This month's ROTI Chair report will cover cover a multitude of topics. As most are aware, the ROTI Board of Directors were able to reach finality on the often discussed, and sometimes cussed, social networking proposal. ROTIans may now opt to participate in one or more of the social networks to which have become recognized as a ROTI Associate Member. Those groups are administered by a member of ROTI. Two, and perhaps more by the time you read this, are now recognized by ROTI. The ROTI Associate Facebook group is administered by Don Higgins, and the ROTI Associate LinkedIn, administered by Stan Cahn. Another group, MySpace, may possibly organized soon.

Your Chair was asked if ROTIans must join one of the social networking groups that have been recognized as Associate members. The answer to that is NO. These groups have been associated with ROTI for your convenience, and your membership is them is not required. Another question was does being a member of a social networking group which is an Associate of ROTI make one a member of ROTI? The answer again is NO. There are presently members of Facebook that are not Rotarians, spouses of Rotarians, or Rotaractors, and thus not eligible for membership in ROTI. You may wish to review the earlier post regarding ROTI and social networking groups in order to gain a more complete understanding of the role of these groups.

I write this from the home of my 93 year old Mom in Marshall, Missouri on my small laptop computer. It will then be downloaded on a flash drive and transferred to one of the computers at the local city library's great facilities, 12 computers with a DSL connection. A wonderful collection of books, CDs, DVDs, newspapers, and magazines. All in this small town of about 15,000 residents. Glo and I both belong to the library for only $12 a year which entitle us to use all the sources during our visits to Marshall. The head of the library is a member of the Marshall Rotary Club and Amy reminds me of any special activities of the club which meets on the campus of the local college.

There merger of airlines and financial crisis they face have led to many complications in air travel. The flight from Manila to Kansas City Missouri added another stop and change of planes. It now involves flying to Tokyo, then Los Angeles, (a new stop) continuing to Minneapolis, then to Kansas City; for a total time of 26 hours from take off in Manila to the final landing.

After spending a few days with Mom, Glo and I drove to St. Louis to visit Todd and Trish. It is about 185 miles, appx. 260 km. Major east-west and north-south expressways intersect in St. Louis and as a result the four and six lanes highways are always under construction to become six and eight lanes. This results in confusion when following yahoo or google maps; they can never keep up with the new openings and closings. As a result we always tend to have a few moments of confusion prior to our arrival at Todd's. We had a great time the night after we arrived; Todd's club had a triva contest which resulted in a profit of almost $1,500 to be dedicated to TRF Polio Fund. While not a large amount, it was an enjoyable social event for the club members and spouses and member's guests. We also met a wonderful young man from Czechoslovakia, a Rotary Scholar now working on his PhD in St. Louis. Todd also introduced Glo and I to another dentist who joined him on a dental mission to India two years ago. It was a fun evening and provided an great opportunity to spend quality time and fellowship with Rotarians and their guests.

The next day was Valentine's and Todd had arranged for Glo and I to accompany he and his wife to a special concert the next day by Kim Massey, a local, but internationally known blues singer. Kim made an an impressive entrance to the full house by singing My Funny Valentinein bright red dress, with many red accessories, including red stripes in her hair. After the concert the we ate at an Irish (Trish's nationality) restaurant. We felt it appropriate to recognize the universality of Rotary to enjoy fish and chips, cabbage and corned beef, and of course, large steins of Guiness.

The remainder of the day was spent discussing Rotary's Future Vision plans and Todd and Glo exchanging ideas on how it would impact the application and processing of grants. We learned that funding of grants for this Rotary Year is already becoming short, and the following morning Glo finished up a grant for my club, Clark Centennial. That grant had been partially funded with the assistance of Chris Stubbs, GSE Team Leader from D 6980 in Florida to D 3790 in the Philippines last summer. That grant will feed children at Bahay Bata, a center for street children, and those attending the certified school established by my club. (www.bahaybata.org)

Hopefully those of you that do much air travel will not have the difficulties I did. Upon arriving back at Mom's, I had an email from Continental Airlines, drastically changing my flights from Kansas City to Louisiana to visit the families of my son and daughter. The email said I should phone them if this created problems. After several attempts yesterday where I listened to the please hold, our dedicated travel operators will be with you shortly recorded messages for as long as twenty minutes, I decided to start calling again early this morning. Travel is becoming very complicated with the mergers, coupled with the difficult economic times. It makes on wonder why go through booking flights and car rentals months ahead of time if they are going to be changed. Finally a live person came on the line and after 45 minutes was able to revert my flights back exactly the way they were as ticketed by me six weeks ago.

Hopefully things will have settled by the time many of you attend the RI Convention in Birmingham. I have put together a package of club banners, ROTI business cards, and ROTI pins that Kevin Purcell has agreed to bring to the convention. I will not be able to attend, but will be organizing members to serve in the booth. The operation hours for booths in the RI Fellowship Area will be much less that at previous conventions, so it will be a much easier task.

You may recognize my report as being 'a bit different' this month from those I have written in the past. I hope you were able to see that it was an attempt to show the wonderful way that Rotary extends far beyond one's Rotary club, or even your district. The friends you meet on ROTI offer a wonderful opportunity for fellowship and Rotary exchanges. In two days, Glo and I will attend a meeting of the Marshall Rotary club and continue friendship first began eight years ago. I hope many of you also have the opportunity to expand your Rotary horizons.

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