Former City Administrator Judy Brigham will be installed as Rotary governor of District 6110 tonight in a ceremony at Liberty Theatre, Fort Scott.
“It’s my job to make sure all of the clubs are doing the things that they are supposed to do and reaching the goals they want to reach,” Brigham said.
It’s been a 17-year journey for Brigham, having joined “my first grown-up club” in 2000. “It was the first club that I joined not because I was a parent, but because I was an adult,” Brigham mused.
Her becoming a Rotarian wouldn’t have occurred a few years earlier. In 1989 Rotary International tweaked its constitution and bylaws to shift the organization from an all-male body.
Even today, Brigham noted, there are Rotary clubs that do not encourage women to join.
“They do not say no women, but there are no women” in their club, she said. Not so with Iola’s. Women quickly became an integral part of Iola Rotary, taking leadership roles and often being the driving force for projects. Melody Snesrud completed a year as Rotary president on June 30.
Brigham directed activities of the Iola club in 2004 as its president. She then served three years as assistant district manager. She has been working toward the governor position during that time.
District governors are chosen three years in advance and complete a series of training requirements. Once appointed they serve for a year. Twenty-four assistant governors and three lieutenant governors will assist her in serving the 79 clubs and 4,300 members throughout the four states of District 6110, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri.
A personal focus is to encourage members of each club to show support by attending sponsored events around the district.
Brigham has been at the forefront personally in support of Rotary programs aimed at helping the less fortunate. She has been involved in three Rotary mission trips, including, most recently, to Mexico to distribute wheelchairs.
“It’s a great way to spend your free time,” she said of the mission trips.
Brigham is proud of the Rotary’s most prominent project, the worldwide eradication of polio, a program which began in 1985.
“We are down to the last three countries,” she said. “It’s been billions of dollars and lots of partnerships.”
Rotary has been a partnership between Brigham and her husband Tom. They have traveled extensively together, domestically and to foreign countries, often with a focus on Rotary projects, programs and ideals.
Next year (2018-19), Tom will be the president of the Iola Rotary Club, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in February.
He agreed to accept the Rotary reins, Tom joked, only when Judy agreed to be his secretary.
“This is something that we have decided to journey together,” he said. “This is the fun part of life, it’s all good.”
ELLIS POTTER, an Iola Rotarian and among the club’s most active members, is a former District 6110 governor.
Potter continues to have a role in district affairs, as well as those affecting the Iola club on a weekly basis. Among his chores is to educate new members on just what it means to be a Rotarian.
