Finally the morning of 12th November came. It was eight of us who were taken in early hours by taxi towards Stockton on the forest to the Bed and Breakfast called “The Church View”. Why? Well, one of the purposes of Rotaract clubs is to “develop professional and leadership skills” and this is what “Rotaract camp” is about. With a huge help from clubs: “Rotary Club of York”, “Rotary club of York Vikings”, “Rotary club of York Ainsty” and with a support from Rotary International District 1040 this project finally became true.

The first workshop was given by Ian Blamires who used to work in a training company and provided training services to various businesses. He gave us a 2 hour “Presentation skills” workshop. After introducing us to the main concepts of a good presentation and some important cues of a body language he decided to put us under pressure and in 10 minutes told us to prepare for a speech about anything we like. This speech had to last only 2 minutes; however, it appeared it was not so easy to talk in front of other waiting for criticism and without real preparation…

The following workshop was provided by Graham Wilford and Mike Fieldsend about project “Rotary Dragon Boats Challenge”. Worth to note, this project is going to celebrate already its 10 years anniversary, so obviously we were eager to find out so what the secret was of this success? Graham and Mike gave us an insight view of the project’s first steps and we were even asked to model the success key to run such a project.

Afterwards, after a short break we had a creativity workshop. What is personality in the context of this world and how could you visualize it? We had to do it by drawing our own coat of arms and then presenting it to others. Later, we were asked about our life goals and at the end of this workshop we had our step by step plan towards these main life goals on a white paper.

The final speaker of a day was Charlotte Stern from Macmillan's fundraising. She provided us with a lot of information about different ways of raising funds besides legal issues towards organizing such events. It was hard to believe that a simple fundraising could require so much organization and co-operation with the authority.

In the end of the long day, we could taste Italian dinner by our “chef” Giovanni (Rotaract events officer) and our evening was spent in a cosy atmosphere with mulled wine in hands and a long chat.

The next day started with a song from our president’s phone alarm clock. Despite all complains, at 9am we started our last workshop which was all about teamwork. In 10 minutes we already came up with 2 different strategies to fulfil the given task. The timer showed the truth – it was quicker to work in a team than on our own…

Finally our camp was finished by playing a “twister”, during which one of us twisted the arm… maybe that is why this game called “twister”?

And a message from our president Aiste:

“I would like to say thanks for all participants and speakers! It was a great experience for me and nice and interesting to be with you there!”

The topics of the presentations were:

• Fundraising - Charlotte Stern - Fundraising Manager about Macmillan's fundraising

• Project writing - Graham Wilford and Mike Fieldsend about Dragon Boats Challenge. Graham was the original chairman of the project and Mike is currently heading the team

• Public speaking - Ian Blamires

• Exchange programs - Cynthia Edwards

• Creativity

• Team-building

Participants were able to build self confidence in running a Rotaract club and writing projects, besides developing team working and creativity skills. A nice and interesting weekend awaited everyone!

The price per person for both days was £25. Everything was included (apart from a sleeping bag and a blanket).

Date: 12-13th November

Place: Stockton On Forest, about 5 miles outside of York

Two members, Martins Zeps (from Riga, Latvia) and Indre Kasperaityte (from Lithuania) of Rotaract were guests of York Ainsty Rotary Club on Monday 8th November, 2010 for a presentation given by Issy Sanderson, who is working with a charity in Riga, Latvia to raise money for a Care Centre for the elderly.

A Latvian Festival was organised on Saturday 4th June 2011 that was held here in Yorkshire.

The York Ainsty club also hope to develop links with the Rotary Club of Riga International through this Charity.

Our first meeting of the mentoring project happened in the Poppleton High School on the 9th of March. Thanks to the support of Trevor Woodward from the York Vikings Club we had the first workshop. The aim was to teach and form future mentors that were going to help children of different age groups. We spent a nice evening participating in several group exercises to improve our team work skills and to understand the role and duty of a mentor. We had the chance to realise what mentoring is, we learnt that the main purpose is listening and understanding how you can help the person you’re mentoring in a best way.

Our president Dario Palumbo says: "I really believe that what we have learnt is going to be really useful for all the rest of our project and in our life. Many thanks Trevor!"