In June 2015, 2 weeks before my term as Charter President of Metropolitan came to an end, I remember so vividly realising how we were not Distinguished and yet our goal was to be President’s Distinguished by the end of that month.

I had the longest 2 weeks of my life. I frantically tried to give speeches at any club that could have me on the agenda and also organise speaking slots for my fellow members. After two strenuous weeks, we weren’t President’s Distinguished but, fortunately we managed to make it to Select Distinguished. On reflection, we felt that we were lucky to have gotten to Select Distinguished but, we hadn’t truly achieved the objectives we had set for ourselves in the Club Success Plan. The result we achieved wasn’t very meaningful to us because of the way we had gone about it and at the end of this review meeting we all agreed on one thing, that “A stitch in time saves nine.”

A timely intervention (review) can make life much easier in the future and give you a second chance at achieving your goal(s).

This month at your ExCo meeting, I encourage you to review your Club Success Plan and review the objectives you set for yourself as a club. Find out if you are achieving not only the quantitative objectives but, the qualitative ones too as it is these ones that add meaning to all we do. If you have achieved your objectives, congratulations, consider celebrating these achievements. Where there are variances, start coming up with a recovery plan today. Get your members still needing to complete speech milestones on your meeting agenda, plan special meetings or book them at other clubs that have openings on their agenda. Ensure that your club has retained all members with an interest in continuing their membership and has replenished the difference and even grown if possible.

Take this month to identify what gaps you need to close, close the gaps you can and use the holiday to recover – start 2019 on the front foot. In June 2019, at your ExCo meeting you will be Distinguished or better. Even better, your results will have meaning to you. You will be busy celebrating your success and with succession planning. You will be looking back at what you did this month and attesting to the fact that A stitch in time saves nine.

Frank Tsuro DTM
District Director