Michelle French, one of the assistant governors in Rotary District 5330, oversees and visits the four mountain Rotary Clubs: Big Bear, Crestline-Lake Gregory, Lake Arrowhead and Mountain Sunrise.
On a recent visit – knowing there are a lot of questions about Rotary, even among Rotarians themselves – French explained what Rotary International is and how it is made up.
Based in Evanston, Ill., RI has 800 paid staff members who serve 1.2 million Rotarians in more than 200 countries. They are, French said, the only people in Rotary who are paid.
RI is made up of 34 Zones, which are primarily geographical. District 5330 is part of Zones 26/27, which support 30 Districts throughout the western U.S. and Canada.
“When we have big events like PELS (President-Elect Learning Seminar),” French explained, “they include people from those areas. When you participate in Zone events, you have the opportunity to mix with Rotarians from other parts of the country.
“We understand,” she said, “we’re all there for the same reason but we do it in different ways.”
At the recent PELS, held in February, Mary-Justine Lanyon, president-elect of the Crestline-Lake Gregory club, had the opportunity to chat with other PEs from Arizona, Hawaii, New Mexico, Texas and Montana. “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” she said. “Talking with my fellow Rotarians gave me some great ideas for the upcoming year.”
Within the Zone are those Districts – a total of 350 in RI. There are 128 in the U.S. District 5330, French noted, has 63 clubs, nearly 2,000 members and currently has 13 assistant governors; next year there will be 15.
As for membership, there are 46,000 Rotary Clubs in RI; 7,847 are in the U.S. The four mountain clubs now have 107 members, down from 154 four years ago.
“We lost 30.5 percent of our members,” French said. She added that “next year we need to do a big membership push on the mountain and bring our membership back up.”
French also said that membership in the U.S. is declining while rising in other parts of the world.
So, what is the District? “A lot of people say, ‘I know there’s a district. I know I have to pay dues but I don’t know what they do,’” French said.
She passed around a list of all the District positions, reminding her fellow Rotarians that none of these chair people are paid.
The District, French said, provides training, leadership and professional development opportunities. Many of those programs are in person and some are offered online.
“The training the District provides is one of the most beneficial resources,” she said. “They try to provide it at a low cost – usually just the cost of the meal.”
At the helm of the District is the governor; in 2025-2026 it has been Nyron McLean. Richard Lemire will assume the role on July 1 for the 2026-2027 year.
But it’s not a one-year commitment, French said, but a five-year one with a great deal of training and traveling.
As French brought her presentation to a close, she mentioned the Rotary Youth Exchange, something all the mountain clubs have participated in. She really hopes they can revive the program, which ideally has several host families, each for three months. Her vision is that the three Rim-area clubs could welcome one exchange student from another country and share the responsibility of hosting them.
For more information on the three Rim-area Rotary clubs, visit their websites:
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