Joint Meeting with San Antonio Rotary Club
The Club was delighted to join, by zoom, in a joint meeting with the Rotary Club of San Antonio, Texas Monday 25 April extending fellowship and good will between the 2 Clubs.
San Antonio President Brent Fessler gave a brief rundown of the Club particularly noting:
- San Antonio was very close to the Mexican border
- San Antonio (known as Alamo City) was 300 years old and has 14 Rotary Clubs with San Antonio being the biggest
- the Club was formed in 1912 (RI's 56th Club); it has a membership of 350 with an average age of 55 - 37% are under 40 and 30% female - its age profile is dropping as they have an active Under 40 category with its own Board of Directors
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their programmes mainly focus on children at home and internationally- their international virtual socials have been very varied, interesting and successful
- they are looking forward to partnering with the Club with an International Peace Award at the Corrymeela Peace Conference in July
Club President Ken Nixon gave a short summary of the Club's history, highlighting programmes such as TABU and Harmony Community Trust as well as the many Global Scholars from the USA hosted by the Club as well as a brief note on the Ulster/Scots role in the USA which President Brent noted they would love to hear more of!
During the meeting members were able to converse in a couple of small groups and as this was part of several international ‘reach outs’ were able to hear about their fascinating social zoom with the Rotary Club in Warsaw when they heard about the massive work being done by that Club with the Ukrainian refugees.
It was a very enjoyable and interesting meeting where time flew and on closing with the toast “To the Rotarians of Belfast and San Antonio and to the Building of Good Will and Better Friendships", it was agreed to hold another.