On Your Mark: District Governor School

It was 4 days of intense training but Mom finally graduated from District Governor school in Denver, though it was not without a whole lot of frustration, tears and stress - particularly mine - among this year's  31 District Governor candidates.  I am grateful to have had very valuable public speaking experience even but, at the time, I didn't think I'd survive.  While I succeeded in making it all the way to the end of the class, it was EXTREMELY difficult.  I've never doubted my ability to teach and train, so I was the most surprised at how much I struggled.  The difficulty came when our facilitator gave us the assignment to tell our Rotary story in exactly 2 minutes. They were timing us right down to the second ... and we were being filmed and critiqued with each presentation ... and I couldn't do my presentation at all!  To make matters worse, we were all told before breakfast, lunch and dinner, 6 of us would be called out of the audience to give our presentations ... and at the last possible second, we would be asked to tweak the talk to add a call to action about Rotary membership, foundation giving or branding.  We were supposed to be "warned" but the first time I was called up, it was without any advance notice.  But, perseverance won out and I was finally able to do what I was being trained to do.

Guess its "if at first you don't succeed, suck it up ... and keep trying!"

I suspect, during my very busy year as Rotary District Governor, I will look back and laugh about my struggle to master the art of public speaking, but in the moment, there was nothing funny about it!

DGN Judy Zone was unable to attend this intense, but absolutely amazing and fun training due to her husband’s recent accident and subsequent surgery, but DG John Hanrahan made the trip (although he was only able to be there for one day because of another commitment).  The Saturday evening celebration was not just a party … but a party and a half!  I am both apprehensive and “can’t wait” to serve in this new role!  Whoot, whoot … bring it on, D5420.  Let’s do this!