District 5690 - Conference Assessment

During the 2003-04 District Conference in Garden City, Governor Gerald asked me to write an explanation about our ten($10) dollar District Conference Assessment. This is the third year the Assessment has provided support to defray some of the costs of putting on the district’s annual conference, though adopted and now memorialized in our by-laws, the Assessment is still misunderstood and frequently maligned.

The Assessment was adopted at the 2001-2002 District Assembly in Dodge and represents an effort to achieve two main goals: (1) to allow District Governors (DG) from smaller clubs to take on the job of DG without creating an unfair financial burden on their club or upon conference attendees, and (2) to build a permanent fund to allow District 5690 to present a “World class” conference with the ultimate goal of fazing out both Assessment and other budgeted conference support. Seeing the need, your delegates said, “We will do better!” They adopted the Assessment to provide better conference funding for ever better conferences to encourage ever greater attendance, and to have ever better entertainment and inspiration. The logic? —more fun and cheaper registration leads to greater attendance which feeds to larger Rotary membership which leads to more effective intra-club cooperation which ultimately leads to ever greater opportunities to become productive Rotarians as we live our motto “Service above Self.”

Unfortunately many Rotarians know little about their district conference. They don’t attend and erroneously believe this means the district conference is of no personal concern. These Rotarians don’t realize that by not going to conference, they deny themselves a valuable membership perk. Conference is a yearly opportunity to play, learn, and celebrate the Rotary world both within and without our own club.

Rotarians my choose whether to attend the conference but district 5690 has no choice in presenting the conference...RI requires it. So, every year the conference happens and every year our RI President sends a president’s representative to share in our conference… a conference normally attended by much less than 10% of District 5690’s members. Some discontent with the Assessment may result from the embarrassing fact that this large percentage of Rotarians choose not to participate. By not participating, they can’t appreciate the importance of the district conference and deny themselves a golden opportunity to share in fun, fellowship and motivation.

The district conference is prepared and presented by the DG's local club. This means both the work load and much of the financial planning burden rests upon one club. Without the Assessment’s infusion of additional monies, the costs of registration will become prohibitive with even fewer Rotarians attending. This is not fair to all concerned as it creates an unreasonable expense in both time an treasure upon a few Rotarians while providing a conference for All Rotarians! “Yes, the job of DG is voluntary,” and “Yes, our district could choose to muddle along.” Well,

The status quo wasn’t good enough and the Assessment came into being. Your delegates realized that by doing the same ol’ things in in the same ol’ way we were producing the same ol’ results! They decided “just getting by” isn’t how Rotarians do business or how we should live.

Here’s how the Assessment works. Every district Rotarian contributes ten (10) dollars per year. Of the $10, one-half goes into a permanent fund and one-half is made available to our current DG for the district conference. Since only one-half of the paid Assessment is kept growing in a permanent account, it will take several years before the fund is large enough to accomplish its lofty goals. Even as it builds, it is giving conference planners greater opportunities to bring better presentations to benefit us in our business and professional lives, to procure entertainment that will encourage attendance and give the DG an opportunity to reduce conference fees so ever more Rotarians will attend.

District 5690 Rotarians must understand that the Assessment is only for the district conference. The Assessment’s creators were assured that if terminated, remaining Assessment funds will be returned to clubs in the same proportion as contributed. This proviso keeps the fund available for only on designated purpose and will give every future DG a tool to provide our district with the best possible conference.

“Yes, it is the truth that we will continue to support the Assessment by paying 2 3/4 pennies a day.” Do you believe this an unfair amount to make our conference “world class?” I hope not. District conference is a major part of your Rotary years! A quality conference is beneficial to all concerned and will build good will and better friendships. Our Assessment keeps the “quality” in district 5690’s district conference.