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

The rest of the afternoon

We had a great lunch with the Grand Cayman club and then met with their board. We had the chance to induct a new member (Gayle) at the luncheon. Thank you to President Sharon for a great lunch and meeting. If you want to know how to get Golf Tournament sponsors, you may want to ask her. She did something very interesting!

We met with the Cayman Central Board, another amazing club. Last year they were the leaders in the District with per capita contributions, $454.03 WOW !!!!! Sandy and her team have put together another amazing year. Some of their members are off today to put the Twining Program at the fore front with a visit to their twin club to assist with and art show in Northern Florida near Tampa. Good luck and great work.

Last night we had a great dinner hosted by PDG Bobby Bodden at his magnificent place on 7 mile beach. We had a great diner prepared on the BBQ by Bobby. I stood by and assisted in the wine drinking.

Thank you Bobby, Tessa and Sophia for a wonderful night. Bobbys son, a new Rotarian and PDG Richard Harris were there as well. Special guest as well was Paul Harris in real life. Ask me about that some time!

This is PDG Bobbys smoker. He cooked the most exquisite Beef over a 6 hour period. Sooo flavourful and sooo tender. Check the District Cook book for this. I think he may be sharing it with us.

Off to site visits and a reading program this morning.

Happy New Year and off to Cayman

After 4 weeks at home over Christmas and New Years it’s time to get back to Rotary travel. We arrived in Grand Cayman Tuesday night on the BA flight. What a civilized way to travel. Only an hour from Nassau, no nightmares with US Customs and Immigration.

AG Sophia met us at the airport and got us safely to the hotel for some down time before we start our club visits.

On Wednesday we had an early 6:50 AM, start for Cayman Brac which is about 45 minutes away by plane. There we met with President John for an island tour, including the library, schools, some amazing views, playgrounds and other things.

Below is a picture of the Libray they built and a picture of some kids using it. They have plans to extend it as it needs more space.




Along with AG Sophia, we met over lunch with the board and members of the Rotary Club of Cayman Brac. A small but dynamic club. They are doing Rotaries work in a way that can make us all proud! Promises of the best recipes in the Cayman Islands for our cookbook were given.

Brac Board meeting
Brac lunch and it was good!
After our very short visit we returned to Grand Cayman to meet with the Board of the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman Sunrise. A large and very dynamic club with lots of projects and fellowship underway. If I was to have to stand in front of the World of Rotary and share Rotary, I would only have to read the highlights from their report. Great stuff Sunrise!

Dinner followed at Rotarian Jeff’s home hosted by the Sunrise Club. Chef Michael out did himself with his BBQ skills. Excellent food, wine and fellowship. Thank you.
Andre inducted into Rotaract this morning!
6:45 pick up this morning to go to meet with the dynamic Rotaract Club of Grand Cayman. Incredibly energized and dynamic group of people that are doing many local projects and involved internationally as well. They did a training session on Club Runner and even this old dog learned something. Thanks Rotaract of Grand Cayman.

President Victor running the meeting from his agenda on his blackberry. You see whay Rotaract helps keep us in the real world!

In an hour we are off to the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman, then a Board meeting then the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman Central, We have a reception this evening at PDG Bobbys and tomorrow we are doing project visits etc. Staurday is Training all day for new members and boards.

No slackness in this country!!

Check in later.

DG Dick