The Rotary Rag 7-31-13

The Rotary Rag – Brattleboro Sunrise Rotary

meeting at SIT on 7-31-13

- Formerly MIA President Secrest rung the club in, only to immediately then announce he is resigning. Then it ends up: “Oh, not really”

- We pledged things.

- Then on to a great breakfast at SIT (they have Sriracha sauce at the tables there, awesome! Jon starts early, beginning with:

Introductions: (Various snide remarks regarding Jon's absence these last weeks were heard from our unruly crowd.)

- I introduced friend Coretta Bliss, and my daughter Mayah Murchison.

- Carmen introduced Carla – who works at SIT, and is also a Noon Rotary Club member

- Mr. Gibson, who said he couldn't remember President Jon, introduced Professor Alvino Fantini, our speaker and one of our hosts.

Announcements:

- Jerry Goldberg said that Nanci Leitch from youth services asked him to announce that at 1:30 this afternoon there will be a “helicopter golf ball drop”. $100 a ball gets you eligible for $3000 in stuff. From the peanut gallery: “Do you get a bonus if you catch the ball?”. President Secrest replied “they are throwing golf balls not turkeys.”

- President Jon said this will be a “steady ship this year”, whatever the deposed president allowed will not happen on his shift.

- Excommunicated President Shriver piped up with "Jon, is there a board meeting tomorrow"!? Jon replied “yes, there is a board meeting tomorrow.”

- Ellen announced that we are we doing touch a truck again this year at BMH and our club is cooking burgers. Dan added that it happens on Sept 7th, Ellen got us the donation of burgers from CNS and Cota & Cota reserved a grill for us. This event is a good chance to get lots of $ for little effort.

- President Jon: “I received a bunch of raffle tickets for the Fairhaven Rotary club, the various potential prizes are some different guns, a fishing rod, a tent and other misc prizes. $5 each $10 for 3 tickets.

Birthdays:

- It was thought there were no birthdays this week. Then it ends up that its Scott's, but he didn't have it in Clubrunner, for which he was fined.

Cards:

- For a $20 pot the 7 of clubs was drawn, and we are all losers.

Brags:

- Valarie bragged for Carmen and the United Way, and everybody helping with the food program for kids. Initially worried about mom walking across parking lot, with tattoos, a bow in her hair, piercings and etc. But it was a diverse and delightful group. Carmen signed up a bunch of volunteers to help.

- Jason Posternak - “Who is he?” somebody asked. Anted up a $20 brag for former president Sandy Shriver. For an incredible year as president and for filling in for his “Jr. assistant.” Our Sargent at Arms said its rumored that Sandy slipped him a 20 to make the brag.

- Kevin bragged for Jon, and $1 for Brattleboro for how it comes together to support causes which are important to us, like helping the hungry. “Load the Latchis” met, and exceed, its goal of 700 bags of food, which filled all seats in theatre by 5:30. Special thanks to Rickie Davison, and the Boys and Girls Club, who loaded up the truck with food. New Chapter donated $2800. Thanks to all who contributed. Another one is coming up in the Fall. This amount of food makes for about 3 weeks of food help - which shows how much need there is. Thanks to all.

- Sandy Ladd bragged that she was just back from a vacation in Alaska, which she highly recommends. She commented that it is “Great that we got it from Russia first”. They are great people, reminding her of folks here in Vermont. 90% of the population lives in Anchorage, with just 750,000 people in the state total. President Jon asked “are they all as strange as Turner?” Sandy continued that it was a truly wonderful trip.

- Will, before bragging first had a question, “has anybody ever heard of the series Unforgettable?” Asking then, if anybody has seen it and like it? His son has become the storyboard artist. “So please if you have one of those . . . uh”, Dan interjected “TV sets?", If you have a Neilson box please watch.

- Jill bragged how good it is to be back to SIT as alumni. She saw Jody Williams speak in Guilford, she is SIT alumni and a Nobel Peace Laureate from SIT. And she thanked Professor Fantini for hosting us.

- Josh bragged and invited everyone to gallery walk "iPhoneography" - thousands of photos of mine from my iPhone have been accepted. You can see his work at 5pm on Friday at the VT center for photography.

- Mr. Shriver looked up the schedule for Unforgettable. You can find it at: http://www.cbs.com/shows/unforgettable/

- President Jon had a $20 brag: First he acknowledged Sandy Shriver for covering way above and beyond the call of duty for him. And everybody else who helped. Second he bragged for his families trip of two weeks in Lithuania, and one in Bulgaria. Bulgaria is cheap and beautiful, with great beaches, and lots of European tourists. In Lithuania, staying in a summer cottage, there were lots of parties, and he went indoor skiing. Then they went to a spa (at a place I can't spell) which offers hyberbaric chamber services. Medical care is much cheaper over there, we got teeth cleaned and a cavity filled.

Our Speaker:

- Ross introduced Professor Alvino Fantini.

- He grew up in Philly, and wanted to see the world – so he joined the service. And instead he got sent to Philly. So he went into international education. Fantini is responsible for creating the graduate school which is now coming up on its 50th anniversary, and he has had a role in a wide range of accomplishments at World Learning. He is retired but continues to teach, and he directs the institutional archives. Sitting in his office one day, he saw the utilities crew taking out a bunch of old school papers and documents, and they were just tossing it all. It turned into amazing archive of the 81 years since the founding of the Experiment.

- The language of this campus when he first got here was based on it being a Brazilian Peace Core campus. He talked of wisdom in dealing with others, and said that our club sitting and listening proves that we have patience and tolerance --- and that we might qualify to be SIT employees. Rotary and us have the same goals. Good will and peace in the world. It requires a commitment to a higher purpose. We join together to help youth: Rotary started 100 years ago. SIT came about 80 years ago. In 1932, Donald B Watt from PA wanted to introduce kids to international contacts on the international countries terms. But groups didn't integrate: Germans tended to hang out with Germans, French with French and etc. In 1953 – SIT looked to introduce individuals to home nations with more immersion. Eventually this became the Experiement in International Living. The HQ is right here on Putney Road, it is separate from World Learning. There are also several hundred other employees in their DC office.

- This campus was in Putney originally, Dr watts home was there, he wanted kids to be able to walk to the Putney school. First projects I worked on were involved in Brazil. There were so many peace core projects were going on we used lots of other sites. Even using a site in the Virgin Islands in the winter. This property, it was Abenaki first, but by 1760 the Bliss family had it as a family farm - until the 1890s when sold it to the Dickensons. Buildings were moved, then Kipling lived here while his place was getting built. This was an orientation and training site. Hundreds of scholarship folks who need cross cultural experiences, African, Asian, European and more are involved. There are lots of non-academic programs, but we thought maybe we could do something academically. So they started their graduate programs. And consolidated other offices to here and DC.

- So it expanded to internal exchange to international education service and development. This property expanded with other property's over the years. The hill that we see in the distance, was added on 10 years ago – developer wanted to build there, and started to build a foundation, and the neighbors were upset. So these neighbors loaned SIT the $ to buy it. SIT is just one of several divisions of World Learning.

- This summer they had Jody Williams here, and he was very impressed with the questions the Governors Institute youth had for her. The founder, Dr. Watt said that intelligence is not enough (but it doesn't hurt either) - referring to a study of students who had been in other organizations - testing folks from a program in Japan, but whom came back from Japan knowing less than they should. But Watt wanted them to come back not just with knowledge - but with FEELING of the country. Professor Fantini went to Mexico in 1954 on scholarship, and later led groups to other nations. And he still feels very much a part of his host families from aroud the world 50 years later. We learn about others, and now look at our own communities --- Chinese proverb "frog: how can the frog, know the sea if it has never left its pond" --- Our kids are kind of launched out into the world.

- It is asked "why is it still called the experiment? Don't you know what you are doing?" The answer is that for each individual, its an individual experiment. Your experiences are yours, they are all individual. Entering into another culture, and language, is different for each person. Much of it is about motivation. Lots of the competency is from being inter-personally skilled. Emic perspective instead of Etic perspective. We see through the only filters we know, and we try to interact and learn from others perspectives. Brattleboro is a very open and accepting community, which has been very important. Local scholarships are provided in return. I hope we have contributed to the community - they have contributed to us.

- We do complete impact studies with alumni - 10, 20 years down the road – to see how it impacted everybody. This impacts the whole person. And 100,000s of people are impacted overall.

- Professor Fantini ended with a thanks to all who have helped with their sharing and impacting lives, and tolerance.

- Jon thanked the professor, and gave the closing bell.

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Respectfully submitted by this weeks humble scribe, Todd.