In preparation for the 2024-’25 Rotary year, all incoming Club Presidents go through training (either locally, online or at another training event in the country). Many of your President-Elects (PEs) spent 2 ½ days going through PNW PETS (Pacific Northwest President-Elect Training Seminar) in February. They were joined with over 450 President-Elects from 9 other districts, which makes PNW PETS the largest Rotary President-Elect Training in the world! With trainers and senior leadership, we had over 650 people attend PNW PETS.
Your PEs did a deep dive into the Rotary Foundation, Club Operations, Creating Successful Clubs, Fundraising, Building/Leading Strong Boards, Courageous Conversations and the Rotary Action Plan. Hint: If you’re looking for a meeting topic, you might ask your PE to share what they learned at PNW PETS. Moreover, because we combine our resources with other Districts, we were fortunate to have amazing speakers, such as Rotary International Past-President, Jennifer Jones, Former Rotary VP Dean Rohrs and others. These speakers donate their time to inspire our incoming club presidents.
In addition to the robust course material, your incoming leadership spent time networking with other clubs in our District and other PEs from Alaska, Oregon, Idaho and Washington. The seminar had subject matter experts (Rotarians and Rotary International staff), so your clubs are one email/call away from additional resources. Your PEs were able to make connections and expand their network to bring ideas back to your club.
I am proud that Rotary has a culture of developing leaders. Please join me in congratulating all our Rotary Club President-Elects for completing their training and investing energy to help our clubs thrive!
Rachele Bouchand
District 5030 Governor-Elect
