Friendship Exchange

Rotary Friendship Exchange (RFE) – District 6250 (Western Wisconsin) and District 1913 (Croatia)

Please read fully. Contact Edwin Bos at edwin@bosdesignbuilders.com if interested. If you don’t receive a confirmation your interest has not been noted. Please resend.

Background: Currently, the Rotary Club of Beloit is the primary international sponsor on a large Rotary “Digital Literacy” Global Grant that is benefitting schools in various parts of Croatia.  The relationships Beloit has established over the past 3 years has led to this Rotary Friendship Exchange opportunity.  Members of the Rotary Club of Beloit were given first “dibs” on this exchange, however, there are several spots remaining.

What: Rotary Friendship Exchange with Rotary Clubs and Rotarians in Croatia. Stay with local Rotarians, city and business tours, local food and drink, Rotary meetings and plenty of time for fellowship and discussion. Prepare to be surprised by the activities and tours organized for you.  Return leg will bring Croatian Rotarians to Wisconsin in 2024. See also: Rotary International Website RFE Information and District 6250 Friendship Exchange Page

When: District 6250 travel to District 1913 in Croatia will be from September 7-18, 2023. District 1913 travel to 6250 is TBD in 2024. No visa requirements in either direction, just a passport.

09/07/23: Fly out of Chicago. Chicago -???- Zagreb, Croatia.

09/08/23: Arrive in Zagreb, Itinerary by Croatian Rotarians TBD. To Get a Feel: 2022 Poland RFE Trip Report (Disclaimer: Every RFE is Different!)

09/18/23: Depart Zagreb and arrive in Chicago.

Where: Croatia. Fly into Zagreb ....  Transport between cities by mini-bus, bus or train.  In many of the places we visit Beloit has participated in the Digital Revolution Global Grant.  We will be met by friendly faces.  See also map below.

Who: Maximum of 12 interested Rotarians, spouses and/or family members. If oversubscribed / too much interest, we will use District 6250 RFE policy parameters to put the final group together. Note that the policy favors RFE novices especially younger Rotarians.  If you travel to Croatia you are expected to host and to enlist your club members to host when the Croatian Rotarians visit Wisconsin … don’t let this scare you, you’ll get plenty of support.

How: RFE (10 days or so), must be willing to let others organize your life and to go with the flow during the RFE.  Private travels within Europe both before and after the complete RFE are your choice. Final group will meet in Wisconsin at least once prior to the trip to work out details.

Costs: Round-trip cost to Zagreb is around $1,100 right now (may go up or down in the months ahead).  There will be train and bus travel expenses. Typically, you are hosted by local Rotarians and it is fully expected that this will be the case in Croatia, however, every RFE is different, and we will need to be flexible. The Trip Leaders will be working out details during the first half of 2023 and after all the participants are identified.

Timing: We hope to have the final group identified by the end of February 2023.  At that time, we will ask for participant bios so that our Croatian hosts can begin matching us with local host Rotarians and begin planning an itinerary.  We will also ask for a $500 deposit (see below in red).

Trip Leader 6250: 2019-20 Past District Governor: Edwin Bos, Fort Atkinson

Trip Leader 1913: 2019-20 Past District Governor: Danijel Jozic, Zagreb

Please contact Edwin Bos, if interested, at edwin@bosdesignbuilders.com
Questions are welcome but please realize that very few details of the trip have been worked out.

Firm interest appreciated given the trip is only 8 months away. At the end of February participants will be asked for a $500 deposit which will be fully refunded upon return. Sorry to have to do this but we need to be certain that we only have seriously interested people signed up and, to be fair to our hosts, we need to be certain that everyone participates in the full RFE.

Map of Trip / Area