Yes, it is that crazy Rotary season
We know clubs are working to complete 2016-17 goals and projects and also transitioning to the 2017-18 Rotary Year. And it must seem like we are nagging … “get this done, get that in, enter your data, and sign up for the Grant Management Seminar (GMS).”
All we are going to encourage you to do today is to submit your final district grant report through the Grants Module on dacdb.com as soon as you have spent the funds you received from the District Rotary Foundation Committee (DRFC) for your grant. Even if your actual grant project isn’t completed, if you have spent all of the funds received for your grant from DRFC, you can submit your receipts, in situ pictures, and any other information required.
Not there yet? OK, then be sure you are collecting and scanning all of your receipts, and other images and documents so you have it all in one convenient file or two for easy compiling and submitting when the time is right. As you collect and scan, a practical thing to do is to share your electronic files with another person or two so that a catastrophic computer failure doesn’t undo all of the work you have already done to document your project.
We want you to be ready for your next district grant in 2017-18 and to do that you must first have timely filed your final 2016-17 grant report. The district grant application deadline for the 2017-18 year is May 15. Yep, slightly less than two months.
Hats off to Fluvanna and to the James River (Richmond) clubs for having already submitted their final report for auditing by Don Vaught of the Brandermill club. The photo at left is one of the many photos submitted by the James River (Richmond) Rotary as part of its final grant report.
To assist clubs the District is providing three opportunities to meet the GMS attendance requirement. The first GMS will be held on March 25 at the Colonial Heritage Club in Williamsburg. It is a 9 am to Noon seminar with check-in beginning at 8:30 am. It is important to register by March 18 so that the headcount for the World Famous Full Southern Breakfast can be given to Colonial Heritage. Full details can be found on this 
Many things were discussed but most folks can’t handle more than three things at one time so here are three …
breakout at the District Conference in September. We can still remember the saris and the smells of the incense, sandalwood, and tea. Colleen is on the right in the blue sari. No one walked out of the breakout without a visceral sense of the challenges faced and the work accomplished by those with the commitment to actually take such a journey.
PDG Stephen Beer (Innsbrook), Diane Waters (Brandermill), and Colleen Bonadonna (New Kent) are End Polio Now Warriors on a zone 33-34 NID trip to India. Fortunately for us, Nancy Barbee, coordinator of the expedition, is publishing a blog documenting the trip. You can read and follow the blog at 
Williamsburg. Any club wishing to apply for a district or a global grant must have one or more representatives attend one of the three scheduled GMS events. This one is a hiney-in-the-chair-in-person seminar. There is a great Full Southern Breakfast and ends around noon. There will be additional GMS Webinars in April. One will focus on district grants and the other will focus on global grants. You may want to do all three :), but no extraordinary breakfast with the webinars. Registration will be available soon on dacdb.com for the March 25th GMS.
D7600 Rotary Foundation News 