Portsmouth Rotary at the District Conference

Rotary Club of Portsmouth is part of district 7030, ranging from Guyana to Antigua. Being the youngest club in the area we were proud to have a 7 person representation at this year's district conference held in Martinique.

ImageNext to Rotarians Morrison (incoming president) and Matilda (incoming secretary) also Rotarians Catherine, Annick, Lise and Hans were there together with Rotary-Anne Alexis.
Morrison and Matilda arrived first for their 2 days training as incoming president and secretary with the others joining them for the conference.

On Wednesday night there was an informal get-together labeled as "culture night" and the Rotary Club of Dominica (Roseau) surprised all attendants with a Dominica song that did not sound too bad at all ;-). We found out on this first evening that our French hosts were building in special "theme" for the meeting – we called it "where is the bus?".

On Thursday the training continued and for the evening we were invited to the official opening of the conference by the District Governor Herve Honoré and the special representative of Rotary International's President Ron Burton. Because Martinique is French, we were treated to no less than real French champagne, red wine and local rum and lots of snacks after listening to all the speeches and the flag ceremony of all 14 countries in the district.

Friday was a full day of presentations on various Rotary subjects and projects and after freshening up we were split into 5 groups, each going to a different "Home Hospitality" event organized by the various Rotary clubs on the island. We were very pleased with the evening in which we participated.

ImageThe real die-hards had a chance to listen to some more presentations on the Saturday morning ending with a cultural show of Suriname, the country that will host next year's conference. Saturday afternoon was time to relax and get ready for the closing ceremony which took place at a special venue and ended with a performance of one of the best bands of the Caribbean, Kassav featuring Jean-Paul.

Loaded with the new knowledge and lots of new Rotary friends, we boarded the ferry back to Dominica on Sunday. We are ready for a new Rotary year and looking forward to Suriname in April 2015.

ImageCLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE A SLIDESHOW OF PHOTO'S OF THE DISTRICT CONFERENCE.