Ah, the big day has finally arrived! While I should have nothing to worry about (being unopposed), there’s the technical but remote possibility that someone could run from the floor. So when the president opens the floor to nominations, I’m immensely relieved when there are none, nominations are closed, and I’m declared elected!

But wait, there’s more to this business meeting. The third vice president is always the most hotly-contested race, and when they declare the vote — it’s extremely close! Just four votes separated the two candidates, less than 0.1%! There’s a call for a recount, which itself requires another vote, and it passed, so then they declared a recess for lunch while the actual recount was conducted.

Lunch was the Club Leadership luncheon, after which, the business meeting was briefly resumed to announce the recount results. The recount resulted in a slightly larger difference in the vote difference, but no change in the winner. Then it was on with the regular afternoon event, the Hall of Fame, recognizing districts and individuals for their accomplishments over the last year. Since each district was being called up on stage, I took advantage of that to hand out the rest of the district directories.

Friday evening was for the regional gatherings, where we roasted the outgoing International Director (whom I’m replacing), Dietmar Wagenknecht. That was a lot of fun, every district had several stories to tell about working with him over the last two years. After that was time for people to announce intentions to run for International Director for next year, and Ron Kirchgessner announced his candidacy. Furthermore, Dietmar got up and announced he was running for Third Vice President! It’s going to be a fun year for both of them, as they work to get the votes to be elected at next year’s convention!