Sunriser Mar 24, 2014 (Mar 24, 2014)

District Training Assembly Report

On Saturday morning March 22, Karen Mortimer, Jeanne MacLaren, Carl Kruse, and James Dunny traveled to the Joan Kroc Center for Peace and Justice on the campus of the University of San Diego to attend the District Training Assembly. Each year the incoming district governor organizes a training assembly to train club officers in order to get ready to better run their clubs during the upcoming Rotary year.

This training assembly was hosted by incoming district governor elect, Louise Andres. Louise departed from the usual format of having a keynote speaker. Instead, DGE Louise increased the training breakout sesssions from 2 to 3. This increaded the time available so that such topics as Fundraising and ClubRunner training could be added to the schedule.

The ideas that were discussed will help our club in the next Rotary year when Karen Mortimer will be President of RB Sunrise Rotary.

After a box lunch on the patio in from to the center, Nasrin Barbee joined the group in order to attend the Grants Management Seminar. Each club in the district had to have at least 2 members attend this seminar in order to be eligible to submit a matching grant via the district to the Rotary Foundation. The seminar focused on the mechanics and timeline for submission of grant proposals. The seminar highlighted the best practices needed in order to meet the criteria for approval of the grant at the district and the Rotary Foundation level.

You may recall that several years ago, District 5340 was a pilot district for the Future Vison model for Rotary Foundation grants. At the beginning of the current Rotary year, 2012-2014, the Future vision model was instituted for all Rotary Foundation grants. The major change involved having larger grants that are restricted to six areas of focus. All grants now have to include a statement to state how the grant project is a sustainable goal. In the past, too often a project such a well for water was completed with pumping equipment with no plan for ongoing support for upkeep and maintenance. As a result, too often return visits would uncover the fact that the goal of clean water was not met because the pump was broken and there was no plan to repair or replace it. All projects now must have buy in from the local village as well as a plan for training and ongoing sustainability.

To be approved Global Grants need to be in one of the following areas of focus:

a. Water and Sanitation

b. Disease Prevention and Treatment

c. Maternal and Child Health

d. Basic Education and Literacy

e. Economic and Community Development

f. Peace and Conflict Prevention/Resolution.

In the months to come, our Rotary Foundation Chair, Jeanne MacLaren will be telling us more about Rotary Foundation and Global Grants.

Polio Eradication-Why just "this close"?

Rotary has had a global ad campaign with pictures of celebrities with fingers held an inch apart say "We're this close" to eradicating polio. That campaign has gone on fore several years. What has been the progress and why is the eradication effort stalled. First of all, 4 years ago there were 4 countries where polio was endemic. 2 years ago, India was removed from that list and there have been no new polio cases reported in India for over 2 years. That is the good news. The bad news is that in the other 3 countries in the last reported numbers from 2011 there has been an increase in polio cases over the number in 2010. How can that be?

The 3 remaining countries where polio is still endemic are Pakistan, Afganistan and Nigeria. That alone gives a clue about what the problems might be. In fact, there are 4 main barriers to completion of the goal of complete polio eradication. They are: geographical barriers, conflict, political change and poor infrastructure. The geographical barriers are difficult terrain or poor maps coupled with finding nomadic populations. The war in Afganistan has interfered with polio eradication efforts. Political change has resulted in resistance from tribal chiefs to polio immunization efforts because they want other health issues addressed. Poor infrastructure in these 3rd world countries just means that the healthcare assets we take for granted in first world countries is nonexistant in these countries.

Why is all of this important to know and understand? The recent outbreak of polio in Syria demonstrates how polio can have a resurgence unless there is total eradication. Continued vaccination efforts are vital to prevent the resurgence anywhere. It is estimated that it would take only 10 years for the number of new polio cases each year to reach 100,000 if immunization efforts were suspended.

There is more information under the Polio Plus Information menu item on the RB Sunrise website homepage. For an overview of the current situation see the Rotary Polio Infographic link. For a more complete global outlook on polio eradication efforts, see the Rotarian's Guide to Polio Eradication link.

Notes from the Editor

In the middle of May through the end of the first week in June, I will be on vacation in Australia and New Zealand. I will be publishing some information on the website and newsletter during that time, but I would like to have someone else in the club volunteer to send in information for the bulletin. Obviously, when I am away I can't know what is going on during meetings or what events need to be published on our club website home page. If anyone can help, please talk with me at any club meeting.

Since we are approaching the end of the month, if you have done any makeups for meetings you have missed, please send me an email with the name of the club and the date of the makeup so you can be credited with the makeup. (The treasurer also has to know so that you can receive a credit on your club bill.

Jim Dunny

SunRiser Editor

Executive Secretary

Upcoming Rotary Events



Mar 25 2014	SubRegional Competition	4 Way Speech Contest
Apr 4 2014 - Apr 6 2014	RYLA	at Idylwild
Apr 26, 2014	Rotarians at Work

Clear your calendar now so you can attend the District Council "Governor's Dinner" on June 24, 2014. It will be at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Mission Valley. It will mark the end of Carl's year as District Governor.

RB Sunrise Rotary Club needs to have a large number of members and their spouses at this event to help Carl celebrate the success of his year as District Governor. It is at this dinner that our club will surrender the banner we have had as the home club of the district governor.