Haiti Club Assembly and Task Force meeting

We had a successful trip to Haiti on Thursday arriving late afternoon. We went immediately to TortugAir to secure our tickets to Jeremie which had been reserved by PDG Amos. They were well oversold and after some time we were able to get the actual tickets in hand. From there on to the hotel Montana to meet with DG Nathan from 6910 who had been talking to the Canadian Consulate and the USAID people about the Sustainable Water Master plan Resolution that the Water Summit had passed.

Great progress was made on that. They are all very interested in Rotaries role and have confidence that we can bring a level of support and continuity to it that will integrate well with the International Governmental initiatives currently in place and or being discussed. The question is, How big a bite is this for Rotary, and is it a Zone 33 - 34 project, or International or local Task Force. My gut tells me today it is some of each.

We met with the US ambassador Friday morning before leaving for the Club Assembly in Jeremie and she reinforced the comments made at the previous two meetings. She again pledged the support we would be asking for. Given the limited clarity on the direction and magnitude of this it is not clear what help we need just yet other than advice and information.

Thursday night we met with Marlene and her team Brad and Earl for a quite dinner. We discuss the Matching Grant that they had proposed for Cap Haitien and how to proceed.

Mid afternoon Thursday we flew to Jeremie and met up with a great team of Rotarians led by ADG Robert, his wife Rotarian Rosa and President Gaiten and many local Rotarians. See the great welcome banner.

We went up to our Hotel, set high on a hill with a great view of the ocean. We enjoyed a nice local meal and some fellowship before e going to a private bar located about 20 minutes away. There we just enjoyed an evening of local talent and fun. The band that was due to play from port Au Prince did not arrive so everyone improvised by singing, telling stories, jokes (clean) and reciting poetry. Carla said it best as some of the most talented people we have ever seen, and all of them rotarians did their thing. She said "Do you see what happens when you don't have television" Her comments were a very real check on what we have in parts of the worls and what we don't, and the difference t makes in the society we live in. Haiti despite the shortcomings in development etc has the basics of true social art and culture that most countries and societies today could not find if they had to.

This is a shower facility built by the Rotary Club of Jeremie. They realy get good use of it and love it.
We had a club Assembly which was held at the Mormon church on Saturday. A great program and well attended. the Le Cayes and Aquin team left Les Cayes by car at 3:00 AM in the morning and arrived around 10:00 AM after a very rough trip because it rained and a flat tire. Do Rotarians in your clubs and communities have that commitment.

I had a number of things to accomplish. We had D7150 down trying to complete a Matching Grant. Marlene had put together a MG which they came to have signed. What they learned was that what they wanted to do and what the community wanted were two very different things. because Marlene and her team made the trip down to Haiti, saw the situation and met with the Club and Task force, she was able to modify her Matching Grant to meet the needs of a community and to do a Matching Grant with a Club in cap Haitien where the Club and its leadership had a total buy in with it. great job Marlene and thank you for doing it the right way.

Off to Haiti agian!

Good day all,
Carla and I are off to a Assembly in Jeremie Haiti. We will be in Port Au prince tonight and off to Jeremie Friday to Sunday and then home.

While in Haiti we are reviewing MANY Task Force items as it is the end of the matching grants period so everyone is coming out of the woodwork to make the deadline of March 1st. Their lack of planning is now our emergency, funny how that works. Just as a side note, they may deal with 5 to 10 MG's per District per year. We currently have 84 on the books and many in the wings.

We are meeting with District 7150 to discuss a number of projects that they are contemplating as well.

We have a meeting set up with USAID and the US ambassador to discuss furthering the resolution from the Water Summit on the Master plan for Sustainable Water Supply for Haiti. Doesn't sound like to much slack time to me!!!


We have had a busy week at home, completing our Bathroom construction which was quite a challenge and a litany of Rotary meetings, related mostly to the Conference in May but also some on the GSE teams and some on projects in Nassau.

I am just getting in the ADG Club Reports and the Award applications from the Clubs and the District is doing exceptionally well. I will share all this information at the District Conference along with a continuous slide show of pictures taken throughout the District during our visits. That's about 1000 pictures and not all of them flattering as you can imagine.

They just called the flight so I will continue this later.

Dick

From then till now!!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

We’ve neglected the poor blog for the last few weeks. Let’s go back to where we left off.

Our Daytona trip. Every year for the past 7 we’ve spent Speed Week in Daytona Beach topping off with the Daytona 500 NASCAR Race. This year we left Nassau on February 13 with all our race gear and themed shirts, radios etc. Dick had a 2 hour Webinar sitting in a parking lot in Orlando with the Zone Committee. Carla got to go shopping! We arrived at the Night Swan in New Smyrna where we’ve been staying for 7 years; it’s become a home away from home. (our daughter Lissa got married there)

Thursday we spent at the track watching two races. Our daughter Lissa called to say “Gus” the pug had to be hospitalized for eating 26 Guineppes (I hope the spelling is right). Happy Valentines Day.

Friday we skipped the track and did some antiquing. Lots of great things to see, none to buy. We watched two movies and completely relaxed. I don’t think the cell phone even rang once.

Saturday we’re off to the track for the Nationwide Race. About five laps into the race, Lissa called to say “Gus” the pug had to be flown to Fort Lauderdale for surgery. One of the seeds was stuck and he was in distress. Needless to say we left the race, checked out of our great little hotel, gave away our Sunday Daytona 500 tickets and drove to Fort Lauderdale to meet Lissa’s plane and get Gus to the vet.
Gus
After many xrays and round the clock observation for 48 hours he was released without having to have surgery. However, we did have to find a “Dog Friendly” hotel where we could stay for 2 days to make sure everything was ok. In case you need one, the Sheraton Hotel at Griffin Road and I-95 in Fort Lauderdale is wonderful.

Gus and Meghen's Dog Pato enjoying the pool

Thank goodness a month has gone by and my temper has calmed so we won’t go into the awful treatment we received on American Airlines due to their ignorance. If they didn’t have a monopoly in our district I would never fly them again!

Due to American we missed our conference meeting and got home extremely late on the 20th only to find that our bathroom expansion that was supposed to have been finished was nowhere near being finished. The problems only got worse once we got home. Ending with the contractor being fired. The new contractors haven’t stopped laughing at the mess yet. The tub didn’t fit into the enclosure, the pipes were at an angle, the drain wasn’t in the proper place, the wiring didn’t go where it needed. Is this our pay back for trying to do construction during our very busy year?

Rotary wise: the conference is coming along nicely. Lots of activity at the meetings and lots of excitement. Don’t forget to register, time is running out.


The District Leadership Conference was held in Fort Lauderdale the end of February with DGE Rupert Ross at the helm. It’s always great to have everyone together, great fellowship and lots of sharing of ideas. Dick has asked to be the Haiti Liaison for the Haiti Task Force and Carla has been asked to be the Chair for Community Service Projects in the year 2008-09 for DGE Rupert. Rupert shared next year’s theme “Make Dreams Real” and shared RIPE D.K. Lee’s vision. Lots of side meetings were held, Conference Chairman Frank McGwier come over to meet with DG Phil Lustig (D-6930) and his Conference Chairman Chris concerning the joint conference. The Caribbean Partnership group (previously called Think Caribbean) met and discussed the booth in LA and the upcoming conference in July. And of course lots of fellowship.

GSE team development is taking form in all three areas. GSE selection has created a lot of awareness of Rotary in the areas where teams are being formed.
Carla ,DGNN Dianna, and PHF Jan
We are currently in St. Thomas for the Paul Harris dinner which was held last night. What a great function. Each club and the Inner Wheel recognized their honorees, some greatly surprised, others truly honoured. Here is an interesting piece of information. ADG Don Chandler is the only ADG with all 6 of his clubs under guidance of Women Presidents and also the ADG with all of his Clubs being Paul Harris Society Members. Great work!


Of course we would be remiss to not mention the great hospitality we have again been shown. PE Deepak and Gita hosted us to a fantastic Indian meal which must have taken Gita and the family days to create. What a wonderful time. Thank you again!

PE Deepaks wife Gita and their dog Prince


Club Leaders at the PHF function!


With my hand out!

ON REACH Radio

We were on Rotaries Radio Program REACH yesterday to share some thoughts on Rotary and to promote the GSE team. USVI north is working hard on the team selection and I have been assured by ADG Don that he will have a team by the end of this week. This trip we’ve had time to enjoy St. Thomas and more hospitality today at DGNN Diana and Roger White’s home. AG Don and Susan have been great looking after us like royalty-he even had gas in his car!


Enjoying the PHF dinner!


RID Barry Rassin and RIDE Eric Adamson have restructured what used to be the Think Caribbean Initiative, and it is now the Caribbean Partnerships. The structure has been slightly altered with the following appointments. I am very excited about this appointment and the opportunity it gives our District.

Structure:
Zone 34 Coordinator for The Caribbean Partnership
George Banning, PDG (04-05) 6890
Zone 33 Coordinator for The Caribbean Partnership
Byron Brill, PDG (07-08) 7570
Caribbean Coordinator for The Caribbean Partnership (Including the Haiti Task Force)
Richard McCombe, PDG (07-08) 7020

Chair for Club Partnerships J.V. Vlass, PDG (06-07) 6910
Chair for Disaster Relief including Satellite Phones Ruben Alfaras, PDG (06-07) 6890
Disaster Relief and Planning Jack Martin PDG (06-07) 6990
Chair for Communication & Follow Up David Edwards, PDG (04-05) 7030
Chair for Website Mike Thacker, PDG (03-04) 7710
Chair for Other Programs and Development Nathan Carmack, PDG (07-08) 6910 Including Development in Haiti
Member for Other Programs and Development Don Thomas, DGN (09-10) 6960
Catch The Wave Workshop Doug Palonder PDG (06-07) 6950
Advisory Committee Barry Rassin PRID (06-08)
Eric Adamson RID (08-10)
Milt Jones, PRID (06)

We’ll be on our way back to Nassau tonight with an overnight in Miami, and home tomorrow. We’ll keep you updated a little more regularly going forward.

DG Dick

A long read, but great information!!

Its been a very busy couple of weeks. Carla and I actually got caught up on some of our Work Work but mostly we spent the last few weeks getting done the many things that fell behind while we traveled the District.
I put in about 12 Rotary meetings in the period, dealing with things like District Conference, GSE teams, Zone Institutes, Club awards, Conference hotel issues, District Budget etc. The District is going well and I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished. There are still a lot of loose ends such as District Dues for some Clubs, Membership and Foundation goal achievements etc, but we are getting there.
I had to prepare a report for the Rotary International Presidents Rep Arthur Harrington who will be attending our District Conference on behalf of the RI President. The document was very enlightening, because rather than looking at each different aspect of our District on its own, it summarized it. When looked at in its entirety, we are amazing. Simply Amazing.
There is a lot here, but I would recommend you take the time to look at it. It will give you a real overview of our District and make you very proud to be a member of the District 7020 Rotary world.

INFORMATION FOR PRESIDENT’S REPRESENTATIVE TO CONFERENCE OF

District 7020 Made up of the following countries:
Anguilla
The Bahamas
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Haiti
Jamaica
St. Barthelemy
Sint Maarten
St. Martin
Turks & Caicos
US Virgin Islands

The following is based on most recent information available:
Number of clubs in this district as of 30 June: 68
New clubs admitted since 1 July: 1
Number of Rotarians in this district: 2333
Gain (loss) in members since 30 June: gain + 43
We anticipate another 20 to 30 before the Conference
Names of RI Committee members or general officers in district:
RID Barry Rassin

Name, spouse’s name and club of incoming district governor:
Rupert Ross Jr.
He is a member of the St. Croix West Club
Spouse’s name is Cheryl
They reside in St. Croix US VI

Name, spouses’ name and club of district governor-nominee:
Errol Alberga
He is a member of the St. Andrew North Rotary Club located in Kingston Jamaica
Spouse’s name is Leonie




YOUTH EXCHANGE
Number exchanged by this district last year:
Sent abroad__0__ Received from abroad_____0______
Planned ___0___

Our District is working diligently on the Rotary Youth Exchange Program Certification, however it is a difficult challenge as we are made up of many countries and subsequently many different regulatory standards. We have a District Committee Chair assigned to this project.

INTERACT
There are 62 Interact clubs in this district, 59 are active

ROTARACT
There are 31 Rotaract clubs in this district

WORLD COMMUNITY SERVICE
I think our Think Caribbean Twinning program best illustrates the International initiatives here. Many are with mainland clubs connected with our Zones 33 and 34, but many involve much more than that. Beyond those, our Involvement with the TRF and the number of Open Active and In Process matching Grants best define our efforts here. See below:

Rotary Club of Southeast Nassau is currently working on a Matching Grant project to supply a solar oven to a hospital in Haiti. We are partnering with The Rotary Club of The Villages near Orlando and The Rotary Club of Pignon in Haiti. We have another project on the drawing board to supply drinking straws to school children in Haiti. But we have not identified a specific club for this yet. With are working with ADG Caleb on this one.
Rotary Club of St. John; We are still working on the grant proposal for the well in the Maasaii Community in Kenya. We are partnering with Steve Stiffler, Leesburg Noon Club, PO Box 49188, Leesburg, FL 34749. Steve has enlisted the help of the other 2 clubs in Leesburg to be included in the Grant Proposal for the well. I have also asked Steve to help with a Telemedicine Proposal which will link the Myra Keating Smith Community Health Clinic on St. John with the Cleveland Clinic in Fort Lauderdale. This would allow the doctors on St. John to communicate with specialists in FL to help diagnose patients in real time.
Our club is twinned with St. Thomas Sunrise. My Friendship Exchange Director and I went to St. Thomas in April. Financially helped them on a project in Haiti. They helped us out on a project here in Tampa. Their club members have been up here and attended our club meeting. We have stayed in Rotarian homes on St. Thomas. I have sent out an email to the membership, seeking their support in attending your club's Art Festival in January. I will let you know what the response is like, as members may be taking up the offer of free housing for the two days.
Rotary Central, Grand Cayman and Venice-Nokomis Rotary Club 6960 On another note, our club has been searching for a World Community Service project that falls within the theme of Water/Sanitation. After months of searching, one such project was located last week. PP Fred Speirs is heading up this project and will be contacting you to see if your club would be interested to work with us on this project. PP Fred will give you more details. I also understand that our President Sandy has contact you about the literacy programme. Let me know if you require anything else from us. I hope we will get some participation for the Art Festival. I believe it will be a good project for our club to be involved with. I advised the members that the best way to get to Nokomis is to fly to Tampa, then it will be an hour's drive to Nokomis. I hope I was right! Oh, I tried calling you and a nice lady answered the phone and told me it's about an hours drive from the Tampa airport.

New Providence Greeting from D7720, northeast North Carolina and Kitty Hawk, the place of the first flight by the Wright Brothers a year before Rotary was born. Good to see you in Myrtle Beach. Congratulations on your Rotary success in 7020 this year. I admire your ability to lead Rotary in many countries and situations. We are still interested in working with a twin club in your district and look forward to hearing from you soon. Bill Rogister PDG 7720

The Rotary Club of Portmore is partnering with The Rotary Club of Florham Park (New Jersey). The Florham Park Club will be sending us School supplies which we will distribute to three (3) High Schools in the Portmore Community.
Shirley President

The Rotary Club of Providenciales partnered with the one and only Rotary eClub (they are the first 'e club' sanctioned by RI - Here's their web site: http://www.recswusa.org/ ). Several of their members came down to TCI and we had a twinning ceremony with them. They brought dictionaries that we jointly donated to local schools, and they also assisted with a kids eye testing program we conducted. We hope to expand our twinning efforts with them in the coming year.

St. Andrew North is partnering with West Orlando Club towards funding our major project which is: the donation of one dialysis machine at the Kingston Public Hospital.
Discussions are in the works on the following International Service projects:
1. Partnering with the Rotary Clubs of Regina (Saskatchewan) and Machakos (Kenya) Clubs. Building of the 2nd of 2 water weirs in Kenya
2. Partnering with the Rotary Club of Petion-Ville, Supplying over 3000 school children with books and school supplies in 15 municipal schools in the area. Part of this project is to also set-up cyber cafés at the schools. There are 20 computers available from Canada. 10 of the computer have been shipped to Haiti. It is the hope of Rotary Sunrise to help in the acquisition of the remaining 10. I am waiting to hear from President Raphael.
3. Partnering with the Rotary Club of St. Andrew North, Supplying stretcher beds to Kingston Public Hospital for the trauma area. They will also serve as surgical beds. The project has been agreed at Committee level and just has to receive the blessing of the Board of Sunrise. The project is being funded through a matching grant and Rotary Sunrise is the International partner.

The Rotary Club of Christiana partners with the Rotary Club of Menominee, WI District 6220 for the past 27 years in the dental project.

For Downtown Kingston, we have 3 collaborative efforts:
1) East Queen Street Trade Training Centre refurbishment and equipment.
Subject of a matching grant with one of our twinned clubs, Marco Island
(Florida) and due for completion in January 2008.
2) Downtown Dash: A 5K road race scheduled for January 13, 2008 with contribution and support of our neighboring club of East Kingston & Port Royal.
3) Carols by Candlelight: a fund raiser with toys donated for needy children. Planning and logistical support provided by our other twinned club, Barbados. Scheduled for December 2008.

Abaco
Rotary Club of Windermere
Matching Grant granted totaling US$24,998 to assist Every Child Counts with the purchase of furniture and equipment for the school. This is an ongoing project that has been ongoing for the past 5 years. Every Child Counts (ECC) is a non-profit school which educates children with various physical and educational disabilities from all strata of the Abaco community. They have no financial support and rely on kind donations from the community to continue their program
Rotary Club of Winter Garden
Matching Grant granted totaling US$30,548 to assist with the installation of a playground for the children attending the Treasure Cay Primary School. This is our first project with Winter Garden who along with Windermere are from the Orlando, Florida area. We will assist Winter Garden with the installation of the playground in January 2008

Nassau Sunrise
RC of Fort Myers-Nassau Sunrise- assistance in March 2008 with our annual Reading Fair held on COB grounds,- distribution of dictionaries to schools in the Bahamas
RC of Gwinnett County, - funding of a Bahamas Humane Society education DVD project with Nassau Sunrise

RC Spanish Town -
We have twinned with RC Reston, Virginia, Club# 5828 and District# 7610.
I have visited them in October, and we have a matching grant application for a Water & Sanitation project signed by both clubs, and now delivered to DGC Dennis Chong. We expect to hear from him soon, as to how soon funds could be made available for this project. Reston is planning a trip to Jamaica to help finish the project, and this is scheduled for Feb. 2008

The particular project description is -
To provide a consistent water supply, through the provision of water tanks and accessories to hold water in case of outages, for three (3) schools involved in 'pre-school' activities (ie. ages 4-6 years). Location will be in the parish of St. Catherine, Jamaica. Project will also provide training in personal hygiene and 'hand-washing' skills for these children, as it is found that the kids don't develop good washing habits due to unavailability of a consistent and reliable water supply.
Overall project Cost is US$11,500. With contributions to come from both clubs, both districts and TRF.

International: Rotary Club of Charlotte Amalie
Host: Rotary Club of Navsari Round Town, Dist 3060, India, Description: This project is for avoidable Blindness. There are several patients who have developed matured cataracts and if not operated in time will become blind. Rotary Club of Navsari with the help of Rotary Eye Institute will organize a series of eye camps to identify 400 patients needing surgery. The patients will be transported to the hospital in Navsari. They will be operated on and given protective glasses and post operative medicines before returning to their homes. They will also be given free food. Patients will live a normal life after the operation.

The Rotary Club of St. Croix - Mid-Isle has partnered with the Rotary Club of Osprey, FL (District 6960) to provide air conditioning and some other improvements to the Boys and Girls Club of Christiansted, St. Croix. We have applied for a matching grant for this project. In addition, our club and the Rotary Club of St. Croix - Harborside, work collectively to provide Saturday morning breakfasts at the Lighthouse Mission in Christiansted. Our Rotaract club also joins in this project, covering the 5th Saturday as necessary.
Rotary Club of Road Town. We have partnered with The Rotary Club of Canton, Georgia and our joint project is to complete a resource center for the H.L Stoutt Community College. We have already applied for a grant from the foundation. Dr. David Murray spent one semester with us teaching at our Community College. He is a member of our twin club.

East Nassau & The East Roswell Club is in Roswell Georgia, district 6900. The size of the club numbers around 35 members. Our contact has been with their International Chair Mr. Lee Hollingsworth. Club web site is: http://www.roswelleastrotary.org/ We first made contact in 2006 thru the Think Caribbean website. We are presently working on a Grant to help Project Read, an adult literacy schooling program. Project Read needs books, teachers and an upgrading of their facilities. East Roswell is planning on a Trip to Nassau at the end February to help with the Project Read upgrade and to have fellowship with East Nassau. A disaster plan that includes East Roswell is being developed.

Rotary Club of Grand Cayman Central and Twin Club: Venice-Nokomis Florida Rotary Club The Rotary Club of Grand Cayman Central has a Literacy Program which has been in operation for many years. This program train members of our business community, who in turn conducts one on one sessions with members of the community that are illiterate. Thru this program many residence of the community have learned to read. The reading materials are special ordered from an institution oversees and dictionaries are also purchased for re-distribution to the students. This Rotary Year the Venice-Nokomis Florida Rotary Club will assist by donating dictionaries to the program.
The Venice-Nokomis Florida Rotary Club will be having their annual Art Festival on January 19, 2008. The Rotary Arts Festival displays the wares of approximately 180 artists and attracts thousands of visitors to the two day event held every January at the airport festival grounds. This year, they have invited our club to attend and participate. As such, some members of the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman Central will be attending the Arts Festival and will be put work by our friends. Both clubs are very excited to finally commence life long friendships and fellowship while performing good will on behalf of Rotary.

As Chairman for the TUTORING PROJECT I try to give you some information Since more than 7 years, the Rotary Club of Les Cayes and 2 other Club from ERIE/PENSYVANIA has been involved in a project just to help Students from Two schools to improve their capacity in FRENCH and MATHS and at the end of the primary cycle the Students will be able to pass with success the State exam.
L'ECOLE NORMALE" is a school that prepares and trainnes People to become Teachers. In coordination with the Principal of this school, Rotary Club of Les Cayes uses them as Tutors for helping students at the primary level to reach the goal of the project. They are working under the supervision of Monitors (2 / School). Each Tutor has 4 or 5 Students to help during 1 hour and 30 minutes 4 days a week.
The project supports the Tutors by helping them with the fees and scholarship and something has been given to each Monitor as a Gift per Month. It's a kind of promotion for developing Voluntarism with the Students - Teachers. Rotary Club of Les Cayes has to suprvise the project, prepare the attendance and performance reports, prepare the financial and written reports at the end of each school year. Other responsibility for Rotary Club of Les Cayes is to prepare the proposal including budget at the beginning of each school year.
The Clubs from ERIE and PENSYLVANIA are the Official Sponsors regarding financial part of this project. Between 10 and 12 Thousands US Dollars have been collected each year by those Clubs for supporting the project. Since 4 years we have been got 100% of success at the State Exam at the primary level with the Students.

St. Thomas completed the provision of an automotive technical school with the help of their twin club in Georgia. The also had a friendship exchange with the same club where members got to know one another and became familiar with each others needs and membership.



This says it all!!!!
Club Initiative 1 - Rotary Clubs of Kingston and White Bear Lake, Minneapolis
After nearly twenty years of association through many joint projects, Club Twinning was formalized on Wednesday September 26, 2007 at the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of White Bear Lake, Minneapolis, Minnesota. In attendance were Director Effiom Whyte (International Service), PP Andre Hylton (Club Twinning Chair) and Rtn. Scarlette Gillings (World Community Service Chair). The 2-day visit was a mutually beneficial one. Four (4) White Bear Lake Rotarians led by International Service Director Fred Treiber paid us a reciprocal 3-day visit November 28 to December 1, 2007. The programme of events included visits to two joint projects (A Computer Lab and a Medical/Dental Clinic), our Club’s 2007/2008 Major Project, and our weekly meeting, at which Twinning formalities were repeated. White Bear Rotarians will accompany their Interactors to Jamaica during Spring Break 2008 to execute joint community projects with Interactors sponsored by Rotary Club of Kingston.

Club Initiative 2 – Rotary Clubs of Kingston and Frankston North, Australia
The International Service Committee of the Rotary Club of Frankston North in Australia and through its PP Eric Neill requested our Club to participate in its International Project: Overseas Clubs – Toast and Information. Project Aim: “To make contact with four overseas Clubs, provide information on our Club, information on Frankston and Australia and obtain information from the overseas Club on their Club and Area and Country. The information would be discussed at our Club and the overseas Club on a similar date including joint Toast, exchange photos and Banners etc. This initiative could possibly lead to a friendship exchange.” We have accepted the invitation and have mutually agreed to stage this project on February 28, 2008 during Rotary’s World Understanding Month.
Club Initiative 3 – Assistance to Rotary Club of St. Marteen’s “I Can Foundation Home”
The request for assistance from the Rotary Club of St. Maarten with respect to the fire which razed the “I Can Foundation Home” was treated with urgency. Our original goal to raise USD 2000.00 and a promised matching contribution by Digicel Group’s CEO, through PP General Bob Neish, was bettered 5-fold. USD 10,000.00 (JAD 690,000.000) was presented to President Don on Thursday August 30, 2007 by Mrs. Stacie Mitchell-Fraser, Digicel Foundation’s Deputy Chair. Rtn Scarlette Gillings in turn presented Mrs. Mitchell-Fraser with a Rotary Plaque as a token of appreciation. These funds together with proceeds from our first Special Raffle were wired to St. Maarten North September 14, 2007 and receipt was confirmed with grateful thanks.
Club Initiative 4 – Second visit by Naples North Rotarians
Members of Naples North Club commenced a 4-day visit on October 18, 2007. Before attending our luncheon meeting, they were accompanied by Director Effiom, PP Andre, and Rtn Heron on a visit to the Dunrobin Basic and Primary Schools. Basic School Principal Jackson, the teachers and students were grateful recipients of educational supplies presented by President PJ and his 6-member team. Naples North was a generous contributor to this 2005/05 Major Project. The twinning Club Rotarians spent the rest of their time on a community service project in the parish of Portland.

Rotary Club of Spanish Town In the recent request by District Governor Richard, in partnering with a club for an end of year project, the Rotary Club of May Pen is considering your club in partnering with us. There is a project here in May Pen that we are considering as a required necessity; this is The Rock All-Age School. They are in dire need of infrastructures for toilet facilities for the students which at present are in a deplorable condition. We know that the health of these children is very important and we think that we should help in the best way we can. I await your response in partnering with us for this project. Thanks for your consideration.

Information for RC St. Thomas –
Twinned with RC Thomson, Georgia. Inward MG completed for High School, value $32,500 involved RC St. Thomas, RC Thomson and RC Dalton.
District 6910 DG Nathan Carmack, PDG jv Vlass and PP Ben Howell of RC Thomson visited St.Thomas in October, 2007 for RC St. Thomas 50th anniversary and visited the recipient school.
Outward MG, value $24,600, with RC Lira, Uganda, District 9200 for land mine victims. PE Roger White of RC St. Thomas visited Uganda in September, 2007 to see project. Also visited orphanage supported by a MG sponsored by RC St. Croix and subsequently gave presentation to RC St. Croix with pictures and information on their project.
Discussion with RC San Juan for joint literacy project in Gonaives, Haiti.
Discussion and preparation for joint project to be financed by an inward MG with a projected value of $42,000 involving all 10 clubs in USVI and RC Daytona Beach, Florida to supply school planners to all public schools in USVI for academic year 2008/9.
Discussion and preparation for outward MG application with value of $62,000 with RC Frederiksberg, Denmark, District 1470 and RC Lira, Uganda, District 6900, for rehabilitation of displaced persons in Northern Uganda.
Initial discussion with RC Frederiksberg, Denmark, District 1470 for inward MG, value not yet known, to assist with upgrades to historical sites in St. Thomas. International Director, Wein Demitros of RC St. Thomas will be visiting Denmark in January, 2008 and plans to discuss this project with Danish Rotarians.
USVI/BVI Friendship Day, October 2007 involved all clubs in both United States Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands.

Liguanea Plains
· We are having talks with Sunset Rotary of Tallahassee with regards to twinning. A delegation from that club is scheduled to visit us in February 2008.
· Matching Grant MG0659430, which was awarded to help provide computers and related equipment and furnishings; educational and medical supplies for the Education Centre and Clinic at the Church of St. Theresa in Kingston, Jamaica. International Partner: Rotary Club of Mission Bay in San Diego.

The Rotary Club of West Nassau is preparing a matching Grant with the Rotary Club of Boca Raton. The Grant is to provide the Childrens ward of Princees Margaret Hospital ten (10) Spirometer. Spirometers are used to detect, follow, and manage patients with Asthma, and lung disorders. The unit price of each Spirometer is $2,000.00 We have a meeting schedule with the Minister of Health in early January, but all our ducks are lined up for this project.

THE ROTARY FOUNDATION
Scholarships
Two candidates took up their scholarships in October 2007.
They are as follows:-
· Kaysi-Ann Spence- Entrepreneurship- University of Liverpool, England (DDF Scholarship)
· Adenike Stephenson-Social Policy and Planning for Developing Countries-London School of Economics, England (DDF Scholarship). She declined this scholarship because she received a more favourable offer and so the scholarship came over to this year.
· Mary-Anne Njeri Kamau-Geographies of Health, HIV Positive Women-Incomes- University of Western Ontario, Canada (Low Income Funded Scholarship)
There are two scholars selected this year to start their courses in October 2008. They are as follows:
· Luciana Marie Ramsay-International Law-University of Connecticut, USA (DDF Scholarship)
· Robyn Lynes-Family Law-Chicago-Kent College of Law, USA (DDF Scholarship)
There was a University Grant Teacher inbound last year to Tortola, British Virgin Islands. We had very little contact with him.

Group Study Exchange
This Rotary year we have 3 Group Study Exchange teams from D-6950 North Western Florida, D-6960 South Western Florida , and D-5490, Arizona. The reason we are doing three is that due to our Geographical diversity, and the tradition of the GSE team emanating from the sitting DG’s country or area, many of the countries and Rotarians within the District do not have the opportunity to experience the GSE Program. We decided to take this opportunity to make it a regional experience so all countries will have a GSE visit this year regardless of the DG’s location.
We intend to have 3 outbound teams and two inbound teams at the District Conference. The travel puzzle is currently being worked.

PolioPlus
Our District has phenomenal support for the Polio program. Our contributions to date have been. This year we funded an additional $5,000, plus sent a team to an NID in India. They are sharing the experience with all the local clubs and I am asking them to do so at the District Conference as well. I will have an article in the local newspapers about the teams experience as well.

Humanitarian Grants
Health, Hunger and Humanity
Describe the 3-H project(s) in which this district or club(s) were involved.

Individual Grants
We had one team apply for and get approval for the Volunteer Service Grant. The team was going to Uganda and had scheduled to visit 11 clubs or organizations to understand how they could be involved in the efforts to help land mine victims by providing prosthetic limbs. Due to a glitch in the RITS booking system, they ran into a problem with travel plans and subsequently lost the grant. They went anyway and did the project. I can provide you with pictures if you wish.

District Simplified Grants
We applied for the full 20% District Simplified Grant allowable and have dispersed about half of it so far. This year we invited clubs to apply for it on a matching basis up to approximately $1,000. The purpose was to get the weaker clubs to get involved and to understand the process. The invitations were issued by myself and were sent out for the most part after my travels, where I had a chance to understand the needs and abilities of the clubs.

Matching Grants
We are really exceptional in this area. We currently have 83 Open or In Process Matching Grants at work within the District. The total value of the project funding is approximately $3.300,000. TRF portion is $1,430,000, $850,000 in DDF, and $1,050,000 in cash committed.
Approximately half of them in Water related, and half of them in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.
Our District has established the Haiti Task Force as the conduit for all Foundation related projects into Haiti. We have established a Haiti Task Force whose role is to review the initiatives intended for Haiti with TRF involvement and to help designate the appropriate Club or Clubs and to ensure TRF compliance before moving forward. The team is aware of the size and capacity of the Clubs and the challenges faced by them. They also appreciate the responsibility that the clubs have when they sign on as a partner in a Matching Grant. The group does not replace the Club to Club connection, just ensures that we start off within TRF compliance, ie local community needs survey, local club involvement and club committee etc.. The Chair is Guy Theodore, and the committee consists of PDG’s and ADg’s.

Contributions to The Rotary Foundation
a) Target for this year is $199,000 up from last year by 5%+
Our top club Grand Cayman Central contributed over $454.03 per Capita last year followed by Nassau Sunrise at $432.26 and St. Croix mid isle at $398.78
All time giving $3,909,035


Paul Harris Fellows
There are 2256 Paul Harris Fellows in this district.
Benefactors
There are a total of 108 Foundation Benefactors in this district.
Bequest Society
There are a total of 14 Bequest Society members in this district.
Major Donors
There are a total of 20 Major Donors in this district

SPECIAL PROGRAMS
The projects done in this District are exceptionally unique. Because of the diversity of geographical, economical, social, cultural etc, club in each country does projects within the theme and emphasis and focus areas. The projects are community based therefore reflect the uniqueness of the geographical, economical, social, cultural of the respective club.
Projects such as literacy can range from the development of an occupation Skills Training Lab for at risk young men and women to providing a note book and a pencil for an empty class room.
Projects that are related to water can range from providing a life straw that purifies the water that you drink through it to putting in a RO system and storage tank to provide water in case of Hurricane and other emergencies.
Projects related to Health and Hunger range from providing 225,000 meals to the poor in Haiti through a Think Caribbean Twinning program to working with a group to feeding the Homeless in the USVI of which there are more than we have in the Bahamas or most other places.
Family of Rotary Ranged from home visits to shut in Rotarians to keep their membership and attendance alive to helping with the work in a community service project built around family driven community service projects.
Youth has been our primary focus. In some instances we provide hair clips for little orphan girls and soccer balls to the orphan boys. We also sent teams of young people to new York to spend a week to visit the United nations and to give them the understanding of the bigger perspective of the world.
Public Image has been undertaken with a passion. We have, again through the Think Caribbean Initiative organized to provide signage for clubs in Haiti where the club does not have the money, resources, or ability to have a Rotary sign made never mind installed. Districts in our Zone have sponsored signs which say Rotary Meets Here with the Rotary Logo and the name of the Club and the sponsoring Club/ District listed on the sign. We also applied for the Public Image Grant but did not achieve it.

Carla and I are off to the Leadership Traing in Ft. Lauderdale this morning and will update you further when we return.

New Blog out tomorrow!!!!

Not much travel but lots of good stuff. See you tomorrow.
DG Dick

I'm Back !!!!

Back again!
I thought a little update would be interesting. On Monday January 28th I met with Leslie Frazer who is Chairing the On Site Administration for the District Conference in May. We are working out the AV Equipment details for the Training rooms and Sergeants needs. I followed that up with a meeting that evening with Walter Christen, our District Treasurer to get the District Financial affairs up to date.

Tuesday followed with an Esso meeting (Actual work, what’s that about?) and then a GSE Team meeting that evening. We are moving on with the three teams, but the logistics of travel and timing is very difficult. Chair Murray Forde is doing a great job with his local and district committee and team.

Wednesday was a dentist day and my regular club meeting. It was great to be back with my club for a change. I’m still collecting the make ups though.

Wednesday evening we went to a Humane Society fund raiser. It was a trivia quiz game. A lot of fun, but I don’t know much trivia. They raised around $6,000 that evening.

Thursday morning we went to the Nassau Sunrise Club for two very special events. Firstly I presented PP and now ADG Felix Stubbs with a Foundation banner for achieving the special status of 2nd highest per capita contributions for a Club with $ 432.26 per capita, Grand Cayman Central took 1st place with $454.03 per Capita, St. Croix Mid Isle in 3rd with $398.78 per capita. If you see any of those clubs give them the accolades they deserve!

The second was a very rewarding moment for Carla and I. Our Daughter Ellissa, known as Lissa was inducted as a Rotarian into that great Club. As you can well imagine we are VERY VERY proud. She will be a great Rotarian. She is currently doing a lot of work with animal rescue and with the Humane Society.

That evening we went to a Club Fellowship event at Rotarian Ednol Smiths house. Ednol is ill and shut in but graciously hosts a fellowship event monthly at his home and many club members show up. True Family of Rotary stuff.

Saturday RID Barry Rassin and I met with a group of outstanding local Rotarians who will be helping us with the Zone Institute at Atlantis in October. We went over what local Rotarians would have to do and how they could support the Executive Committee. As usual they have given us all the support we need.

Over the weekend we planned to re-floor one of our Spas. It was quite an undertaking. We had or last customers in the Spa at 5:30 PM and once they left we moved everything, retiled the 3000sq.ft and were back up and operating by 7:00 AM Tuesday morning. What a great job done by Alvin our contractor. What a difference in the place!

Sunday we got a few hours in the boat at Rose Island. The water was cold but the beach and relaxation was outstanding.

Over the past week we had our regular club meeting and the speaker did not show. I was asked to speak, so I did and shared some of the challenges of the District. Wednesday evening we had a District Conference meeting, which went well. We are making some progress now and as time runs out we must continue to do so.

The balance of the week and weekend were spent trying to catch up on emails and home chores. I spent some time at the Humane Society today on a clean up effort. There is a lot of work that needs to be done there, but it is going to start with a good clean up.

We have a couple of days to get our businesses together next week and then we are off to New Smyrna and the Daytona 500. That’s our annual week vacation trip. We stay at a quaint B&B and just enjoy the tranquility. I’ll try to update you from there.

Back in Nassau

I just wanted to assure you all that we are back safe in Nassau after a wonderful trip to Turks and Caicos. We arrived back Wednesday afternoon and at 6:00 PM we were at our District Conference Committee meeting. That went well but there is still a lot to do and time has run out. We are having some challenges with the joint portion of the Conference with 6930 because our Conference Culture as well as our combination of the PETS and Assembly a make for very different ideas.
Carla speaking on Ethics and the 4 way test. I am bias, but she was super!PP Bill Thompson
After a lengthy meeting we adjourned and Carla and I went home. My task was to deal with the 6930 issue ASAP. Needless to say by 2:00 AM I was tossing and turning trying to figure out the way to go. I got up and put it in a letter to DG Phil Lustig, cleared a couple of emails and went back to bed for an hour around 5:00 AM.

Yesterday morning was back to work first thing to deal with issues missed in my absence. Our youngest had some very bad news yesterday about her dog Niya. She appears to have lung cancer so Carla spend a while with Meghen supporting and helping decide the way forward. She is a very bright girl and had made some decisions which we fully agreed with.

At 11:00 AM I met with Atlantis, Conference Chair Frank and Leslie Fraser who is looking after the AV at Atlantis. We did a room walk through and a venue walk through. When all that was done, Frank and I met with Glenroy (Atlantis) to nail down the menus and the room allocations. By1:30 I was back at work for a few hours.

Carla was invited to speak at a joint Toastmaster Rotary function on Ethics, so I dashed home early, had dinner with her and we went tom the function for 8:00 PM. She did a great job as did the other 4 speakers and by 10:45 we were on our way home.

No make ups necessary this week!!! I have a Rotary Sunrise walk at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning, then I have been asked to stop by East Nassaus project Read as they have some out of town trainers in. After that a quick meeting with Chair Frank at his office for 11:00 AM and then home to get caught up on e-mails.

I’ll check in next week with anything new.

Turks and Caicos trip

January 20th started out to be a beautiful day although the weather man had warned against an approaching front. Sure enough the heavens opened and the wind started. It turned cold, very rainy and very windy for the rest of the day into the night. This fortunately gave us time to catch up on things at home such as repairing the broken water line, then laundry and repacking to go to T/C on Monday. We had dinner with our friends Andy and Katy who were down in Nassau for the rained out Michael Jordan Celebrity Tournament at MESA Grill which is a Bobby Flay restaurant. Great stuff!

Monday was still quite windy but no rain. The flight (a 19 seater) was on time and quite full. It was bad weather from the start but about an hour into it it got exciting. I have a set of BOSS sound reducing earphones and other than the music I can here very little and was Bopping and Jiving to my music with my eyes closed. All of a sudden I felt well sharpened nails digging into my arm. When I opened my eyes and took off the earphones, everyone was screaming, praying and holding on for dear life. Quite a sight. Fortunately it didn’t last too long and within 30 minutes we were safely on the ground in Provo.

Walter picked us up and after seeing some of their projects delivered us to the hotel where we had a couple of hours to go to the beach. True to form, being a good Bahamian, the water was way too cold for Carla, but the sun and daiquiri were just perfect.

We had the Provo Club meeting last night, and once again we have another outstanding Club. They are doing many great projects and are going from strength to strength. For those of you that may have some doubts about the e-club and its purpose listen to this.

Roundabout

Bus shelter

The Provedenciales Club has done a dictionary project with an e-club. Members of the e-club came down and delivered the books which the Provo Club subsequently distributed. If that is not enough the have arranged with a local Rotarian, Government and a local Individual for the donation of a 3 acre plus piece of land on the water where they are going to do a three part development park projects. They are twinned with their e-club and applying for a matching Grant to do so. The club is based in southwestern USA, but members are from many places and the President is from Japan. For those slow to move to technology or e-anything, the time is coming! They even had a virtual board meeting because most members were out of town and they did it on line.
President Walter and Carla on site of the project.

This is a thought on the type of water feature.

They have developed a magnificent Potential Member Information Booklet which I hope they bring copies of to PETS. It’s a great model for us all.

Some additional projects are eye glass projects for young children at school, Bus stops, Neutering animals, Round about developments, beach park and rest areas, playground for the Inquiring Minds Elementary School and many others.

Park on the beach.


We had a great dinner with them and were home to rest for Grand Turk today. We left for Grand Turk this morning where President Marc picked us up. This club is in a community of 1800 people and the industry is very limited. They are struggling with membership. We had a great tour of the small Island and saw a couple of the projects.

We then met with the board and the club and discussed the future and some of the primary concerns going forward. Obviously membership is a big one, defined identifiable projects and Public Image. I have set up a plan of activities that will address those areas as well as will try to twin them to see if that help will secure the footing of the club. If anyone wants to help a struggling club, let me know and I will hook you up.

We flew back to Provedenciales this afternoon and are now getting ready to go to dinner with the Provo Club

ADG Bengt, past ADG Micky and PP Rotarian Stanford Charlton from the Bahamas who had moved back to Caicos and was inducted tonight.Evening guests enjoying the events.


# 68


Thank you Rotarians in District 7020. Through our 68 visits we have truly begun to understand the diversity of our countries and cultures as well as the diversity of the needs of our people. Every Club has responded in it's own special way to make life a little better for someone, in some way.

Your sharing and hospitality has made the visits the most rewarding time in our life and a special thank you is due to all of you for it.

Keep up the great work, I'll keep on blogging, although it will be tough to keep it as interesting as it has been. We'll be together again in Nassau for the conference in May.

Not much more to say than Thank You!


DG Dick

Great time in Cayman "The last 2 days"

January 19, 2008


We left with Rosie to do a reading program at a special school (Leading Edge High School). The Sunrise Club mentors and reads to the students there on a weekly basis. I was assigned a young girl to read with when I got there and we went to a desk and began the exercise. I was shocked that someone 11 years old has such a challenge reading. She could with great effort say the word, many of them with help, but by the time we reached the end of the sentence the message or meaning must have been lost. I would repeat the sentence most times so she could follow the story. The message here is that its much worse than many of us realize and we really need to focus on Literacy if there is to be any learning at all.

From there we went to the Great House where we began our tour of projects. Our first stop was at T. E. McField Youth and Community Center where the meals are prepared for the Meals On Wheels program. 70 meals a day 5 days a week year round. A very large undertaking but done very well. Rotarian Stephanie was with ADG Sophia escorting us and she does one run a week so she really did an exceptional job helping us understand what went on. We also saw that there all of Grand Cayman is not as pristine as you may see from the main roads.

We then went to Georgetown Primary where the Grand Cayman has help furbish some of the classrooms. I have never seen such a well maintained and set school. This is a public primary school, and they rank best in results in the Cayman public system. Amazingly they are on par with the results in the private system.

We then went on to Bonaventure Boys home where they take care of young men that the courts have sent there. They try to keep them until they can be integrated safely back into society. Rotary has supported the place and program for a long time. There is a need for a workshop which the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman will be helping with.

We visited the park that the Rotary Central Club completed during the District Conference. It is well used and now sits opposite the town square one done by the government. It is used more because it has shade and the town square has not a single shrub!

We went to The Pines which is a seniors home which was badly damaged during the Hurricane. Sue showed us around and we saw the industrial washer and dryer that Rotary had been able to arrange for them. A senior gentleman called me over when no one else was around and asked me to help him stand up. As I was doing so the entire staff came running over saying “He Can’t stand up” so I let him back down. Using some very historical expletives he told the care givers in no uncertain terms what he thought about them interrupting the exercise, but they did know best. Interestingly while having dinner that evening with the Governor, he shared that he had had exactly the same experience with the same gentleman.

We had the opportunity to meet with the Governor of the Cayman Islands his Excellency Stuart Jack. A very informed and interesting person who is an honorary Rotarian. It was a great visit and we got to enjoy dinner with himself and PDG Bobby after the wine tasting at Sophia’s at a new restaurant in PDG Bobby’s new Governors Square. That is an amazing place and PDG Bobby has made it state of the art and hurricane proof. He has also generously built in a 28 person board room that would marvel Donald Trump, and he has done it to make it available to community service organizations so they have a place to have board and committee meetings.

Michael, The MC and organizer of the event. Great job Michael!

The Sunrise club organized a wine tasting at Sophia’s house Friday evening. It was a great success and about 150 Rotarians’ came including his Excellency the Governor.

Sophia, Thank you for doing so much for us during our visit and capping it off with this magnificent evening at your house!!

His Excellency Governor Stuart Jack at Spohia and Pauls home. Thanks for the experience and having us in your beautiful home.
Sophias message. " Nobody leaves until the wine is gone!!"

The beginning of a roudy croud begun by PDG Bobby!

On Saturday we had Club Forum followed by training session for new Rotarians. It was very well attended and went very well. After lunch we did some training for current and incoming Board members. Again, well attended and very interactive. We had good representation from both Rotaract clubs there and their contribution was exceptional.

Special Thanks to Michael Levitt, Rosie Jamison, Sophia Harris, Cathy Chestnut and all others that made it go so well. This is the type of thing we need to continue to do across the District as often as we can. I want to make special mention of Cathy Chestnut and her outstanding facilitator skills. Cathy keep it up, complete RLI and help us at District level.

Cathy and Cayman Brac President during the training.

We are off to Turks and Caicos tomorrow and return Wednesday. We have two clubs to visit there on two Islands, Providenciales and Grand Turk.

We’ll be in touch soon