The Flin Flon Rotary Club has a new president. Dean Grove chaired his last meeting for the club on June 27, ending his year-long term. Former Creighton councillor La Verne Hinzman will now step into the role for the club.
“The club is so supportive with all of our presidents that are in it’s past,” he said.
Hinzman spends his winters living in Arizona. He said Corey Eastman will act as president when he’s out of the country.
“The only problem I've got is I'm only here half a year. I'm gone from October to April.”
“We've got a good executive,” Hinzman said. “It's a diversified group. There's young people, there’s old people, there's boys, there’s girls, we have professionals, we have laborers.”
Grove said he looks back fondly on his time as president, achieving different goals the club set out.
“If you look around town, there's a number of projects where Rotary's had a hand in,” he said.
“Helping different groups or programs or facilities get off the ground, and I think it's helped make definitely make Flin Flon a better place.”
Grove, a former school principal and Flin Flon School Division assistant superintendent, joined Rotary after his son Cole went on an exchange through the group. Once he retired, decided he wanted to put more time into the club.
“I felt I had a little bit more time on my hands that I could devote to some community events, there was a need for somebody to fill the spot,” he said.
“I'd done some of those kinds of things in terms of school administration before, so I felt fairly comfortable in becoming involved with them. And I just thought that there was, you know, some good people on the executive that would support me so that it wouldn't be that hard to transition.”
Now, it is Grove’s turn to help transition Hinzman into the president position, but he has no doubts about a smooth turnaround.
“I think [Hinzman] will do a great job,” Grove said.
“He's been in a leadership position with other service organizations. And he's been heavily involved in a number of things in the community before. So this is just a natural step for him in terms of taking on a leadership role, and he'll do a great job with it. I don't think I'll have to support him much other than just to orient them a little bit in terms of how certain processes work.”
Hinzman said that past leadership experience, with both the Lions Club and town council, will help him in the president role.
“You got to learn how to work with people, and you gotta listen to ideas,” he said of what he learned in past leadership positions.
“If you get 10 people in a room, you're going to have at least, minimum, 12 ideas. The plus with that is if you can work out those ideas or work on those ideas, and find what works, and what does not work, you're going to solve the problem.”
The Rotary Club exists alongside both the Lions and Kinsmen clubs in Flin Flon to create a trifecta of service groups.
“All three clubs are a big bonus for our community,” Hinzman said.
“We provide things that and in normal circumstances might not be available.”
Hinzman will be working right away as the Rotary Club hosts their awards ceremony on July 11. In August, the club will be helping out at the Blueberry Jam Music Gathering.
