Zone Saturday, Sunday and Nassau to St. Thomas

Zone

A great morning of Plenary session Topics including our own Ambassador Missouri Sherman Peter, Membership, The Ladies did a fashion show. Everybody else went off in the afternoon to Golf or participate in Tours or Shopping.

Carla and I and RID Barry Rassin had three meetings back to back. The first meeting was the Haiti Task Force Discussion with the Rotary Foundation representative, Darwin Sampedro, Barry Rassin, Errol Alberga, Nathan Carmack, Barry Rassin, Rupert Ross, Richard Grant, Amos Durosier. We reviewed the discussion paper and have made some modifications which I will put out to the Team as soon as I get caught up.

Meeting 2 was a meeting of District 7020 and 7030 to discuss future synergies such as Leadership Training and PETS. It was very interesting and led to some exploratory ideas which will be discussed by PDG’s and the DGN going forward.

Meeting 3 was a meeting of the Think Caribbean Initiative. We discussed many of the elements such as the Meeting in July, Disaster Relief, The Satellite phones and other things.

From there we went to the room and got dressed up for the Directors banquet. It was a great night, no speeches and great entertainment.

Sunday morning we had an interfaith service and a wrap up of the Zone Institute which ended at 11:00 AM. At 12:00 noon we were with the Zone Executive Committee and did a wrap up of that, cleaning up loose ends and followed that with a “What went well” and What went not so well” session to give ourselves a a bit of a critique.

After that meeting we had a meeting of the 2008 Zone Executive committee and began to plan the 2008 Zone. After a general session of that we adjourned and went to the supply room to select the equipment that needed to be shipped to Nassau for the 2008 Zone.

We followed this with a quiet dinner with Barry and Ester where we just ate quietly and rested, We went back to the hotel for about 9:30 to pack and ready to leave the next day

4:30 AM Sunday morning we were up and out of the hotel to go back to Nassau. The flight was for 8:00 AM and we arrived at the airport at 5:45AM. Good thing, they flight was going to be very late and cause us to miss our connector in Atlanta so they put us on the 6:30 AM. We made it and although we were delayed 2 hours departing Atlanta for Fog, we got home safe late Monday afternoon. Stopped ib at work to catch up and went home and crashed.

Tuesday was a back at work day and at 11:00 AM together with ADG Felix, I met with the Nassau Club Board at Luccianos. Great meeting with a club doing a lot of great things. I counted about 15 major projects in the works. After the meeting we went on to the Assembly which was lightly attended and included a couple of Rotarians from my club. One of them talked most of the way through my presentation. I am not sure if that is a reflection of what I was saying or a reflection of the lack to politeness. I will leave that to that individual to deicide. Everybody else was attentive as far as I could see.

Wednesday was a back to work day with my Rotary Club meeting at 12:30 PM followed by a trip to Atlantis to review the room allocation for the Zone with convention services. The original blocking was VERY short and the entire list had to be redone.

Over to Carla!

Thursday and we’re on the move again! As usual we had to fight the traffic to the airport for our flight to Miami to connect to St. Thomas. Barry met us in the airport and traveled with us to USVI. Dick sat next to a Rotarian from Barbados/South of France who seemed to know almost everyone we did in the islands, including the Bahamas. They talked the whole way with the possibilities of future projects flying!!

We were met at the St. Thomas airport by a whole contingent led by AG Don. Rum punches, balloons, gift bags and rushed out the door to catch the ferry to Tortola which we made by the skin of our teeth. What a beautiful trip over. We sat on the top deck and took in the sights, sun and breeze. After being in a hotel at Zone for week it was a real treat.

ADG Don passing his garbage over to a fellow Rotarian so he would have enough room in his vehicle for the bags. Rotarians are VERY considerate!

Carla waiting at St. Thomas Port for the boat over to Tortola

The Adventurer took us across from St. Thomas to Tortola. Below is the sun setting as we arrive

Here is the shortened version of the welcome committee P. Roy, P. Mary, ADG Vance

We were met at the dock in Tortola by another huge group led by AG Vance with flowers, gift bags and rushed out to change and get to the Governor’s home for a reception in 25 minutes. The Governor hosted us and the two local clubs to a reception and then we went to dinner at the Sugar Mill which was fantastic. Dick was dressed to the hilt with bow tie, chain of office, green jacket etc: everyone else was in short sleeves. Miscommunication somewhere along the line. Got back to the hotel around midnight, crashed for a few hours and were ready for day 2.






At the Governors reception for us



Ajit and Carla at dinner. Ajit is one of the most informed people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Not a Rotarian but more Rotarian at heart than most. He supports everything we do!




At the Sugar Mill for dinner



Bomba Shack, The place to go






Board of the Rotary Club of Road Town and the Rotaract Club sponsored by the Tortola club. What an amazing group!!!







Visit with the Governor at his office.

We met with Premier O'Neal and talked about Rotary. he is a Rotarian with the Tortola Club.

Assembly of Rotary Club of Road Town and Tortolla.

Friday we met with a great, dynamic Rotaract group. Definitely future Rotarians! Second stop was the board meeting of the Road Town club, then on to the Governor’s for the official visit-tie, chain of office etc. Lunch was a joint meeting of the two clubs, Road Town and Tortola where the Tortola club presented $90,000.00 in checks to various groups from Tortola. Then off to the Premier’s for an official visit-tie, chain of office etc. Very interesting point there. Since the Tortola Club was formed EVERY First Minister or now called Premier has been an active member of the Rotary Club of Tortola. A huge boost to Public Image here. Last stop was the board meeting of the Tortola Club. What dynamic Rotarians we have in Tortola, there’s just too many projects to list. We’ve asked both boards to advise Karen of their activities.
Recieving Babnner from Monica of Tortola Rotary Club!

Back to out hotel. We were going to do dinner with President’s Roy and Mary, but were late from the Board meeting and very far behind on meeting notes and Blog entries so we took the night off to do that. Tomorrow we start with Interact at 8:00 AM followed by project visits for both Clubs, a call in to the St. Thomas Radio Show and off by Ferry to St. Thomas at 2:00 PM. We have the St. Thomas 50th tomorrow night. I am not putting very many pictures in this one because it takes to much time to load them.

Have a great Day