At home with the District Governor

When you consider all the glamorous occasions which are a necessary part of my year in office as  Consort to the District Governor, it is easy for people to think that my life is a constant whirl of dinners, receptions, celebrations and chatting to other VIPs (MPs, Sheriffs, Lieutenants, Mayors and the like).  So I think it is important to mention, as I begin the second half of my year in office, that quite a lot of my time in between engagements is taken up with more mundane, domestic activities. The DG receives a lot of e-mails, phone calls, correspondence, parcels, leaflets, bulletins, not to mention  callers at the house. It takes exceptional organisational ability to deal with all this on a daily basis, prioritising, responding, delegating as necessary and keeping all these balls in the air. Fortunately the DG has the ability to cope with all of this, and furthermore, she enjoys it.

            The DG hard at work organising her District, using an Ipad Mini

                                                 Hang on..... that looks like Candy Crush!

My role as her Consort is to support her through all this hard work. Fortunately I received some training when I went to San Diego last year for the International Assembly in important matters like ‘How to answer the phone when the DG is out’, and ‘How to take messages from callers’. This training has stood me in good stead, as I will often answer the phone when someone is calling on District Governor business. Having received training in how to speak to people on the phone, I normally cope quite well. One occasional problem is that some callers assume I know who they are, and the conversation is a bit awkward until I establish who it is. For instance a call may go like this:

  Me-‘Hello’
                                                                                                                                  
Caller– ‘Hello Mike, how are you?
                                                                                                        
Me – ‘Fine thanks, er, who is this?’
                                                                                                      
Caller – ‘It’s Peter. Is the DG home?’

My training at telephone answering does require me to obtain the caller’s name and a brief message, however ‘Peter’ isn’t very helpful to me, as I probably know a dozen Rotarians called Peter. So my problem here is how to try and ascertain Peter’s surname whilst he is in full flow explaining why he is calling. In trying to politely extract this information from the caller, I am obviously not paying full attention to the message I am being given, and sometimes, to be honest, my notes may not be completely accurate. A situation could occur, for example, where Peter wanted to discuss Rotaract liaison with the DG, but my message is that ‘he’s had a cataract operation.’ Obviously I’m not looking for sympathy here, just an understanding that the Consort’s job is not always easy.

                                                             Deploying my message taking skills

 I should also, I was taught, have access to the DG’s diary so I can book appointments for her in her absence. However I quickly learned that this was impractical, as she insists on total control of her diary (and mine for that matter) and only she can make entries in the diary. There was a time, I have heard, when I would have been taught at San Diego how to iron the DG’s clothes, and make sure she is well turned out for her engagements, but apparently this particular training was dropped a few years ago when several Consorts walked out in protest.

I can, however, help in a number of other ways. For instance I can cook. When she holds District Team meetings at our house, or Strategy meetings, or Conference committee meetings, I can prepare food for them all to enjoy. I can bring her cups of tea as she slaves away on her laptop. I can drive her to engagements (although if there is a bar she will normally have to drive us home). I can carry her bags at Conferences and other trips away. I can kiss all the ladies in a room so that she doesn’t have to. So, you see, there are a number of ways I can usefully carry out my duties as Consort.

There are, I have discovered, some aspects to being a District Governor that I hadn’t previously realised. One of these is shopping.  Ascending to the role of First Lady in District 1140 has entailed a significant increase in one of the DG’s favourite activities, necessitated, I have been told, by the importance of not being seen twice in public in the same outfit. Apparently people notice these things. I did respectfully suggest that in her existing wardrobe the DG already had sufficient garments to wear a different outfit every day for a year, but what I hadn’t appreciated was that many of these outfits would have clashed terribly with her Chain of Office. This principle also extends to handbags, shoes and ear-rings.

                                                           A perfectly co-ordinated outfit with Chain of Office

As I write this, the DG is preparing for a District Strategy meeting at our house this evening with her team. Whilst I will not be required at the meeting, apart from supplying drinks and nibbles for everyone as they arrive, I am very much involved in preparations.  All parts of the house where tonight’s visitors may wander  have to be thoroughly cleaned, furniture polished, carpets vacuumed, and dog odours removed.  Sometimes, Daisy even has a shampoo prior to such meetings, especially if she has been rolling in something nasty at the park. I think it is fair to say that our house has been cleaner since the DG took office than ever before. When the visitors first arrive, Daisy is inclined to become very excited and wants to welcome them, lick them and bring them her toys, so I need to be on guard because some members of the DG’s team are not very comfortable around dogs, and those seem to be the very people she makes a beeline for.

                                                          A clean Daisy

On a few occasions, the DG has attended a webinar, or a Skype conference whilst at home. These are clever ways for people to hold meetings, even though they may be dispersed all across the country. I am a bit of a novice where technology is concerned, and I never cease to be fascinated when, for instance, I can see and speak to one of the DG’s colleagues, whilst looking at them on her laptop screen.  Our internet connection at home is rather slow, in fact it is very slow. If I want to watch a 30-second YouTube clip, for instance, I have to allow two or three minutes for the buffering to allow the clip to be viewed. Our slow speed has not prevented the DG from doing her work effectively, but when she is engaged in a webinar or audio / video conference on her laptop, I am forbidden to do anything on the internet, in case she loses her signal. I don’t even dare to make a phone call.

 I’m not sure people fully appreciate the sacrifices a Consort sometimes has to make in supporting the DG.

                                      The DG attends a Skype Confereence (note laptop and Ipad mini)