This year I attended the Rotary District 2240 conference which was held on 22-23 May 2015 in Košice, Slovakia, a beautiful albeit remote city in eastern Slovakia. Unfortunately, I was the only attendee from RCPI along with Irena Brichta who was in attendance as Past District Governor. Our lack of numbers was wholly due to the fact that our Dragon Boats competition was on the same day. Jozefa Polakova, this year's district governor had excused the club from attending, but it's important for RCPI to attend because, due to our size, we are in the only club in the district with two executive votes. 51 of the district's 72 clubs were represented that weekend.
 
Friday's opening event started with a group photo and a musical/dance performance by the Roma group Romathan. They were excellent. Prague's Assistant Governor Ilja Chocholouš even allowed himself to take a selfie with me along with Theodor from RCP Stare Mesto. I met the GSE group from Pennsylvania and had a nice exchange with all of them. We all went back to the Hilton DoubleTree where the conference was being held for a night cap and comradery because we all knew the next day was going to be very long. On a side note, I was very curious what such a world class hotel was doing smack in the middle of a town that has a tiny population and seemingly no tourist appeal except for the exceptionally beautiful city centre. I later learned that Košice is the headquarters of U.S. Steel and this was confirmed when I met and chatted to two very obviously American steel workers from New
Jersey hanging out in the lobby having a beer. The Hilton is where they all stay when they are working here.
 
Saturday's conference started and we basically spent the morning discussing last year's budget and next year's budget. The district had a surplus in 2013/14 which was carried into 2014/15 for PR purposes. I mentioned that it would be great to know how the surplus was going to be spent, and it's something that would be worthwhile to follow up on. RCPI received distinction for increasing our membership this year by 11 members (net 7). Let's keep it up. Jozefa asked all clubs to increase membership. Unfortunately we didn't go into much detail how clubs should do this, but at least it was mentioned. Fast forward to the afternoon session where we voted on this year's bylaws. We agreed the budget, we agreed that there would be no new position of Vice Governor elected. Instead an emergency board will vote on a new governor, should Vladimir Adamek not be fit to fulfill his role. Vladimir's goal for 2015/16 is to finally get the district's database in order. He's very approachable and seems very motivated... and ready for the new year. We ended the afternoon with the announcement of this year's
district Paul Harris Fellows. Irena Brichta was showered in awards and commendations in thanks for all the hard work and long hours she puts into
RI. And believe me she puts in a lot of effort and hours.
 
The YER programme is one of the district's most successful programmes. This year there were 72 students from all over the globe and they gave a great performance as usual. Our club's two students, Lara and Andrea were there and had a fantastic time. There were a lot of hugging and tears at the end of the performance, because they knew it would be the last time they would meet as a group before they all head back home in July. I myself made a couple of new friends and strengthened some older friendships. It is my personal goal to continue fostering these intra-district relationships, as they are with some really good people who want to help out the community. It's a good opportunity to meet like-minded people and bounce ideas off of each other. We have to work hard to make use of Rotary Global Grants as last year only two clubs applied for one. I do encourage as many of our members as possible to attend next year's conference which will be in Ostrava, Czech Republic. I would not look at the language barrier as a challenge, but rather as a chance to add a more international feeling to the conference and maybe change the dynamic for the better.
 
Sanan Phutrakul
Membership Chairman, President Nominee 2014/15
Rotary Club Prague International
 
 
 
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