RLI at PETS contains an incredible Bonus!

Course 1 of the Rotary Leadership Institute will be offered on March 7 at the Mesa Hilton, in conjunction with PETS. It is open to any Rotarian who is not a president elect or a president nominee. The fee for the course is $80, which covers the course materials, breakfast and lunch. The added bonus for this particular RLI session is that there will be well-known Rotary speakers at breakfast and lunch. On-line registration is available on the PETS web site: http://www.azrotarypets.org.

 

The breakfast speaker is Dr. Marilyn Fitzgerald. Marilyn serves as an Advisor to Board of the Rotary Action Group for Microfinance and Social Business (RAGM).  She had a three-year term on the Board of Directors as Research Director for the Rotarian Action Group for Microfinance and Social Business (RAGM). Dr. Fitzgerald consults with organizations investing in projects intended to achieve sustainable outcomes.  Marilyn is dedicated to offering assistance by providing opportunity to the economically disadvantaged in collaboratively determining their own sustainable solutions to poverty. Currently Marilyn is involved in micro-loan-plus projects in rural western Guatemala, working for the empowerment of impoverished families through community development.  She is passionate about obtaining sustainable results by recognizing beneficiaries as major stakeholders and partners in the collaboration and integrative negotiation of all projects.

 

Shirley Grace will be the luncheon speaker. She is a member and Past President of the Rotary Club of Fresno, and she served as District 5230 Governor in 2012-13. Shirley's passion is rooted in community and international humanitarian projects and also serving at the District and Zone level of Rotary. She traveled to Mexico in July of 2009 with the Rotary Club of Fresno Project Nino team of doctors, nurses, dentists and optometrists to provide health care services to over 4,200 children.  She has participated in that project every year since. Additionally, she traveled to Goa, India, District 3170 in 2013, where she participated in the delivery of 756 wheelchairs that were purchased by the funds provided through a matching grant in which all of the 58 Clubs in District 5230 participated.  While there she also worked with 350 improvised women providing equipment and materials to aid them in creating and packaging spices for sale, to improve their independence.  She also participated in a Polio National Immunization Day, providing hundreds of children with precious lifesaving drops.  She returned in 2014 as the leader of the first Vocational Training Team from District 5230, training over 1,000 teachers of special needs children techniques for use with autistic children, physiotherapy, CPR as well as vocational training for special needs schools.  Shirley also traveled to Zimbabwe in March of 2014 to assist in delivery of 550 wheelchairs, which again were a part of a matching grant written in 2013.  While there she also visited the Matau Primary School, the site of the largest matching grant the prior year which provided the funding for a canteen which can feed over 1,000 students each day.

 

The Rotary Leadership Institute is a program designed to deepen one’s understanding of Rotary and gain new perspectives. This leadership and development program will help strengthen Rotary clubs through education, collaboration and the exchange of ideas among its future leaders. There are three courses in the program taken in sequence. Each course has six parts like Insights into Leadership. It is discussion and collaboration - not lecturing! The idea is to build and deepen knowledge collectively. All RLI faculty have been trained to facilitate these courses and engage the group members in the process.