The team has been busy making preparations for their trip to District 9100. While the trip is only one month, the time taken for preparations is much longer. Here’s what the team has been doing to get ready for the trip of a lifetime.
October/November 2009 – Lots of emails flying back and forth and we had a couple of “social” outings to get to know each other, including bowling on one Sunday afternoon. Great fun! Derek attended a Saturday lunch time meeting with previous GSE team leader from the District, affectionately know as the “scare the new guy” lunch. Great information from all of those experienced leaders.
December 2009 – Trying to deconflict everyones busy schedule proves to be difficult. Thank goodness Katie came up with doodle.com to set up calendars with everyones availability. Recommend that teams use that in the future. When we finally found a day that everyone could meet we assembled at Roseland Golf and Curling Club in Windsor. Great facility for a meeting and Derek gave a presentation on Rotary. Think the team now knows more about what Rotary does and it’s mission. Katie and Derek attended the Taylor Rotary club lunch. Taylor club is Katie’s sponsor.
January 2010 - Derek, Andrew and Paul attend the Fairlane Sunrise breakfast meeting and gave a presentation introducing our team and what our plans are for the trip. At the end of the month District Governor Nominee Michael Duben and his wife Shelly hosted the team at their home in Windsor St Clair. They, along with Governor Neil, gave us a great introduction to the culture in Ghana which they have first hand knowledge of from their R.E.L.A.Y program in the southern region of the country. We were made aware of what to expect from the time we land at the airport, what to expect from our hosts, places to visit and much more. Great session full of useful information. Mike and Shelly were even dressed for the occasion.
DGN Michael Duben, Athena Kolbe, Paul Mourad,
Katie Bush and Shelly Duben
February 2010 - Rotarians really step up to help when you ask. Assistant Governor Wayne Titus, hosted the entire team at his office in Plymouth on the 7th. Wayne is also the Water Management Chair for our district and gave an excellent session on some of the technologies used in developing countries to provide clean water and sanitation. Highlighted were bio sand filter technologies and rain water harvesting. I think the entire team came away from this with a greater understanding of some of the issues involved in assessing needs, community involvement and technical issues surrounding water projects.
 |
The team pays close attention…. |
|
….as Wayne talks about |
 |
The team had an early start on February 11th, heading off to the Windsor St. Clair breakfast meeting at the Windsor Yacht Club. Great breakfast and lots of fun, particularly with the fine master, DGN Michael Duben. This club sponsored both Andrew Dowie and Paul Mourad this year. The team introduced themselves and gave a presentation on GSE and this years focus on water.
On February 20th the team all got together at Derek’s house to discuss further preparations and to work on the presentation that we shall be giving to clubs within District 9100 and at their District Conference, which takes place 29th April through 1st May.
As you see there is a lot of preparation done and much more to go.
