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Sharpen Your Skills - Fellowships
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Rotary Club of New Bedford

 


 

 

District 7950

Founded 1921

 

SHARPEN YOUR ROTARY SKILLS

 

Volume 2

 

Issue 1

 

 

ROTARY FELLOWSHIPS

 

 

How would you like to spend two weeks in a nice house on the coast of Spain or maybe a week in New Zealand in a home near the ocean? Even better, how would you like to exchange your home for a week or two and live in a Rotarian’s home in Spain, New Zealand or almost anywhere else in the Rotary World for just the cost of travel and food? Sounds too good to be true but this is just one of the many Rotary Fellowships available to you as a Rotarian. (By the way, the Fellowship for this activity is called “Home Exchange”).  Just taking a stab at the Rotary globe finds a “4 bedroom, 2 bath house 60 Km south of Oslo near woods and beaches” available for exchange.

 

Rotary was founded on fellowship. As your life as a Rotarian grows you will become more and more aware of just how much fellowship in Rotary means to you.

 

As early as 1928 Rotarians realized that certain hobbies and interests resonate with many Rotarians all over the Rotary World and began to formalize these hobbies and interests into Rotary Fellowships.

 

Exactly what is a Rotary Fellowship?

 

A Rotary Fellowship brings together members from different countries and cultures to enjoy a shared interest.

 

For a few years my wife Carolyn and I were members of the Travel & Hosting Fellowship. We had our names, address and local interests published in the Rotary Travel & Hosting website. When Rotarians from around the world would come to our area they would stay with us, usually for a few nights only, and we would give them a good breakfast and either direct them to local points of interest, or if we had time, we would spend a day or so with them showing off our lovely New England area. It was a great opportunity to meet Rotarians from all over the world. And, by the way, the hosting was reciprocated when we traveled. This is also a great way to experience Rotary International Conventions, but you need to get your request out early to the Travel & Hosting Fellowship as convention week requests in host countries fill up fast.

 

What if you love golf and want to expand your golfing experience to other areas or even sharpen your golfing skills by playing a round with new golf partners? What better new golfing friends to find than Rotarians. There are several Rotary Golf Fellowships in our area and you could also hook up with a Golf Fellowship in an area you plan on traveling to. For instance, there’s a golf trip planned at Brudenell River Resort on Prince Edward Island, Canada this coming September.

 

The last time I look on the www.Rotary.org website, I found 66 Rotary Fellowships. Here are just a few;

 

  • Flying
  • Running and Fitness
  • Cycling
  • Fishing
  • Scouting
  • Heart Surgery Survivors
  • Doll Lovers
  • Chess
  • Fine Arts and Antiques
  • Tennis
  • Travel and Hosting
  • Bird Watching
  • Scuba Diving
  • Music
  • Home Exchange
  • Caravanning (RVing in American)
  • Skiing
  • Football
  • Wine
  • Magic
  • Yachting
  • Gourmets
  • Singles
  • Classic and Historic Automobiles
  • Old and Rare Books
  • Computer Users
  • Golf
  • Railroads

 And here are a few I have no clue about;

 

  • Petanque
  • Magna Graecia
  • Go


Every Rotary Fellowship has an email address and a website allowing you to easily join the fellowship group.

 

How to find all the Rotary Fellowships on line;

 

  1. Go to www.Rotary.org
  2. Click on “Service and Fellowship” Tab
  3. Scroll down to “Fellowship – Global Network Groups” (click on this).
  4. Scroll down to “View Complete List of Rotary Fellowships”
  5. Click on “View All Fellowships”

You can also copy this link into your browser:

 

http://www.rotary.org/en/ServiceAndFellowship/Pages/ridefault.aspx


 



If you look at my membership photo in the directory you will see I’m in full scuba diving mode. As members of the Rotary Scuba Diving Fellowship Carolyn and I can join fellow Rotarians from all over the world on a Little Cayman dive trip in January of 2009 or go on the Indonesian dive trip in March of 2009 as well as contact local Rotary divers in our area for local dive trips.

 

If you don’t see a Fellowship that interests you, start one of your own! The Rotary website has easy to follow instructions on how to start a Rotary Fellowship.

 

Rotary Fellowships fit smack dab into The Four Way Test #3, “Will it build good will and better friendships.”

 

 

Don’t forget to send your requests for future issues of Sharpen Your Rotary Skills to Bob.Gencon@gmail.com.