In many ways there has been given public knowledge to the undertaken exchange with district Osaka Japan (2660) and district 1560 the Netherlands. This took place in the Summer and Autumn of the year 2000 through publications in local papers and of course on the initiative of the GSE committee trough involved Rotary clubs. In total 24 candidates applied of which after the pre selection 14 candidates remained. These final 14 candidates could take part in the last selection day. This took place on November the eleventh 2000. For the selection committee not an easy task to select on the basis of drawn up criteria a team of five young people. Finally it occurred that the quality of the potential candidates was very high and we could form a second team easily. The journey to Japan was planned from March 23rd until April 30th 2001.
Elected were:
Renate Bergman
Marco Elout
Marjo Evers
Ronald van Lienden
Martina Molendijk
Standby candidate was:
Liane van Schoonhoven
The team leader was:
Henk Veenbergen
After knowing the candidates who were selected to undertake the journey to Japan the team leader organised the first of ten meetings. Of course it was important to create a certain cohesion within the group. From the beginning Liane van Schoonhoven was also fully involved. She functioned fully until short before departure. The members of the team and the team leader respected this fully .
Together we have made a list of demands, First of all we handed in the necessary forms in accordance with the GSE team handbook. Further more we had to pay attention to the preparation of certificates to show our gratitude at the end of visits to companies, institutions and the various rotary clubs and personal namecards (phenomenon in Japan). We did put a lot of effort in finding suitable clothes and of course the personal presentation of all involved during the visits to the various Rotary clubs got much attention. The practical problem was that we had only 15 minutes available for the whole team. This was caused by the translating time the Japanese interpreter needed. Five important items as a sort of reflection of our society were worked out in detail as following:
1. Geography
2. Economy and export
3. History and art
4. Constitutional monarchy and government
5. Sparetime.
The whole was supported by a PowerPoint presentation. The text on the personal cards were also printed in Japanese characters.
Several times we paid attention to the orientation of the Japanese habits and customs. Therefor we also organised an informative evening with a Japanese guest who lived in Holland for many years. Finally we had to think about finding a suitable present for the various host families. The tickets for the flight were arranged by Rits. This was done in Evanston USA in a very correct and quick way. Communication went mainly through e-mail. The contact with Japan between the team leader and the Japanese co-ordinators went exclusively by e-mail.
Mister Shigeo Matsuoka as the GSE co-ordinator of this district 2660 and Mister Hiroshi Nomura as the president of the GSE committee did everything to avoid that anything could go wrong. The French say "chapeau". Many times we communicated and with great pleasure. I still think about this period. They did their up most best to give us the impression that we were mostly welcome. The team got a chance in advance to mention their preferences concerning the visits to companies and institutions during their vocational days. We happily took use of this opportunity. The secretary of the team changed every meeting as well as the meeting place. It gave us the opportunity to get to know each other even better under different circumstances.The preparations went according to plan. Finally we did a final try out of our presentation at the team leaders rotary club in the presence of the chairman of the GSE committee Hans Haffmans .
