put it, "I'm so glad I was able to attend. I really feel like I have a much better handle on what I need to do before PETS next March. Thanks so much for a great training session!"
The DGE had Governor Debbie's trainer, Jerry Smith, and Owen's aide-to-be Mitchel Smith to help plan and run the session. This "boot camp", as the seminar was sub-titled, included a challenging bingo game to discover "Who Is Owen Lusk?", discussions of the uniqueness of the leadership opportunity that Rotary club presidents have, what the role of president-elect is, and the importance of the Presidents Manual as a useful how-to guide; plus a hands-on activity to get familiar with an 18-month checklist of key events starting with January 2010.
Owen also used the opportunity to conduct an anonymous survey of the PEs in the room for his use in better understanding the presidents-elect in our district. What follows is a summary of that survey.
25% of the PEs were in clubs with below 35 members, 50% in clubs between 36-85 members, and 25% were from clubs of over 85 members.
Rotary Experience Relatively Low
56% had been a Rotarian for 3 years or less, 68% for 6 years or less, and 31% for 7 or more years.
19% of the PEs had never been to a district event before, 44% had either never, or only once, attended a district event, while 57% had previously attended 2 or more district events.
25% have four or more club assemblies a year in their club, but 31% either never have club assemblies or at most only once a year.
Low Expectations RE: Club of the Year
44% were "not sure" when asked if their club would have high or low interest in working hard to become "club of the year" during the PE's term as president; 19% said their club would have moderate interest, none said they expected high interest from their club, and 38% said they expected low interest.
While the majority (63%) , as would be expected, said they felt secure rather than insecure about being president (44% felt "very secure"), 38% were felt either insecure or less than secure.
Half of the PEs said they would want a "high amount" of assistance from their AG. 31% were not sure how much help they would need.
I want to be great, but not sure I'm looking forward to it.
When asked how much they agreed with the statement, "I'm looking forward to being club president," 28% were undecided, unsure, or disagreed with the statement. However, when asked about their level of agreement with the statement, "I want to be a great club president," everyone but one said they strongly agreed.
47 % felt that their level of knowledge about being club president was "mid-range between high and low." 20% said their knowledge was low, and 34% said it was high.
Even though 80% had said early in the seminar that they already had high or mid-range knowledge about being club president, DGE Owen Lusk was very pleased that by the end of the seminar 100% of them agreed that "this President-Elect Planning Seminar has been very worthwhile."
Or as DGE Owen would put it, it was worth the risk. |
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