Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Tips & Hints

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars

Tips for Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars:

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1. I would highly recommend you investing in a Logitech wireless presenter. I bought one before I went and it gave me so much freedom to move around during my presentations. I felt much more natural plus I never went over my time because there was a vibrating time alert on it along with a laser pointer. When your year is over, you can always sell it off on eBay. I paid about $75 for mine but I bet you can find it a bit cheaper now if you do a price comparison search.
2. Remember to bring plenty of your home clubs banners with you so that you can exchange them.
3. Set out lots of your business cards by your laptop so that Rotarians feel free to pick them up. It's good if they have your picture on them too so that they have a face to place with your name later on. If they have your contact info then that means you'll get more invitations to go on special events and volunteer outings because they don't have to hunt you down. Let's admit it, if the information is at hand, we'll normally be more inclined to go through with a good idea instead of letting it die because it would take too long to put the details together. Going out with different clubs will help you get a much better idea of what your district is like instead of just hanging out with your host club the whole time.
4. Don't go over your time in presentations. It doesn't do you or anyone else good. Yes, they invited you to come but they have a schedule to keep and what you have to say is sometimes dessert, not the main course.
5. Get eating your meal as quickly as possible so that you don't feel like you're choking your food down as it gets closer to you speaking.
6. Look for a volunteer program as soon as you get settled in. It's much more rewarding if you have a longer time working as a volunteer. I met with a group of asylum seekers and refugees on Wednesday mornings for two hours to help teach them English with other teachers. I taught students from the Ivory Coast, China, Sudan, Iraq and Iran during my time in Belfast. It was one of the most rewarding things I was able to do.
7. Get your hands on a current District Directory so that you have the contact information for all the clubs in your district. Ask your host counselor during your first meeting with them. If they aren't able to schedule many presentations for you, the directory gives you the power to get connected quickly so that you're not scrambling to fulfill your commitment. Once they're lined up, everything runs smoothly. ;-)
8. Have a copy of your speech written down with you at each club you speak at just in case your powerpoint doesn't work.
9. Write down unique observations about your district in a specific page in a notebook during your time there. It makes it easier then to go back and work on a return presentation for your home district. My notes about Belfast, N.I. looked something like this: Integrated schools mean Catholic & Protestant not black & white, St. Patrick's Day isn't big here like it is in Dublin, be careful using the terms British and Irish, a few people here think Americans only see this island as being stuck in a potato famine, Recommend watching "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", get picture of the sectarian fish and chips shop called "For Cod (God) and Ulster", Van Morrison and C.S. Lewis were born here, different words: jam=jelly, crisps=chips, boot=trunk, pram=stroller. etc etc These little notes over the months made my life much easier as I prepared a solid and informative presentation for the folks back home.
10. My checklist for presentations looked like this: Lap top, travel adapter to plug it in, logitech presenter clicker, banner, business cards and a little extension cord with multiple outlets on it just in case the place I went to only had one plug in and I needed two, one for my lap top, the other for the projector.
11. Put your Rotary pics up on the web for Rotarians to see so they know why they're investing in you. I found Google's picasa to be quite easy to use. Here's a link to an example photo page from there: photos Also, it's great if you have a blog. You don't need your own website, just use blogger or livejournal. People appreciate being able to catch up with you on their own schedule.
12. In your day planner, write down the name and address of the places you are doing presentations at along with the mobile phone number of your main Rotary contact for each club. You start getting so many dates that you need to have all the info listed on the calendar so you don't start confusing things. It also helps to write down whether they can provide a projector and how long they want you to speak. If you are traveling by bus or train, it's handy to list these three things to keep yourself in check:
a. When you leave your house for the station
b. When you depart for your destination
c. When you arrive at your destination
(also possibly d. when you head back home, just in case the club cannot provide you with a car ride home.)
13. If you can, get a travel adapter before you go so that you can use your electronics as soon as you arrive. Note: there is a difference between adapters and transformers. The electrical current in the U.S. is lower than in Europe (I don't know about other countries.) Most lap tops can handle between 100-240 volts, so it's ok to just use an adapter (so long as you see the 100-240 volts label!!!) If you don't see it, I wouldn't put my electronic devices anywhere near the adapter. I talked to the electrician at my dorm in Belfast and he explained this all to me and he let me borrow a bulky (shoe box size) transformer to power my U.S. computer speakers and miscellaneous items. The transformer actually lowered the current so that it was like a plug in the states.
14. skype.com is the way to go. Download this program to your computer and save tons of money on phone calls home. So long as you have a reliable internet connection where you are going, this is for you. I bought a local number from my state (Illinois) in the U.S.A through skype. My family could call me on that and leave me messages for the cost of a local call. I then was able to get my voicemail off of the computer and call them back for 2 cents a minute plus a 3 cent initial connection fee (it's free to talk if your family or friends have it on their computer.) You put $10-25 of credit on your account and then you talk and talk and talk and your family doesn't feel as though they've lost you. You're new experiences are important in changing you but it's also important to not lose contact with the people who love you the most. Skype's a bit wonky at times but it has been worth every penny I've put into it. All you need is a bit of credit, decent internet connection, head phones and a mic and you're good to go. I have an integrated mic and webcam designed to clip onto my lap top so I can just sit with my head phones on and talk out loud. If you have a fast connection, a web cam is a blast. Slow connection = don't use web cam.
15. Here's a pdf of my first report if you want an example of what someone else did.
16. Don't be afraid to look like the idiot who double checks if they are getting on the right bus at the right time. Better a little egg on our faces rather than getting to presentations late and making the ambassadorial program look rotten.
17. Money is always tight when you're a scholar so a great way to still give meaningful Christmas presents but not spend an arm and a leg is to take a picture of yourself holding a sign saying "Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah (insert mom/family/friends name here) from Belfast/your location. Then you can go to a site like Walmart Digital Photo Center and upload some of your favorite photos you've taken since you arrived. The prints don't cost that much at all and since they are printed in the States, you don't have to pay international shipping. Your Christmas gift gets sent straight to their door with a note while you sit halfway across the world. (Make sure your credit card company knows that you authorize additional addresses to have stuff mailed to. It's just a quick call to their 800 number and compiling a list of family addresses that are ok.) If you want to get really snazzy and spend only a bit more, you can make them a cute little flipbook with a story line written into it for them. They'll eat it up.

There's lots more, but this is a start. If you have questions, email me: trueswingdove@hotmail.com. You'll figure out things on your own. Once you do, send them to me and I'll add them to this list and we'll mutually make the transition easier for our comrades.

If you are struggling to get set up and started with speaking to clubs, here are some general letters you could use to begin the process of communicating with clubs within your district. Not everything will apply to you but feel free to utilize whatever is useful to you.

Letter/Email 1 (Introduction):

Korah Winn ~ www.dovewithin.com
trueswingdove@hotmail.com
14-40 Fitzwilliam St.
BT9 6AW
U.K.(078)5555-4800
09Nov2006