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Dear Rotary Friends in Zones 31-32:
The January Board meeting ended yesterday and I wish to update you on the realignment of zones.
The Rotary International By-laws require a realignment of the zones every 8 years so they are nearly equal in the population of Rotarians. A number of unsuccessful attempts have been made over the last few years to realign the zones. At the January Board meeting, it was voted with one negative vote to realign the zones. The Americas from Argentina to the northern tip of Canada loses two zones. Europe gains one due to growth in Eastern Europe and Asia gains one due to growth in India and Korea.
The loss in the Americas reflects the fact that some of our zones were less than half the size of the largest zones in other parts of the world. The two smallest zones in the United States were zones 31 and 32, our zones.
The decision of the Board thus impacted our area significantly. The new alignment of our districts will be as follows:
Districts 7040, 7790, 7810 will be in a zone that includes most of Canada, Alaska and Russia east of the Urals. These three districts have clubs in both the US and Canada. They will now be solely in what is largely the old Zone 22 although it will be renumbered. This zone has 35,193 Rotarians. (based on Dec 2006 semi annual reports)
Districts 7120, 7150, 7170, 7190, 7350, and 7370 will be in a zone that includes western PA, part of Ohio, and part of Michigan. This zone to be numbered zone 29 has 35,115 Rotarians.
A new zone 32 will include districts 7210, 7230, 7250, 7260, 7390, 7410, 7430, 7450, 7470, 7490, 7500, 7510, 7640, 7780, 7850, 7870, 7890, 7910, 7930, 7950 and 7980. This zone has 38,399 Rotarians.
Districts 7620 and 7630 will be in zone 33 which also includes Virginia, the Carolinas and parts of West Virginia and Tennessee. This zone has 38,858 Rotarians.
The old zone 31 will be choosing a director in September 2008 with the nominating committee members being chosen at your district conferences this year. The new zones will be utilized to choose the members of the nominating committee for RI President beginning with the committee that meets in August 2009.
For future selections of directors the new zone 32 will be paired with the old Zone 22. (Canada etc.) The new Zone 29 will be paired with the new Zone 30 and Zone 33 will be paired with Zone 34. Zones 33 and 34 had no changes other than the two of our districts they are receiving. These pairings are unchanged from the current except that the pairing for Zone 32 is new as the old zone 31 will be essentially gone. The exact timeline of which new zones will choose directors in which future years will be determined at the June meeting of the board. A three member committee of the board will be looking at this issue and other transition details with a report back to the Board in June 2008.
This committee will look at what year DGES begin attending GETS in the new zones, when the RRFCs will be working with the new areas as well as myriad other details. This will certainly not affect the Institute in Philadelphia.
As for Institutes themselves, Mike Colasurdo is here in Evanston with me and our current thinking is that Zone 32 will meet after the Niagara Falls Institute in 2009 with the zone that includes most of the NY and PA districts that are moving to the zone to the west. Thus all of these districts will still be together at Institutes. It will be an institute with three zones. It is actually close to our current pairing for the Northland Breakfast at the convention each year. The director to be nominated this September will need to confirm the Institute pairings. Then again, the pairings may be set by the Board in June. It is too early to know. President Wilf has asked me to chair the worldwide transition committee meeting between now and June so any input would be appreciated to either Mike Colasurdo or myself.
The realignment of zones was a difficult process. Many alternatives were considered. The one negative vote was a recorded negative vote from a director from a Texas district as seven Texas districts have been combined in a sectioned zone with Mexico and Central America and thus will be the only zone in the USA to be able to choose a director from their section of their zone every 8 years instead of every four years.
It is my hope that this is not too confusing!
I know that the news of the realignment will disappoint many of you. Others will look at it as an opportunity to meet new friends. We all realize that the realignment needed to be done in order to comply with the requirement for zones to be fairly equal in number.
I look forward to seeing many of you at events in the coming months, at various PETS, at the Northland Breakfast, at the LA Convention and in Philadelphia this September.
Best regards,
Mike McGovern
RI Director 2006-2008
RIVP 2007-2008
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