Jumping the First Hurdle

Surprised and delighted to receive and invitation to attend a 40 minute interview from Garth Raymer (District 1100 GSE Coordinator). Good. This will include a 10 minute Powerpoint presentation as if to an audience of Rotarians in Sri Lanka entitled 'District 1100 and the GSE Team'. Spoke with fellow Rotarians from Thornbury Club - Allan's led a previous District 1100 GSE team to India in 2005; Michael's had a lot to do with travel in Nepal and suggested getting hold of the book 'Culture Shock - Sri Lanka'. (Googled it and found a cheap copy from Amazon. It arrived within a few days and was a good recommendation. Thanks Michael.) Set about structuring the presentation and after several edits finalised with the following slide headings:

1) Title Page
2) I Bring Greetings From ...
3) Presentation Overview
4) Where Is District 1100?
5) Local Features and Highlights:

• Stepping Back In Time
• Boats and Bridges
• Trains, Planes and Aero-Engines
• Art, Theatre and Music
• Further and Higher Education

6) Local Sports

• A Day At The Races
• Leather On Willow
• A Gentleman's Game Played By Hooligans
• A Hooligan's Game Played By Gentlemen
• Something Completely Different

7) District 1100 Top Ten Activities

• Focus On The Crocus
• Shelterbox
• Diabetic Footcare Project (Ledbury RC)
• Nepal School (Pehar Trust)
• District 1100 GSE Fundraising relief for 2004 Tsunami
• Support for Malawi Nursery (Thornbury RC)
• RYLA
• Kids Out
• Youth Competitions

8) Meet the GSE Team
9) A Cultural and Vocational Exchange for World Peace and Understanding
10) Our Blog ... Please Comment
11) Keeping In Touch

I'm pretty satisfied with the content I've chosen, but an actual final presentation would, of course, need input from all team members and Rotarians with previous experience to share. Copied presentation onto memory stick and burned it to DVD-Rom as a back-up. Fingers crossed that I've prepared enough.

Team Leader Interviews and Application

Interviews for Team Leader role are to be held on the evenings of August 10th and 16th. I understand there are 6 applicants from Rotary Clubs in the District. Contacted Gordon Brown (President of Thornbury Rotary Club - my own Club) seeking his endorsement of my application. He was very positive - as were many from the Club with whom I have spoken about GSE. Did more reading around GSE from Rotary International, RIBI and Rotary District 1100 websites. Some useful info available but need to search quite hard to get to it. This reinforces my view that this blog could be a useful guide and source of information for GSE teams that follow. Completed application online, with a 'nothing-ventured' and 'get-my-name-on-the-board' attitude. I'm confident I have the skills and experience to successfully lead the team, but I fully recognise that I'm a comparative newcomer to Rotary (15 months) which could well go against me. Fingers and toes crossed for a receptive interview team :-)

First Post

Set up in advance of possible interview for the role of Team Leader by John Mills for use by Rotary District 1100 Group Study Exchange (GSE) to District 3220 in Sri Lanka from January 29th to February 26th 2011. It will be important to capitalise on this blog as an opportunity to share our experiences and learning before, during and after the exchange in order to provide a strong platform and guidance for teams that follow to build upon.

The photo was taken on an overnight driving tour into the Outback with friends whilst on secondment in Australia. The stars at night are big and bright ... It's not my car, but it is me driving it - first time with a 4-wheel drive gearshift.