Foundation service committee 2007-2008

Chairman - Hugh Davies
Committee members - Richard Morgan, Godfrey Hill, Bill Field, Don Griffiths, Stephen Lawrence, Alun P Thomas,

The role of Foundation service committee is to raise awareness in the club of Rotary Foundation, identify and support international projects, provide counselling and support for visiting Rotary scholars and identify suitable applicants for Rotary scholarships and Group Study Exchange schemes.

The Mission of the Rotary Foundation is to support the efforts of Rotary International in fulfilment of the Object of Rotary, Rotary’s mission and the achievement of World understanding and peace through local, national and international humanitarian, educational and cultural support programs. The Foundation has become one of the foremost non-governmental foundations in the world. It is said that every minute of every day Rotary will touch the lives of millions somewhere in the world. The Rotary Foundation is one of the world’s leading charitable foundations and each Rotarian can be justly proud of its achievements in the past, present and in the future.

Report of the Foundation Committee for 2007/2008
Ambassadorial Scholars
It was disappointing yet again this year that no Ambassadorial Scholars came to Aberystwyth.
Christmas cards
All Christmas Cards and Calendars were sold with £1.15 of the cost of each Calendar sold, going to Rotary Foundation.
Coffee
We also sold 48 packs of coffee and a further 90p per pack went to Rotary Foundation.
Scholarship Scheme
We were given a budget of £1,000 again this year for the Club’s Scholarship Scheme. Four applications were received of which one did not meet our criteria. We were pleased that the other three were all from young people who are going abroad to carry out humanitarian work which are exactly the type of projects that we are anxious to support.
The committee donated the following sums:-
£300 to Angharad Preston. She will participate in Global Exchange. She will spend 3 months in Stansted and 3 months in Indonesia staying with host families and will work towards bringing benefits to local communities in both countries.
£300 to Jonathan Evershed. He will spend 2 months in Nepal working for Info Nepal. During his stay he will be working in one or more of the orphanages managed by the organisation.
£300 to Francesca Sanders. She will be travelling to Swaziland for a 2 month’s stay. She will be working as a volunteer for the Telenti project. Francesca will assist in schools, children’s homes and non-formal placements.                                                                     

Commmittee meeting 18 March 2008
Coffee Past President Alun Thomas confirmed that the balance of the money from the sale of coffee had now been handed over to the Treasurer. Approximately £45 from the sale goes to Foundation.
Scholarship Scheme At the time of the committee meeting two applications for funding had been received, with just two weeks left before the deadline.
One from an employee of the Health Authority was rejected on account of his age and that it was a work related project.
The second from Angharad Preston is towards her participation in a Global Xchange Programme. She will spend 3 months working in Stansted and 3 months in Indonesia. She will stay with host families and will work towards bringing benefits to local communities in both countries. She needs to raise £600 and our committee has agreed to assist with the sum of £300.
Following the committee meeting we have received two further requests for funding.
The first from Jonathan Evershed is for a 2 month’s visit to Nepal working for the Charity Info Nepal. During his stay he will be working in one or more of the orphanages managed by the organisation. He is looking to raise approximately £1,050 for the trip.
The third application is from Francesca Sanders who will be travelling to Swaziland for a 2 month’s stay. She will be working as a volunteer for the Tenteleni project. Francesca will assist in schools, children’s homes and non-formal placements. She needs to raise £1,070. We are still waiting to receive a c.v. from her.
The last two applications were received too late to arrange another meeting but committee members have been consulted by telephone and are happy to offer £300 to each applicant as they fall within the parameters of the Scholarship Scheme.
We have received a telephone enquiry about possible assistance for group visit to Costa Rica in 2009. Details of the project have been requested to ensure that it falls within our guidelines. If it does then we shall request an application to be considered at the beginning of 2009.

Commmittee meeting 22 January 2008 
Xmas Cards
All Christmas Cards were sold and a profit of £39.40 was made which the Treasurer will soon be sending to Foundation.
Calendars
All calendars have been sold and the money passed to the Treasurer.
Coffee
Past President Alun Thomas sold the final bags of coffee last week.
Scholarship Scheme
An advertisement appeared in the Cambrian News on 16 January requesting applications for the Scholarship scheme from suitable applicants. No applications have been received to date, but it is early days as the closing date is not until the end of March. Last year we received some good applications and £1,000 was paid out to the successful applicants. The Foundation Committee would like the club to consider a similar amount be made available again this year.

Commmittee meeting 25 September 2007
Christmas cards
Godfrey Hill has received details of this year’s Xmas Cards, and he will be sending round a list with examples within the next few weeks. Calendars
The Calendars for next year have already arrived and Past President Richard Morgan will soon be twisting your arms to buy one.
Fair trade coffee
We have been advised that the coffee that we had ordered was to be despatched during week commencing 27 August. As Past President Alun Thomas has been away on leave, I have been unable to find out whether or not he has received the order.
Scholarship scheme
We have already received one application for the Scholarship scheme, which will run from January to March.
The applicant’s project will start in January, before we are able to consider other possible applications. However, as the project falls within the criteria, we may be able to offer a retrospective payment, once all other applications are to hand.
Group Study Exchange
A Japanese group will be visiting the district between 18 and 25 October. We have been requested to contribute £33 towards the cost of their meals and entrances fees.We have no further information on when they will actually visit Aberystwyth.

Commmittee meeting 31 July 2007
Christmas cards 
We shall be selling Christmas Cards again this year in support of the Rotary foundation. Godfrey Hill will be taking orders from you later in the year.
Calendars
The sale of calendars will be in the capable hands of Richard Morgan this year and an order has already been placed.
Scholarship scheme
Last year’s Scholarship scheme was a great success with £1,000 being distributed amongst three successful applicants. Just one applicant failed to meet the required criteria. We shall be advertising the scheme again at the beginning of 2008.
Fair trade coffee
Last year Past President Alun Thomas successfully sold Christmas Puddings. This year he is turning his hand to selling coffee, not any coffee you understand, this will be Organic coffee and the profits will go to Rotary FoundationIn spite of pleas from the President we were unable to acquire de-cafinated coffee for him.
Group Study Exchange
A team from Japan will be arriving on 6 October. We do not expect to be hosting them this year but we have offered to assist for one day to relieve the host club. This was welcomed by the Assistant District Governor when he attended our club Assembly in June.We have no further news at present about the visit.

A summary of 2005-2006 activities (Chairman - Richard Morgan)
In a year in which we had no Ambassadorial Scholars some compensation came our way by our participation in the Group Study Exchange visit to our zone from the Savannah and Charleston areas of South Carolina.  Thanks are due to those Rotarians who hosted members of the team, and those Rotarians who transported the team members from place to place during their stay with us.  The feedback we have received suggests that the team members appreciated and valued the programme which we had organised for them.
The Foundation Committee undertook the usual merchandising jobs – the sale of Christmas cards and calendars – with a proportion of the proceeds going to Rotary Foundation.  In similar vein we agreed to increase our per capita giving to Foundation from £25 to £30, thus bringing us closer to the RI target of $100 (or £50) per Rotarian.
With the agreement of our International Committee the Foundation Committee undertook responsibility for the Adopt a Minefield Project, initiated in our District by the Rotary Club of Cwmbran Vale.  The sale of 36 Christmas puddings realised the sum of £108 for the charity.
At the April Business Meeting Club accepted the recommendations made by the Foundation Committee with regard to the distribution of funds from the Lionel White Scholarship Fund for 2006/2007.  Five applications were received; one was deferred to the next Rotary year and three of the others were supported viz:
£200 to Victoria Wells who intends teaching surfing and swimming skills to disabled young people in South Africa
£300 to a group of eight young people from Penweddig School who will be undertaking an overseas expedition programme to Venezuela
£500 to Eleri Humphreys who will be working as a volunteer teaching assistant in a school in Zanzibar as part of a Tenteleni Project