In Gear | Rotary in Southern New Zealand In Gear - Issue 3 | Page 24
Stuart Heal
LEADER CALLS ON KIWI NOUS
At the start of every year, more than
500 Rotary district governors-
elect descend on San Diego,
in the United States, from all
corners of the globe. They
arrive for an intensive six days
of training and ideas-sharing
in preparation for their new
role, and to gain insight into the
vision and special initiatives
of the incoming international
president.
Not surprisingly, with more
than 1100 delegates in total and six
languages to accommodate, staging the
International Assembly is something of
a feat of organisational engineering. For
this year’s assembly, District 9980’s very
own Stuart Heal – supported by partner,
and fellow Rotarian, Adrienne – was at
the helm.
Here, Stuart and Adrienne share a
behind-the-scenes glimpse at what
it takes to put on one of the biggest
events on the global Rotary calendar,
together with their personal highlights,
a candid take on some of the pressing
challenges our organisation is facing,
and the presentations from the
assembly they reckon you must watch.
When Australian Ian Riseley was named Rotary
International 2017-18 president, one of the first calls he
made was to Cromwell’s Stuart Heal.
Ian Riseley and Stuart Heal
After consulting partner
Adrienne, an accomplished
Rotarian in her own right,
Stuart accepted Ian’s invitation
to take on the role of assembly
moderator. And, so began a
rigorous 15 months overseeing
the conference’s organising
team, which comprised both
volunteers and staff from
Rotary International’s head
office in Chicago.
“To start with, Ian and I sat down and set out our personal
goals and areas of common focus and interests – Ian is
particularly passionate about peace and the environment,”
Stuart says.
Months of conference calls and online meetings, as well as
four trips to Rotary International headquarters, followed.
Stuart and the organising team held intensive planning
sessions to draft and fine-tune the curriculum, organised
guest speakers and keynote presentations, ensured
training content was current and accurate, decided on
entertainment and food, and co-ordinated information
technology training and promotional audio-visual displays
– not to mention oversaw the design and roll out of a new
interactive, assembly-specific app.
At the hub of the training were breakout sessions,
facilitated by 39 training leaders and 29 partners
from around the world – including District 9980’s John
Prendergast and wife Donna, of Invercargill. Bruce Cowan,
of Dunedin, 9980’s district governor-elect, accompanied by
Stuart Heal Adrienne Heal
• Rotary Club of Cromwell
• Past-president of Rotary Club of Dunedin
• Past-district governor, 9980, 1999-2000
• Past-Rotary International director, 2010-12
• International Assembly moderator, 2017 • Rotary Club of WASH eClub
• Past-president of Rotary Club of Cromwell
• International Assembly partners’
programme co-ordinator, 2017