Salcedo, DR, School Project

Dear Team,

It's been a full & exciting day in Roseburg at our morning District
Rotary Foundation Seminar & afternoon WCS Committee meeting.
Several of you were present. For those of you not there, if you have
questions please ask & I will promptly reply.

My presentation of the project in the morning was well received
followed by a few questions. I brought two 2x3 bulletin boards
on an easel stand with several photos & captions of the Club Rotario
Salcedo & the project site, Escuela Primaria Maria Josefa Gomez.

At the afternoon WCS Committee we reviewed 52 pending projects
plus 10 new projects. Our project was first. It sailed through without
a question. All 10 of the projects were approved unanimously.

I delivered to the D5110 WCS Treasurer all of your checks except one
for $300 which is in the mail. But we were received as a fully
funded (Clubs) project.

The RI Matching Grant Application which Josefina, Rita, Margarita &
Gustavo of the Club Rotario Salcedo so very capably completed to the
last detail, I obtained both remaining required signatures. The
reviewer was surprised that it was already complete with all required
signatures. I brought it home & will mail it to the RI Rotary
Foundation this Monday.

Now comes the part which requires patience, waiting for RI to review
& approve our project. We'll be positive that it will also sail
through RI & not take up to the 3 months.

Lori Fleck & Kevin Martin from our Club were also there in support.
They attended the Leadership Academy. Lori & her husband will be in
Costa Rica this Winter. She wants to coordinate with me a trip
together to Salcedo.

Thank you, all of you for your strong support & encouragement. You
make it fun.

Norm

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.
 

-------------------------End------------------------

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

Club Rotario Salcedo WCS Project

Dear Team,

AS OF NOON TODAY, WE JUST WENT OVER THE TOP! WE NOW HAVE 100% OF THE TOTAL CLUBS CONTRIBUTIONS FUNDING COMMITTED! Pledge commitments have been made for the entire $3,460.86 required for our 28.58%!

You all are simply fantastic! Words cannot describe how your generosity revs up my engines. What a ride!

Checks are starting to come in; hopefully we'll have the rest within the next week or 10 days. Remember to make them out to the "Rotary District 5110 WCS Treasurer". And mark them "For" "Club Rotario Salsedo, DR, project".

Yours for Service Above Self,
Norm Malmberg, WCS Chair
Rotary Club of Scott Valley

Computer Library at Escuela Maria Josefa Gomez, Salcedo, DR

Dear Team,

In Rotary International we refer to "The Power of One" magnified by 1.2 million Rotarians. And we speak often of "Building World Understandings" through "Service Above Self". The hearts of Rotarians cannot be quenched. And you all have so aptly demonstrated these principles of service.

I promised you all that I would do a group mailing to keep you informed of the results of your hearts & your giving. And even though our project to equip a computer library in a poor school in Salsedo, Dominican Republic, has not yet been officially submitted for approval, I cannot restrain myself from sharing my excitement over the recent events of the past 2 weeks.

The total cost of our project is to be $12,109.37. Of that sum, Contributing Clubs must fund 28.58% or $3,460.86. Our District 5110 will be asked to match that amount. And the RI TRF will then be asked for approval & a Matching Grant of 42.84% or $5,187.65.

My Rotary Club of Scott Valley (Sponsoring Club) has pledged $1,000. Club Rotario Salcedo (Host Club) has pledged $100 plus many hours of selfless labor together with the cost of materials to prepare the room (paint, wiring, security, etc.). They are already busy having fund raisers.

The Eugene Metro Club was the first to commit (bless them!) & their enthusiastic spirit began a movement of others, among them, Medford Rogue, Brookings Harbor, Gold Beach, Port Orford & possibly others. I am receiving e-mails from some that they want to be a part. Last week I visited on the Oregon Coast 4 Clubs & one Rotarian pressed into my hand $200!

As of today, I have received commitments totaling $2,870.00 or 83% of the amount needed from Contributing Clubs, 33% over the 50% required to present our District application.

None of this would be possible without the enthusiasm & determination of our own Josefina Urena who visited us 3 years ago with the Dominican Republic GSE Team. Then a lawyer, now a judge, she has only recently joined the Club Rotario Salcedo. And with the able coaching of her mentor, Past President & International Service/WCS Chair, Rita Brito, & their Club President, Dr. Gustavo Santos, they have formed a winning team. Encouraged by PDG Luis Hidalgo, her GSE Team Leader, Josefina has been tenacious in researching the RI web site, preparing the application & coordinating the signatures required. I received it late yesterday by FedEx. Josefina has amazed me with her new found knowledge of our tedious process. She stands tall among 10 year Rotarians.

Please consolidate all individual contributions to our project into your Club treasury, then write & mail to me your check ASAP. Make your check payable to the: "Rotary District 5110 WCS Treasurer" for whatever amount. In the lower left corner of the check where it says "For" write: "Club Rotario Salcedo Project". This will ensure our Treasurer, PDG Bill Mickleberry, keeps them all together & credited for the same project.

Any checks you mail to me, I will bundle them together in an envelope properly documented & with the total of all checks noted.

My address is:

Norm Malmberg
5730 S Kidder Loop
Post Office Box 113
Greenview, CA 96037-0113

If you are coming to the WCS meeting, for sure, you may bring your check with you & give it to me there. But, please e-mail me your Club's total contribution so that I can accurately complete my "D5110 WCS Committee Matching Grants Project Summary" which I must make 40 copies for distribution to the committee. If you can do that no later than a week in advance, it would be most helpful.

Please let me know if there are others you suggest to also receive these group e-mails. Or if you prefer to have your WCS Club Chair receive it instead of you. I haven''t learned of all the WCS Chairs. But, I thought you may like to inform your Club members of International Service & WCS projects they are involved in. Our Club members seem to appreciate being informed.

Feel free to fire e-mail questions. I'll do my best to respond. Hope to see you in Roseburg, Oregon, Saturday, October 21st, at our TRF annual seminar & WCS 2nd quarter committee meeting.

Thanks for all you do for Rotary,

Norm Malmberg, International Services/WCS Chair
Rotary Club of Scott Valley
Chair, D5110 Credentials Committee
Member, D5110 WCS Executive Committee
Member, D5110 Public Image Planning Committee