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Date:28 June
Chairman Handover!
Date: 14 June
The last official Rotary meeting for this Rotary year.
Today was the last official Rotary meeting for this Rotary year. After a lovely dinner we had a presentation from the members of our Club who are part of the Kenya Well-project, which comes out of the Beyond Innocence Foundation (BIF). Our Club has donated 8000 Euro’s so far. Building the water well will also have a large influence on the whole community and have a multiple impact. We talked about the goals, tasks and requirements for the Global Grand. Financial planning is also crucial. We need funds, and were shown the financial plan and ideas for fundraising. We ended the meeting with the local geological situation, which still needs investigation.
Date: 31 May
Team building
Today we had a workshop / teambuilding meeting organized by two of our members. It was all about creative writing, leading up to “Loesje” sayings. Loesje is a non-profit Dutch organization, and was created in 1983 by a small group of creative people. They wanted to express their opinions and ideas in a critical, little provoking way without ever being negative. Their posters / sayings are fun and have different layers. It now is very international and because they do follow the recent developments and things that happen in society it is still very up-to-date.
Date: 17 May
Thirsa attended Rotary Peace Fellowship
Today our speaker was Thirsa, who went to Thailand as Rotary Peace Fellowship, where she did a fieldtrip. Thirsa was sponsored by our Club and was the 2nd Dutch person to apply for such kind of fellowship event. She told us more about her time in Thailand. She went there for 3 months, 25 people worldwide are selected for the program. In her group 18 people attended from all over the globe.
Date: 3 May
Fellow Rotarian Bert talked about Rotary and Sustainability
Today our external speaker and fellow Rotarian Bert talked about Rotary and Sustainability. It became an informative and interactive speech. There are many ways to define “Sustainability”, so Bert talked about the boundaries to the subject. And how can we also be sustainable but also make a profit? He also showed us a speech that a 12 year old Canadian girl, Severn Suziki, did at the UN in 1992. She talked about that our greediness will influence future generations. It is confronting how little has changed! Bert mentioned that large companies try to make a change and be sustainable. Also we as Rotary can have an influence. Bert showed us the connection to the Rotary 4 way Test. We need solutions and have to spread the message!
Date: 19 April
Sharing a cross cultural experience by Steen
We had a French inspired meal today and listened to the speech of our incoming president. He did a speech in the Clubs’ tradition “sharing a cross cultural experience”. Steen has worked in 9 different companies and allover the world. Since 2010 Steen has his own company in Utrecht, loves to play bridge and learn more about art.
Date: 5 April
Illiteracy in the Netherlands
Our external speaker of today, Jacco, is psychologist and talked about Illiteracy in the Netherlands and the research program, ‘Screening individual literacy on a mass scale by using eye tracking’. He gave us an overview about the research on illiteracy and low literacy with the eye tracking method. Researchers developed a method to measure literacy, low literacy and illiteracy in an objective way and on a mass scale. We were shown a short video film what the difference is between a normally developed reader and a low-literacy reader when confronted with an unknown text. You can really objectify reading capabilities with this test. The test is completed by questions about the content of the text in order to measure the level of comprehension of the reader. The talk was followed by an interesting discussion.
Date: 22 March
Amal – an event manager.
Our guest speaker today, Amal, is an event organizer and marketer based in Amsterdam. She is a young lady who loves festivals. She talked about how she got in charge of organizing events after her Bachelor degree in Communication. After working for an organization she started her own agency. Amal mentioned her recent projects and gave us 7 handy tips.
Date: 8 March
All about massage.
Today was women’s day. Therefor we had a relaxing, informal meeting all about massage. Our guest speaker today owns a massage center and told us more about massages in general. There are many different types of massage and techniques. We also learned that massage can help with many different problems and illnesses. We ended the meeting with the possibility to experience the holistic massage ourselves.
Date: 23 February
A historical and cultural journey through Rome
A meeting in Italian atmosphere! Our speaker was introduced: Mauro Poma, originally from Italy. Mauro works as a consultant but also goes back to his birth-city Rome every year for a few months to work as a tour guide. He took us on a historical and cultural journey through Rome and specifically the Colosseum. As a tour guide he always answers questions of tourists. The most frequently asked questions about this famous monument are now answered in his compact book. We learned more about the building itself, its history, facts, the activities and games that were held there in past times etc.
Date: 9 February 2016
Workshop
Today we had a fun workshop-game during dinner. This was organized by one of our members. During a lovely dinner we did the game: each member got a card with a hidden agenda: a subject you have to talk about during dinner. The members you talked to would guess your hidden agenda. It was a fun and informal meeting.
Date: 26 January 2016
Sharing a cross cultural experience by Nicole.
Today our fellow member Nicole did her speech in the Clubs’ tradition: share a cross cultural experience.
Date: 12 January 2016
How to recognize the stress symptoms.
Our speaker of today, fellow member Elisabeth, talked about stress and vitality. As a psychologist she knows a lot about this. Elisabeth talked about how she became a psychologist. She talked about how to recognize the stress symptoms and about balance between energizers and stressors.
RCUI Christmas Party
After the huge success in the last Rotary year, the club decided to have Coffeemania host the Christmas Dinner again this year. For the occasion, Coffeemania will serve a meal out of the ordinary, and we will enjoy a cheerful Christmas Dinner in a nice and relaxed atmosphere. Partners are invited.
Date: Tuesday, December 1st
Member Matt Reddy from the USA giving a talk in the series “Sharing a Cross-Cultural Experience”
He will talk about:
– Background information about me
– My life philosophy & motivation for moving to Europe
– What I’ve learned after a short time living in Europe and traveling in the past year
– Where I see the future taking Morgan and me.
Date: Tuesday, November 17th
Club member Sonia Drannikova on “How to influence people in a positive way”
Influencing others starts with influencing yourself. And further: Six Laws of Influence and Crucial Conversations. The method that Sonia will present gives new perspectives in professional communication. The tools can be very useful for professional and private life.
Date: Tuesday, November 3rd
Club affairs meeting
Date: Tuesday, October 20th
Club member Mangala Srinivas is giving a talk in the series “Sharing a Cross-Cultural Experience”
Mangala’s parents are Indian. She is born in India and has lived in Indonesia, Singapore, the US and now the Netherlands. She told us about her experience in the different countries, from International Schools, and about her quite Dutch life with bakfiets and kibbeling now.
Date: Tuesday, October 6th
Visit of the governor, Wouter Pijzel
It is a tradition within Rotary that every district governor has to visit all the clubs in the district in his Rotary Year. Wouter Pijzel visited our club together with Erik Keuning and Bauke Boersma. He told us a bit about his own personal history with the organisation – and it really was a very inspiring personal story, reaching back to his grandfather who knew one of the four founding members of Rotary – and his vision with the year’s topic. So we got a little bit closer to an interpretation to “Be a Gift to the World”.
Wouter’s profile on the district website
Date: Tuesday, September 22nd
Wout van der Toorn on ‘Logbook of the Low Countries’
With ‘The Logbook of the Low Countries’ as a background the speaker gave insight in the role that the Netherlands played in World History, with their dominant place as a democratic Republic in the 17th Century. In his view the Netherlands still play an important role in the further development of Europe. Out of the historic perspective he also took a look at the situation in the 21st Century. What will be the consequences when South-East Asia is taking over place 1 of dominance in the world ?
Wout van der Toorn is an economist who has worked as a manager and consultant all over the world. Next to it he has a keen interest in history and specialized in the study of the development of The Netherlands in the context of World History.
Date: Tuesday, September 8th
Club Year kick-off and internal meeting
At this first meeting of the new Rotary Year, our club president Tony Hearn presented some numbers of the previous year and introduced us to a new communication tool. As a very modern club, we are now using Slack for internal communication.