Rotary District 1080 Council Meeting

Last night, all the ambassadorial scholars in District 1080 (Dave, Eric, Dhriti, Marisa, Katie, and me) attended the district council meeting. We are all from the States except Marisa who just arrived from Mexico (which means she has been freezing since she arrived four days ago). The evening began with a dinner and it was requested that all of us scholars sit at different tables so we could meet and chat with new people. I had a wonderful dinner conversation about being a woman in the military and all the sports I'm participating in in Cambridge.

After the dinner, the evening's events began. It kicked off with a presentation on RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) and encouraging clubs to get involved. I had heard of RYLA but never knew what it stood for or what its purpose was. I was surprised to learn RYLA is Rotary's leadership training program for young people. I wish I could have been involved in RYLA in high school. It looks like so much fun! District 1080's RYLA is held at Graffham Water Development Centre and it involves an intensive week of outdoor physical challenges among other things. RYLA emphasizes leadership, citizenship, and personal growth, and aims to

* Demonstrate Rotary's respect and concern for youth
* Provide an effective training experience for selected youth and potential leaders
* Encourage leadership of youth by youth
* Recognize publicly young people who are rendering service to their communities

After the RYLA presentation, all the scholars stood up and gave brief introductions of themselves. Then we listened to approval of the District budget and the decision over where to have the District conference (it was very contentious!). It took another hour or so, but before I knew it, the evening was over. Many of the members of clubs which I am scheduled to speak at came up to introduce themselves afterward since are only previous correspondence has been through email. They wanted to make sure everything was in order and I had rides to their clubs. Before we left, all of the scholars exchanged contact information with Marisa and wished her best of luck with her studies.