District Governor's Message
Rotary Training Opportunities Coming Soon
Mary Kessens
One of the strengths of Rotary that sustains it as an organization is the frequent opportunities for training. Rotary is a multi-level and complex organization, even at the club level. If you recall your first years as a Rotarian, I bet you were many times befuddled by acronyms and customs beyond your new member knowledge. Over the years as my involvement has grown and the many opportunities of Rotary have begun to make sense to me, I still find myself learning something new at every meeting and training event.
I encourage you to send a team of club members to the upcoming Membership and Foundation Seminar to be held Saturday, November 3, 2007 at the Great Wolf Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. Because membership growth and growing and spending The Rotary Foundation’s money play prominent roles in this year’s goals, it is imperative that we share our best practices to accomplish these ends. Come to this seminar to learn how to attract and retain active Rotarians, learn how to write a matching grant and learn how to create an attitude of giving in your Rotary club.
If Rotary is to continue its positive impact on our communities and the world, we must continue to add more hands and generous people to our ranks. We must learn how to allow others to feel as good about giving to the Rotary Foundation as we do. We must improve our skill and ability to access the funds of the Rotary Foundation to benefit our local and international club projects and our communities.
Go to the Rotary District 6250 website and register for this free-of-charge event. And, as long as you are driving to the Dells, fill your car with a few others from your club. You will find it a worthwhile activity.
Best Wishes in Rotary,
Mary
District Goals for the Year
Mary Kessens
Click here to download district goals as a pdf.
District News, Events and Announcements
Update from the Chair of Membership
By Richard Kenney
We are busy preparing for the November 3 Membership seminar in Wisconsin Dells. The agenda is close to being set with various leaders for a workshop format, to avoid lectures.
The registration and agenda, subject to minor changes, is linked to www.rotary6250.org and should cover the tasks for training our 61 clubs’ representatives to work on the goal of one new member, net, for the 61 clubs. This means we should be able to count on expanding our membership from 3444 to 3505.
Here is our past five years, as of their respective July reports:
2003, 3425
2004, 3433
2005, 3433
2006, 3408
2007, 3444
For some reason, the meter seems to be stuck at a little over 3400. DG Mary Kessen’sgoal for all of us is to get that number over 3500 by July 2008. It goes without saying that we have to couple Retention with Recruitment, both Retain and Add, if we are going to get there. The upcoming Seminar/Workshop is aimed at giving us the ideas, tools, and motivation to accomplish this. With some experienced and successful recruiters from clubs in both Janesville and in Marshfield as well as PDG Al Steevens and PDG Terry Mueller from District 6440 who currently serves as RI Membership Coordinator for RI Zone 27, (which includes our District 6250), we can be prepared to contribute to our clubs’ growth.
Please explore the district 6250 web page at www.rotary6250.org .
Call me at 715-423-0986 or email me at richardjkenney@yahoo.com.
See You at the Great Wolf Lodge and Convention Center in Wisconsin Dells on November 3rd!
District Foundation and Membership Seminar
Join your fellow Rotarians on Saturday, November 3, 2007 at the Great Wolf Resort in Wisconsin Dells for the District Foundation and Membership Seminar.
The District Foundation and Membership Educational Seminar is available for the purpose of providing Rotary Clubs helpful information that can be used within the club to equip club leaders with the tools and training to motivate their club members to support The Rotary Foundation, to recruit new members and to retain current members.
For more information and to view the registration form, click here.
RYLA Reunion 2007
October 25th Deadline for Group Study Exchange Team Members
By Robert Stroud
Rotary International District 6250 and the Rotary International Foundation are pleased to announce that they are jointly sponsoring a Group Study Exchange with District 4850, which is in Argentina, northwest of Buenos Aires. T he co-sponsors will cover the costs for a Rotarian team leader and four non-Rotarian team members. The team members must be between the ages of 25 and 40 at the date of application and both the team members and the team leader must be employed in providing services to people with disabilities. Applicants must live in Rotary District 6250. There is a strong preference for team members who are at least conversant in Spanish. This is our district’s first single-vocation exchange. We expect that this vocational emphasis will help us convince both applicants and employers that this will be a worthwhile international continuing education experience for the team.
The district GSE committee would like to have applications for team leader submitted no later than September 25 and team member applications submitted no later than October 25. Interviews for the team leader will be conducted in Wisconsin Dells in the first weekend of October and team member interviews will be conducted, also in Wisconsin Dells, in the first weekend of November.
The team will travel to District 4850 from March 15, 2008 until April 12, 2008. Since all team members have similar vocational interests, we anticipate that the exchange will have considerable exposure to institutions providing services to people with disabilities.
We also are looking for clubs wishing to host our visiting team from Argentina, with the same vocational emphasis. Host clubs should plan to have in-depth vocational visits for the visiting team at an agency, school or institutionserving people with disabilities. Team visits usually last from 4 to 6 days and require, in addition to vocational activities, host families for visiting team (team leader and four team members), at least one-half day of free time for each three days of their visit, and transportation arrangements both during their visit and between host cities.
For more information about Group Study Exchange and applications , review the Rotary website for Group Study Exchange :
http://www.rotary.org/foundation/educational/gse/index.html
Travel dates are:
Wisconsin District 6250 team travels to Argentina District 4850 : on March 16 and returns to Wisconsin on April 12, 2008
Argentina District 4850 team travels to Wisconsin District 6250 : on April 13 and returns to Argentina on May 10, 2008
APPLICATIONS FOR TEAM LEADERS ARE DUE SEPTEMBER 25, 2007 .
APPLICATIONS FOR TEAM MEMBERS ARE DUE OCTOBER 25, 2007 .
Questions about or applications for this exchange should be forwarded to:
Robert R. Stroud
STROUD, WILLINK & HOWARD, LLC
25 West Main Street, Suite 300
P.O. Box 2236
Madison , Wisconsin 53701-2236
voice (608) 257-2281
fax (608) 257-7643
e-mail: rstroud@stroudlaw.com
Update to District Directory - District Office Contact Information
Page 18 of the 2007-2008 incorrectly lists the phone and email address of the District Office and Morgan Data Solutions. Please update your records to reflect the information below:
Rotary District 6250 Administration
2830 Agriculture Drive
Madison , WI 53718
608.204.9835
608.204.9818
rotarydistrict6250@morgandata.com
2008/2009 District Budget Timetable Released
To assure timely preparation of the 2008/2009 budget so that it can be approved at PETS in March, 2008, the following timetable will be followed:
By Late November
DGE Tom Marshall will email Committee Chairs and others with budget requirements a spreadsheet containing budget vs. actual figures for the past two years along with the 2007/2008 budget with actual figures through October, 2007. Recipients need to review the information for their committees/areas and determine amounts to be included in the new budget.
By December 20th
Budget requests must be submitted to the District Treasurer via email, fax, or U.S. Postal Service.
Early January, 2008
District Finance Committee will meet to review and approve the budget.
By February 1, 2008
Final budget will be completed.
Any questions should be directed to District Treasurer Ed Smith .
Club News, Events and Announcements
Do you have an upcoming Club Event or accomplishment that you would like to announce? Send your pre-written article to: rotarydistrict6250@morgandata.com.
Zone 27/28 Newsletter - Great Information for Your Club
Click here to download some great tips from the Zone 27/28 Newsletter!
Chippewa Falls - Rotarians Help Fund Experimental System to Curtail Dysentery in Bolivia Part 2 of 4
By Mark BakerChippewa Herald
Imagine digging an eight-foot pit right next to one of the elementary schools in Chippewa Falls.
Imagine filling it with human and medical waste.
Imagine it overflowing and spilling over to the surrounding streets.
Then imagine children having to walk through it every day to get to class.
If you can mentally picture that, you’ve got a pretty good idea of one of the biggest challenges in Buena Vista, a poor community adjacent to Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Mark Broses, an environmental engineer with Short Elliot Hendrickson (SEH), watched that scene unfold during his recent visit to Bolivia through the Chippewa Falls Rotary Club. He witnessed workers digging a pit for medical waste, and knew from personal experience that material dumped into the pit would not perk into the surrounding land. The rock-hard cistern would hold, and not disperse, its toxic material.
Sadly, the pit was located just outside the fence of the local elementary school. Eventually, the pit will be filled to overflowing with harmful waste, threatening the health of those who come in contact with it. It is little wonder, then, that an estimated one-third of the children of Buena Vista do not survive to their 10 th birthday. Poor sanitary conditions, combined with a lack of potable drinking water in homes, are one of the leading causes of dysentery and death in this poor South American country. But Broses, and a number of Rotary Clubs, are trying to do something about it. |
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“My great-grandfather was a civil engineer in the Upper Peninsula 100 years ago,” said Broses. “He installed one of the first sanitary systems up there. It never really dawned on me what he was dealing with until I went to Cochabamba… where they don’t have sanitary facilities. They dig pits, and when they fill up, they dig another pit, or they go behind a tree. And their gray water runs out on the street.”
Broses marvels at the fact that this is how medical waste is disposed of in this day and age.
“They don’t have any other place to put it right now,” he said.
The day before he was to return to Chippewa Falls, Broses saw a similar pit being constructed for human waste next to the elementary school. He objected, saying the pit was going to fill up and create long-term health issues.
“We stopped them right in the middle of construction, and said put these ecological toilets in,” said Broses. The Chippewa Falls Rotary Club agreed to pay the $500 cost of building the facility.
Eco toilets are a relatively new – and inexpensive – alternative, said Broses. But they can pay big dividends by turning human waste from a disease-causing material to a product that can be safely used on farms and gardens.
The eco toilets are very simple, said Broses, but people have to use them the right way.
From the outside, eco toilets look much like portapotties used in the U.S.
“They make them nice,” said Broses. “It looks like a nice bathroom.”
Plumbing splits human feces and urine into two separate routes and containers.
Urine goes into a five gallon bucket. When full, it can be mixed with rainwater and used on crops almost immediately, said Broses.
“It’s full of all sorts of nitrogen,” he said. “It’s good for the crops.”
Solid feces heads into a 55-gallon barrel. With each individual use, fly ash -- or lime -- is dumped on top of the feces. When the barrel is full, it is sealed and left for 90 days. During that time, said Broses, it is “cooking,” that is, the feces and fly ash undergo a chemical change.
After 90 days, said Broses, “when you open it up, it doesn’t resemble human feces any more. It is sterilized and is usable for agriculture as a fertilizer. It appears to work pretty well.”
The challenge is in educating people to use the eco toilets properly. If they do not sprinkle fly ash after each use, the solids won’t “cook” properly.
“There’s a lot of training involved,” said Broses. “The key to it is, this stuff collecting underneath, you have to know what to do with this stuff after the fact, and when.”
When fellow Rotarian Andrew Dane was in the Peace Corps in Central America, he saw eco toilets used improperly, said Broses. Instead of sealing up the barrels when filled, they were used to overflowing.
“They’re worst than a (pit) septic system because they were overflowing,” said Broses.
Working with Agua Tuya (Water for You) program Director Gustabo Heredia and Anna Haarman of the Cochabamba Rotary Club, an ecological toilet was placed outside the fence adjacent to Buena Vista’s elementary school. There, its use can be monitored and controlled, said Broses.
“It can be a demonstration project to the other people in the village,” said Broses. “And if they decide this is what we want, they can get them and buy them. They want to have them everywhere.”
LaCrosse, Sparta and Caledonia Clubs all Assist in Flood Efforts
At this link you will find an article from the newsletter of the Rotary Club of La Crosse. This club and all of the clubs in the La Crosse area have been working overtime to assist in flood relief efforts. If your club would like to participate, note the donation option in the article.
Another heartfelt cooperative effort came to the District Governor's attention at a visit to the Rotary Club of Caledonia. Caledonia Club President Mary Mell received a phone call from Sparta Club President J.P. Schaller indicating that the Rotary Club of Sparta would like to donate $1,000 to the flood relief effort with the assurance that it would go to grass roots efforts. President Mary and her club were overwhelmed with this spontaneous donation and used it to support the volunteer flood relief efforts.
Kudos to both the Rotary Clubs of Caledonia and Sparta for their generosity and flood relief efforts.
Marshfield Rotary to Draw 20,000 for Winter Wonderland
On Saturday morning, Oct. 13, nearly 150 volunteers plus cherry pickers and boom trucks will descended upon Marshfield’s Wildwood Park & Zoo to begin wrapping 310,000+ lights around trees, fences and displays – transforming the park over the course of the next several weekends into Rotary Winter Wonderland.
This magical holiday lighting display premiered last year with the mission of feeding the hungry of the Marshfield area. Spearheaded by the community’s two Rotary Clubs (Marshfield Rotary and Marshfield Sunrise Rotary), Rotary Winter Wonderland has been embraced by the entire community. Over 20,000 visitors toured the park in 2006, its very first year of operation. More importantly, guests donated 30,500 food items at the gate, which were distributed to 19 food pantries in the greater Marshfield area.
Each year, hundreds of members of our community find themselves struggling for food for their families. “We are fortunate to have local food pantries to help those in need, however food inventories become dangerously low in the winter months,” said Alan Nystrom, Rotary Winter Wonderland chair. “The focus of this project remains feeding the hungry among us. In turn, a deep sense of community pride and holiday spirit is being created. We are committed to making Rotary Winter Wonderland a holiday tradition in Marshfield and helping those in need for generations to come.”
Rotary Winter Wonderland opens officially on Friday, Nov. 23 (day after Thanksgiving). The park will be open from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday - Sunday nights
through Dec. 16, then every night from Dec. 20 – 30. The lighted drive-through route is being expanded. More displays and lights are being added to the walking paths, and a brand new synchronized music/lighting display (“Electric Splash”) will be unveiled. Santa will be at the park every night through Dec. 24; reindeer will be visiting on Nov. 30 and Dec. 7, 15 & 22; and several new events have been added:
- 3 -D Glasses available the 1 st two weekends: Nov. 23-24 & Nov. 30-Dec.1
- Christmas Karaoke contest – Thurs., Dec. 13 @ 7 p.m.
- Children’sParade – Sat., Dec. 15 @ 6 p.m. hosted by Optimists Club
- Snowman Contest – Sat., Dec. 29 @ 6 p.m.
This year, for the first time, nonprofit groups in the Marshfield area may earn money by providing a significant number of volunteer hours to set up, take down and staff the park during evening operations.
Rotary Winter Wonderland was inspired by a similar lighting display (Rotary Lights) started in La Crosse in 1994 that now features over 1.5 million lights and involves more than 2,000 community volunteers. That project has raised over a million items of food since its inception.
RI News
Polio Update from PolioPlus Partners Task Force
By Tom Ewen, PDG, Assistant Chair, PolioPlus Partners Task Force - North America II
Dear Fellow Rotarians:
This report will deal with items downloaded from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative web page (www.polioeradication.org). The Wild Poliovirus Weekly Update continues to bring encouraging results. For example, the following are the global, endemic country and non-endemic country results (2007 vs 2006 YTD cases)
a. Globally, there are 61% fewer cases.
b. The endemic countries report 64% cases.
c. The non-endemic countries report 35% fewer cases.
The following are the results for the four endemic countries (2007 vs 2006 YTD cases)
a. India reports 29% fewer cases.
b. Nigeria reports 77% fewer cases.
c. Pakistan reports 29% fewer cases.
d. Afghanistan reports 65% fewer cases.
Notes
1. Eight non-endemic countries that suffered from imported cases in 2006 have had zero case reported YTD 2007. Proof that their quick response brougth positive results.
2. Pakistan will synchronize its 24-26 September campaign with neighbouring Afghanistan.
3. Increased ownership and enthusiasm for polio eradication continues to be evident by political leadership across northern states. (Extremely good news)
4. Not surprisingly, the monsoons accounted for flooding in eastern India. This did not deter vaccinators and social mobilizers in some districts from reaching children during the August round of vaccinations. Unfortunately, cancellation of activities in 46 primary health care districts deprived 2 million children of the oral polio vaccine. There is considerable risk of poliovirus transmission in times of flooding which compounds lowered immunity in children who cannot be reached with vaccine.
5. Synchronized immunization saw over 5 million children vaccinated in Sudan and 2.5 million children in Chad vaccinated over a three-day period.
Conclusion
Look back over these notes and you see evidence of personal sacrifices being made by Rotarian and non-Rotarian volunteers. The least we can do is to let them know that we, in polio-free countries, are recognizing their efforts by providing funds in support of the on-going Open Project Lists. Let's Fulfill Our Promise to The Children of the World by showing that ROTARY SHARES.
Inaccurate Reports of Vaccine Induced Polio in Nigeria
Several Rotarians and friends have brought to my attention the recent newspaper articles regarding the reoccurance of polio as a result of the polio vaccine used in Nigeria. I was shocked to hear of this since all of the reports I have been receiving indicate that polio cases continue to be significantly reduced in Nigeria and around the world.
Following and attached are updated informational announcements regarding the more detailed story related to this issue.
Toronto Star Article
Polio Q & A
Polio Statement
Please note that our polio immunization efforts continue to bear fruit despite the challenges this disease presents. Polio cases are significantly reduced and declining this year. That is the good news story that seems so hidden among the headlines.
Mary Kessens
District Governor
Ask Mary
Do you have a question for our District Governor Mary Kessens? If so click here to email your questions to Mary Kessens.
Is there such a thing as "joint" or "couples" membership?
This great question comes from Dennis Juncer, President, Rotary Club of Marshfield.
Dennis writes -
I'm the president of the Marshfield noon club and like everybody else, we're having a hard time getting and keeping mew members, and are looking for new ways to get people involved.
One idea I've had is to have husband/wife joint memberships.
What I have in mind is to have a reduced membership dues for the second person. For example, if yearly dues are $400, the couple dues would be $600. They'd pay double meal costs, and other than the reduced 2d person dues, would both have the same status as regular members. A lot of spouses are already de facto members, helping the wife or husband with Rotary affairs. Why not make it official?
Mary Kessens writes-
Thanks for the question Dennis. I did a little digging and contacted James Damato Jr., Club and District Support with Rotary International. Here is his response.
James writes -
Technically, there cannot be anything like a 'joint' membership, since membership in a club is for an individual. However, I do not believe there would be anything wrong with the scenario of having reduced dues and assessments, since some clubs are doing so for retired members and/or younger members. The club would need to make sure that RI dues and assessments and district dues are paid in full for each member. The club should be sure and codify this in the clubs bylaws, to make sure everyone is treated equally.
Update on Annual Giving
Foundation Reports
Every Rotarian Every Year Report.
Foundation Trustees Request Nominations for Distinguished Service and Citation for Meritorious Service Awards
Application deadline is November 15!
The Rotary Foundation has a number of awards presented for service to humanity — individual efforts that exemplify the Rotary spirit of Service Above Self.
Click here for information and nominations forms for the Distinguished Service and Citation for Meritous Service Award.
Attendance Report
Click here to submit your club's attendance report
Oregon grows with 4 new members!
Click here to see the full August Attendance Report.
