January 31, 2008Rotary's free trips can be a tough sellErnest Bentley is a Christiansburg businessman with a great story to share. But often he can't get anyone to listen. He's got a tantalizing offer that should be hard to refuse, but many do. What Bentley is selling doesn't cost anything, but it pays off in huge returns of personal enrichment, enlightenment and a sense of adventure. Bentley is a Rotary Club member. As chairman of Western Virginia's Rotary Group Study Exchange, he's always looking for people to send on trips abroad. These are monthlong excursions to such places as Brazil, the Philippines, Mexico, Japan, the Bahamas, New Zealand ... and the list goes on. Rotary sponsors the trips -- read, they're free. Now is anybody listening? The opportunity is phenomenal. It's essentially a field trip for adults. But Bentley gets few takers. So far, he has no applicants for a trip this fall to South Africa and one early next year to India. "What we run into each year, we beat the bushes," said the printer who served in the Peace Corps 40 years ago. He and other Rotarians approach people who express an interest, but beg off until "next year." "The next year, they've disappeared." Bentley said that probably has to do with the age requirement -- 25 to 40. That's when many people are immersed in their careers, have family obligations -- spouses and children -- and can't break away for four or five weeks. Applicants must be professionally employed. That means everyone from doctors to lawyers to farmers and small-business owners settled in their careers. When participants arrive in the host country, they shadow someone with a similar career to learn how the job is performed in another country and culture. Also, during the exchange, participants visit businesses, government offices and tour historical and cultural sites. They attend two or three Rotary meetings and give presentations about Western Virginia. They stay with different Rotarian host families, living about a week with each. The program allows participants "to learn about the host country's politics, economics and society; and to foster better understanding between people of different parts of the world," Bentley wrote to me in an e-mail. Right after 9/11, the question of the day was "Why do they hate us so much?" Maybe because we don't bother to get know or don't feel comfortable knowing others outside of our country and culture. I'm as guilty as anyone. "We've always felt it's been an important program to have," said Bentley, who has been on the Rotary district's exchange committee for 10 years. This is his first as chairman. "So many people are reluctant to pick up and travel." Mentally, I already had packed my bags for a fall excursion, in September to South Africa. Then the managing editor, also a Rotarian, said I couldn't go because it would be a conflict of interest. Then, too, there's that age thing. Once or twice a year, the Rotary district -- which extends from Winchester to Bristol, but does not include Lynchburg and Charlottesville -- sends small teams out of the country. The five-member teams are headed by a Rotarian. The four others are members of the public. Interested travelers have to apply and undergo an interview. Ideally, Bentley said, he would like to get 16 to 18 applicants for each trip. He would not say how many he gets but hinted it's not close to that. In the decade he's been involved in the program, Bentley said, only two blacks have participated. A third will participate this year. He said he wants to attract more minorities. The exchange program began 40 years ago when a Rotary Club in New Zealand did an exchange with another country. The practice caught on and is now duplicated throughout the international organization of 1.2 million members. The team member picks up individual costs such as a passport and immunizations. Rotary International pays for the plane ticket, which is not inexpensive. Round-trip airline tickets from Roanoke to Johannesburg, South Africa, range from $1,400 to $4,300. Once on the ground, the team members need money only for souvenirs or other incidentals they wish to buy. The host family pays for all of the team members' food, transportation, admission fees and any other program-related costs. Still, the lure of the opportunity didn't capture Michelle Harris' interest until last fall. For about five years, a Rotarian approached Harris. Each time, the Winchester registered nurse said no. Like Bentley often hears, the timing wasn't good for Harris. "I was in my early 30s," said the 38-year-old single mother. "I was working. I was focused on that. I was raising my son, who was much younger at the time." But last fall, Harris decided to apply. She will be on a team going to Brazil in April. To get there, she has had to learn Portuguese and meet regularly with team members to work on presentations. "We have people coming to us of all different cultures," said Harris, a nurse at an assisted living and nursing center. "I don't want to be ignorant as to the cultures. "Truly it is an opportunity. Even if it wasn't free, I'd probably scrimp and scrape to go." |
About this blog In her signature plainspoken style, Michigan native Shanna Flowers peels away the layers and gets to the heart of the issues. No pretense. Just straightforward perspective. Shanna writes about local people whose circumstances reflect decisions made as near as City Hall or as far away as the halls of Congress. Other times, she weighs in on a topic because it is incredibly ridiculous. Or heartening. Or fascinating. Read Shanna's column three days a week, Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, at roanoke.com
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Comments
[January 31, 2008 12:03 PM]
Ed S.I can fully understand the lack of "takers". As you noted, it is very difficult to manage a month away when one is in a career and family. First, it's not "free". The trip is paid for, and that's about it. Who is going to support feeding the family back home? Who's paying the mortgage?
A month? Maybe someone has accumulated a month's worth of vacation, if their company allows that amount of accumulation. Then you would need to get a month off *approved*. If you don't have that kind of vacation, we're back to "who's paying my mortgage"?
A multitude of people head off to vacations every year. If this provided that opportunity, I'm sure it would have made the rounds by now. Is the trip so packed with visiting businesses and such that it turns less from a vacation and more toward a goodwill "job"?
This appears to provide a great opportunity for those wanting to see the business and culture of another area, but I can easily see (given what I've read) why people aren't burning down the door to take these trips.
One of Rotary's stipulations upfront is that the employer agrees to the candidates' acceptance into the program. The purpose of the venture is not a vacation but professional and personal growth. So I would suspect progressive employers would see the benefit in working with an employee to let them have time off, whether it is paid vacation or unpaid time off.--s
[February 1, 2008 10:48 AM]
Krisha Chachra : →http://www.socialtalkers.comHi there,
I was a member of the Rotary GSE team that went to South Korea for five weeks in May 2007. Although I understand that time and financial responsibilities are a priority and constrain many people, if you are able to manage the time off and your employer shares the same vision of this growth opportunity, then I say, without a doubt, make this happen for yourself. Our team members consisted of a doctor, a teacher a neuroscience professor, a retired urban developer (our team leader) and myself - a columnist, author and PR professional. None of us HAD the time to take off, but we MADE time to take advantage of the opportunity. I think the age limit assumes that participants are young professionals who would benefit from learning about another culture in this global economy and who would return with new ideas and 'new eyes' to help their own institutions move forward.
One thing I want to make very clear: this five-week trip was in NO WAY a vacation. Hardly. If you know anything about Rotary, you know Rotarians mean business. Everyday we were up and out early, meeting with opinion leaders of the community, listening and learning from city planners, counselors, schoolteachers, physicians, politicians and Rotarians to understand how and why South Korea has become one of the most progressive countries in the world. We gave our own presentations about our lives here and talked about how we spent our time helping our communities, raising our families, teaching children and saving lives. Many of the South Koreas we encountered would probably never visit the United States and we hope that we were solid representatives in sharing our culture as they were for us. Also, we stayed with Korean families and participated in their daily routines while learning about home life and what’s expected of a Korean child, mother and father. There was no lounging around and being waited on; we were part of the family and expected to contribute. Sure, we did have time to partake in cultural activities - it was Buddha's birthday when we visited, and we witnessed the biggest Macy's-day-style parade in downtown Seoul - and had time off on weekends, but for the most part, it was meetings, historic visits and diplomacy the entire time.
Although I have extensively traveled through many countries in Asia, this experience gave me an insider’s perspective on South Korean life that I couldn’t have witnessed as a tourist. I never knew South Korea was so savvy! Their environmental management is superior to anything I have seen in terms of water use, recycling and hydroelectric power. The Samsung museum illustrated how advanced the Koreans are with cell phone and electronic technology. And most importantly, our trip was a tremendously enriching cultural experience. The Koreans were overly generous in providing a memorable and comfortable stay for our group. We found it hard to adequately thank them.
In terms of professional experience, I personally got a lot out of the newspaper visits. Watching how a newsroom operates on a daily basis was intriguing. The most important aspect of the exchange, I believe, was opening our eyes to the way the Koreans lived. Their food was healthy and fresh; we ate real, preservative-free dishes everyday, we lived in harmony with nature and were very respectful of the land and resource use. The Koreans are a very cultured people who are very proud of their history, art and green-friendly environment.
Since my return, I have given several speeches and presentations about my time in Korea. Other companies and organizations outside the ones who supported me to go have asked me to speak so they can also benefit from this knowledge transfer. Even the way I travel has changed. Two months after my return, I was in South Africa and tried to seek out the same information about that country instead of hitting all the tourist spots in my guidebook. The five-week Rotary GSE trip is the right amount of time to dig deeper into understanding a culture; I would highly recommend taking advantage of the experience if you can.
Happy travels!
Krisha
[February 1, 2008 1:57 PM]
Ed S.Thanks for the clarification, Shanna and Krisha. That cleared up a couple of items that I wasn't aware of when first reading the article.
I do want to say that I certainly was not trying to downplay the potential or opportunity at all. As the original article stated, and Krisha emphasized, it sounds like a wonderful opportunity and it certainly is interesting (and valuable) to learn how other people do business. Unfortunately my experience has been biased through companies that are not as interested in this type of effort. This is mainly due to having too much work for staff on hand, and not being able to spare staff time for events such as this (even research and valuable staff training time suffers because of workload). I guess that was the experience I was trying to relate in my original response.