April 22, 2006 Meeting and Airport Trip

We had our final group meeting before our trip to Poland on Saturday. As you can see from the following picture, we were excited to receive our jackets with the Rotary symbol embroidered on them. Lester brought them to us as well as several (shiny!) pins, our business cars, maps, an our plane tickets.

Picture: Seth Billings, Jerry Foltz, Ann Steele and Sara Menlove (me).

Our preparation meetings have been very entertaining and this one was not an exception. Between reviewing the presentation a couple more times, practicing the hula, square dancing and singing, and eating, we got a lot done.

We were very excited to get our rain jackets (picture above) and immediately were given the opportunity to test them out. We went from Jerry's house to Dulles International Airport to greet the incoming team from District 2230. While we were on our way to the airport, a downpour started and we arrived at the airport fairly wet!

Our team met the team from Poland along with District Governor John McKone, his wife Norma Jean, Lester Schoene, and JoAnne Johnson. It was fun to greet Jacek, Karolina, Tomac, Renata and Piotr. They were excited to arrive in Virginia, but wanted to know when the rain would stop. We escorted them to their hotel and will meet them again at the District conference this weekend in Fredericksburg.

Watch for more pictures following the District conference!

Rotary International Group Study Exchange

"The Group Study Exchange (GSE) program of The Rotary Foundation is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for young business and professional men and women between the ages of 25 and 40 and in the early years of their professional lives. The program provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits between paired areas in different countries. For four to six weeks, team members experience the host country's institutions and ways of life, observe their own vocations as practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas. (from http://www.rotary.org/foundation/educational/gse/index.html)"

The GSE manual encourages team members to keep a journal of their experiences during preparation and during the exchange. This blog will help our team keep a record and will allow our friends from District 7610 and other friends and families keep up with what we are doing.

We are representing District 7610 (http://www.rotary7610.org/) and exchanging with District 2230 which covers Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. We will only be visiting Poland, but will have the opportunity to associate with Rotarians from Belarus and Ukraine during their district conference.

District 7610 began recruiting applicants for its 2006 GSE program in the summer of 2005. A friend of mine works for a Rotarian, so she told me about it and I decided to apply. Applications were accepted and interviews were held in November. By the end of November, we were invited to join the team. I remember Scott's phone call well because I was in the Virgin Islands for Thanksgiving when we spoke. Our team originally consisted of five members, but we are now down to four. This is an outdated picture that will be replaced if I remember to bring my camera to our next team meeting:


From left to right: Ann Steele, Seth Billings, Jerry Foltz, Harsha Roa (no longer on the team), and Sara Menlove.

The following short bios appeared in the December 2005 District Foundation Newsletter:
Ann Steele - Fair Lakes RC, sponsor (Vocation: Civil/Infrastructure Engineer responsible for construction and project management of an environmental research project in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest)
Seth Billings - West Springfield RC, sponsor (Vocation: Foreign Service Institute with specialized interest in former Soviet states)
Jerry Foltz, Team Leader - Dulles RC (Vocation: Associate Conference Minister, United Church of Christ, Central Atlantic Conference)
Sara Menlove - Fair Lakes RC, sponsor (Vocation: U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs: Monitoring and State Improvement Planning)

We have been meeting about twice a month since December to plan our visit and the presentation that we will make while visiting Rotary clubs in Poland. It has been a learning experience. Thankfully, Seth was able to get our presentations translated to Polish and even get us a tape of a native speaker reading them. However, even with that help, I'm still struggling with the language.

Lester Schoene and Scott Mills have been integral members of our team during the preparation process. They attend our meetings, have arranged our travel, teach us square dancing, etc. :) They have really helped us to understand GSE better and to be better prepared for our exchange.

We depart to Poland on May 12th and will be there until June 10th. We leave in only 36 days and have a lot of preparation to do, but we are really excited.