Building upon Friday’s Spring Training for Rotary President Elects, Saturday’s Spring Training program provided the District’s Rotarians with the opportunity to learn, share ideas, and connect with other clubs in the district to enable us to deepen our understanding of Rotary.
This learning experience was cloaked with an element of fun as one’s favorite baseball attire was deemed acceptable in accordance with the Spring Training theme. Fandom of the Cardinals, Cubs, White Sox and various other teams was evident throughout the day.
Our Club was well represented at the training and some our our members presented break-out sessions. The day’s program featured informative, relevant breakout sessions that included, but were not be limited to, the germane topics of (1) Membership Challenge, (2) Strategies for Lasting Connections co-led by Barry Tobias (3) Grants: What is available and how to access, (4) President-elect Nominee Training: 15 month Calendar, (5) Scholarships and Peace Fellowships presented by Bonnie Styles, (6) Youth Exchange, (7) Club Management and Communication Tools, (8) Planning Your Club's Future co-led by Harry Mitchell, and (9) Expand your Perspective co-led by Bob Stuart. Other participants from our club included John Webb, Rod Buffington, David Fowler, Judith Pensoneau-Furer. David Fowler and Katherine Turner had a booth on Rotary collaborative projects with Baja Bridges and other groups.
Other highlights of the program included:
• Raising $872 for Polio Plus through the sale of Purple Pinkies and Purple Doughnuts (images below).
• Recognition of Rotary Inbound, Outbound, and Rebound Exchange Students, which included emotional testimonials from the Rebounds about the transformative nature of their experiences. Our Club’s Inbound Exchange Student, Kyosuke Kawaskai, was among the exchange students recognized (image below).
• Certificate presentations to Rotarians that participated in the Master Class sessions held at Spring Training. This special track of sessions focused on leadership training. Our Club’s very own Bob Stuart was one of the presenters for the leadership training (first image below), and along with District Governor Dan O'Brien, presented the certificates (2nd image below) to the Master Class participants (third image below).
• Rod Buffington and Brian Barstead advocated for the Rotary Family Day at the Ballpark (image below), which will be at the Ballpark in St. Louis on August 9. The tickets sold for this Cardinals-Cubs game help fund education and literacy grants for projects proposed by District 6460 Rotary Clubs (see article by Brian Barstead on Rotary Family Day at the Ballpark in this Newsletter).
Spring Training was an extraordinary learning event!