Rotary District 9810 Conference: Pushing the Boundaries

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March 12th 2008

Published: March 16th 2008

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cindyatmonash

Our Hotel

The Albury Chifley Hotel!

The 26th Annual District 9810 Rotary Conference took place last weekend in Albury. This city, located about 4 hours away from Melbourne city, was like being in a different world. Set out in the bush area of Australia, we were located in a city with only one main street and lots of little shops around, all closing around 4pm each day. I likened the quaintness of the city to that of a small city like Travelers Rest or Berea. But regardless of its size, over 600 Rotarians from all around our district filled up Dean Street and kicked off another great district conference!

We arrived in Albury on a VERY warm Saturday. We opened the conference with a lunch BBQ which gave me the opportunity to network with some surrounding Rotary clubs and organizations. During the opening ceremonies, I had the opportunity to march in the Parade of Flags, carrying the USA flag! That was such an honor to be able to formally represent my home Rotary district and my country by handling our flag. I also had a chance to meet the other Ambassadorial Scholars that are in the district: Ivan Pisarev (Russia), Yusi Liu (China), Miori Ueda (Japan),

City view

One of the buildings on Albury's main street

and Luisa Dow (Australia—she is a Peace Fellow going to Duke University in the fall!). It was such a great opportunity to meet with them and hear about their experiences in Australia so far, as Ivan and Miori have been here since the fall of 2008.

As we opened the conference, I learned that our Rotary International President’s Personal Representative was none other than Dr. Monty Audenart from Canada! This was so cool for me, because Monty was our RIPPR at the District 7750 conference in Hilton Head last year. I had a great conversation with him and his wife when I first met them on Saturday and we reminisced about Hilton Head and the exciting times we had last year!

Perhaps one of the highlights of the opening ceremony for me was the roll call. Since there were so many clubs, our MC wanted to know just how many from each club were present. It was almost like being in a spirit competition: as each club was called, you could hear a loud (or in some cases a quiet) cheer and even noisemakers, confetti, “the wave”, and the like. It was so cool to see the enthusiasm

Conference Hall

The entrance to the Rotary Conference Hall

of each of the clubs! I made sure to cheer extra loudly when Hampton’s name was called 😊

Our afternoon sessions kicked off and the energy from the speakers was contagious. Our first main speaker was a man named Nic Feteris, a world renown base jumper who has a record free-fall jump from the Great Trango Tower in Pakistan. As the theme of the conference was “Pushing the Boundaries,” Nic shaped his speech around this theme and recalled some of the moments in his career where he had to push the boundaries and even risk his life to accomplish his goals. It was such an energetic, funny, and inspirational speech!

We heard from several different speakers on topics relating to the environment. In one presentation, we were actually shown a visual of just how much water resources we consume in a daily period. It was astonishing to see just how much water and natural resources we use and how cutting down on five minutes in the shower can save us in the long run.

Following the presentations for the day, we boarded a bus and headed for a Kinross, a bar saloon that was DEFINITELY a scene

Stage

The stage, adorned with the wonderful flags that we presented at the Opening Ceremony!

out of the movie “Sweet Home Alabama.” After a delicious BBQ dinner, we had a live guitarist take the stage and play all kinds of new and old hits, that really got the Rotary group up and dancing. We had such a wonderful time dancing along to so many songs…and it was funny because it seemed like most Rotarians knew the songs, word for word, but I could only get the ones from the early 1990’s 😊 It was a fantastic night, and I really enjoyed getting to know my Hampton club so much better—I even learned a few new dance moves (anyone feel like doing the Twist?!?)!

Sunday morning of the conference kicked off with an outstanding keynote speaker. Khoa Do, winner of the Young Australian of the Year for 2005, began his speech with a bit of personal history: at the age of 2, he, along with his parents and brother, set off on a boat from Vietnam to Australia. Along the way, they faced several challenges, including pirate attacks and even one that might have resulted in Khoa’s own death. Surviving these very challenging aspects of childhood, Khoa succeeded in school and in growing up as

Rotary Scholars

Miori (L), Yusi, and myself at an afternoon tea

an Vietnamese immigrant in Australia. After studying law in university, he actually abandoned law for a career in acting and filmography. Years later, he began to write is own scripts and produce films. He spoke about the challenges that he personally faced, as well as the challenges of some of his actors and actresses. It was such a moving speech because for one of his films, “Footy Legends,” Khoa was able to gather a cast of young men from a juvenile correctional facility and change their lives around and get them involved in acting. Khoa’s story was so encouraging for me, because it really made me realize the power one person can have over changing lives and perceptions.

We continued speeches and presentations with a futuristic presentation by a professor from Telstra, one of the main telecommunications industries in Australia. As he spoke about the power of technology, internet, and new gadgets out on the market, he even gave us a presentation of what the world will look like in 2050, at the rate we are going with technology. In his presentation, we had talking mirrors that acted as calendars, fingerprint pads for identity in our cars, and even

Funny

One of the slides during the conservation presentation :)

virtual organizer planners that appeared on office walls and throughout the house!

During the afternoon, we heard a presentation from a recipient of the Australian Aboriginal Health Scholarship that is sponsored by the Rotary Foundation. The district sponsors a number of scholarships designed specifically for Aboriginal people to attain an education in a health profession. From what Dr. James Charles told us, many Aboriginal people do not feel comfortable with non-Aboriginal health care providers, and thus the need for Aborigines in the field is crucial. Dr. Charles was able to overcome dropping out of high school to go back to school and attain his degree in podiatry. His speech was amazing and really put the value of education into perspective. It also made me feel so proud and so privileged to be a member of District 9810 and their efforts throughout Australia.

Sunday night was probably one of the main highlights of the conference: Our Camelot dinner. As our club decided to take the literal translation of “Camelot,” we were just that: a lot of camels . As we made our march into the Camelot tents, I was in awe at the creativity of some of the other

Kinross Dinner

Lorraine (Hampton club President), Marie (Hampton President Elect), and Sue Garner (DG Dick's wife) at dinner

clubs, who traded their suits and ties for capes, crowns, wizard hats, and swords. Many of the clubs dressed as knights, princesses, kings, and even the village idiots! It was so fun to see everyone dressed up and in character!! We even had Camelot sword fighting, presentation of our dinner, and lots and lots of picture opportunities—it was a fantastic night!!!

On our final day of the conference, we wrapped up with a breakfast with guest speaker District Governor Bernie Rodgers, who spoke about Polio and Rotary’s fight against Polio. As a child, Bernie was diagnosed with Polio and he described to us the process that he underwent (and even what he is still undergoing now with post-polio symptoms). It was such an incredible presentation. For someone like myself, I have grown up thinking that polio is now under control with all of the vaccinations that exist and with Rotary’s commitment to end Polio in the world. However, I have never had the chance to meet someone who was so personally affected by it, so it really touched my heart that Bernie was able to share his inspirational story with us and really energized me to think about my

Kinross Dinner

Jenny, me, and Khoa at dinner!

future involvement with Rotary and with helping to end Polio in the world.

We ended the afternoon with another amazing speaker, Tammy Van Wisse. As a child she began swimming when she was 11 years old. She began to get serious about swimming and challenging herself to push her limits. Throughout her teen years she competed in several competitions, but some of her highlights of her swimming career have been the records she has broken: being the only person to ever swim the length of the Bass Strait, the English Channel, and even the Murray River in Australia (which is over 2400kms long!!). In total, Tammy has swum the length of one and a half times the distance around the world!

In terms of some programs that District 9810 has been working on and made presentations, we heard from representatives with Operation Cleft (working to correct cleft palates in Asian countries), working to raise money for Malaria nets, the Shelterbox project, raising money for running water at the Chiedza School in Zimbabwe, and even the idea of Rotary e-clubs (clubs that meet via the internet, rather than weekly meetings at certain locations). I was so overwhelmed by all

Kinross: The Afterdinner party!

Dancin the night away!

of the fantastic programs that this district has undertaken, and leaving this conference excited me to get involved in as many as I can while I am here!

On the way home from conference, we took the “scenic route” through the bush area and even got to see some of Ned Kelly’s hometown. Ned Kelly is known as Australia’s most famous Bushranger who was seen as an outlaw and folklore hero. We even visited Glenrowan, the town where Kelly made his last appearance and even lost his life. It was so much fun to see the bush area and visit all of these unique sites…something that a city dweller would never see in the city!

I had such a great time at the district conference and now I’m very excited to begin visiting clubs and speaking with many more Rotarians! Oh yeah, at the conference they also unveiled the site for the District 9810 2009 Conference: Hobart, Tasmania! If the conference will be anything like this year, it will definitely be something not to be missed!!

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