BOB MASKALL

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT TEAM LEAD

The Leadership Development Team (LDT) has continued to look at improved ways of getting the important messages from Rotary International (RI) and the Rotary GB&I Board across to our members.

Once again in 2022/23, we had 4 multi-district President-Elect Training (MDPETs) weekends spread through March and April. One of these was face-to-face and the others online.

These were widely appreciated and had the addition of one district from another cluster joining the Midlands cluster in their MDPETS. One thing that needs to be worked on now is how the MDPETs fits with the further district training to ensure that all aspects of President-Elect training is fully covered.

In order to provide facilitators for these events each year, the LDT holds facilitator training both online and face-to-face at the Rotary Support Centre in Alcester, Warwickshire. We have now increased our list of facilitators so that many of the MDPETs districts are becoming self-sufficient for their events, which helps to reduce the burden on the LDT.

MDPETS continues to be the best way of involving the higher echelons of our organisation and we were lucky enough to hear from RI President-Elect Gordon McInally and RI President-Nominee Stephanie Urchick at these events, which allows the President-Elects to hear the message straight from RI. This would not be achievable for smaller events due to their busy schedules.

In February, the Leadership Development Forum was held for District Governor Elects (DGE) and Nominees (DGN), Assistant Governors and District Training Officers.

This year, the priority was to encourage the use of the Specialist Adviser Team (SAT) members in the clusters so that more can be done to provide a top-class service to our clubs.

These experts are there to provide knowledge and advice in the five areas of Membership, Rotary Foundation, Leadership Development, Humanitarian Service and Public Image. More emphasis was placed on these five areas working together rather than in silos.

In September, Chris Davies and Bob Maskall were facilitators at the Governor Elect and Nominee Training Seminars (GETS/GNTS) along with the SAT Leads. This was held in Iceland and involved DGEs and DGNs from Zones 17 and 18.

This was a fabulous opportunity for the DGEs and DGNs to mix with members from other countries and compare notes. In January, Bob Maskall had the great honour of being a Training Leader at the International Assembly in Orlando along with his wife Kate who was a partner trainer.

It was another busy year but there is still more to be done. A big thank you to all the members of the LDT for all their contributions to a successful training year and as I complete my tenure, I wish them all the best for the coming year.