Weeks 46-47, May 15-28, 2011

Wow! These last two weeks have been hectic. We finished our District Conference on Sunday, May 15th. Again, I want to congratulate Betsy Schroeder for the incredible job that she did! This week I would like to focus on Rotarian Paul Kumler and the New Orleans International Conference. If you missed the conference, you really missed a great one. This is the first time in recent memory that we have been able to travel together as a district. We had our own evening of dinner at the Oceana Grill on Wednesday night, May 25th. There were 40 of us in attendance and the fellowship and food were outstanding. Many of us attended the Southland Breakfast on May 23rd. This breakfast is a conference tradition and should not be missed. The train trip was long but loads of fun. Unfortunately, on our return, we were delayed outside Atlanta due to fallen trees on the track. This was the same storm that moved on to the upstate causing significant damage. We were so lucky that our engineer spotted those trees!
Paul Kumler, a Louisiana native and a member and past president of my club, Greenville Breakfast, made all of the arrangements for the train and the dinner. He worked for a full year on those arrangements and then was unable to attend himself because of family events. We really owe a debt of gratitude to Paul. Thank you so much for your help! This next week is a rather quiet one in the district, but, do not let the June 1 deadline sneak up on you for submitting your Governor's Citation checklist. Also, don't delay in signing up for the District Leadership Training on June 11.
Now, on a really sad note, we learned on Friday of the death on Thursday night of our Lake Wylie Charter Club President, Les Smith. Many of you met Les at the District Conference. Memorial Service arrangements are incomplete at this time but please keep his mother and sister in your thoughts and prayers.