International Service Committee
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To see the minutes of this committee's latest meeting see the members only pages.
THIS VERY OUT OF DATE PAGE IS AWAITING INPUT AND REDEVELOPMENT FROM THIS YEAR'S INTERNATIONAL SERVICE COMMITTEE.
Since I inherited this committee we have had a
couple of meetings after our weekly meals plus I think about 4 or 5 meetings in
member’s homes. While the meetings here are necessarily brief they have none the
less been effective. The meetings in member’s homes are however much preferred
since they provide a great measure of the fellowship which is such a feature of
our Club.
Since I did not present this committee’s intentions to our Assembly, at the
beginning of the year, I am not sure how successful we have been in meeting
those aims, whatever they were. However I think we did pretty well and anyway we
had fun and fellowship doing it.
Aqua Box. We started off the year by organising Club support, to provide items to fill an Aqua Box. This lead to an interesting evening trying to pack all of these into the box. (No mater how we tried there was no way Bob Munn’s spade would fit.) We had only just completed and sealed the box when we received an urgent appeal for boxes to go to the Iran earthquake disaster. This appeal was accompanied with a plea for financial aid and your Council very generously provided a cheque for £250 which was also sent.
International Student Night. Our next
major involvement was the regular feature of our Club year, the International
Student Night. This was held on 18th February 2004 at the usual
Cathkin Braes Golf Club venue. We ended up with thirteen (13) students and had
what appeared to be a most pleasant evening. As far as I know we are the only
Rotary Club in our District providing this special Scottish welcome and
hospitality to students from abroad. This is a great pity, since by providing
this friendship to these top echelon students, who in time will hopefully become
leaders in their professions at home, we are establishing, we believe, a good
impression of our country which will bear fruit in the future.
We in Scottish Rotary are often criticised because our financial contribution,
per member, to Rotary Foundation is less than that from other regions of the
world, but what has to be borne in mind is our major contribution in hosting
very many Foundation and other students studying here, plus events like our
International Student Night.
Our thanks are due to the British Council for their excellent choice in
selecting the variety of students from different countries, backgrounds and
cultures which makes meeting them so interesting and I would also like to add my
thanks for the assistance of the committee and all the others in the Club who
supported this event, by acting as drivers, making arrangements with Cathkin and
supporting us with their attendance.
I have attached to the file that I will pass on to my successor a debrief note
giving guidance on the things we learned during this year’s event and
suggestions for future Student Evenings.
I think it is important that committee chairmen pass on to their successors
things that they have learned during the year otherwise we are in danger of
continually trying to reinvent the wheel.
International Speakers. Thanks to the
assistance of our Speakers Convener, Ian Wilson, we managed this year to
organise a couple of speakers on international themes to address the Club. We
had an address by our District International Chairman and a very emotive talk
from a local girl about Vision Africa. This latter talk made such an impression
that your Council agreed to make a substantial contribution to this most worth
while cause. It is still hoped to have a return visit by the young lady who
spoke to us, to see what effect our donation to this charity has produced. This
will however depend on arranging it to coincide with her next visit home.
It has always been my belief that Rotary should wherever possible provide
practical rather than financial assistance. Hence our Aqua Box project this
year. Practical help is however extremely difficult in the case of the
International Committee. Fortunately at the moment this Club has the financial
good fortune to be able to readily help worth while causes but there is a danger
that without active participation in fund raising and community projects that we
will lose the sense of fellowship that is such a welcome feature of this Club.
On the other hand we will increase our recruitment difficulties if it is seen
that members are continually being asked to contribute towards financial
appeals.
The theory has always been that committees wherever possible should at least try
to raise the funds they are spending. So to raise a small amount, but primarily
to enjoy fellowship in the Club, the International Committee are hoping to round
off our year by having a Wine Tasting Evening.
International Wine Tasting. We have
booked a room in the hotel here for 11th June and we intend to ask a
local wine merchant to provide a selection of International Wines for tasting,
together with staff and a speaker to tell us about these. We would hope that
with your support and a discount from the wine merchant, on sales generated, we
can have a good evening and raise a small amount for Rotary International
charities
Rotary Club of Saldana South Africa. I would also like to take the
opportunity of this evening to satisfy an obligation placed upon me by the
Rotary Club of Saldana in South Africa. If you remember when I visited this
club, they, as they do for all foreign visitors, presented me with a bottle of
fine South African wine. Their request being that on my return I should seek the
aid of my own club to raffle or otherwise dispose of the bottle to raise money
for their project, creating kitchen gardens in the townships for the relief of
AIDS victims. At the moment unless someone comes up with a better idea, it has
been suggested that we raffle this bottle (£0.50 or £1.00 a ticket) during this
evening. The proceeds then being sent on to South Africa.
(This raffle was successfully carried out during our Annual, Fun Quiz Night, and
raised £100 this was then generously rounded up to £200 by Council and this has
been sent out to South Africa)
Thanks. I would finally like to thank our President and Council plus all of the International Committee for their support and assistance to me throughout this year and to equally thank all Club members who have supported our projects.
Thank you all.