Team Meeting One--June 6, 2009 (Allen)

Within a couple of days of the team social, phone calls went out to applicants who made the final six--four of whom would eventually be selected as team members, and two of whom would be selected as alternates. The final six included:

Allen, a Canadian paramedic,
Betty Jo, an American realator,
Erin, an American Spanish and English as a learned language teacher,
Kayla, an American youth program director,
Kristin, a Canadian event coordinator, and
Lori, a Canadian executive assistant.

The team leader would be Linda, an American who owns and runs a security company. The team leader alternate would be Debe, an American who is the executive director of an education foundation.

The first group meeting took place in Mt Vernon, Washington at the office where Betty Jo worked. Unfortunately, Kayla was unable to attend.

Not being familiar with the amount of time it would take to get to Mt. Vernon, or the wait time at the border, I decided to error on the side of caution and leave my home early. I arrived for the meeting 3 hours ahead of schedule. At the local gas station, I asked the owners what there was to see and do in Mt. Vernon, and was informed that I could "eat and have a nap." Unable to nap at nine in the morning, I took a drive around the area, and found a beautiful ball park, a classic car show, and some small lakes just outside of town.

As part of this meeting, each of us was required to make a short presentation on a given topic associated with Rotary International. Topics included:

The Objects of Rotary,
The Four Way Test,
Four Avenues of Service,
Service Above Self, and
A Short History of Rotary

Highlights of the meeting included an ice breaker where we all took a handful of M&M's from a bowl. The number of M&M's each person took, was the number of interesting facts that person had to tell about themselves. It turned out however, that Betty Jo didn't like M&M's and that a second member was diabetic, adding an interesting twist on the event.

The next meeting was to be a team retreat on the Canadian side of the border.