Macy, Jacqui, Ryan & Kim (she's engaged--wedding in May!!)
The process of taking five complete strangers and molding everyone into a Rotary Group Study Exchange Team probably takes more time and effort than most folks realize. In addition to our face- to-face meetings which happen about once a month, we have a conference call every Wednesday night to review our 'to-do' list plus it gives the team leader (that would be me) an opportunity to nag a bit.
Bureaucracies exist in all kinds of organizations and Rotary is no different. But since Rotary International deals with hundreds of such teams traveling all over the world every year, the need for a procedure that everyone needs to follow is well understood. It starts with the basic need of a passport and then a way to get into a foreign country...in this case, Australia requires an Electronic Travel Authority which can easily be purchased on line...and of course there's the need to ensure that a person has ample medical insurance and something one would probably think of....insurance to get your body or remains back to the US in case something as horrible as that should occur. Perish the thought!!!
Documentation like this all has to be submitted to Rotary International forty-five days in advance of the scheduled departure dates. In our case, this departure date is supposed to be March 5th. Along with this, we're constantly in communique' with our hosts in Australia who want to know about us, so biographies and pictures are exchanged. Their itinerary is needed by RI before the trip is approved. In case you've forgotten, we're going to Victoria and New South Wales, Australia and our point of debarkation in Australia is Melbourne. (The natives pronounce it "Melbin.") We're going to visit District 9790...their team visited our District last September.
We were excited this week to finally submit our travel requests to RI,in time to beat the deadline. This request is actually sent to Rotary International Travel Service. Because of the volume of travelers that RI schedules every year, they have their own travel service! A travel agent has been assigned to us, so now we'll move ahead to plan the trip from the US to Australia and the return trip. We figure that we'll leave on March 5th in order to arrive by March 7th. Remember, Victoria, Australia is 17 hours ahead of the US Central Time Zone and it's tomorrow.
So, the wheels are in motion for us to continue to move forward with the planning. Getting our 'uniforms' is almost completed and the presentation we'll make us underway, thanks to the Computer Software students at the Mitchell Technical Institute, in Mitchell. (It seems like I know someone there). We continue to learn about every aspect of Australia including reading their newspapers and researching their economy, their government, and the people. All the team members have a responsibility to share their knowledge of Australia with everyone else....so we share that.
With a little less than two months, there's still much to be done and our anticipation, anxiety, and excitement grows daily. When we selected these outstanding young professionals, I asked them what a group of under-thirties would have in common with an over-sixty guy. Well....it turns out it's more than you might think. Plus it's reassuring to know that we're in good hands with future generations. And...remember, Australia knows the future....after all, in Australia, it's tomorrow. We'll keep you posted.
