Group Study Exchange Committee
District 7870
GROUP STUDY EXCHANGE WITH DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
(Free Trip to a Caribbean Island)
Greeting from your GSE committee. 2012 is an interesting and busy year for one of our district’s most popular Rotary Foundation programs. We have selected a team that is preparing to travel to Germany in mid-May and we will have a team that is coming to our district from Germany the beginning of May.
We have an unusual situation for the 2012-2013 exchange in that we will be doing the exchange in the fall this year instead of the spring. We are doing our exchange with district 4060 which is in the Dominican Republic. Both the incoming and outgoing teams are going to be traveling on September 21st.
For those who are not familiar with the Group Study Exchange program, I would encourage you to take a few minutes to check out the Rotary website:
http://www.rotary.org/en/serviceandfellowship/Fellowship/GroupStudyExchange/Pages/ridefault.aspx
This is also where you should direct potential applicants for this year's team. This webpage includes links for the program brochure, applications and a booklet that is an overview of the program for Rotarians.
We will be sending a team that will consist of a Rotarian team leader and 4 team members to the Dominican Republic in September. We are now accepting applications for a Rotarian team leader to lead our team. This is certainly a tremendous opportunity and we expect there to be a lot of interest. We are also accepting applications for team members who can not be Rotarians. We would encourage all clubs to find young professionals in your area who can take advantage of this excellent educational program. The main requirements are for them to be between 25 and 40 years of age and that they have been employed in their profession for 2 years. They also can not be closely related to Rotarians.
Applications should be sent to Ruth Clough, PO Box 417, Bethel, VT 05032, or email to . The deadline for both team leader and team member applications is April 14th.
The other part of the GSE program that is exciting is the hosting of the incoming team from the Dominican Republic. The incoming team will be here from September 21st to October 20th.We are starting the process of scheduling clubs to host the team for homestays for an average of 3-4 days as well as day hosts. Opening your home to international guests is always a great opportunity. We will be putting a strong focus this year on at least 5 quality vocational days for each member of the team this year during their 4 weeks with us.
Chris Parkinson () and Jeff Mobus () will be the coordinators for the incoming team's itinerary this year. Clubs should contact Chris, Jeff or myself if they would like to volunteer their clubs as host clubs for home stays or for day hosts. Each club should have a coordinator who will be willing to work with Chris and Jeff in establishing their portion of the team itinerary. I would encourage clubs to start the discussion now and let us know as soon as possible. We will look to have the clubs lined up by the district conference.
Keep in mind that this will be the last year that the GSE program will be done in its current form. So this may be the last opportunity to get involved.
Please contact me with any questions.
Steve Puderbaugh
District GSE committee chair
603-483-8131
we will be doing two events, one at the Crowne Plaza in Nashua on Tuesday, October 9th and another on Thursday, October 11th at the Jackson Gore Inn in Ludlow, VT.