TRF Talk on Club Rotario Salcedo WCS Project

TRF Talk on Club  Rotario Salcedo WCS Project

By Norm Malmberg, Rotary Club of Scott Valley, 10/21/06

  Our Club received our charter in 1987.  For the first 12 years, the Club had not participated in WCS projects. I think that this was partly because the Club didn’t think that it had the funds to do WCS.  And it was focusing on local Community Service.

  In July 1999, as President, I started attending the District WCS quarterly meetings.  And I became aware how easy it was for a small Club to become involved in WCS by partnering with larger Clubs that were WCS Sponsors.
 
Gradually, in our Club’s financial planning, we began to budget for International Service, $500/yr, then $1,000 & this year $1,500.  Our annual budget totals about $12,000.  So, I am proud to say that after the Tsunami, my Club gave an added $2,000.  And after Hurricane Katrina, we sent an added $1,000, both beyond our annual WCS budgets.  
 
During the past 7 years we have partnered with other Clubs in 8 projects in 8 different countries contributing $6,000 of our Club funds.  But through the magic of matching funds from other Clubs, the District & RI, we have watched with amazement that sum grow into $540,225.   And we have come to realize how even a small Club such as ours  can play a significant role impacting the world community.

 The record will show that in 2003 we Sponsored a project.  But this project was  not ours, but the Shasta Valley Club which had not yet received their Charter & were ineligible.  So, this current project, of which I am about to describe, is  our first as Sponsor.
 
The seeds of this project began in early 2005 when our District exchanged GSE Teams with District 4060 in the Dominican Republic.  One of our team members, Rebekah Sluss from the Scott Valley, returned with a burden to help a poor school she had visited. I told Rebekah that we could start a WCS project.  She & I tried for months to establish contact with a Host Club there with no success.  So, in October last year our Club co-sponsored with Cottage Grove, Sponsor of a project there that we felt would have a greater impact.
 
During this time I began to communicate by e-mail with a member of the DR GSE Team I had conversed with  during their visit to our Club.  This is Josefina Urena, an attorney then, now a judge in Salcedo, DR. Through the e-mails, I learned that Josefina this past Spring had joined the Club Rotario Salcedo.  When I shared with her our failed attempts of last year & our interest in a WCS project in the DR, she became more focused.
 
Things progressed quickly last Spring & early Summer as Josefina informed me her Club had established a WCS Committee of 3, were reviewing several projects, they met with officials in a Salcedo school having 1,000 of the poorest children in a City of 40,000, the school offered a room & the Club decided the best project would be to equip a computer room library with furniture, electrification, security &  20 computers for the school kids.  They then procured  from local suppliers costs of all furniture & equipment needed.
 
The fascinating thing with the development of this project was when I learned that  Josefina’s Club, chartered in 1950, had never before been involved with a WCS project.  This is their very first WCS project. And it is our first.  And they as excited as we are.
Page 2, Norm Malmberg, RCSV, TRF WCS Salcedo talk (continued)
 
It is important to establish good relations with a Host Club.  Josefina has been a miracle worker.  Using the RI web site, she researched WCS & Matching Grants, printed out the 11 page MG application & with her committee has completed it, obtained D4060 signatures & her Club President FedEx’d it to me along with their required cash contribution. That may not seem much, but consider their Club is covering the expenses of room preparation & incidentals for which they are already having fund raisers.
 
Josefina has amazed me.  For someone who has only been a Rotarian 6 months, she has the knowledge & confidence of a 10-20 year Rotarian.  I’m so glad that, upon her request, I wrote a  super letter of recommendation to her DG for her membership.
 
Meanwhile, I contacted D5110 Clubs we had co-sponsored.  I also visited Clubs on the Coast & shared my story.  I was moved by their generosity. Led by President Tom English & Eugene Metro, within 3 weeks I had received pledges needed to fund 100%. One Rotarian ignited her Club’s enthusiasm when she handed me two $100 bills.
 
It is interesting to note the impact & maturing of our Club with respect to WCS.  Where 7  years before, most of our members did not really comprehend the impact of WCS.  But, gradually, over the past 7 years, as we have returned from D5110 WCS meetings & reported to the Club, their acceptance, knowledge &  interest has increased.  It jumped with our sponsoring the Shasta Valley Clubs project in Guatemala. We have invited several guest speakers from the Clubs with whom we partnered which has helped peak interest.   Now there is a universal excitement among the membership.  They all remember Josefina who remembers them.  So this project is becoming personal to us.
 
If you are a small Club & have never sponsored your own WCS project or your Club has never partnered, and you want to become involved, identify a member who is keenly interested in international relations.  Challenge them to take on the Club Committee of International Service/WCS.  Encourage them to attend, better yet, go with  them to the quarterly WCS Committee meetings in Roseburg.  Establish a Club budget for WCS & give your WCS Chair authority to commit at the WCS meetings those funds as a Co-Sponsor Partner at his discretion.  It doesn’t work if he/she must return home for Board approval after the fact. That’s too late.
 
At the WCS meeting you will experience an exciting 90 minute evolution as the committee quickly & efficiently addresses several projects & authorizes thousands in matching  funds to support the projects.  And you will see how easy it is  to become involved in WCS.  There are many Rotarians experienced & willing to help you.
 

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P.S.  Anyone want to go with me this Winter to the DR?  It’s in the Caribbean.