“A Step Back into Texas District History”

(script for Texas District History presentation)

We will hand out tickets to each attendee and we will ask to make sure everyone has a ticket before we begin. To start the program, we give out 5 prizes and we will give the last 5 right before the conclusion of the program. (each prize is a black Pilot bling with a little candy in a cellophane bag tied with a ribbon)

Slide 1 This slide welcomes everyone into the room.

Good morning or afternoon,

Welcome to our breakout but before we start we would like to introduce ourselves…

Let’s have some fun to start off with. Please have your ticket stub ready, the one that you were given when you came into the room. Here we go!!!

Slide 2 Give out 5 door prizes here.

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Last year the 2015-2016 Lt. Governors presented the history of Pilot International, which was well received by the convention attendees. To follow along that path, we thought our Pilots would like to hear some bits and pieces of our own Texas District history.

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First let’s quickly review highlights from last year’s presentation of our Pilot International’s history …

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Founded in 1921 Named for riverboat “pilots” - to Pilot’s founders, the name Pilot meant “leader

and guide” and had nothing to do with flying. Dedicated to community volunteerism throughout the world. Has since expanded to include men and women from all walks of life.

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Pilot will be celebrating our 100th anniversary in a few short years!

Most of you remember our mission statement was refined about a year ago which is as follows:

The mission of Pilot International is: to influence positive change in communities throughout the world.

To do this, we: come together in friendship and give people an outlet for service.

We focus on:

Preparing youth and young adults for service

Encouraging brain safety and health

Supporting those who care for others.

Let us continue to

Do More. Care More. Be More.

Yesterday, today and TOMORROW!

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This presentation is comprised of information from two publications by Donna McCrohan Rosenthal; “True Course Ever” -The 75-Year History of Pilot International and “True Course Ever” - A Pilot International History, along with the Pilot International website, the Texas District Governors’ Book of Memories, Texas District minutes and some District convention programs.

History, at times is like a puzzle and sometimes a piece or two of that puzzle is missing. Due to time constraints, it is difficult to mention everything but we wanted to convey some bits and pieces of our Texas District history.

Let’s take a step back in time…

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At Pilot International’s first convention, held in Macon, GA in 1922, the Executive Committee would appoint a Governor of each district “who shall be the representative of the International Executive Committee in that district”.

The first Pilot Club established in Texas was the Pilot Club of El Paso. It was formed in 1929 and Nell Stanley Gardner of the El Paso club served as PI President for two terms, in the years of 1931-1933. To facilitate expansion, Pilot International established four groups, groups I through IV, then formally, they became Districts. The Pilot Club of El Paso was in Group I along with the Pilot Club of Selma, Alabama and Pilot Club of Pensacola, Florida. The Pilot Club of El Paso was never in District 5 or 8 which eventually became the Texas District and that is why Nell Stanley Gardner is not listed as a Pilot International President of the Texas District. When you look at the history sometimes questions like this will come up.

In 1931, the Pilot Club of El Paso organized three new clubs leading to the formation of District 5 and then during a reconfiguration became District 8. We contacted Pilot International but regretfully they were unable to give us an exact date of the Texas District formation.

As Pilot International grew so did the number of districts reaching in number to 21 districts. District numbers were replaced in 1977, by District names to better designate the geographical areas of clubs within each district. We are the Texas District!

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Slide 8

Who in the Texas District became Pilot International Presidents?

The following Pilots became Pilot International Presidents, years of service, their theme and a snippet of information about their term in office.

Slide 9

Josie Roberts 1948-1949 PI President, from the Pilot Club of Houston. Her theme was “We Face Tomorrow”.Josie Roberts was the first President-Elect to serve in that capacity during the years 1947-1948. The Chicago convention voted to make the restoration of Vimoutiers, France an international project of Pilot International. Vimoutiers was a village in southern France that was erroneously bombed by American airmen who had received incorrect information.

Slide 10 picture

Marguerite Dimerling 1953-1954 PI President, 1939-1940 and 1948-1949 Texas District Governor from the Pilot Club of Beaumont. Her theme was “Our Faith the Key to the Future”.During her term, Pilot International dues were established, as well as charter fee and initiation fees, for overseas clubs. Prior to this, the overseas clubs were not required to pay international dues.

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Billye Russell 1957-1958 PI President, from the Pilot Club of Houston. Her theme was “Dedicated to Friendship and Service”.During her term, the Classification Guide was revised and changed the number of mandatory committees. There was a change in the Bylaws which made the Governors installed at District Conventions immediate members of Pilot International Board of Directors.

Slide 12 picture

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Barbara Matchett (Hanna) 1962-1963 PI President, 1955-1956 Texas District Governor from the Pilot Club of Victoria. Her theme was “Progress Through Gifts of Time and Talent”. A Leadership Development and Human Relations Seminar was one of the program highlights of the convention.

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Mabel Breen 1969-1970 PI President, 1961-1962 Texas District Governor from the Pilot Club of Galveston. Her theme was “Keynote: Awareness and Action”. During her term, while attending the Service Club Leaders Conference, President Mable learned of Civitan’s Seek Program. This evolved into Pilot’s Share Pilot Program, which was introduced at the convention in Miami in 1970.

Slide 14 picture

Dorothy Saari 1989-1990 PI President,1979-1980 Texas District Governor from the Pilot Club of Jasper. Her theme was “Service…The Heartbeat of Pilot”. During her nine years on the Executive committee, Dot became the first officer to visit every Pilot District which were 21 in number. The Pilot Code of Ethics was updated with gender neutral language and approved new voting procedures that were established. The International Convention was held in Nashville and was the largest Pilot convention on record with 2,490 people attending.

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Janette Bowers 1991-1992 PI President, 1981-1982 Texas District Governor from the Pilot Club of Alpine. Her theme was “Service with a Sunshine Smile”. President Janette stressed during her year of the growing importance of a “market driven” organization that addresses the special needs of today’s busy lifestyle, and the importance of recruiting and retaining younger members.

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Judy Breaud 2007-2008 PI President, 1994-1995 Texas District Governor from the Pilot Club of Dallas. Her theme was “Catch the Pilot Spirit” which included a butterfly. Judy directed the launch of a new membership campaign, Talk Pilot Day, in which members were asked to commit to speaking to at least five people about Pilot. Judy herself “talked Pilot” to passengers on American and Northwest Airlines when her interview with Sky Radio was aired on all flights in May, reaching over a million people. Judy presided at the historic ribbon cutting of the new PI Headquarters and Heritage Center in Macon on February 9, 2008 with around 500 people in attendance at the afternoon ceremony.

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Slide 17 picture

Sherry Johnson, 2014-2015 PI President, 2003-2004 Texas District Governor from the Pilot Club of Quitman.

President Sherry addressed operational, financial, and growth issues with an enthusiasm and positivity that would strengthen Pilot International and improve professional “best practices” across all levels of the organization. Along with her mantra of consistency, professionalism and staff empowerment, Sherry also stressed fiscal stability for Pilot. She also encouraged and mentored a younger generation of Pilot employees and lay leaders who would define the next decades of Pilot International service as they promoted Pilot’s ABC initiatives; the platform of actionable service known as: “Do More. Care More. Be More.”

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You may have noticed that PI Presidents Josie Roberts and Billye Russell were not listed as Texas District Governors and that is because they never served as such.

In 1934, the qualifications for Pilot International officers were:o Must be member of a Pilot Club for two yearso Must have held some club officeo Must have attended at least one convention prior to election

In 1940, Pilot set qualifications for the Pilot International President and District Governors and approved a uniform system of conducting the election of Governors.

Slide 19

What Texas cities has been the location of a Pilot International Convention?

The Pilot International conventions have been held in Dallas in 1965, 1987 and 2011, El Paso was the location in 1930 and 1937, and Houston was the place to be in 1941 and 1975. San Antonio was the site of the 1994 Pilot International convention.

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Slide 20

Where have District Conventions been held in the Texas District?

Over the years, the following cities have been locations of some of our District conventions and we have certainly covered the state of Texas. To the north - Amarillo, to the east – Beaumont, to the south - Corpus Christi and to the west Marfa, yes Marfa!

We have had 12 conventions in Dallas (this count includes Addison) and Houston

We have had 9 conventions in Beaumont and San Antonio

We have had 7 conventions in Austin

We have had 6 conventions in Corpus Christi

We have had 4 conventions in Galveston

We have had 3 conventions in Amarillo and Tyler

We have had 2 conventions in Lubbock

We have had 1 convention in each the following cities: Abilene, Baytown, Clear Lake, El Paso, Frisco, Ft. Worth, Irving, Kerrville, Lufkin, Marfa, Odessa, Orange and now we’ll add Granbury to the list.

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How Many Governors came from what clubs? For this presentation, we are only listing our current active clubs.

The following clubs have had one District Governor from their club: Brenham, Cuero, Diboll, Jasper, La Grange, Mt. Pleasant, Nacogdoches, Odessa, Quitman, and Winnsboro

The following clubs have had two District Governors from their club: Lufkin, Longview, and Wharton

The following clubs have had three District Governors from their club: Baytown, Tyler, and Victoria

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Slide 22

The following clubs have had four District Governors from their club: Bay City, Dallas, and Mineola.

The following club has had five District Governors from their club: and that club is Beaumont!

You could even say they had six governors as Marguerite Dimerling served two terms as District Governor she served in 1939-1940 and again in 1948-1949.

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What were the District Focus / Projects?

In the Texas District, we have focused on many topics, some are:

Stroke Awareness, Convulsive Disorders, Adult Literacy, focus on Senior Citizens, Alzheimer’s and the Alzheimer Memory Walk, Chemical Dependency, Mental Depression, and Traumatic Brain Injuries.

In the 1972, the District Project was “Beautiful, Beautiful Texas” – in which clubs were encouraged to plant a tree, a bush, or flowers, provide a bench at a park with a plaque “Courtesy of Pilot Club of (wherever)”, or maybe get involved with a highway cleanup project.

For many years, the District membership voted “Full Citizenship for the Handicapped” as the district project.

Some of the many projects were Lifeline, Juvenile Drug & Alcohol Awareness, Vials of Life, CAPS (Child Alert Protection and Safety program) Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Securing a Richer Life for Texas Senior Citizens.

There was a 2-year project in 1976 called “Spirit of ’76 – Texas Style” which was to fund a project at the Medal of Honor Grove at Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The project consisted of large monument on which 2 sides would have the names of those from Texas who were the recipients of the highest military award – the Medal of Honor. The donors would be named on the other two sides of the monument which would include District 8 of Pilot International (now known as the Texas District).

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Slide 24

In 1990-1991 Pilot adopted a service focus of “Brain Related Disorders”. The Texas Pilots support that focus through the projects in our communities. The signature project for the Texas District is Traumatic Brain Injury Camps.

Pilots support three weekend camps and one day camp for adult traumatic brain injury survivors. Texas Pilots have created our foundation, the TBI Camp Foundation to help support these camps.

Upcoming Camps

May 4 – 7, 2017Higher Ground Camp in Burton, TX, May 2017 Panhandle Playday near Dumas, TX,Aug. 27 – 31, 2017 Mountain High Camp in Red River, NM, and Nov. 3 – 5, 2017Circle of Friends Camp in Pittsburg, TX

Slide 25 Themes used in the Texas District

The next two slides show a few of the themes that were used at one time in our District. The themes shown in black lettering were found in various convention programs that happened to be among Texas District minutes beginning in 1953.

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Slide 28 Let us carry on to “Share The Vision”

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Slide 29 and “Continue The Dream” by

Slide 30 “Lighting The Way” for

Slide 31 “It Only Takes A Spark” to

Slide 32 “Rise To Pilot Service” and to spread the

Slide 33 “Power Of Pilot Service”. (PAUSE HERE)

Slide 34 “The Beauty of Pilot” is that

Slide 35 “Pilots are Diamonds” and we can

Slide 36 “Reach For The Stars” if we

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Slide 37 “Share the Secret” of

Slide 38 “Crowning Good With Pilothood” so share your

Slide 39 “Pilot Spirit – Pass It On”!!! (PAUSE HERE)

Slide 40 Each of us can continue to “Teach Texas about Pilot” while we

Slide 41 “Paint Texas Pilot” and know we are

Slide 42 “Texas on a Mission” by pledging to

Slide 43 “Walk and Talk Pilot” everywhere we go! (PAUSE HERE)

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Slide 44

In the mid-nineties, each Pilot club was given a copy of the book “Texas District Governors’ Book of Memories. The book currently has a page for each Texas District Governor and the more recent pages are written by each Governor.

We hope to have an updated Book of Memories complete and on the Texas District web site before the Fall Councils.

Let’s take a break here for more door prizes and then we’ll finish our presentation.

Slide 45 Give out the last 5 door prizes here!

Slide 46

We hope you have enjoyed this presentation as we stepped down memory lane. Through this presentation, we hope you have a sense of what the Texas District has done in the past, and we hope you are inspired to continue our mission and to share Friendship and Service while we Do More. Care More. Be More.

Slide 47 Thank you!

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