Vocational Training Teams
District Governor Nominee Greg O’Brien of the Palos Verdes Club began his remarks by saying, when asked to join Rotary, one comes to a meeting asking oneself, “Would I like to be a member of this club?” To him, our club is a model in desirabilty, starting with Johnny Croshaw’s lively musical warm-up. Chris said he would like to invite Johnny to provide the singing for a mock Rotary meeting presentation the District will offer.
Greg went on to enumerate other criteria for a great club, such as programs and fun. “This Club is friendly” he said. “This is what the best Rotary clubs feel like and look like, from the greetings to newcomers to”, and here he rode on in a crest of laughter from the club, “the fact that the club doesn’t give the home District Governor any respect.” Any undue respect, that is. More on this later.
Greg brought a VTT – Vocational Training Team, formerly the GSE – Group Study Exchange Team which Rotary has brought to a conclusion, to give a report. Rotary defines: “A vocational training team (VTT) is a group of professionals who travel to another country either to learn more about their profession or to teach local professionals about a particular field. Under Future Vision, Rotary Foundation district, global, and packaged grants all support VTTs, but each grant type has different requirements.” This Vocational Training Team had attended a conference in Istanbul, Turkey on Conflict Resolution Mediation, as part of Mediators Beyond Borders (MBB) Congress in September 26-28, 2013. Seventeen applied for membership on this team, and four were chosen, including one Rotarian.
The Conference was chaired by Past Rotary International President Luis Gaiy. Luis is from Argentina, and reminisced about knowing the current Pope Francis when he was Arch Bishop of Buenos Aires. Even then, says Luis, the Pope was a man of the people, taking the subway and bus for travel and carrying the transportation tokens in his pockets.
Then a member of the team, Dominik Onale, a teacher originally from the Pilippines, sponsored by the Thai Town Rotary Club, spoke about her experiences at the conference. The subject was Building a More Peaceable World, and seeking to relieve tension between Muslem and Christian communities.
Another member of the team, is Chris Golden, a Rotarian from the Inglewood Club whose category is Salvation Army director. Chris is part of the team that is now visiting clubs like ours, to impart the knowledge gained from their many peace-related seminars, and to share their experiences in Turkey.
Istanbul is a city of ancient and modern cultural sights, but Chris also related seeing hungry children and women begging in the streets for milk for their children. Both Dominik and Chris described the mosques, the carpet weaving factories they visited, the street vendors selling dates, and the spice and meat markets. Organic apple tea was a delight, as was Turkish coffee and baklava, and the Mediterranean cuisine with seafood. Members of the team were not treated as tourists, but were taken into the homes to meet the people.