Rotary District 3150 Conference at Warangal - My impressions

As a Rotarian and Vice-Presidnet of Rotary Club of Secunderabad West and District Chairman for Career Guidance 2008-09 of Rotary District 3150 [comprising 70+ Clubs] in Andhra Pradesh State, India, I attended the two day Rotary District Conference [named as SANDADI ] on 2nd and 3rd January, 2009 at Warangal hosted by Rotary Clubs of Hanamkonda. Here are my impressions:

1. All the topics and the speakers in the all the sessions were very interesting and worth listening to know more about Rotary and Seva related topics. It was pleasant to listen to the Chief guest Shri M Gopalakrishna IAS [Rtd] who is known for his vocabulary in English & Telugu that make the audience spell-bound. What surprised me was that when I met him during lunch time, he remembered my name and profession [Company Secretary] even though I met him several years back during my presentation at a training programme for the Corporate Top Executives organized by him as Chief of Institute of Public Enterprises.
2. The 1st plenary session on Service projects moderated by dynamic Rtn Ravi Vadlamni has been innovative to make Rotarians known the impact of the service projects.
3. Second plenary session on " New Generations" was aptly moderated by Rtn.Dr.Vijendra Rao, Past District Governor. The speech on Yuvatha-Navatha-Bhavitha by Shri Gollapudi Maruthi Rao -Film actor & writer - compared the generations and advised the Rotarians to take up projects to help youth to keep up values and shine as better citizens.
   
4. The highlight for the first day end event was the Fellowship Night. A well planned cultural programme followed by house of friendship started early and concluded by 10-౦౦ప్మ్
5. The 3rd plenary session on International Service was taken up on second day morning. This session was handled by Rtn Sam [Past District Governor] who has given overview of Rotary Foundation and introduced the inbound Group Exchange Programme teams. The GSE teams made power point presentations that helped to get to know about 7 team members and two team leaders from Rotary Districts 6150 Arkansar USA and Rotary District 5960 Minnesota,USA. The Hindu News paper has published a worth noting photograph in their edition on 4th January, 2009 with a caption: "Showcasing tradition" with a description:" AWED: Two foreign delegates at a seminar organized by Rotary Club admiring the cut-out depicting rural way of life in Warangal on Saturday."
6. The best part I liked was the 4th plenary session on "Vocational Service" wherein ten personalities from Film, Medicine, TV, Legal, Sports, Community Service, Education and Mimicry fields have been chosen and felicitated with Vocational Service & Excellence Awards followed by their acceptance speeches and briefly showcasing their talent. Distribution to the audience a leaflet containing the Awardee's profiles would have saved time during this session.
7. Though I could not be available for the 5th plenary session on Club Service by Janab Mustaq Ahmed from Kakinada, I understand from my Rotarian collegues the speech was outstanding on "Manushulantha Okkatey" .
8. The 6th session again handled with a poetic introduction by Rtn Ravi Vadlamani [Past District Governor] about the Prajakavi Dr.Andhesri a poet who has written songs for few movies. Hailing from a rural place with only primary education had a distinction of being honoured by Kakatiya University in Warangal with a Doctorate. He rendered his lyrics and songs on mankind.
9. The concluding session on "My Impressions" by Rtn Joitabhai Patel the Past District Governor from Gujarat & the Rotary International Representative for this conference. This was followed by short speeches by Rtn Suresh -District Governor Elect 2009-10 on Year Ahead while Rtn Rajyalakshmi V [ District Governor Nominee 2010-11] about "The Year After".
   
10. I thank Rtn.Sameer Kumar -the Communication Committee Chair who accepted and published my article on "9 Essentials For Creativity" in the Conference Souvenir [Pages 18 & 19] and our Club poster in page 25 which was published as a paid advertisement given by club and partially supported by me and Rtn Dr. Jayashree Desai. This poster can be downloaded from our Club website at: http://www.clubrunner.ca/Data/3150/3553/HTML/50434/Poster-RotaryClubOfSecunderabadWest.pdf
11. All our 8 members of the Club traveled to & fro by Cars visited the famous Thousand Pillar Temple in Warangal. We enjoyed and enriched with this District Conference. Our Club Secretary Rtn. Devendra Desai bagged the lucky winner prize. Catering and stay arrangements were excellent. A special provision for Speakers and the VIPs lunch and dinner could have arranged instead of making them stand in long ques. A feed back sheet from participants in such conferences help the organizers to excell in future events. We were delighted to receive an SMS on our mobiles the very next day from Rtn Sarat Babu -the District Governor who thanked our participation to make the Conference successful. In all the organizers the Rotary Club of Hanamkonda who hosted for the first time an event like this attended by 800+ delegates deserve appreciation for their best efforts to make this Conference quite memorable.