RB Sunrise Rotary Learns from DGE's at Hospitality Event
DGE from Brazil and his wife |
 Swedish DGE presenting her district's information
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 l to r: DGE from a district that Czech and Slovak Republics and Trudy Armstrong, RB Sunrise Rotary Past President
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Relaxed atmosphere during dinner at the World Resources SIM Center/GENI Offices |
During the week of January 18-24, San Diego was the location for Rotary's International Assembly. This is the meeting held every January when District Governor Elects gather from all over the world to be trained for being the leaders of their district in the next Rotary year. While the International Assembly is going on, San Diego and Imperial Countys' Rotary District 5340 leaders and club members assist Rotary International and these guests. One very interesting event is the opportunity for clubs in District 5340 to host the visiting district governor elects for a dinner.
Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary Club this year was privileged to host 8 guest district governor elects and 6 spouses along with 19 members and spouses at a dinner. 2 non-Rotarians, Anne-Marie Maxe and Tom LeBus, invited because they speak Swedish. Dale Bailey, executive director of District 5340 had assigned 3 DGEs from Sweden to RB Sunrise.
Beside the 3 DGEs from Sweden, the other countries represented by our guest DGEs were: Yorkshire, England; Tasmania, Australia; Czech and Slovak Republics, and Brazil. The location of this dinner is the office of honorary member Peter Meisen's GENI organization which also operates the World Resources SIM Center. Several of our DGE’s opted to walk to the meeting through the Gaslamp quarter, giving them an additional chance to see some of Historic San Diego Once at the venue, we had about a half hour for general conversation, after which everyone settled in for really good Indian cuisine from Urban India.
At the conclusion of dinner, we asked out Host, Peter Meisen, honorary RB Sunrise Rotarian and the CEO of GENI, to explain the GENI mission and his role using Rotary to assist in fulfilling that mission. Peter has been at every Rotary International convention representing GENI for many years. After Peter, former District Governor Carl Kruse took the floor to enlighten us all on the activities of District 5340, then RB Sunrise President Elect Alison Farrin spent a few minutes highlighting the activities of the RB Sunrise Club. Peter then put up the district websites for each of the DG’s represented, as well as that of their home club. We invited each DG to tell us what was special about their district and what favorites projects they could highlight. Peter quickly located information about some of the projects and the areas of concern as each DG spoke, giving everyone in the room a chance to see the impact of Rotary in many disparate countries. What was impressive to everyone is the wide range of projects Rotary is doing thoughout the world as shown in this small sample.
Our evening concluded with a banner exchange, as well as some sharing of contact information. I believe all our DG’s were back at the hotel by 9:30 PM. After the presentations, most of them were visibly wilting!