December 31, 2016

Happy Holidays, Fellow Rotarians:

I hope you are enjoying the holidays and have a very special 2017. Obviously 2017 will be special for me. The holidays are special too. I feel blessed that my family can celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas. Some of you may have seen my Facebook posting two Christmases ago when I looked at my breakfast table and saw four people: a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, and a Muslim. My Indonesian Muslim daughter has returned to her home, but this year I saw at that table a Catholic, a Protestant, two Jews, and a Hindu. My granddaughter at age 2 was able to join us at the table, and Sid from India is in my home at least for a while. Rotary enables us to do great things to contribute to international understanding and peace. And yes, I was able to see my other grandchildren later Christmas day.

My activities as District Governor Elect are taking off. In two weeks I will be in San Diego for the International Assembly with all 535 District Governors Elect representing 200+ countries and territories. We’ll all share one goal: to prepare for our year of leadership of our Districts. To me, that starts with my listening to you tell me about your clubs.

To that end, we have completed two of six PETS1 sessions with our District’s Presidents Elect. The other four are scheduled for January and February. These replace what in the last few years was called Pre-PETS at District Training Assemblies. They provide me and our District Training Committee an opportunity to listen to you before setting the final agenda for Great Lakes Rotary PETS, or our PETS2, which will take place in Kalamazoo March 16 to 18. I am urging all Presidents Elect to get registered for both the PETS1 in your region (if you are not in the Great White North, Top of Michigan, or LakeCharlevoix regions) and Great Lakes PETS. Your District has already paid your way, so don’t hesitate. I also urge the Presidents Nominee, those who will take office in 2018, to attend PETS. Registration for GLRPETS is open and accessible at For PETS1 registration, contact your Assistant Governor. If you are unable to attend your region’s PETS1 session, please attend in another region. If you can’t attend GLRPETS in March, please contact me or Kathy Hegedus about the option to attend in a different region. But note that that experience will be different and leave you with less local support.

Many of those who attended PETS1 up north thought it was such a good experience that they asked for a PETS1.5. The Top of Michigan region PEs are scheduling some activities to help themselves exchange ideas. Another activity that provides ideas exchangeis Rotary Leadership Institute. Our District participates in RLI Great Lakes Region which has an Institute scheduled February 11, 2017, in Shipshewana, IN. It’s open to all Rotarians. Please consider registering. You can find further information and a registration form on our District website.

I want to draw to your attention also the upcoming Rotary World Peace Conference to take place in Ann Arbor March 31-April 1. In the coming months I will be asking to attend many of your club meetings to talk about this. Information and registration forms are available at

Obviously there is a lot going on. I know you can’t do everything, but consider these opportunities carefully. May you and your families be blessed in 2017. I look forward to working with you in this coming year.

Ed Swart

District 6290 Governor Elect (2017-18)