The power of mentoring

Who has never been in a situation where he or she needed advises to feel that they can grow and achieve their best potential? Who never wanted advises to create a better work environment where risks can be taken and objectives fulfilled?

The people who grow and overcome these hurdles are usually the ones who regularly put things into perspective and always question themselves to ultimately improve. In order to find the answers to many questions young professionals may have, the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah recently created a mentoring program.

Mentoring is a relationship in which an experienced person (mentor) assists another (mentee) in developing specific skills and knowledge that will enhance the less-experienced person’s professional and personal growth.

With the help of our well-established Rotarians, the club aims to share knowledge but also; create a unique relationship based on trust and senior guidance between Rotarians and Rotaractors. Through this type of program, mentees gain invaluable insight beyond their own education and experience.

If you’d like to receive more information on our mentoring program, please send an email to pr@rotaractjumeirah.org

“Be selfish, go help someone”, Bobby Sager and social entrepreneurship

Imagine if you were a millionaire and you suddenly decide that instead of buying 5 houses in premium areas or 10 luxury cars, you’ll go on the road with your family in the most devastated places in the planet to simply help and offer hope. This dream and pure desire to offer a sustainable solution and improve the life of people who were less fortunate, was achieved by the Bobby Sager family.

The Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow began in 2000 when the family made a commitment to travel the world with the hope that they can instigate the efforts of leaders. Since then, Bobby Sager and his family spend 10 months a year on the road and invested on entrepreneurial projects that hold people responsible and give them back a strong sense of honour and achievement.

Bobby Sager is known as an extremely successful entrepreneur, philanthropist, author, photographer and traveller who met touching and powerful public figures such as the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton or Sting.

His passion for sharing and strong sense of philanthropy pushed Bobby Sager to countries like Congo where he helped a rehabilitation centre for child soldiers. He launched a programme in Rwanda were women from different ethnicity partnered in a business project in spite of the difficult past history.

Bobby Sager also brings hope everywhere he goes. Bobby has taken photographs showing the transcendent power of hope in the eyes of children he met in war-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine. These images have been viewed by over 4 million people around the world.

http://teamsager.org/home
For Bobby, being on the ground and empowering leaders in these countries – the Sagers think of leaders as people who have the ability to impact many others and multiply this positive effect – offer them amazing life moments full of learning, feeling and accomplishing. This is the main message behind “Be selfish, go help someone”.

Cultural Mapping & Navigation

Hi There,

It’s been some time since I haven’t blogged. The reason is that our Club has been working on so many exciting projects – which you will hear about soon – that we’ve just been swamped... Which is always good.

We’ve recently received a short training or let’s call it test called Cultural Mapping & Navigation (CMN). So, what is that? Basically, this program was developed to assist people and organizations to deal more effectively with their Inter-Cultural realities through their Inter-Cultural Intelligence.

This means... that CMN program is brilliant if you’re looking for developing competencies or just reflecting on yourself.

Leaving in Dubai with so much nationalities around, I felt that this program was just amazing and so objective that it pushes me to question yourself and improve. It’s also great if you’re looking for developing leadership skills or looking at how you stand in regards to leadership; assessing the type of emotional intelligence you have or simply seeing how your team alignment.
If you’re curious to know more about this program, just visit https://www.knowledgeworkx.com

The joy of being part of Rotary international network

Have you ever been to a country where you were introduced to people via email, who were so kind enough to greet and welcome you, as if you were part of their family? A network where you know without meeting these people that you share the same values, visions of life and desire to help.

This is in a nutshell how it feels when you are part of the Rotary family. If I take my personal example, I’m travelling tomorrow to Brazil which is the complete unknown. Through the Rotary network, I managed to get in touch with Rotaractors based in Rio de Janeiro who generously proposed to take care of me. Isn’t it brilliant?

Other Rotaractors travelling to Kazakhstan, Kenya or Asia received the same very warm welcome and desire to learn about the country we are representing and our activities over here.

If you’d like to also be part of the Rotaract network, don’t hesitate to email us on pr@rotaractjumeirah.org or sign up for our newsletter to keep up on what we do!

Amazing time at Senses School for children with special needs

What a wonderful morning at Senses School for children with special needs!

After being closed for two weeks due to maintenance, the centre needed a little bit of help to ensure that it was operational for the “big day” on Sunday...

An enormous thank you to the team of volunteers so willing to help and get to know Senses’ residents. It was so rewarding to see the children smiling and enjoying their time with the activities that we put together for them. It was such a pleasure to feel the satisfaction of having touched the hearts of children in need of that smile.

The volunteers had the chance to interact with the kids through different painting activities. Our musician who came all the way to entertain the kids got hijacked by the residents who wanted to play the guitar rather than simply listen. I’m sure that this moment spent at Senses school provided food for thoughts to all our volunteers and gave us also other ideas to implement with residents, to make sure that they try different activities and most of all, feel happy!

End Polio Now, We are “This Close”

As the World Polio Day scheduled on October 24 is approaching, the Rotary Club is working hard to raise awareness and funds to eradicate polio.

It’s been 25 years that Rotary works closely with their partners to eradicate Polio. We are reaching now a historical moment where we’re 1% away from the end of polio forever. This achievement shows the tremendous progress that have been made to eradicate this tenacious disease for one and for all.

If you want to help at your level, Rotary is having a fund raising campaign where all the funds will be given to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support immunization campaign in developing countries where polio continues to infect and paralyse children.

Also, generate awareness and create the buzz by telling the world about Rotary’s achievements. Please visit our website http://www.thisclose.net/ and participate in our fun online campaign.

An eye on the Global Agenda

Does anyone have an idea of what is the Summit on the Global Agenda, organised with the World Economic Forum in the UAE for the past four years?

I have the answer! The Summit on the Global Agenda is an annual global intellectual brainstorming that brings together worldwide experts. The participants brainstorm in small groups around topics impacting on civil society, business, academia and government.

The participants were polled to determine which global challenges are the most important to address; and their responses were very interesting. It seems that these global challenges revolve around:
1. Resource scarcity and demographic change
2. Digital governance and managing complex systems
3. Global rebalancing and economic reform
4. Inclusive growth and employment creation
5. Global and regional governance

Living in an “emerging” country, bearing in mind the way the world is rapidly changing and seeing a total power shift from traditional developing countries to emerging economies, what would you consider a global challenge?

I think that if you were living in China, your challenges will be resource scarcity and demographic change. But we can also include growth and employment creation. India is facing the same issues that China has and Europe is finding difficulties to maintain or strengthen a global or regional governance. Which means that we leave in a world where we are all interlinked and inter-dependent. Which also show that my issues, are now increasingly becoming your issues to a certain extent. Don’t you think so?

Let us know your thoughts on that.

Did you know that blindness and poverty are inextricably linked?

Were you aware that there are 45 million blind people in the world? 90% of disabled children don’t go to school. 90% of cases occur in developing countries and 80% are in fact avoidable or treatable diseases.

These facts were shared by the General Manager of Sight Savers Middle East, Luke Thomas, who came to introduce his organisation and their activities in the region. Sight Savers’ history is fascinating, this international development charity was founded in 1950 by Sir John Wilson, who was himself blind.

When you know that the biggest cause of blindness is cataract, you understand that blindness and poverty go hand in hand. While preventing is better than treating, Sight Savers is working on very isolated areas in Africa and India to distribute treatments for free. To date 150,000,000 treatments have been delivered.

Educating people is key to make them understand that simple gestures such as using clean water and merely washing hands regularly can avoid the worse in certain parts of our globe.

I have to say that it’s hard for me to comment or add anything to what has been touched on, because when you know that 32 million people have been already treated, 8 million had a surgery and training benefited 161,112 people; you can only congratulate the initiative. There are simple things we have in life that make a big difference without us even realising. Let’s be grateful and truly appreciate them!

Have you ever visited a centre for people with special needs?

According to you, how does disability look like? Have you ever visited a centre providing care for people with special needs?

Some members of the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah and the Rotaract Club of Dubai had that chance this week-end. We went there with the only thing we had: our generosity. The person who was with me is a musician and we decided to organise a mini performance.

After being introduced to each resident, my friend started his show. This is when on my side, I got familiar with each resident. Every patient over there is different and unique. I had the pleasure to meet these adorable twins. One suffers from a high level of autism and his brother has the same disease but at a lesser degree. I was amazed by the brilliant memory of the brother who was less affected.

Each resident receives an education that includes reading, writing, mathematics, and physical activities. Every week, volunteers help the centre to take the residents to the beach. I heard this touching story of an 8 years old kid who came to the centre without being able to talk properly. He’s now able to pronounce his name and start a conversation.

It might sound so basic to be able to pronounce your name. But for some people, it can be a struggle that need more time to master. So my only advise will be, don’t take things for granted. I believe we all have our own potential to develop. And so have our members of the community with special needs who definitely need more attention and care, but they can make it too.

If you want to support the centre or have an idea to achieve that, please let us know by contacting pr@RotaractJumeirah.org.

How can you make a difference?

First of all, to avoid any assumption, can we make the difference? Are we able to give back to less fortunate and share our skills to the people in need? Can we make a difference as an individual or are we more effective working within a group?

I’m not expecting a “Yes” or “No” answer as I believe that we will receive a unique answer from each person.

I’ve attended the training workshop organised by the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah which initially aimed at equipping its members with the right knowledge that will take them to the other level. A very interesting discussion sparked on how efficient the club was and how can we make a bigger impact to the community.

The interesting part is that triggering change take time, efforts and money. May also a lot of tenacity and self confidence. But when you see all the Rotary achievements stretching from building a sustainable water program, fighting polio and instilling a sense of responsibility and leadership to the next generations, you realise that nothing is impossible, as long as you’ve got the will and the right network to tap into.

The history of the Rotary is very eloquent success story. Founded in 1905, the Rotary counts now 34,118 and 1,222, 293 members across the globe. This shows how a universal idea can be embedded in many cultures and bring the same expected result, “Service above Self”.
If you’d like to know more about us and share any skill that you have, visit our website and drop us a note. Rotaract stands for “Rotary in Action” and we have all it takes to reflect that concept.

What would it take to change the world?

Video: Rotary - Make a World of Difference

...

Born leader or leader to be?

Dear followers,

I’ve came across this very interesting opinion piece written by the Managing Director of the Market Leadership Centre, Dr Tommy Weir and author of a book entitled “The CEO Shift”.

The expert believes that building responsibilities into future leaders is done since our childhood through our family environment.

The writer uses a great analogy to explain that Sheikh Hamdan considers his father as his tutor in life and he continually learns from him. Dr Tommy Weir strongly maintains that while school meets the academic requirements, it is the family which instils the value system, social conscience, and the practice of daily life.

Based on his analysis, successful preparation requires exposure to future challenges and role requirements long before they held a leadership role. Guidance is key for professional growth. Securing opportunities provide future leaders with a chance to lead. Finally, support and continuous encouragement by coaching a leader help further improve.

Now my question is, do you agree with this opinion?

Leadership, management and being seen as successful are the big buzz words of the moment. But do we all want to be CEOs? Where is the space for personal development? Aren’t we all conditioned to be competitive and forget to work on our professional relationships?

I believe that coming together on any project is key. Building personal friendship and long-lasting work relationship should make everyone a leader on their respective fields. We see that every day with our relationship with the Rotary Club of Jumeirah, and the great networking platform it provides to his members.

Don’t you think that great geographic, cultural and professional diversity are the future of each international firm?

I would love to hear your thoughts as young professionals.

Eid Mubarak

Eid which means “festivity” in Arabic and marks the end of Ramadan. This day celebrates the conclusion of the twenty nine or thirty days of dawn-to-sunset fasting. On behalf of the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah, we want to wish Eid Mubarak to all our members, followers, supporters and sponsors.

It’s been a fantastic month of Ramadan, with members of the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah who kept focus on all their volunteering and professional development activities.

Ramadan is the month of devotion and reflection, a month of service and charity, a month of family and community gatherings. These are also international values that our Club believes in and brings to life through all our community service activities.

Under its tagline service and fellowship which self conveys the humanitarian spirit of the organisation; the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah strives to promote international understanding and peace. We are an international program for adults ages 18 to 30 who want to make a difference, founded in 1968 by Rotary International, an association of clubs made up of service-minded business and professional leaders.

Today we are more than 7,300 Rotary club-sponsored Rotaract clubs with some 170,000 members over 150 countries.

Service and fellowship are the key values that drive our success. Now at your level, how would you like to make a difference and support your community? In that spirit of reflection, what shall we do to improve our volunteering activities in the UAE? Share your thoughts and feedback with us.

Also, keep on following us as there’s more activities coming your way!

The charity iftar organised by Dubai Acts 4 East African Drought in collaboration with the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah exceeded expectations

Dear followers,

It’s been a month now that the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah has been approached by members of the community, very touched by the famine in Somalia but also; determined to make a change, with what they have.

Since the beginning of their support to this cause in Somalia, Dubai Acts 4 East African Drought shown commitment, dedication, hard work and passion for a cause that they fully believe and support.

A series of fund raising events have been organised in collaboration with the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah to raise awareness on the situation in Somalia. And also, to find solutions where any citizen could contribute his way.

This fund raising exercise started by generous donations from members of the Rotary Club, who were fully supportive of the project. Flea 4 Charity which is an initiative aiming at helping causes in the region was also a main driver.

The team of volunteers came across generous donors who made the difference. The project has been taken now to Egypt, where members of the Rotaract Heliopolis decided to follow the same concept and raise funds through a charity iftar. The money collected will also be given to the Red Crescent and support their humanitarian aid in Somalia.

This series of events culminated with a Charity Iftar at Qamardeen on Friday August 26, where all tickets have been sold out two days ahead of the event and over 200 guests were in attendance.

I’d like to end up that post by congratulating all the people involved in that initiative who made a difference. Dubai Acts 4 East African Drought created an impact and unveiled a harsh reality in the Horn of Africa, by focusing on the positive and acting rather than remaining a passive witness.

Well done guys!

Death by Meeting - A Rotaract Guide

One of the best things about my work at a consulting firm is the long lines interesting-looking books that line the office walls. If I read every book on the shelves (which my CEO seems to have done already) I'll be a walking consulting firm all on my own.

So I started with 'Death by Meeting' by Patric Lencioni.

The first 217 pages are a mini-novel that put the model in context, and the next 37 pages summarize the meeting aspects.

How to read:

The novel part of the book does such a good job that I would just skip to 'Problem #1' on page 225 and read about how to make my meetings better from there. Or, if you don't have time to read the novel, start from p. 218 and your golden.

The takeaway:

Death by Meeting prescribes 4 Types of Meetings

1. The 5-minute Daily Check-in
2. The 45-90 minute Weekly Tactical Meeting
3. The 120-240 minute Monthly Strategic Meeting
4. The 1-2 day Quarterly off-site reviews

How to Apply to Rotaract:

Rotaract is a special situation because we meet once a week, but the meeting strategies listed here can work pretty well if we stretch the time-span.

• Combined 'daily check-in' & lightning round at the beginning of each weekly meeting.
• Tactical meeting once a month.
• Strategic meeting for 2-4 hours every 4 months on a Saturday (if we have a pressing strategic need we can schedule an Ad Hoc strategic meeting for the Saturday immediately after our Tuesday meeting).
• Off-site "Quarterly Review" twice a year, we have an off-site where we all go to someones house or somewhere to review the really big picture.

I'd suggest that one of those off-sites be a whole- day meeting at someone's house on a Friday or Saturday, and the other be a weekend away in Fujairah or Oman or somewhere. - Especially if we have somewhere where we can all stay for free.

A Description of Each Type of Meeting:

1 The 5-minute Daily Check-in: Share your activities and schedule.

Keys to Success:

• Do the entire meeting standing.
• I mean it! Don't sit down!
• Keep the meeting to administrative, logistical topics only.
• Don't cancel unless not a single person can make it: even two people is enough to make it effective.

2 The 45-90 minute Weekly Tactical Meeting: Review the weekly metrics and activities, and resolve obstacles and tactical issues.

• 'How' is tactical, 'what' & 'why' are strategic)

Round 1: 8 minute lightning round: Each member gets 60 seconds to I indicate their top 2 or 3 priorities for the week.

Round 2: Progress Review: Report on the metrics that make or break your organization.

Round 3: Tactic Generation with an iterative, Real-time Agenda: The agenda of the rest of the meeting is based on your organization's performance measured against its goals.

• The important topics will jump out of the first two rounds and the ensuing discussion.
• Remember, these are topics that must be addressed in order to ensure that short term objectives are not in danger of being missed.
• Make a list of anything that is not tactical and postpone discussion of anything on that list until your strategic meetings.

Keys to Success:

• Set the agenda only AFTER everybody has a put forward their initial reports.
• Delegate strategic discussions to the Monthly Strategic Meeting.
• If the issue can't wait, delegate it to an ad-hoc strategic meeting. But don't let it but into your tactical meeting time.

3 120-240 minute Monthly Strategic Meeting: discuss, analyze, brainstorm, and decide on critical issues that will affect the organization's long term success.

Keys to success:

• Limit the meeting to discussing at most 2 topics.
• Prepare beforehand with research and thought experiments.
• The facilitator needs to draw out ideological conflict: Ie the differences in opinion that people have, so that it can all be aired so that as much information as possible is available to the people making decisions.

4 1-2 day Quarterly off-site reviews: review your strategy, industry trends, the 'competitie landscape', your key personel, and your team development.

Keys to success:

• Get out of your normal environment.
• Focus on work: limit social activities.
• Don't over structure the schedule.
• Don't try to do to much all at once.

The end:

I'm one book down out of about 200. We'll see how many I can get through during the year that I am club secretary. If anything that I read applies to Rotaract, I'll be sure to write about it.

The Rotaract Club of Jumeirah officially supports the UAE Red Crescent’s aid in Somalia

The Rotaract Club of Jumeirah, a volunteer service club organization sponsored by the Rotary Club of Jumeirah Dubai decided to support the activities of the UAE Red Crescent in Somalia, by a series of fund raising events.

With a need of $1.6 billion in the next 12 months to provide aid to the region said Jacques Diouf, Director, Food and Agriculture Organisation; the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah decided to act and support the UAE Red Crescent by arranging for a series of fund raising events in Dubai.

A charity iftar has been organised and gathered people from the community sympathizing for the cause. The ‘Flea Market’ also saw volunteers from the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah joining forces, to raise awareness as well as funds that would help people in Somalia, who are facing the outcome of droughts leading to famine, and malnutrition.

The famine in the Horn of Africa has already killed tens of thousands of people and risks leaving a generation of physically mentally stunted children, the UN World Food Program said.

What do you think is each individual responsibilities when it comes to humanitarian crises? What could be the role of the GCC at a larger scale to avoid the worse in Somalia?

Looking forward to your comments.

Standing out in a crowd - What it takes to be noticed in business?

This question which applies in our every day jobs, has been discussed during an exclusive workshop provided by Wayne Hull, Director & General Manager of Cisco UAE.

In nowadays highly competitive environment, how do young professionals do to differentiate themselves? Bearing in mind that emerging markets are the fastest to create the most opportunities, what is required for young professionals to capitalize on these opportunities and build a career to stand out?

To answer these fundamental questions, Wayne Hull shared with the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah and Rotaract Club of Dubai his “6 Things” that make high performing people successful; in an emerging market which offers the largest career opportunities, but also the biggest challenges. Based on Mr Hull’s take-away, in order for you to stand out of the crowd and succeed in your career you’ll have to take into consideration the following 6 paradigms:

1. Analytical Foundations - represent the ability to understand the analytical component of your role and industry. Be aware of how your work environment functions

2. Challenge – is the ability to identify the right opportunity at the right time. Make decisions at the right time, look for challenging opportunities and don’t hesitate to get involved

3. Personal Expectation – Don’t be seduced by glamour but understand who are the influential people within your company, while staying focused on results

4. Be aware of your unique capabilities – Emphasize on things you are really good at and leverage your unique capabilities within your work environment

5. Be yourself – Express your attributes and make sure you evolve yourself

6. Reflection – Regularly measure against your goals and keep in mind that not only result make you successful

People who stand out are the ones able to form these 6 paradigms and ultimately become influencers in the market. What is your take on that? What other criterion should be taken into account to have a successful career and stand out?

We look forward to receiving your take on that.

Our awesome Community Service categories, special thanks to Nelson Mandela:)

We organized our brainstorms for the upcoming year's community service activities, and we've found a lot of things to think about from nahtam.com's article '67 ways to do community work' that they made for Nelson Mandela day.

They had 6 main categories lined up with our brainstorms:

1. Help out for good health - Health
2. Become an educator - Education
3. Help those living in poverty - Poverty
4. Care for the youth - Youth
5. Treasure the elderly -
6. Look after your environment - Environment

Then there was another category that came up in the 67 ways but that they didn't break out: Animals! Put all that together, and we got the following list:

At the top left of that chart are the things that we think Rotaract Jumeirah is specially suited for: support organizations, raise funds, and raise awareness for organizations that work in this area.

One thing that you won't find on our list is the elderly. We'll probably write more about that in the future, but the short answer is that the elderly are already quite treasured in Emirati culture. That said, I'm sure we will find ways that we can treasure the elderly in the future, and I hope to write more on this topic.

Break-out our categories, and you get to see our whole brainstorm for the Community Service events, and (of course) more are popping up all the time.

Now that we've got an initial framework to understand our work on, thanks to nahtam.com, Nelson Mandela, and Mindjet's MindManager, we're set for the next step: planning our specific activities!

Rotaract Jumeirah unlocks the secrets behind successful entrepreneurs at The Extraordinary Entrepreneurial Mindset

Rotaract Jumeirah unlocks the secrets behind successful entrepreneurs at The Extraordinary Entrepreneurial Mindset What does it take to be an entrepreneur? That was the question that our line-up of incredible professional speakers tried to answer during the full-day workshop organised by the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah, Dubai on Saturday June 11.

Highly recognised speakers shared their experiences and provided guidelines to define the mindset behind a successful entrepreneur. To kick off the seminar, Peter Sage who founded his first business at 17 stressed on learning by practice and warned from being addicted to what he calls certainty. “Most people set up goals because they’ve been told to, while we need to set goals that inspire us because they shape who we need to become in our wonderful journey”.

Claire Fenner, co-founder of Heels & Deals a global network of female entrepreneurs addressed the challenges entrepreneurs face as change makers. “Is it economically viable to have an own business? In fact, you need to have a goal and a mission that matters to overcome the challenges that you’ll find on your way if you’d like to become a successful entrepreneur”.

Matthew Ranson, shared his top 10 rules to become a successful entrepreneur and explored the question: “Are entrepreneurs born or made?”

1. Make the commitment
2. Find a problem then solve it
3. Think big. Think new. Think again
4. You can’t do it alone
5. You must do it alone
6. Manage risk
7. Learn to lead
8. Learn to sell
9. Persist, persevere, prevail
10. Time, not money, is the key resource

What is your take on the key attributes to become a successful entrepreneur? Based on what we saw, most of our speakers had a common point, which was that they believed in themselves so much that they inspired people around them. The key learning expressed with so much truth by Hussein Hallak was that “a good entrepreneur should be able to engage people, but also take action to go for it”. Isn’t it what we as individuals should do anyway to develop ourselves and achieve our best? Shouldn’t this be part of our ‘continuous learning’ to find and enhance our ‘unique abilities’ as stated by Marwan Chaar? We will let you think about it.

Finally, we would like to end this post by thanking the amazing people behind this event: Mathieu Mondan, Varun Kapur & Tomell Caesar Desilva. They said “ There were 2 primary reasons for this event, the first was to educate and the second to raise awareness for the Senses School for Disabled Children who were also in attendance at The Palace Hotel. The feedback received has been very positive and we are proud about that. We achieved our objectives and look forward to giving back to the community in the near future. Part 2 coming soon!” Well done guys and stunning result!

Meeting Minutes - 6th June, 2011

800p Most of the people have arrived. 

818p Meeting start. 

818p Sebastion introduces himself; he was in Rotaract for 9 years; was in Ghenna (in the West of France) and in - he's working in an office as a finance manager commuting Dubai Abu Dhabi. 

819p Others introduce themselves; Habib works in Mina Corp doing Restructuring, IPOS and stuff in Abu Dhabi and working inresearch doing reports for investors. Studied in Tunisia before going to Paris, and has been here 4 months.

Hayet from Ghen; 4 years in Dubai; PR consultant for Flyshman Hellard (an American consulting company) bheen in and out in the region for the last 7 years; did all studies in Lyon and learned Arabic in Syria; been a while that I"ve been out of France. I'm a new member in Rotaract doing PR & Social Media. (We created a new committe called PR & Social Media). 

821p - We have a facebook page and when you connect as an Admin you connect as being the page itself. 

823p - Josh talks about himself.

824p - Karim; working with an interior design company; trained as a mechanical engineer. Q: is that work why you travel so much to Saudi? Yes - with work; purchasing, etc. etc. etc. 

826p - Faica; been coming to Rotaract meetings since August, was inducted recently and is now the treasurer, works as an investment analyst, just took her CFA Level 2 exam. 

828p Mathieu; professional development director for the upcoming year; doing lots of professional development right now. I was working for Total, I resigned last week to start a new job as an operation manager for a Japanese company where I will have much more responsibility. 

829p - Mehdi, has been in Dubai for 4 years. Says he: "I'm getting bored. . . you might notice that I'm doing a lot for Rotaract. . . well, I'm getting a bit bored. I'm studying for my masters. working a full time job, and the president of Rotaract Jumeirah. (Officially that's the 1st of July that I will become president.) The outgoing president is on vacation, so we had an early handover, but at the end of June we'll have an official dinner with our Rotaract sponsor." (That is a lose transcription)

831p - We have a great team this year. The Rotaractors describe how awesome Khadra is in response to Sebastian asking,  "Who's Khadra?" And then started talking about how awesome everybody on the team is. 

Mehdi says that: 

-  Khadra wants us all to volunteer for anything related to community service, either helping other associations, or going to Senses school and making the children smile (well, actually, they make us smile), and Ramadan is coming up so there is lots of charity possibilities. 

-  Khadra is very motivated, and we need to put objectives on everything; she's thinking of an objective of a certain number of hours for our club to volunteer. The idea is to total the number of hours on the website. FOr all the committees, we need to think about optimistic objectives. 

[- Josh add's a goal in his head: he wants to see all the members have LinkedIn profiles and link their names in club minutes to their Linked-In profile, as well as make it a criteria for new membership that people have a LinkedIn account. Future Opportunities in this area for ProDev include:

- Have a roundtable discussion on how to promote yourself professionally in the digital age: Should you own your own domain name? Should you use LinkedIn? Should you have a website? What is tasteful? How much information should you share, and how much should you withhold?

- Formulate a list of best (or at least, 'good') practices, and then followup with Rotaractors to ensure that everyone in the club uses best practice. (This would be great to do with Rot. Dubai as well) 

- The sell is that with Rotaract, you don't just develop best practices yourself, you have the entire community helping you (and holding you accountable to using them). 

- When the best practices are in a presentable form, we should post them on our website as a resource for everybody in the world. Title it something like "Recommendations for Personal Carriage online" - and name the authors, with brief Bio's (or links to LinkedIn or some other bio) so that people can see what we are doing. 

- For professional development for example, we could say: "We want to have a speaker every 2 weeks." - or, we could say "Every week, one of us presents something that can give information to the members from their work." - 

- Sebastien: In Rotaract Dubai we have "Discover me, discover my country." where someone presents on themselves and their country, and we have "Discover Me, Discover my work" where someone presents on their industry and role. 

Mehdi: We want to work with Rotaract Dubai a lot, we want to improve our relationship with Rotary, and so on. 

Rotaract Trivia: Immediate Past President is an official Rotaract role and title. The Immediate Past President plays an advisory role to the current president and administrative team, among other duties. 

836p Sebastion  

- On the 22nd of June we're doing a handover meeting with you guys if you want to come, and go to Jal hotel afterwards, 

- On Sat. 24th we're doing a charity event in Jal Hotel. One guy is going to travel  nearly all around the world in 80 days, we'll play with children, we'll go to Africa, India, Thailand, etc. It is a charity event to entertain children. We would like to come next week to present the project. It's 100Dh. per person with food, different entertainment from this guy; we'll have two sessions in the day. We already presented it to Rotary Dubai. Alex is going to play as well.

(Many of us are fans of Alex, we like his music:) He does gypsy swing:)

839: Update for the Entrepreneurship event on Saturday: we have more than 100 people registered online; 30 - we'll close it at 200. We have 28 different nationalities; the top three are India, France, and American. 4th is Pakistan. 

Outline of the Extraordinary Entrepreneurial Mind event coming up this Saturday: we'll have raffles in between each speaker. We'll encourage peopel to donate to Senses, and in return theyl'll have a ticket for the raffle. 

844p - Matheiu explains to Sebastian about the event, since Sebastian didn't get our email about it:)

845p - We need people to help set up beforehand at 9pm on Saturday. 

  Josh, Karim, Mehdi Tomell, Varun, and Matheiu are in. There's not that much to do: just prepare the goodie bags, and prepare the reception welcome area. When people get in there is a registration at the entrance; and then we'll start around 10:30, 10:45; then lunchtime from 1-1:45, and then session for 1 to 2 hours. 

- Tomell is taking care of logistics for the speakers. 

- Varun will be MC from beginning to end. 

- Josh & Mehdi will be registration. 

- We want to have two other people so we can have registration on both sides. 

  

8:49 - You can still promote the event through your friends, etc. - And we will close the registration at 200 people. 

" - Hayet: I think we should invite the chief editor of Gulf News, etc., etc., Because Matheiu is in charge, they can just ask for Matheiu. And Hayet will give him the names of the media that she will invite. 

- 8:50; Social media promotion of the Entrepreneurship event? - We decided not to promote it so much on facebook because we want it to stay in the business community. I created a LinkedIn Group: Rotaract Jumeirah on LinkedIn. 

Karim is the first member of the group. For the future, we can all join there and share our business contacts. 

[Josh: Can we use this as the official club directory?]

852p - We continue talking about our strategy and details for the entrepreneurship event. Faiqa will come straight from the airport to the event:) (Way to be committed:))

8:53 - Regarding the email varun sent: there is another entrepreneurship event on Wednesday, the 8th of June, We need to start participating in these events. 

[Josh: That's a great idea! Perhaps one of the things that a Rotaractor agrees to do is to find  events in our field of interest and try to attend those. Perhaps we could make that one of the criteria for membership - kind of like you're required to attend a certain number of lectures at university.]

856p - Business Cards

We had the idea of creating business cards. Mortuza helped a ton in this event - he registered on our Rotaract Dubai website; he's a freelance graphic designer, more than 30 years old so he can't technically be a Rotaractor, he's really motivated and just wants to help; so he's been doing a ton for us! He did our flyer, and he's helping with banners and a lot of design stuff. 

857p - we clap for Faiqa and Matheiu and all the work they did on sponsors for the. 

8:59 - Feedback on the fashion event: 

Mehdi's tale:

"We weren't many members, and this event was really big. - we sold more than 250 tickets; and including media we had more than 250 people. We had two projectors; at the end I disconnected one of them because it was messy; I was the one taking care of moving the slides and every time we have to change slides between - I switched it off and helped Karim, who was in charge of the raffle items: we have the coupons, you have to write the number, I dragged Mathieu with me; 3 people doing it: and it was already messy: the paper with the raffle items we had to write the numbers; At the end, when we finished everything people asked for the items; and fortunately Nicki & Akshay stayed late: because some people left early and came back asking for the gifts, and others left without taking their gifts."

- Then what we should do for the Entrepreneurship event is give the gifts on stage; straight away to get your gift. 

908p: Back to the business cards: Mehdi did a design in Word. 

  If we're going to make it we have to make it on recycled paper (and we have to write it down if we do that) 

- Quotations; on the back we can have it all red; - and put in "Made out of recycled paper" and a QR code. 

- Mehdi has a business card from a guy who works for Google, and that has a QR code on the back of it. They are the first people I've seen in Dubai apart from me (Josh) and Mehdi that use QR Codes. Good for them;)

910p General Meeting End. 

920p Begin Finance Meeting 

Attendees: Faiqa (Treasurer), Mehdi (Upcoming President), Josh (Upcoming Secretary), Habib.

We are really happy to have Faiqa taking care of club finances. We made a "profit" of around 30,000 Dh. (Faiqa will update you on the exact figure when she has a chance to track down the accounts) that we can give to Senses from the event. 

10:20p End Finance Meeting

Note on whether Rotaract members should pay for events that Rotaract is sponsoring: 

Mehdi: I think Rotaractors should be the first to support the fundraising events we are going to. Our Rotary club can be counted on to be the first to donate to a good cause; we should be too. 

Habib: I think it is in bad taste to ask Rotaractors, who are already donating their time, to be required to donate money as well for the charity events that we are doing. We donate time, others donate money. 

Josh: It is normal practice in the non-profits I have been involved in in the USA for volunteers to get into events for free. That is understandable because they are putting in time and effort. However, at the fashion show I was really happy when Rotaractors paid for our own tickets just like everyone else. 

- We don't have to do this, but I believe that by going one further than the usual non-profit organization: we put our money where our mouth is. 

- If we are paying, then we are not asking anybody else to do things that we would not do. Since Rotaract is a club for young professionals, the members should generally have the means to contribute, so there should be no hardship involved. It is just a question of suitability. And I believe it is suitable for people. 

- I volunteer to act as a middleman for anyone who has a different viewpoint on this subject, so that we can build consensus and so that they don't have the fiery weight of the upcoming president & his strong opinion bearing down on them in the discussion:)

www.rotaractjumeirah.org

"Service Above Self"

Rotaract Jumeirah Charity Fashion Show

After the success of Fashion My Community in 2011, we are going to put on Dance My Community in May 2012.

To help out, email khadra.osman@rotaractjumeirah.org with the subject line, "I want to help out with Dance My Community!"

Here's our original report on the fashion show last year:

I just got back from Juba and it's time to update you on the fashion show that rocked Dubai on May 21st 2011! (Yeah. . . Juba. . . I traded models and hors d'œuvres for heat and mosquitos)

Check out the video on MyDubai: Rotaract Jumeirah Charity Fashion Show! It's a poor substitute for being there, but it's all I've got. . .

And Whoa does it look spectacular! The video of the show that I got looked like something I would see on TV. . . and we put it on with no money at all, just lots of volunteer time and tremendous effort from Khadra and Sevan and everybody else at Rotaract Jumeirah and beyond.

It's amazing what you can do with a vision, a desire to help, and the support of the Rotaract community.

It all started with an idea at a Rotaract meeting in the Mina Salaam hotel, and I can't pinpoint where it took off from there, but getting the Media 1 hotel on-board with a venue was a the first milestone.

When I heard we had an entire floor overlooking the Palm Jumeirah I was ecstatic - and when I got to go up and see the space the weekend before the event and found out it was shaped like an ellipse I was over the moon. I love curved space! Then I thought, "Oh man, we need to wash these windows 'till they're crystal clear!" and low and behold, window washers showed up within the hour.

Then there were the sponsors that made the world turn 'round! Especially all the help from Mall of the Emirates, Saatchi & Saatchi, . . . oh gosh, since I wasn’t involved in that part I'll probably miss people out so I'd better stop there!

A bunch of favors and models from Bareface gave us the people-power to move forward, and our short list of possible designers grew into a long list and then a cutthroat competition for the people that made the final cut.

After the 7 Days report of a lackluster showing for the Dubai Fashion Week, (the pictures they ran were somewhat uninspiring. . .but maybe 7 Days had an ax to grind. I thought we might have a problem with community and fashion in Dubai, but the designs I saw on the video were great.

More on the designs: I'm a jeans & t-shirt kind of guy (you can make a note that I fall in love with every girl in jeans and a white t-shirt I meet) and in the past I must admit that when my GF showed up for a party in a fancy, tasteful dress, I thought, "Why'd you change out of your jeans & t-shirt? Before you looked so HOT! Now you just look like some girl in a nice dress. . . like every other girl in here." - That didn't go over well. Anyway, that was all a long-winded setup to my main point: the formal designs were fabulous!!

Now, I could just be all starry eyed because this is my fashion show (okay, I admit it. It’s not mine. It's really Sevan & Khadra and Rotaracts'. . . but that makes it sort-of mine!) and this is the only time I've had a reason to pay attention to formal wear. (My girlfriend gave up and just wore jeans & t-shirts all the time) but I am impressed by the quality of the designers we had for Fashion My Community - I was like, "Whoa! These guys are really from my community?! My community has awesome designers in it, it's not just all hot air?! If we can do this with fashion, just think what we can do the rest of the community!!!

Haha! So maybe that's the new Rotaract motto:) 'Fashion your community... into our very own service-above-self Rotaract mold!' Make Dubai like us (or better than us!) and we'll find ways to do even more for charity, community impact, and building connections and relationships in society.

After we finish these two big events (the Fashion Show and, upcoming, The Extraordinary Entrepreneurial Mind - you don't want to miss it!), we're thinking about where to go next with Rotaract. We don't want to grow into a club that's just really good at glitz and glamor and putting on large events. - Sure that is part of what we do and we enjoy the excitement, but I think that we can be more than that. I want us to have deep roots. So we will be exploring in the next few months what more Rotaract can do, whether that means to plug people in to volunteer with charities in the UAE, or work with universities to motivate young professionals to impact their communities, or moving beyond Dubai to other areas in the UAE. (Fujairah is the up and coming place in my books, they just announced a big deal with Juba involving trade & services and media channels:)) There is exciting stuff for Rotaract everywhere!

So keep tuned for what Rotaract is up to next, whether we're volunteering at charities, starting businesses in Africa, or putting on our next event. With the inertia we've got going, it will be great.

Pro. Dev. Seminar - The Extraordinary Entrepreneurial Mindset

The Extraordinary Entrepreneurial Mindset
Progessional Development Seminar
June 11, 2011 - The Palace Hotel, The Old Town, Downtown Dubai

Fashion My Community - Charity Fashion Show

Fashion My Community

Charity Fashion Show

By Rotaract Jumeirah

Rotaract Jumeirah would like to invite you to a unique charity fashion show at Media One Hotel on May 21, 2011.
Fashion My Community promises to be a spectacular evening with a grand lineup. The initiative will feature the creations of up and coming Dubai based fashion designers.

All the proceeds will be donated to Senses School for Children with Special Needs.

The collected funds will serve to purchase a hydrotherapy machine greatly needed by the school to treat 80 per cent of the children who have moderate to severe physical disabilities.

Tickets are now on sale online through Time Out Tickets for AED 150:

http://www.timeoutdubai.com/aroundtown/events/10856
This is for a good cause, so purchase yours now!


For more information: RotaractJumeirah.org

    

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To buy tickets: