The Club Charter was granted by Rotary International on 4 December 2008, and it was presented at a Charter Presentation Night on 5 January 2009 by DG Rtn. Pranesh Jahagirdar to Charter President Dinesh Heda and his team of 20 Rotarians. Members of the sponsoring club Vasco da gama, visiting Rotarians, family and guests graced the occassion.
As the date of our Charter Presentation began to draw nearer, we realised we had lots of work to do! But to get everyone going, there had to be some incentive. Our President used the old tactic of deliberating matters after a lunch meet. A well-satiated stomach can surely get the mind working!
After gorging on biryanis of every kind, we got to arguing and zeroing on details such as the club logo, our initial projects and the finer details of the Charter Presentation evening. After all the duties were assigned and responsibilities taken up, we glanced at our watches and realised that if we didn’t get going, we would probably be having dinner at La-Paz too!
Rotary Club of Vasco da gama Goa celebrated their Charter Night at Coconut Creek. After a series of talks, they showcased black and white photographs from their first few meetings.
Charter Members Umesh Sarmalkar and Nana Bandekar were among others present. Also present were Rtn. Tejendra Lawande, Rtn. Santosh Lotlikar and Rtn. Prakash Saraswat from the Vasco club.
A Sunday evening well spent at Dinesh’s residence – ideating about projects. Armed with 4 laptops, a Wi-Fi connection and 6 overcharged brains, the group went about discussing potential projects ranging from solar / LED lights, fuel from plastics, donation of encyclopedias to schools, tree plantation, etc. Kudos to Bharati for keeping everyone well fed. Jen, Anupam, Amit T, Lalit, Snehal and Dinesh attended.
An online form was setup to allow members to suggest potential projects.
We agreed on a first project - a partnership with some school (as a long-term venture).
The Rotary Club of Panjim Riviera held a “peace walk” as a mark of solidarity post the 26 November attacks in Mumbai.
Present at the peace march amongst members of other clubs was Rtn. Dinesh Heda to represent our club. The peach march took off at 6 pm from Bal Bhavan, Panjim and lasted for about 30 minutes till everyone assembled at the Rotary Park at Miramar Beach. Candles were lit up by all members of the peach march and a few Rotarians spoke about initiatives general members of public should take on to counter such acts of terrorism.
A lunch meet and a couple of formal meetings later, we were all set to get more familiar with the families of the members. Our regular meeting on 4th December ‘08 was followed by a family dinner at the Coconut Creek Resort. Little did we know then that as we celebrated that night, the RI was signing our Club Charter.. what a wonderful coincidence! We celebrated our Charter Nite without being aware of it!
Our special invitee for the evening was our sponsor club President, Rtn. Tejendra Lawande. Also present from the Vasco club was Rtn. Prakash Saraswat with his family. Due to prior committments, the GSR, Rtn. Santosh Lotlikar could not be present and we surely missed him and his youthful banter!
We had yet another reason to celebrate – the wedding anniversary of our Sargeant-at-Arms, Rtn. Amit Tapadia and Nisha. Thanks to Rtns. Abhay & Sweeja we had the most delicious black forest and dark chocolate cakes! yummmm…. guess we’re all looking forward to the next birthday!
We had an interactive workshop for the club and used a silent brainstorming technique using post-it notes, where each member wrote one idea per post-it on these topics: Club, Community, International and Vocational. The post-its were then pasted on separate charts for each topic, and each chart was assigned to a separate team. Each team then grouped the ideas, ranked them on the basis of importance and number of votes, and then presented the top three ideas per topic. Lalit moderated the session.
While the stated purpose was to help design the logo, but the process can be used to select the projects to work on. It was a great democratic process, as the initial part of the process ensures each voice gets heard, and the later part of the process ensures transparency to help the best ideas with the most votes win.
These were the results:
Club:
1. fellowship
2. fun !!!
3. fitness
Community:
1. upliftment of poor
2. save the (girl?) child
3. environment
International:
1. exchange of culture
2. matching grants
Vocational:
1. professional enlightenment
2. mentorship
3. self employment
What could be a better ice-breaker than a sumptuous meal at Hotel La-Paz Gardens? The club members had an informal lunch meet to get acquainted with each other. The ground rule for the meeting was that we would not discuss Rotary matters. This lunch was strictly to familiarise us with each other on a personal level. But since it was Rotary that brought us all together, we couldn’t completely adhere to the rules! However, we did achieve what we wanted.. all of us went home with a satisfied palate and one (if not more) new friend.
Three members of our club, Rtns., Dinesh, Amit and Lalit drove down to Kolhapur to attend the RI District 3170 TRF Seminar on 9 Nov.2008. Hosted by RC Kolhapur at Bhasha Bhavan, Shivaji University Kolhapur, the TRF seminar was the first district event we attended. RIDE and TRF Trustee K. R. Ravindran was the Chief Guest and Keynote speaker.
Dinesh’s father Sri S. L. Heda was felicitated as a Major Donor.
Kolhapur is famous for its Mahalaxmi Temple, Kolhapuri Chappals, and delicious cuisine.
