ROTARY DISTRICT 5220 FRIDAY FACTS

Friday Facts, March 10

March 17 is the final day to make any corrections to the Official Directory information

that RI has of the 2006-2007 Club officers, and meeting time and location. Club President

and Secretary can do this on-line at member access. It is listed as 06-07 OD, and the

Official Directory will be made available at the International Convention in Copenhagen.

The Official Directory has a listing for the nearly 32,000 clubs of the Rotary World.

Today is the deadline to get your Club Awards Binders to PDG Phyllis Nusz, or the ADG

who serves your club’s area. PDGs and ADGs will be asked to act as judges on March

18, at Phyllis’s office in Stockton. Don’t let your club be neglected for club awards at the

District Conference; turning in the award binders is the only way to be judged.

In a phone conversation with Frank Collins Jr., President Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar’s

representative to our District Conference, he has agreed to give us some information

about Rotary and the United Nations. Rotary was involved from the inception of the UN

and maintains a representative committee of 5 Rotarians, and Frank is the chair. This is

just one of the reasons every Rotarian should attend the District Conference. Space is still

available, and forms can be downloaded from the home page of the District website

I have been advised that the Rotary International Board has approved extension of Rotary

back into Viet Nam. There has been a Group Study Exchange between Viet Nam and a

Northern California District. There also have been humanitarian projects by USA Rotary

clubs.

The following report was received from GSE team leader Anita Hellam on Monday,

March 6.

Greetings from Santa Rosa De Copan. This is a beautiful colonial town high in the hills.

The temperature is much cooler than San Pedro Sula and the North Coast region. There is

less humidity as well. I will try to get back into a regular routine of communication.

Our GSE team just completed a tour of a cigar factory. Tobacco has been a stable source

of employment here for generations, and is the reason this town was founded. The quality

is very high and competes well with the Cuban cigars. I have a new respect for those

stinky things.

Wed. through Sat. of last week was the District Conference for Rotary. Wow! The

Hondurans put on a wonderful party. The District is composed of Guatemala, Belize, and

Honduras. I have never attended anything quite so extravagant in my life. There were

easily 500 people in attendance. One of the keynote speakers was the Cardinal (a serious

contender for the papacy)…. he left me speechless. I am trying to get my hands on a print

version of his talk. Remarkable.

It was fun to be at a District Conference with all the people we have been meeting over

the last few weeks. It was quite a reunion. All of the Rotarians who have been hosting us

in their homes were at the conference. The first night was Caribbean themed. The party

took place around the pool and was well catered. The music was great. Everyone wore

white. It was very impressive. On Friday, we loaded onto buses and went to a beach party

in Tela. Just to give you an idea, there were 300 pounds of shrimp. They had fireworks,

dancers, and music. On Saturday, was the formal event, Black Tie and quite elegant.

Most of my team didn’t leave the party until 5:30 AM. Being the old lady in the group, I

was in bed by 1 AM.

Tomorrow we head to Copan Ruins. Tonight we visit Gracias. We are taking tons of

pictures, but because these computers do not have DSL lines, it takes 30 minutes to

download the most basic photos.

With Rotary Pride,