Harry Bolton takes long-service leave from Tuesday to hit the ground running after being installed as Rotary District 9460's district governor for 2019/20.
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During his tenure he is committed to visiting all 55 of the district's clubs, totalling some 1200 members. In some cases he sits down with three clubs in one day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings. The district boundary extends along the coast from Runaway Bay to Grafton, west to Goondiwindi and across through Warwick, Boonah and Beaudesert, giving Mr Bolton a diverse geographical area to oversee.
"We'll have covered more than 10,000 kilometres by the time we're finished," he said of himself and wife Shauna.
READ MORE: Youth focus continues at Rotary changeover
In addition to the club rounds there are other official events like club milestones and the zone conference in New Zealand. Importantly for Tenterfield he will host the district conference here with an anticipated role call of some 400 to 600 delegates.
Local accommodation houses have been alerted, and many are already receiving bookings.
Mr Bolton said the March 27/29 program will include a number of local, national and international speakers of note, and some of the sessions will be open to non-members.
While Tenterfield Memorial Hall will serve as the main meeting venue as it undergoes transition into a conference centre, but Mr Bolton said it will serve as such on that weekend.
The welcome dinner will be held on the Friday night at Tenterfield Railway Station followed by the conference dinner on Saturday night at the Tenterfield Transport Museum. Rotary is also coordinating with other community groups for catering work.
"It puts a bit of money back into those groups," Mr Bolton said.
Mr Bolton is not anticipating any major shakeups during his term in office.
"I'll guide the district for the next 12 months and continue all the good work Rotary does, and offer some leadership and support of the clubs' own programs," he said.
Rotary International's program to eradicate polio remains the organisation's number one priority.
He said it's a challenge of all service clubs, not just Rotary, to engage with the community and foster that local connection.
Caitlin Reid will step up into his council role as senior economic development officer during his leave until mid-October. With the bulk of the club visits then behind him he said he will see how things unfold after that.
He felt Sunday's investiture lunch was a wonderful event with many past district governors present as well as Tenterfield leading the way in younger members, and he thanked them all for their support.
