Here is a link to the photos I took this weekend at the District Conference in Norman. These include both photos from the Friday evening dinner and Saturday's events.

If you would like individual photos, note the photo number and send me an e-mail with that number. Also, let me know what size you want the photo. I can format them to be used either on the internet (web pages or e-mail) or for printing. 

Here's the link to the photos:

District Conference 2013 Photos

The Durant Rotary Club annual Bike Tour is May 18th.  The club website is www.magnoliabiketour.com 

Click on BIKE TOUR under Site Pages in the left column of this page for more information. 

It may seem early, but NOW IS THE TIME TO START RECRUITING OUTBOUND ROTARY YOUTH EXCHANGE STUDENTS FOR THE 2014-15 SCHOOL YEAR.  

The Rotary Youth Exchange Program does not happen without your club's support.  Rotary clubs are asked to recruit students in their communities.  Suggested recruitment sources are school langauge teachers, Interact, RYLA, church groups, news promotions and your own club or family contacts.

In order to obtain exchanges for your long term outbound students ages 15 1/2 to 18 1/2 , the district interview process has been moved to November from January as it has been in the past.  Long Term Applications are due to the district no later than Oct 30,2013.

There are also some short term exchanges that occur during the summer.  One month of family to family visiting between and exchange student and a foreign host family with a student.  These exchanges are from ages 14-19.

Details about the Youth Exchange program are found in the left column of this page.  Under SITE PAGES, click on the ROTARY YOUTH EXCHANGE link.

If you would like to have a club program on Youth Exchange, or need posters to put up at schools, or need more information about the program itself. Please contact Jaci Williams at [email protected] or Russ Davoren [email protected]

This message is from Mary Sherman and Marilyn Geiger, Lisbon ConventionPromotion Chairs.  Please respond to  their email addresses as listed below.
 
If you are planning to attend the Lisbon Convention and have not registered, please do so very soon. The deadline for registering online was March 31. Also,  there may still be hotel rooms available including space at the official participant hotels.  You can still get good airfares, but certain  arrival and departure dates at a lower rate are going quickly.  It is best to use the official Convention web site to get the best fares.   Go to www.rotary.org and click on the convention logo.

Please let Mary Sherman ([email protected] ) and Marilyn Geiger ([email protected]) know if you have registered and also the name of the hotel where you will be staying.  We will need to be in contact with you while you are in Lisbon especially about the closing ceremony.  A mobile phone number would also be helpful.

Please join us in Lisbon.

Ron Burton announced his RI Presidential theme at the Rotary International Assembly in San Diego, California.

Ron and Jetta Burton

Norman and Norman Cross Timbers Rotary Clubs

ENGAGE ROTARY

CHANGE LIVES

District 5770 GSE Committee interviewed ten candidates as potential Group Study Exchange team members.  A list of team members follows:

2013 GSE TEAM TO ITALY (D2070)

 Team Leader

 Russ Davoren                     Norman Cross Timbers RC

 GSE Team Members

 Jenel Cavazos                    Cameron University                               Lawton

 Kurt Edwards                      East Central University                        Ada

 Corinne Hunter                   Murray State College                            Ardmore

 Owen Kulemeka                 University of Oklahoma                        Norman

  
The exchange team will travel to Italy during May and June for approximately 30 days.

Ron having planted three trees already on the day calls upon Jetta for assistance at the Ashburton Arboretum, a joint Rotary Centennial project of the Rotary Clubs of Ashburton and Ashburton Plains.

Trees representative of those around the world have been planted in the layout of the Rotary Wheel with a community barbeque and shelter forming ‘the hub’.

Ashburton is the home town of DGE John Rickard and Margaret – District 9970.

Jetta commented, “Planting trees is big here in New Zealand.  We planted four in two days”.  
  

Rotary’s Challenge for polio eradication has reached the US$200 million milestone. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded The Rotary Foundation an additional $50 million grant, which is not a challenge grant, in recognition of Rotary's early achievement of this milestone. To date, Rotarians worldwide have contributed more than $1 billion toward the eradication of polio, a cause Rotary took on in 1985.

Additionally, Rotary club members worldwide are cautiously celebrating a major milestone in the global effort to eradicate polio. India, until recently an epicenter of the wild poliovirus, has gone one year without recording a new case of the crippling, sometimes fatal, disease.

 Click here to read more