Bloomington Rotary Club #3430

ROTA-LETTER for Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Bloomington Rotary Club ( www.bloomingtonrotary.org ) –Founded 1918

Rotary 2009-2010 : “The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands”

NEXT MEETING :

PLACE : Frangipani Room, January 19

SUBJECT : Scott Kennedy, Political Science and East Asian Languages
and Culture Department: “China’s Domestic and International
Response to the Global Economic Crisis”.
Location: Frangipani Room

January 12 Meeting
GREETER : Paul Hazel

PLEDGE & REFLECTION : Trent Deckard

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS : Liz Feitl introduced the following guests :
Lindsey Lucenta, guest of Jim Bright; George Ray Karnes, guest of Bob Gutmann;
Paul Sturm, guest of Nancy Krueger; Jun Otsuka, Ambassadorial Scholar; and
Robert Kariuki, Ambassadorial Scholar.

BLOOMINGTON ROTARY FOUNDATION : Dawn Morley, Vice-Pres.
of the Foundation presented the Foundation’s Annual Report. The Foundation
will be able to make three donations this year totaling $ 3,800. 50% will be sent to Teachers Warehouse and 25% will be sent to both Martha’s House and
Monroe County United Ministries.

ANNOUNCEMENTS : The Rose Sale Committee will have sign-up sheets available on each table beginning next week. The cost is $40 per dozen. Roses will be available for pick-up prior to Valentine’s Day.

PROGRAM :

President Susan Bookout introduced our speaker, Natasha Vaubel, an I.U Instructor in Comparative Literature, who had been a Rotary Exchange student
in Nagasaki, Japan in 1984.

Natasha presented a Rotary video describing the benefits of the Rotary International Youth Exchange Program. The goal of the Program is to foster
international peace and allow high school students to experience different cultures
through an all-expense paid year in a foreign country. The students stay in the
homes of the local Rotary Club members and are hosted by the entire Club.
Past Exchange students on the video described their experiences as “unbelievable”.

Natasha then described her own experiences as a student who traveled from St.
Paul, Minnesota to Nagasaki, Japan. These two cities are also Sister Cities which gave her some advance background information before her year. She stayed with 3 different families during her year, which is the normal arrangement. Interestingly enough, two of the families included survivors of the Nagasaki Nuclear Bombing.
Both parents of her first family were killed in the bombing. However, the father
in the first family was very supportive of the Exchange Program and felt that exchanges of this kind could help foster international understanding and hopefully help prevent future wars. Despite their experiences during the war all of the families were very welcoming and Natasha thoroughly enjoyed her year. In fact she stayed so close to her families that she recently re-visited them all.

Our Club should have another Youth Exchange student during the next year, but the exact country has not yet been identified.

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS:
The following potential members have been recently approved by the Board of Directors:
Tony Armstrong, Indiana University Research and Technology Corp., Sponsored by Chris Molloy. Classification is Technology Management.
George Karnes, Author House and Karnes Rentals, Sponsored by Bob Gutmann. Classification is Office Manager.

FUTURE MEETINGS :
REMEMBER TO SIGN UP FOR ROSES NEXT WEEK

January 26 – Roy Gardner, Economics & West European Studies : “ Ukraine –
Today and Tomorrow”. Location: Frangipani Room
February 2 - Randy White, Cardinal Stage Company. Location: Frangipani Room
February 9 - Elinor ”Lin” Ostrom, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics

Today’s Reporter : Lee Caulfield