Disgraceful - Weeks without a post!

Mea culpa yet again!  For more regular news please Follow me on Twitter @JohnCGreening!!

Since last I wrote it's been non-stop!  Over to Amsterdam in the week of 5 November for Governor-Elect Training - good session with a couple of hundred District-Governors Elect (DGEs) from around Europe.  The the following week I embarked on the first of my meetings with the Presidents -Elect, together with a weekedn get together with all the DGEs from Britain & Ireland.  Packed in another meeting the Presidents-Elect the next week, together with the last of our Rotary Foundation Future Vision seminars, darts match against Gerrards Cross "B" (we won 4-1, frankly less than convincingly!).  Then three more Presidents-Elect meetings the next week culminating in a visit to the Ruislip Beer Festival - much deserved that was! (Great now annual event organised by RC Ruislip-Northwood in conjunction with Ruislip RFC and CAMRA).  First time I've tasted 7.4% bitter - can't remember the name - now I wonder why that is?

And thus to last week - a super treat - went to see Kiss Me Kate at The Old Vic - made a nice change from a Rotary outing - great show, great fun, great cast - Go See It!!

I will try and write more often - soon this will become a New Year's Resolution.  Looking forward to Xmas and off on our cruise!

Theatre Extra!! (not exactly Rotary)

Very privileged yesterday to be at the Kings Head Theatre, Islington for the inaugural performance of my wife and fellow Rotarian Joan Greening's series of "Mistresses" (she's written & directed them).Here's what an early reviewer had to say.....

"Award winning playwright Joan Greening’s new show explores relationships between women who have achieved greatness by being a mistress for a royal or famous man and the effect it has on the people around them. 

Jean Heard, an experienced television, stage and film actress plays a prostitute who has known Nell Gwyn.  The performance is funny, touching and gives a comprehensive feel of restoration England. 

RADA-trained Julia Munrow then takes the stage as Fanny Cornforth and Elizabeth Siddal.  The rivalry between the two women for Rossetti’s love ends in tragedy. Julia Munrow shows what a versatile actress she is managing to show the heartbreak of Elizabeth and the raunchy but vulnerable Fanny.

Queen Adelaide recounts the story of Dorothy Jordan to end the first half.  Jean Heard shows the hurt that William IV caused his wife and her annoyance is both funny and pathetic.

The second half opens with the further rivalry for Rossetti’s love.  This time it is between Fanny and Jane Morris.  The steadfast Fanny changes from a mistress to a nurse and the self-seeking Jane drifts aways as Rossetti becomes a drug addict. Julia Munrow delights the audience with a mesmeric performance.

Jean Heard ends the show as Lillie Langtry.  Lillie is played with great vigour and is naughty, funny and very likeable.

The show leavers the audience delightfully entertained and more than a little moved."

The pictures accompanying this post are of the two actresses from each of the five pieces in sequence.  Personally I thought the reviewer somewhat undersells the intensity of the performances - from light and breezy to sombre and devastated.  Oh, and the writing is terrific - I could be biased - but I don't think so in this case.

The show has two more matinee performances, October 27^th and November 3^rd at 3 p.m.  Tickets available from the Kings Head Box Office 020 7478 0160

Busy week this week

Been a busy week - Monday evening I met with my conference chairman and a couple of our committee members to talk over some of the administrative aspectes we need to plan.  Although the event isn't until March 2014 there's all sorts of things we need to prepare and as they say "if you fail to plan, you'll plan to fail"!! 

Tuesday was the quarterly meeting of our Rotary District Executive - we support the 63 clubs in our patch and meet up to talk through where we need to focus our efforts.  Hot topic was the planned reorganisation of how clubs are grouped in Great Britain & Ireland.  If it all turns out the way the proposals are structured we'll see an additional 9 clubs join us in 2015.

Wednesday had me as the speaker at our Rotary club meeting on the topic of what it's like to be going through the progression to be District Governor - seemed to go well, but you'd have to ask the audience.

And on Thursday I was at one the continuing series of workshops for the changes to they way our Rotary Foundation will adminster grants - very receptive group this week.  I'm sorry to be missing the next few as I have other Rotary commitments - more of those in the coming weeks.

Friday morning - shock horror - no golf today!  A couple of times a year my Golf Club allows charities to hold fundraising Golf Days at the club, which means us regulars have a day off - Friday was Sparks day - hope that they did well.  But that meant I could go off to RC Banbury for lunch.  Terrific group of people - very liveley =- think I gave as good as I got!!  Great speaker - Alistair Welford from Leadenporch Trust who spoke movingly of their work with street children and young adults in Guatemala and building links between those children and troubled teens in Banbury - stirring stuff.

And in the evening facing heavy competition from nine other teams we battled in RC Elthorne Hillingdon's annual "Big Ed" quiz.  After a poor start we fought our way back to finish second to perennial winners RC Pinner.  However, a fun night and a good turnout supporting our club funds.

So to today, Saturday.  Momentous day - we're off to The Kings Head Theatre, Islington to see Mistresses - a two-hander featuring actresses Jean Heard and Julia Munrow tell the stories of five famous mistresses - or perhaps I should say mistresses of the famous.  Written by Rotarian Joan Greening - who happens to be my wife, doesn't that make me proud! - it's on for three consecutive Saturdays - 20th October, 27th October, 3 November at 3 pm.  Hoping to update with a review and pictures - possibly as early as tomorrow!

Looking Ahead - busy times in view

Got a number of really busy months coming up in the Rotary calendar.

Firstly our charity, The Rotary Foundation, is changing the way it administers the grants it gives for charitable purposes from July next year.  In a move designed to keep the costs of administration down (less than 9%), a lot of work & responsibility is being devolved to the 538 Districts that make up Rotary International.  That in turn is changing some of the way in which Rotary clubs have to record their funds.  All of this has to be explained to the clubs and so we're running a series of nine workshops over the next few weeks to set out the changes.  As the person who'll be in the hot seat as District Governor from next July I feel it's my duty to support our District Foundation team as they make their way round the patch with these workshops so I'm going to as many as I can.

Then early next month Joan & I will be off to Amsterdam for a three day Training Session with all the other Governors-Elect in Northern Europe, followed by which I will be running a series of meetings with all the Presidents-Elect - all 63 of them - from the clubs in our District during the latter part of November, when I also have a weekend get together with the other 28 Governors Elect from Britain & Ireland.  Oh and the team who are running my conference will be off to Torquay for a weekend to check out the conference centre and local attractions so there's some meetings ahead of that to set the scene.

Of course I'm also continuing my perambulations around the clubs in the District that I have yet to visit - that's really rewarding for me - such great groups of people - welcoming everywhere.

And then we're into December and the run up to Xmas - my club will be out with our Santa float for 6 nights - which is always great fun.  And before you know it we'll be off to Rome for our Xmas cruise.

I shall do my best to keep up with how all this pans out.

Appalling length of time since last I wrote!

Feeling in need of a New Year to make a resolution to do better with my blog posts.  Almost two months since I last updated you- humble apologies!  Have something of an excuse - we've been away on holiday for nearly three weeks.

So where were we!  Last time I wrote we'd just been to a great day at the Olympics.  Like many others when the Olympics was over we felt bereft and, not having been to the Olympic Stadium we booked up for the opening ceremony of the Paralympics.  Magnificent spectacle - and not without its Rotary connections - standing next to a Rotarian from District 1260 (Bucks & Herts) in the queue - who is a friend of another 1260 Rotarian with whom I went to school - really small world stuff.  And then the tweets from fellow DGE from 1290 (Cornwall) who was very closely located within the stadium.

In the middle of August the Team from Elthorne-Hillingdon were back at the Mencap Jubilee Pool in Hillingdon for another round of physical labour, further extending our previous path-building efforts.  Entirely not the sort of things we normally do in a our day to day lives, but very enjoyable and ultimately worthwhile.
Furthering the Rotary theme, since I last wrote I've had the pleasure of being with the Rotary clubs of Marlow, Beaconsfield, Witney, Loddon Vale, Oxford Isis, Gerrards Cross and our now annual visit to Fort Myers South while we were on holiday in Florida.

This week I've started the tour with our District Rotary Foundation team explaining all the changes that are coming to the way in which our charity administers grants to worthy causes.  The team are covering our patch at nine separate events involving a couple of hundred or so willing volunteers.  What with that and a load of other Rotary events that are coming up, I shall try (again) to be a more frequent blogger.  I do, however, continue to tweet - follow me on Twitter @JohnCGreening for more concise messages.

What happened to July?

Here I am again - more than a month AGAIN without a single post - just to remind you all - if you need a more regular update - find me at @JohnCGreening on Twitter and on Facebook as well.

So, since the end of June what's been occurring?

On the Rotary front it's been a busy few weeks - been to Kingham & Daylesford, Maidenhead Thames, Langley & Iver, Ascot, Marlow Thames, Crowthrone & Sandhurst & Oxford Spires - met loads of nice people, picked up some great ideas, which has taken my total of clubs visited up to 30 - almost half way through my Be Better Known campaign.  It being the Rotary year end we also went to a number of celebratory dinners - at our own club, Elthorne-Hillingdon, which was extraordinary (!) , the District Handover, combined with that of Windsor St George, and Pinner, where outgoing President Nigel Shock received a Paul Harris award.  Middle of the month saw the Future Leaders Workshop - good to see better than half of the 2013-2014 Presidents there, with a good number of 2014-2015 candidates as well.  Felt for RC Uxbridge having to cancel their Autoshow at the last minute - the appalling weather turing the showground into a quagmire - all that effort put in for no return - hope they can bounce back.  Elthorne-Hillingdon had the luck of the devil (or the righteous?) only a few days later though, with a brilliant day for the annual Golf Day, arising an outsanding £9,500 for Canine Partners - congratulations to all involved, but particularly to Club Treasurer Terry Ruby who masterminded the whole event.  Also great to go and see District Governor Nominee Tim Cowling making such fantsatic progress following his recent operation.  Looking forward to thrashing him at golf at the end of the month!

Talking of golf, made a step change this month - a smashing round with my usual group and a supplementary card duly entered led to a swingeing cut in handicap - down from 26.9 to 23.2.  Followed it up with a 5th place (of 45 entrants) in a Seniors competition, narrowly avoiding a further cut.  More normal service has since been resumed sad to say, but rounds now habitaully have a sprinkling of pars which is definite progress.

On the personal front, we looked after our grandson Edward for a couple of days at the beginning of his school holidays and took him to the Harry Potter Studio Tour at Leavesden - fantastic day for all of us - will have to go back when we can have more time to marvel at the detail that went into the film making.

Finally, a day at the Olympics - yes, we went - Day 1 to see the Women's basketball (Czech Republic v China and Russia v Canada) - never been to basketball before - loved it. 

And in the evening to the quailfying for Men's Gymnastics at the O2, oh no sorry, The North Greenwich Arena.  Really, really impressed with the way the entire country has taken to the Games and the shear brilliance of the way we've organised it - just so impressive.  Oh, and by the way, didn't our athletes do well!  Enjoyed it so much we've got ticketrs for the Paralympics Opening Ceremony - we get to go to the Stadium!!

A Busy Rotary Month - not half!

Somewhat behind the times!  Have been very lax - keep updating Twitter but blogless for more than a month!  What's been up?

Well 28 May went and heard RC Newbury's Club Assembly - great bunch of people - also went to their 60th anniversary dinner in June (16th), complete with a founder member (someone who was there when they started in 1952!!).
29th May - Conference Committee for 2014 District Conference Inaugural meeting
30th May RC Elthorne Hillingdon President's Night at Northwood Golf Club.
2nd June - Club (RC Elthorne Hillingdon stall at Northwood & Northwood Hills Residents Associations Diamond Jubilee Fair - unprepossessing weather to start with but cheered up and we met lots of nice people and sold £500 of our Meal for Two tickets (for two local charities)
9th June - down to Upton-on-Severn to see Pepperpot Players in Joan Greening's (my clever wife!)The Continental Quilt - I was in the World Premiere in 1981!
11th June had to stand in as speaker at a combined clubs meeting in place of poorly Rotary in Britain & Ireland President Ray Burman - and no one threw anything - some even said they'd enjoyed it!
12th June - RC Sinodun Assembly - best turnout I've ever seen - more than 90% of membership
13th June - Off to Number 23 in my Be Better Known campaign - RC Faringdon
19th-20th June we were at The Compass Theatre, Ickenham for two charity performances of Madame Blavatsky Lives (written & directed by Joan Greening -2011) presented by RC Elthorne-Hillingdon - terrific audiences, brilliant cast and £3,500 raised for Kamuli Mission Hospital in Uganda.
23rd June at the Ickenham Festival Gala Day - great turnout - not much rain - super sales of Meal for Two and draw for the 22 lucky winners!!

Will try and keep up to date better!!

A message from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

I make no apology for quoting the full text of an article by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on how vital is for the world to complete the task of eradicating Polio.  In it he praises the work of Rotary - help us to help free the world!

"Wipe Out Polio, Now -- By Ban Ki-moon

Wild viruses and wildfires have two things in common. If neglected, they can spread out of control. If handled properly, they can be stamped out for good. Today, the flame of polio is near extinction — but sparks in three countries threaten to ignite a global blaze. Now is the moment to act.

During the next two weeks, on two continents, two events offer the chance for a breakthrough. First, the leaders of the world’s largest economies — the G8 — congregate at the U.S. presidential retreat at Camp David in rural Maryland. A week later, the world’s ministers of health convene in Geneva. Together, they can push to deliver on an epic promise: to liberate humankind from one of the world’s most deadly and debilitating diseases. 

The world’s war on polio, declared nearly a quarter of a century ago, was as ambitious an undertaking as the successful campaign to eradicate another great public health menace, smallpox. Slowly but surely, over the years, we have advanced on that goal. Polio today survives in only three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. That’s the good news. The bad: we are in danger of falling victim to our own success.

Here’s why: the world is now populated by a generation which has either never been exposed to polio or has been inadequately vaccinated. When the virus strikes under those conditions, the impact can be devastating. We saw that in the Republic of the Congo in 2010 and elsewhere in Africa when an outbreak killed half of all who were infected. A prompt emergency response by the international community halted that budding epidemic. But the incident gives an idea of the potential consequences of failing to eradicate polio while we have the chance. This year fewer than one hundred people were left paralyzed by this easily preventable disease, almost all in the three countries I have mentioned. Left unchecked, however, UN epidemiologists warn that a renewed outbreak could cripple as many as one million people within the decade, many of them children — the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.

This threat keeps me up at night because I know how easy it is to address. My wife and I have personally immunized toddlers in Asia and Africa, joining tens of millions of government workers, Rotarians, volunteers, political and religious leaders (not to mention parents) who have worked for decades to ensure that every child is protected.  Most recently, we visited India, which just two years ago was home to half of all the world’s children with polio. Now, thanks to a concerted drive, we were able to celebrate India’s first polio-free year in history. 

Similar efforts are under way in the three remaining polio-endemic countries. President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani of Pakistan and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan each personally oversee their national response. Nigeria has committed funds from its own treasury, and polio eradication in all three countries depends heavily on government resources. But that in itself is not enough. With a determined push, the international community can wipe out polio once and for all. To do so, however, it must organize — and commit the required financial resources.

The United Nations, with its partner Rotary International, is driving the global campaign. Our agencies are working hard to reach all children, including those in refugee camps or swept up by natural disasters and hunger emergencies. It may be difficult but it can be done. Somalia, to name but one example, is afflicted by just about every human and natural hardship known to humankind — but not polio. Its last case was in 2007, thanks in no small part to local women who donned bright yellow smocks and traveled their communities distributing vaccination drops.

The workers on the frontlines have no shortage of dedication. But they do face a financial deficit. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has only half of the $2 billion it needs to procure vaccines and deploy staff to the last bastions of the disease.  Properly equipped, they can win this final battle. If the international community recognizes the stakes and musters the resources, we can win the war against polio — at long last and forever.

Now is the critical moment. If we invest $2 billion now — if we can cover a relatively modest $1 billion shortfall — we can save the world an estimated  $40-50 billion in the cost of treatment by 2035, not to mention many lives and many young futures. When the world’s health ministers gather in Geneva later this month, they will declare a global public health emergency and call on the world to response to the threat of a resurgent polio. As the G8 leaders meet at Camp David, they should be aware of what is coming — and recognize this great opportunity to act in the name of the world’s people.

Those meetings will soon be followed by others: the annual gathering of the G20 in Mexico, the Rio+20 conference in Brazil and the European Union summit in Belgium.  I hope polio will be on the agenda.  I appeal to all leaders, everywhere, to act now to protect future generations. By funding the Global Polio Emergency Action Plan for the next two years, we can make the threat of polio a distant and fading memory.

Ban Ki-moon is Secretary-General of the United Nations.

After the Convention

After the intensity of the convention we needed to get away for a few days to unwind – we needed a little oasis of calm and serenity, not to mention somewhere to catch up on some much-needed sleep!  We found it a two hour drive away (not driven by us I hasten to add!) in Hua Hin, at the Centara Grand resort.  

Originally built as the Railway Hotel in 1924 in a resort popularised by the King, the Centara Grand retains the colonial feel (although Thailand has never been colonised, Britain has been a favourite example since the days of King Rama V (famous as the King in The King & I)), lofty and airy corridors, space, gardens (with exotic topiary!), pools and beach.

We ventured out occasionally for a little light shopping & eating, including small elephant souvenirs and a couple of jackets tailored in 48 hours, but other than that we just enjoyed the peace & quiet.   

Apart, of course, from our visit to a Rotary Club!  At the convention we met some Rotarians from Hua Hin and discovered that there are two clubs in Hua Hin, one older established & Thai-speaking and one, meeting in the next door hotel, that is two years old & English-speaking and having their Presidential Inauguration for the 2012-2013 Rotary year on the Saturday night of our stay, the Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin.  And so we spent the evening in the company of the mainly expatriate members and their other halves, the incoming District Governor and his “Special Representative” (no idea what that is), several Presidents of neighbouring clubs and visiting Rotarians from Hawaii, Nepal and St Petersburg.  Great fun and good to see a new club doing great Rotary service with the local schools.

Convention Final Day

On Day 1, there were tens of thousands of us in the main Convention Hall.  Probably set up to seat 25,000 people it was clear that barely a couple of thousand made it to the first plenary session of the day.  Anyone one tells you this wasn’t achieved without self-sacrifice is being economical with the truth.  Up at 6:45 every day, on the road by 8:00 – and this is supposed to be a holiday?  Fortunately for those of us who did make the effort, it was rewarding.

Surprisingly, for those of us who have been less than enthusiastic about Conference business sessions in the past, the elections and voting held some interest.  Interest from two perspectives – the general and the personal. General from the viewpoint of the number of clubs represented being around 11% of our worldwide chartered clubs, just a little more than the 10% needed for a quorum – found this interesting in the context of the recent RIBI conference where almost 40% of clubs were represented and also in the response rates for both the RIBI quinquennial review (just over 10%) and our own District Conference survey (13%).  Personal from the aspect that, having participated in the official election of RI President-Nominee Ron Burton, who will be RI Presidemt when I am District Governor, I then found myself voting in the election of all the RI Officers for 2013-2014 – yes dear readers, I voted for myself – now that’s a first!

President Nominee Ron gave a thoughtful speech with passion for the things at the core of Rotary for the future, implementation of the Strategy and support for The Rotary Foundation.

Wilf Wilkinson, past RI President and incoming chair of the Rotary Foundation set out his key hopes for the coming Rotary year – his ambition for Polio "interruption" in 2012-13 (I think he meant significant progress in Pakistan, Afghanistan & Nigeria and no recurrence in re-infected countries) – good planning for the introduction of Future Vision, support for incoming RI President Sakuji Tanaka’s theme of Peace Through Service, and increasing the sum raised through the Every Rotarian Every Year programme (individual $100 donations) to $US 120 million)

John Hewko, RI’s General Secretary/CEO took us through his vision of how the Secretariat will support the Strategy by:

a) making sure we get our due share of the credit for the Eradication of Polio,

b) implementing the Strategic Plan and making Future Vision a reality,

c) defining our Value Of Service collectively – in financial terms, in man-hours to better show the total contribution we make to society,

d) to make Membership more appealing & relevant to younger people,

e) significantly improving our Global Impact & Recognition

He said that Vision, Intelligent Planning & Hard Work are needed to meet the challenges of our second century but that he didn’t doubt that Rotarians had the collective tenacity to do so.

In a breakout session specifically for District Governors for 2013-2104, RI President-Nominee Ron Burton & his wife Jetta talked to the 100 or so of us.   

He gave us his views on what our priorities needed to be for our collective year:

a)      Make sure that the need for membership is institutionalised in our clubs-we should each  sponsor a new member during the year personally and get each of our Presidents to do the same

b)      Make a personal contribution to Foundation, make the class of 2013-14 the first class of District Governors to do so and get each of our President to do the same

Our job is to inspire others!  He also promised us several times “ You’re gonna lurrve the theme”.

Day 3 at the RI Convention 2012

Early on we took our regular trek out to IMPACT Muang Thiong Thani without incident (which when you look at Bangkok’s traffic never ceases to amaze me).  Day 3 was essentially Foundation day and following the report that we had indeed managed to achieve a quorum of voting delegates for the proceedings on Day 4 (10% of clubs present) it was over to out-going chair of The Rotary Foundation, Bill Boyd to oversee proceedings.   

Bill chose as his theme “What a difference a day makes” and took us through a selection of days during his visit to Foundation grant projects throughout the world. He talked about how a simple thing like the availability of clean water can enable families to have the time to build businesses using microcredit & have healthy lives, healthy children and prosper more.  He spoke also of the importance of inclusivity – for a water project in Cameroon where Foundation funds helped provide three water tanks for a village - for a variety of reasons the tanks were 2.5 km from the village and the villagers were asked to contribute their labour to dig a trench to pipe the water in - 4,000 of them turned up – instantly local ownership was established!

Amanda Martin is a Rotary Peace Fellow alumna from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. She currently works as Displaced Persons Public Health Curriculum development coordinator in the Global Health Access Program at Community Partners International in a refugee camp on the Thai/Burmese border. Amanda’s career focus is the protection of human rights in developing countries. Prior to taking her position with Community Partners International, she supported human rights in Burma for ALTSEAN-Burma, a network of organizations and individuals based in ASEAN member states working to support the movement for human rights and democracy. She has also worked as director of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission.  While I’m sure that her heart is in the right place I did have to wonder at the wisdom of some of the things she told us of.  I’m not sure that telling refugees in the camp that they don’t get the basic rights of refugees because Thailand hasn’t signed up to the 1951 treaty on refugees is entirely likely to maintain peace! 

Major Polio Plus donor Rajashree Birla spoke next.  Mrs Birla serves as a director on the boards of all of the businesses that make up the Aditya Birla Group (ABG), a Fortune 500 company that is one of Asia’s most diversified conglomerates. ABG produces aluminum, carbon black, cement, clothing, copper, palm oil, and other goods. Subsidiaries include a mobile phone company, an insurance firm, and a chain of supermarkets. In 1995, the Birla family established the Aditya Birla Foundation in memory of Birla’s husband, Aditya, one of India’s foremost industrialists and an active philanthropist. She is an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Bombay and received that club’s Citizen of Bombay Award in 2003. She is also an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Mulund, which recognized her with the Pride of India Award in 2004. The Birla family strongly supports the End Polio Now campaign and has generously contributed $US5.2 million to Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge, including a donation of $US1 million at the Convention.

Undoubted the highlight of the morning, and probably of the whole Convention was Bruce Aylward from WHO.  Bruce addressed Convention in Montreal two years ago. Equally outstanding then he said “you have Polio on the run" and "Rotary's decision in 1985 challenged the world to change the course of history by eradicating this crippling disease. Rotary is the heart & soul of the largest global health effort in history".  Today he told us that “we now have the lowest number of polio infected countries, the lowest number of polio cases in history”.  He went on “A polio free India, which was said to be impossible, is a magnificent achievement - it is Rotary's achievement. When India was declared polio-free, India's Prime Minister said thank you, not to WHO, not to UNICEF, not to US CDC but thanks to Rotary”.  He declared “there are now no technological barriers to eradication, only political & social barriers and these are the areas where Rotary can excel”.  Type 2 polio is now history, Type 3 is now limited to only two countries in the past 10 months.  But the need for action to complete the task is now critical, is now an emergency - recent cases have highlighted the pressing need.  In recent times it is adults now being infected and 50% died in last year’s outbreak in Tajikistan.  “We must be faster - more focused - faster in finding the missed children and why they were missed”.

Stirring stuff!  

We then had Bill Gates on pre-recorded video, reminding us that the additional US$50million given in January was to encourage further fundraising – we aren’t done yet!  Echoing Bruce Aylward’s words he said “Raise your voices even louder to mobilise others to be as committed to end Polio as you are”.  He urged us to galvanise our politicians to take the steps needed, to declare an emergency at the upcoming World Health Summit and to support it with funds.

Finally, to round the morning off, John Germ, Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge Committee Chair gave us an update on what the Challenge has raised to date – more than $US215 million and still 6 weeks to go.  He said “There are people in the room who haven't been vaccinated against Smallpox because they were born after it was eradicated. Let's get to the same point with Polio”.  He noted that Rotary has raised (with Gates) US $2 billion US towards eradication, but we have to keep going, we’re not done yet.

In the afternoon we attended a breakout session on Best Practices for Membership Growth.  Including RIBI President Ray on the panel, the session reminded us of some fairly basic things that we need to keep doing and some useful pointers to work on, including some very useful stuff on generating a new club of younger professionals.

Another tedious journey back to our hotel took us over two hours from the end of the breakout session to our arrival.   

However the evening was outstanding – I mean you can’t come to Bangkok and not go to the Calypso Cabaret (the LadyBoys of Bangkok).  Judge for yourself from the pictures!!