2011 – 2012 GSE Update

Our 2011 - 2012 Group Study Exchange is with Rotary District 9350 in Southern Africa. The dates of our outbound team’s travel are April 10, 2012 to May 7, 2012. Under the leadership of Julie Frendle, four young professionals from Los Alamos, Farmington, Silver City and Taos are well along in their preparations and looking forward to a fabulous experience.

The inbound team from District 9350 will arrive in El Paso on April 24, 2012 and depart on May 21, 2012, the day after our District Conference ends. This is a diverse team that many of us will enjoy meeting. They will visit Las Cruces, Silver City, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Taos, Albuquerque and finally our District Conference.

District 9350 GSE Team

Applications are now open for 2012 – 2013 Exchange with District 3030 in India

District Governor Elect Mark Glenn and District 3030 (India) Governor Elect Sanjay Meshram have agreed to conduct the 2012-2013 exchange between our respective districts. Dates of the exchange:

· District 5520 outbound team to India – November 23-December 23, 2012.

· District 3030 inbound team to visit – April 8 – May 6, 2013.

District 3030 lies in the state of  Maharashtra in India and extends from Nasik at the western extremity to Bhandara in east, nearly 700 KM across. Major towns include Nasik, Jalgaon, Akola, Amravati, Yavatmal, Chandrapur and Nagpur. Nasik is situated at a distance of 180 KM to the northeast of the metropolitan city of Mumbai (Bombay). The district has a wide variety of tourist attractions including hill stations, forts , wild life sanctuaries, cave temples, carvings and historical monuments including world heritage sites like Ajanta and Ellora caves.

The district is well developed industrially as well as agriculturally and has many sugar factories, cotton mills, orange orchards and wine yards. Currently District 3030 has 81 clubs and nearly 3200 Rotarians. Its 2010-2011 exchange was with District 5030 (Seattle, Washington) and they received rave reviews as hosts. See the Seattle team’s excellent photos and blog at http://seattlegse2010.blogspot.com/.

To Apply for the 2012-2013 Outbound Team

We invite young professionals who are not Rotarians and who are U.S. citizens between ages 25 and 40 at the time when the application is submitted to participate in our outbound team. For team leader and team member applications, go to: http://www.rotary.org/en/ServiceAndFellowship/Fellowship/GroupStudyExchange/Pages/ridefault.aspx

Mail the signed application forms to Yale Jones, P.O.Box 1084, Ranchos de Taos, NM 87557 or by email to yijonessf@gmail.com. Team leader applications must be postmarked or emailed by April 28, 2012. Team Member applications must be postmarked or emailed by May 20, 2012.

The District 5520 GSE Committee will interview team leader candidates in Albuquerque on Sunday morning, May 20, 2012. Team member candidates will be interviewed in Las Cruces, on Friday (early evening), June 8 and Saturday morning, June 9, 2012. We will select four outbound team members and an alternate.

Hosting the Inbound Team from District 3030 in 2013

If your club is interested in hosting the inbound team from District 3030, please contact Yale (yijonessf@gmail.com). The District 5520 GSE Committee will begin working out an itinerary for our guests by late summer.