PCDG John R. Peterson
New Generations Committee Chairman

What does New Generations mean?  New Generations refers to the youngest generation in the family of Rotary. Many are participants in Rotary's youth and young adult programs: Interact, Rotaract,Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), and Rotary Youth Exchange. Others are service-minded young people involved in Rotary club and districtactivities.

Past RI President Luis Vicente Giay (1996-1997) coined the term New Generations when he shared his belief that the future of Rotary relied on involving youngpeople in the organizations programs and activities. At the 1996 RI Convention in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he said" Our vision for the future, now more than ever, is the difference between success and failure. The New Generations are our investment in the future. Let us begin to build that future today"

New Generations Service became Rotary's Fifth Avenue of Service in 2010. It is defined in Article 5 of the Standard Rotary Club Constitution:

New Generations Service recognizes the positive change implemented by youth and young adults through leadership development activities, involvement in community and international service projects, and exchange programs that enrich and foster world peace and cultural understanding.

Rotary clubs should be committed to involving youth and young adults in theirvocational, community, and international service projects, and to providing programs and resources that support them.

by Mike Canales  

Interact Chair 

By now everyone should have updated their Interact information. Contact me if you have any questions about this. 
Please submit your Interact information by September 15. 

I need the Rotarian/Faculty advisers name and e-mail address, and the Interact President's name. 

An updated list of District 5840 Active Interact clubs will be posted on our website in October.  

Interact News

The South San HS and Winston School Interact clubs participated in a school supplies drive to benefit low income families. The drive was sponsored by the San Antonio Evening, Sunrise and South Rotary clubs.

The Winston School Interact Club will participate in a Habitat for Humanities build on August 27, 2011.

REMINDER:  Invite your Interact club to one of your meetings to plan projects for the upcoming year. You should conduct a joint Interact/Rotary club project for the month of September.  

Please contact me for any Interact Club matters. 

Follow Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar William Miller on his blog

DG Sherri Muniz with Ambassadorial Scholar William Miller

 
Follow the posts of Rotary Outbound Ambassadorial Scholar Will Miller on his blog at texanswede.wordpress.com  

Rotary Youth Exchange 

David Bandy
Youth Exchange Committee Chair

Rotary District 5840 will have a total of 11 inbounds for the year. Two have been here since January on a calendar year exchange and 9 have started arriving for the academic year exchange. Following is a listing of the students and hosting clubs:  

Calendar Year Students 

Serah Gehuno        Papua New Guinea      San Antonio South 

Maryann Puia         Solomon Islands          Boerne Noon

We have already agreed to accept an Australian student in January. The Beeville Club will be hosting that student.

Academic Year Students (arriving)

Bibiana Klasz               Austria                    Seguin  

Juaquin Moscoso          Ecuador                  Pleasanton  

Pauline Fettweiss         Belgium                   San Marcos

Wilhelm Schultz           Germany                 SA Northeast         

Laetitia Lergenmuller     France                    Kerrville Noon  

Victoria Maldoveanu      France                    San Antonio  

Sean Lin                      Taiwan                     New Braunfels  

Wendy Yeh                  Taiwan                     Del Rio

Gabriella Mariano          Brazil                      New Braunfels 

                                                                  Downtown     

We will be holding the first orientation for all of the new inbound students the weekend of September 9-11 in New Braunfels.

We also have 9 outbound students on long term exchanges. These students are:  

Name                           Going To                From 

Yvonne Chase                France                    Kerrville   

Rosa Ledesma               France                    Kerrville   

Abraham Saldana           Taiwan                    San Marcos 

Jay Slack                      Taiwan                     Del Rio     

Michelle Piersol             Austria                    San Marcos 

Kendel Lipe                   Ecuador                  Boerne 

Claire Mata                   Belgium                   San Antonio 

Savannah Maxwell         Brazil                      Del Rio 

Kateland Pricer             Germany                 Canyon Lake

Jan Livingston 

Community Service Chair

Tell the Story

Share what your Club does in your community.

Has your Rotary Club participated in a Community Service Project this year?? Is there a Service project planned in the future?? If the answer is "Yes", then part of the Service project is to "Tell the Story" about the activity. Compose a short article for the District 5840 Newsletter and send along with photos. Include information such as:

�    Club Name

�    Where/ location of project

�    When- date of project or is it ongoing

�    Scope-who/what benefits from the community service project

Summary of project- How many Rotarians, friends of Rotarians, Interactors, etc. participated and how many hours were dedicated to the project

Please forward the summary to jliving@swbell.net so your club's good works can be featured in a future issue of our district newsletter!  

Service at work:
Playground moved from Boerne to Ciudad Acuna

by Brian Cartwright

Members of the Rotary Clubs of Boerne - Sunrise and Ciudad Acuna joined forces June 11, 2011 to disassemble a playground donated by the Villas at Hampton Place homeowners association.  

The equipment located at the neighborhood playground in Boerne was to be reassembled at the Gabriella Mistral Jarden del Ninos, a 450-student kindergarten and school located in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico. 

The school did not have a playground, according to Boerne Sunrise Rotarian Don Jones, who coordinated the project with Club Past-President Ron Cisneros. Charlie Boyd of the homeowners association initiated the donation of the playground.

L-R in photo

Rotarians Ron Cisneros, Humberto Garza, Wally Whitworth, Don Jones, Richard Haas, Charles Wetherbee, Victor Chavez,  and Rodger Paxton. Garza, Chavez and Paxton are members of the Cuidad Acuna Club in Coahuila, Mexico.

San Antonio Northeast Rotarians buy school        uniforms for CAM students

26 sets of uniforms were purchased for students at Christian Assistance Ministry (CAM) with funds contributed by San Antonio Northeast Rotarians.  San Antonio Northeast Rotarian Natalie Salas (left) coordinated the project for the club.  Natalie is seen here with Jo Ann Henning of Christian Assistance Ministry.

A FEW FACTS: San Antonio currently has the highest dropout rate in both Texas and the nation. Future prisonneeds can be calculated on the rate of illiteracy. 74% of 3rd graders with reading problems carry that deficit into high school (10-15% of them drop out of school, and only 2% complete a 4-year degree. This awful situation can be resolved! 

WHAT YOU CAN DO:  Become a "reading buddy" or recruit them individually or in groups! 

NEXT STEPS:

1.    Go to www.SAREADS.ORG to learn more about this community effort to build literate lives.  

2.    Recruit others to read to & with a 2nd Grader for only 30 minutes/week for at least 8 weeks.  

3.    Spread the word by mouth, social media and public relations to help our community read. 

MAKE A DIFFERENCE - START AT THE SOURCE TO STOP GROWING ILLITERATE ADULTS!

SA Reads Book Drive  

While this is a San Antonio focus right now - don't let that stop you from volunteering in your town and local schools to be a mentor! The next generation needs your help!  

Polio Eradication

by John Hutcherson 
Polio Plus Chair

The fight to eradicate polio from the face of the Earth is making progress.   As of July 27, 2011, only one new case of polio has been diagnosed and confirmed in India and that case was identified on January 13, 2011.  With 1.2 billion people, India is the largest of the countries endemic with Polio.  However, polio cases in DR Congo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Chad are up over 2010 year to date numbers. The Final Inch is getting smaller!!!! 

In 2010 there were 437 new cases of polio in Tajikistan between April 21 and July 10 and there have been no new cases since then.  The SWAT team efforts worked on this isolated outbreak and continue to work. SWAT teams are waiting another isolated outbreak and hoping they are not needed.

Today my friend Jim Linley, a physician and member of the Fredericksburg Rotary Club, gave me an article appearing in the most recent issue of SCIENCE magazine.  The article pointed out the immunization project carried out by the CIA in Pakistan to get Osama bin Laden's children's DNA and how these efforts contribute to negative attitudes toward all immunization efforts.  These kinds of issues about immunizations have been spreading for as long as immunizations have been available.  It is misinformation and  negativity on the part of people that promulgate fear and slow the progress toward wiping out polio and other dread diseases.  This is not new and is only more reason for continued positive work to educate and immunize all children against polio.   Thank you Jim for bringing this to my attention.   For all of us involved in the fight against polio, we can not get distracted by negativity in the world if that negativity is in rural Chad or India or Pakistan or Nigeria, or in our respected scientific press.  Enough sermonizing.

Pints for Polio is planned for early October this year in San Antonio.  I will get more information out as soon as I have it.  We are available to do programs for your club about Polio Plus

Sherri and Al Muniz are planning a trip to India to continue their work in the Agra area in November.  Contact Sherri for more information.  Dream Team 2012 is scheduled for February, 2012 and Elias Thomas has the information.

Keep your dollars to Polio Plus flowing.  
We are not done yet but we are very very close. 

District Conference (Celebration) 

Mark your calendars for June 1st -June 3rd for a memorable time of celebration and fellowship - make your plans now to join us in San Marcos as we celebrate the road we have traveled this year and the road ahead for Rotary in South Texas! 

More details coming soon!  

Where does 5840 travel? 

Bruce Richter and Gloria Duke Richter, members of the Oak Hills Rotary Club,  visited the Santa Fe Thursday noon Club on August 18, 2011 and exchanged banners with that club. Various grant development and membership recruitment ideas were exchanged with members of the Santa Fe Club.  

Want to be featured in a future "Where" segment - send us your pictures of your travels around the Rotary world!  

by Kenneth W. Donoughue 

Committee Co-Chairman                                     

The Hunger Plus Adopts a Region Committee has purchased the materials to screen the building openings in Jaboncillas. The materials are being prepared at this time and are stored in Muzquiz, Coahuila, Mexico with co-chairman Carlos Servin of District 4110. The Committee is planning to do the screening the first weekend in November.

The Greater San Marcos Club once again is in the process of collecting materials for Health Packs and School Packs which will be delivered to the families in each ejido beginning September 21, 2011. This activity will coincide with the Committee's next group of medical trips which will also begin on September 21, 2011 and conclude on October 26, 2011. Volunteers are needed for each of these trips. If you are able to volunteer please contact Ken Donoughue at 210-699-9090. These trips begin on a Wednesday and conclude on a Sunday. There will be a total of three trips made this Fall.

The Committee is preparing to launch a District wide fund raising activity. We will be asking each Club in the District to hold a silent auction in their community and raise $1,000.00 for the District Hunger Plus Adopts a Region Committee so that we can continue our work with the seven ejidos that we serve.

by Gordon Dunkley

Vocational Chair

Just a reminder that the month of October has been designated as VOCATIONAL SERVICE month.  Rotary International has provided an excellent tool to help clubs focus on VOCATIONAL SERVICE with the CHANGE MAKER Award. The guidelines for this award are on the RI Website. Just go the the Changemaker Award for details. 

The Vocational Service section provides 8 activity options requiring three to meet these requirements. What better time to meet these requirements than the Month of October. It is quite possible that your club has already met at least three of these goals. If not, now is the time to accomplish them.

Remember that Vocational Service is the foundation of Rotary. Make it the foundation of your club!

by PDG Dick Baggett

Although we have seen there are many, many Rotary Fellowships currently existing, it is possible that you might want to create a new one that recognizes a new interest group.  

To begin, it is important to assess the need for the potential fellowship. Until this is done, there is no way to determine if there is enough interest to sustain the Fellowship,

A good place to start is to visit with leaders of current fellowships about the basic administrative structure and recommendations for daily operation.

Additionally the Rotary Fellowships Handbook contains a list of questions that serve as a preliminary checklist.  Reviewing these questions would be important before proceeding with a new fellowship proposal. Here are some excellent preliminary questions:   

o    Are you interested in building new and lasting relationships with Rotarians in various parts of the world?

o    Is the furtherance of fellowship among Rotarians the primary goal of your group?

o    Does your group have additional goals that are well defined and attainable?

o    Are your group's goals consistent with Rotary ideals?

o    Will the focus of your group appeal to Rotarians from many different countries and cultural backgrounds and be respectful of all cultural, political, and religious differences?

o    Is the focus of your group unique to the Rotary Fellowships?

o    Do you have a workable plan for organizing meetings, events, or other forums of communication that will promote fellowship across regional and national borders?

o    Are the leaders of your group comfortable using electronic forms of communication (e-mail and the Internet) to coordinate with fellow Rotarians?

o    Are you enthusiastic about communicating your group's activities and goals with members, prospective members, and RI staff?

o    Can you recruit a sufficient support base of fellowship officers who are willing to work to maintain the mechanisms of group interaction?

o    Do you, as a group leader, have enough time and energy to initiate group activity and communication if other members grow apathetic or unresponsive?

Creating international fellowships will require finding qualified potential members from other countries who are interested in being part of the fellowship.  A good way to start is by first organizing a group at the district level and then working with the fellowships chairs of districts in other countries.

Other ways to identify members include contacting your club's international service partners or registering the proposed fellowship at www.rotaryfellowships.org,  You may also consider posting a message on the Rotary Fellowship Discussion Forum (http://forums.rotary.org) to invite Rotarians to join your group.

It is obviously necessary to receive approval from the RI Board through an application process.  A formal request for recognition must include:

o    Completed application form (available from RI)

o    Copy of the proposed bylaws or constitution

o    List of proposed officers and their responsibilities

o    Roster of potential members, representing at least three different countries

Organizers may also send additional materials.  A list of these can be found in the Rotary Fellowships Handbook.

Ensuring your application is well prepared and complete is critical.  Groups that are denied recognition must wait two years to reapply.

Criteria for Recognition as a Rotary Fellowship Applications must show that the group meets the following criteria:

o    The fellowship is organized internationally and has a membership base from at least three countries.

o    Recognition of the fellowship does not imply any obligation on the part of RI or Rotary clubs and districts.

o    The fellowship does not act on behalf of RI or imply that it has authority to do so.

o    The fellowship uses the Rotary marks (the Rotary emblem and other registered trademarks of Rotary International) in accordance with RI policy.

o    The fellowship is neutral with respect to religion and politics.

o    The fellowship does not promote other organizations.

o    Fellowship operations are financially and administratively self-sustaining.

o    The fellowship complies with the laws of the countries in which it operates.

o    The fellowship responds to all communications, particularly those from the Secretariat, in a timely manner.

o    The fellowship supports its members by publishing a newsletter at least once per Rotary year and holds an annual forum that allows members to meet and interact.

o    The fellowship agrees to submit an annual report of activities, including a financial statement, to its members with a copy to the general secretary by 1 October of each year.

o    The fellowship agrees to notify the general secretary in advance of any plans to either approach other organizations for funds in excess of US$25,000 or form other cooperative relationships.

o    The fellowship agrees to obtain advance approval from the appropriate district governor(s) to request any type of cooperation from Rotarians outside the group's membership.

PDG Doug Whinnery

District Rotary Foundation Chair 

Many of you have heard about the Million Dollar Weekend coming October 28th and 29th, 2011. I know many of you are wondering what it is all about. The Million Dollar Weekend is the combination of two major events in the life of the Rotary Foundation in District 5840. The Million Dollar Weekend will take place at the J W Marriott Hill Country Resort in San Antonio.

The first event takes place on Friday, October 28, 2011. It is a black tie optional formal dinner to recognize and appreciate new major donors and Bequest Society members who contributed or committed $10,000 or more to the Permanent Fund of the Rotary Foundation. Our district made a commitment to raise at least $1 million dollars for the Permanent Fund. As I write this we are closing in on that goal.

The dinner will be by invitation only. New major donors and Bequest Society members and existing major donors and Bequest Society members who increase their commitment by $10,000 will be guests of the district at the Million Dollar Dinner. Current major donors and Bequest Society members who do not increase their commitment will be invited to the dinner but will have to pay for their meals.

The second event takes place on Saturday, October 29, 2011. It is the annual Foundation Seminar. The seminar is open to anyone interested in learning about the Rotary Foundation and its programs. Club presidents, president-elects, and club Rotary Foundation Committee chairs and members are encouraged to attend. The seminar program will include information on the PolioPlus Campaign, Ambassadorial Scholarship, Group Study Exchange, Future Vision and much more.

The exciting news is that RI President Kalyan Banerjee and his wife will be our guests of honor at both events. President Banerjee will personally recognize the donors who help us reach our million dollar goal at the dinner on Friday. He will also be the keynote speaker at the Foundation Seminar on Saturday. Because of his travel schedule he will be speaking at the start of the seminar so get there early to hear him. 

Other districts around the country have conducted million dollar dinners to raise funds for the Foundation's Permanent Fund. District 5840 is the first district to take it a step further and have a million dollar weekend. We definitely are the only district I know of to have the RI president speak at its Foundation Seminar. 

Please save the dates. If you are interested in helping us reach our million dollar goal please contact me at doug5840@ktc.com to see what options are available and best for you.

Website, videos and social media...Rotary 5840         is on the move!

Leroy Alloway 

Public Relations Chair

September starts New Generation month for Rotary, and in honor of the new beginning that we embrace with New Generations, Rotary 5840 is making a couple of big moves this month - to help serve our club members even better!

First, we are moving our District website (www.Rotary5840.org) to Clubrunner. This change will allow us to have integration with the Rotary International database, empowering club members to be able to go to one spot and update their contact data, will give club officers more tools for communication, and will allow the District to be in touch with you, without having to have multiple different databases, email lists, etc.

Your data is secure with Clubrunner, and no email addresses or contact information will ever be used for non Rotary purposes. This move is happening this month - right now as a matter of fact, and so you may see a little downtime on our website as we build the new 5840 website!

With this new website move we also have a new Website Chair, Sue Whinnery - so please remember to direct your emails and questions on the website to Sue, as David Flack is now going to be serving  the District as the District Governor's Special Representative for SAReads. We are thrilled for this new assignment for David, making use of his deterimination and commitment to Rotary, and thank him for the past years of service he has devoted to building a very robust website for the District!

Second, have you visited our YouTube channel yet?

www.Youtube.com/Rotary5840 has a monthly video added each month featuring Rotarians across out District - 5840 Speaks is going to be a monthly feature to help provide outreach tools for clubs  to show what our fellow Rotarians think about Rotary, why they are involved, and from time to time, we will have special videos loaded to talk about major events - like the upcoming Million Dollar Weekend for the Rotary Foundation!

Finally, if you are reading this e-newsletter then you already see the power of social and digital media. If you missed the membership boot camp presentation on social media, don't fret...we are considering holding a social media  boot camp in the next few months. Let us know if you'd be interested in such an event and if you are willing to help that is even better!

It's a new month, and even more excitement is on the horizon as we start our public relations campaign in October to highlight Rotary

across South Texas!  

Driving Miss Sherri

by Al Muniz

Well it has started.  The journey into the unknown.  What is unknown is what will be across the road as we go down it.  Will there be a deer, an Armadillo, or perhaps a bear.  Hopefully there will be no Lions in the way either.  I hear they like to attack unsuspecting DG vehicles not armored or covered with a slippery type material.

So far we have gone to Canyon Lake (twice), Medina Valley-Castroville, San Saba, SA Oak Hills, San Marcos, SA West, SA North East, Del Rio, New Braunfels, Gonzalez, and a few meetings and dinners for visitors, Youth exchange, and an ambassadorial scholar.  I just realized that we are only in the first month and a half and the month leading up to the start of the Rotary year.

We have some of the travelling stuff almost organized so that there will be a minimum of loading and unloading every time we go on a trip.  We should have this part down to a science by the end of June next year.

Our travelling companion is usually Willie Nelson as we start the journey with his song "On the road again".  So far we have not hit anything and hope that we continue the stroke of luck for another eleven months.

I am exploring new territory as the first male DG Spouse (pronounced "Spoose").  There are no road maps (not even a GPS) for this folks.  Will explain the "Spoose" term in our next episode.

Almost forgot. At Sherri's first official club visit (SA West) we were given a super gift and a challenge to the other Rotary Clubs we will visit.  We Received Mr. Piggy.  Mr. Piggy is a porcelain piggy bank with one foot painted purple (to signify the Purple Pinky when a child is immunized against Polio), he also being a modern piggy, also has a tattoo of the stricken out Polio sign.  SA West has challenged all clubs we visit to "Stuff the Pig for Polio".  All proceeds will go the each club's contribution to the Rotary Foundation for the eradication of Polio.  Let us "Stuff the Pig".  There will be a prize to be determined by the DG and a 7000 member panel of experts to determine the winner.

Join us once again next time, as we return to those thrilling days of yesteryear as a native Texan and a Massachusetts export travel the highways and byways of Texas in search of the winner in the District 5840 "Stuff the Pig" journey.

Reporting from a laptop on the road, your District 5840, chauffer, Valet, Roadie, Spoose, and special assistant to the DG.