Rotary Elixir - Week of July 2, 2007

July is Literacy Month - Project Ideas

The ability to read, write, and do simple math is not only critical to progress and prosperity, it is necessary for the very survival of individuals in a modern society.

Literacy and numeracy projects allow Rotarians to make a creative contribution to building nations, reducing poverty, and opening up opportunities to those who need them.

This year’s Rotary motto, Rotary Shares, means giving of your time.

Demonstrate your commitment to literacy by developing a project in your community. Below you'll find several ideas for community and international projects the Rotary Club of Anguilla may want to consider.

• Apply for a Rotary Foundation grant to establish literacy programs for girls and women, working with an international partner in a country with high rates of female illiteracy



• Establish a literacy center with a library where people can come to read and meet tutors



• Sponsor a business breakfast, inviting business executives and managers of local businesses to hear about literacy efforts in the workplace



• Donate books to students and class libraries at home and abroad



• Schedule a reading hour at a local library when club members would read to children



• Provide child care for parents attending literacy classes



• Reward students who read the most books, win a spelling bee or book report contest, or tutor others.
  

Rotary Elixir - Week of June 25, 2007

Council on Legislation changes affecting membership

The 2007 Council on Legislation adopted 97 items, 59 of which were enactments that change the RI constitutional documents. All policy changes take effect on 1 July.

Some of the changes that affect membership administration are summarized below:


ATTENDANCE

-- The club board can cancel a club meeting for commonly recognized holidays.

-- Club members are required to attend or make up 50 percent rather than 60 percent of their own club’s regular meetings in each half of the Rotary year.

-- Assistant governors are excused from the requirement of attending at least 30 percent of their own club’s regular meetings in each half of the Rotary year.


CLUB MEMBERSHIP

-- Rotaractors who have ended their Rotaract membership within the preceding two years and have been accepted into a Rotary club are exempt from paying a club admission fee.

-- Clubs can elect Rotary Foundation alumni into active membership, even if the classification of the alumnus is filled.

-- Clubs can elect into active membership people with good reputations in the community who have demonstrated a commitment to service and the Object of Rotary through personal involvement in local affairs.


DUES

-- RI per capita dues will be US$23.50 per half year in 2007-08, $24.00 per half year in 2008-09, $24.50 per half year in 2009-10, and $25.00 per half year in 2010-11. Dues will remain at $25.00 per half year until changed by the Council on Legislation.

-- For each new member, clubs will pay prorated per capital dues until the beginning of the next semi-annual period for which dues are payable. The amount payable for each full month of membership will be one-twelfth of the per capita dues.

-- The Manual of Procedure will be updated with all revised constitutional documents and mailed to all clubs and districts. The English version should be available by the end of October, and version in other languages should be available by March. In the meantime, you can download the complete Report of Action at www.rotary.org.

Update #3 from Anne in Whitewater

...June 20, 2007

Hi Seymour et al

We are almost there. You will need to come to the other summit so that you can organize strategies for the boys.

We will have to work ahead of time, so I am proposing that the White Water summit will be, in some way, my community service.

Youth is the topic, and we will need to send more than two students.

The international display we had went well. I had lots of road maps with lots of ads from various businesses and they went well.

The comments, though, were “Where is Anguilla?” They wanted a map with Anguilla positioned. That used to be part of the inset at first, but I have no idea why the tourism department and the flyers stopped positioning Anguilla relative to Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, etc.

I guess we will need to give this feedback to Tourism.

I got a formal note from Admissions today by Rick. The interview for Shellia is tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. The other girl is not really interested. She said that she will shop around first.

With Shellia, she fell in love with Wisconsin while we were driving along. When she saw the campus, she said, “This is it. I would like to go to school here.”

With repeated exclamations of the feeling, I approached Rick and asked him what he thought of the possibility of Shellia getting in. He said from what he has seen of the two girls, he is impressed.

He also said that The University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, is desirous of increasing its international intake of students so all should be well.

Will write tomorrow and let you know how the interview went.

I feel happy here. It is a non-threatening atmosphere.

The kids are happy, and all seem to be able to resolve conflicts even before they start. Of course, the place is full of counsellors and access is easy. It is a real professional set-up with no time wasting.

So far they have had two sets of days whereby they had a full morming of different type of games. That is good planning as they are kids and energy needs to be used up wisely. I am impressed.

The Rotary has an interesting student exchange programme going.

I will look into that some more this evening if I see Rick.

Have a great evening.

A.J.Edwards