ROCKWALL, TX – August 27, 2021 — The Rockwall Rotary welcomed its 2021-2022 Rotary District 5810 Governor Max Duplant as a special guest speaker during the club’s meeting last week.
Duplant is a CPA who serves as a consultant for the City of Irving, and has also served as CFO for the cities of Irving, Beaumont and Groves. She is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, and was honored as an outstanding CPA at the government and local level by that organization in 2007. Duplant has held executive level positions for the Texas Society of CPAs, including treasurer and vice president. In addition, she currently serves as treasurer-elect for the Dallas CPA Society, treasurer for the Irving Schools Foundation, and president of the Advisory Committee for the Church of the Incarnation. She has also served as the past president of the Rotary clubs in Irving, Las Colinas, and Groves. In her spare time, Duplant enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, traveling and is a competitive dancer.
Duplant spoke on the year’s initiatives for Rotary International and District 5810. She said Rotary Board of Directors President Shekhar Mehta’s desire this year is for Rotarians to focus on projects which will have a sustainable impact on their communities and communities around the world.
At the District Assembly this year, Duplant said they talked about diversity, equity and inclusion. As a competitive dancer, Duplant likes to use the following analogy to explain the difference between these three terms:
“Diversity is being invited to the dance. Equity is being shown a few basic movements so you know what to do when you get there. Inclusion is actually being given the opportunity to dance when you’re at the party,” Duplant said. “We want to be sure that we have diverse members involved. We want to be sure we give them all an equal opportunity, and we want to make sure we include them all in everything we do.”
Among the goals Duplant listed for Rotary District 5810 this year include increasing membership by one net member, conduct a district wide service project relating to ending human trafficking, begin implementing the District’s Strategic Action Plan, and increase Rotary Foundation giving by five percent. Duplant said the Rotary Foundation has done so much to achieve a near eradication of Polio disease throughout the world.
“To be eradicated, Polio wild cases can not have existed for a full three years. Polio has been eradicated from every country in the world except for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in those two countries there has only been one case each so far this year – both of them in January,” Duplant said. “We’ve gone seven months without a case of Polio, so hopefully we can keep up this great work. But to make it happen, we need your contributions not just so we can do vaccines in those countries, but all over the world.”
To aid the Rotary Foundation in their cause to eradicate Polio, the Rockwall Rotary presented Duplant with a $250 donation to the Foundation’s Polio Plus Fund.
The Rotary also welcomed Dr. Danielle Hicks as a new member to the club. Hicks is a workplace psychologist and executive leadership coach. A 12-year U.S. Air Force veteran, her work in logistics, training, and management led to several Outstanding Unit awards and personal achievement medals. She and her husband both served in the Air Force and during their service lived for eight years overseas, where their son was born.
“My goal as a Rotarian is development: development in myself, in business acumen and in civil service,” Hicks said. “I’m not wearing combat boots anymore, so I have to figure out other ways to serve my community.”
By Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News. Photos by BRN Media.
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