DG Steve at District 6990 conference in Florida

Buckhead

Marietta-Metro with DG Nominee Buck Buchanan

Alpharetta

Vinings Cumberland

May is a very business month! First, I want to thank all of our district mothers and thank you all for doing the incredibly important work that you do. I hope you all had a great Mother’s Day and were indeed honored appropriately a few weeks ago.

Thank you all too for remembering those that made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our nation. I saw that several clubs had special events in remembrance of our brave armed forces on Memorial Day. Thank you all for your patriotism and efforts to honor these folks and their families.

This is likely my last newsletter as your governor before DGE Cynthia Edwards officially becomes DG on 1 July. It has been an honor serving you all. You all stepped up and carried out not only RI’s message to Unite for Good but also served so well with respect to our district theme Honoring Service Heroes. I saw the impact in my 67 official club visits and at other special events and many service projects and fundraisers. The district did amazing work this year all around the world and in your local communities and it showed. We had a fantastic district conference, and it was so much fun to spend time with so many D6900 Rotarians. I truly enjoyed giving out awards to deserving clubs and individuals. I am so proud to see several new clubs (Rotary, Rotaract and companion) form up to make our district stronger. It's been my pleasure to have another visit with several clubs this month and to serve as a guest speaker at District 6990's District Conference in Florida, where I also participated in a polio event.

Thanks to all of our donors who played a key part in contributing $1.131M in total funds to the annual fund and polio plus, far exceeding the $1M goal. We have had a very active grant execution year and also made a lot of progress with opioid grants in our communities. You all have also continued moving our various youth and peace programs forward so I hope these amazing initiatives continue to grow and prosper. I cannot thank you enough for your generosity and commitment to our mission and service overall.

Special thanks to the PDG’s and governor line who helped mentor and guide me, and all of our district leadership team including AG’s and club presidents who led every day. Thanks too to our zone and RI leadership for providing overall guidance to our district. Thanks to each of you for doing what you do every day to make an impact and make the world a better place.

Please continue learning and using all the rapidly evolving tools out there for your Rotary endeavors. Keep using our public image tools to tell Rotary stories. Embrace AI and all the tools and skills that Rotary can help teach you. (Thanks to Nick Ramey and his PI team, I did 38 videos to help keep you all informed!)

I hope to see many of you at our RI president’s visit upcoming and will send out one last goodbye at the end of June! Thank you again for allowing me to serve you all. Thank you for your continued dedication to Rotary and for all that you do to serve your communities and the world. Let’s continue to Unite for Good and finish strong with membership, foundation giving, service projects and storytelling to wrap up the last month of an incredible Rotary year.