District 6290 Group Study Exchange

District 6290's 2010 Group Study Exchange team is well along in its preparation to travel to District 2290 in Norway this coming May. The selection of the six member team was completed in time for them to have their first team building meeting in Traverse City by mid‐November. The leader is Diane Marshall, a Rotarian from Sault Ste. Marie, and the members are Jody Houle from Wawa, Cindy Mom from Petoskey, Beth Milligan from Traverse City, Krista Menacher from Muskegon and Tara Kram from Grand Haven. The team alternate is Anjanette Merriweather, also of Traverse City. A second team meeting took place in December and two more are scheduled in 2010. There is a lot to accomplish prior to departure, the team must select uniforms, develop a presentation, put together cards and a brochure and choose gifts for their Norwegian hosts. More importantly the team must bond together, learn about Norway and District 2290 and develop some knowledge of the language and customs. As most of you know, Group Study Exchange is a Rotary Foundation program which sends out five and six person teams (about 250 such teams per year) from one Rotary District to another for a period of approximately one month. The leader is a Rotarian and the members are 25 to 40 year old young professional people who are eager to further develop their knowledge of their professions through interaction with their counterparts in the hosting district, and to experience a different culture in another part of the world. For all of them it is a once‐in‐a‐lifetime experience from which lasting friendships and a better understanding of the world results. Our team will depart on May 2 and return on May 29. District 2290 will send a return team to our district from May 13 – arriving in time take part in our district conference – to June 12. More about the Norwegian team will be forthcoming in next month's newsletter, but clubs interesting in hosting the incoming team for several days should begin to think about making application to do so by contacting our district's GSE Chair, Ed Kaminski by email (edward@kaminski‐funke.net) or by telephone (231‐894‐8508).