This quote from Benjamin Franklin: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” is very timely when we start our year. For that matter, it is invaluable in anything that we seek in life. I heard our Program Quality Director, Daisy Wei, use this quote when addressing our new leaders last year, and it was well received. It was an excellent reminder to all of us. Other district leaders referred to this passage in our leadership training. I am sure most of you have used or at least heard of it before. The real question is, do we fully engage to use and follow it to achieve our goals? Or do we see it as another task we must complete because somebody asks us to do it? Ironically, I sometimes fall into that attitude of “Let me just finish it, so I can check off another box in my to-do list.” Which I know is wrong. I just needed to be reminded, and we can all use a reminder.

We are always advised not only to develop a plan but to develop a plan and also use it. We are constantly reminded not to let it collect dust but to refer to it as we go through our journey to achieving our goal. Most importantly, update it as we find any adjustments that we need to make.

I know you have done your plans at every level, club, area, and division. As members, I assume you have incorporated your goal into your Club Success Plan. For instance, I have been working on my Dynamic Leadership path for some time now, and I plan to finish level 2 and level 3 this year. In parallel, I have started my Engaging Humor path and am conditioning to complete my level 4. You might find this too much to spend in one year, but that is me. I already laid out what I must do for this year in my plan and will stick to it. You can start with a simple goal, like aiming to finish level 1 of a path. Plan out your speeches for the year and commit to them.

Likewise, at our district level, we made our plan, and we can summarize it as follows: 

1. 1. 10% growth in membership.
   2. Keep as many clubs as possible while starting new clubs to replace lost clubs.
   3. 40% Clubs Distinguished Goal. 

We outlined strategies, resources, and timelines in our District Success Plan (DSP) to achieve these goals. It consists of steps to encourage all our members to excel in their achievements through incentives, training, and much more. Please refer to our DSP for more details HERE.

We will monitor our advancement closely by constantly referring to our plan. We will check your progress through your Area Directors and Division Directors. We have prepared our plans at the club, area, division, and district levels; hence we have planned to succeed.

Eugene Sicat, DTM 
District 42 District Director