Rotaract Mid-Year Conference, what a blast!

What a nice week-end with over 40 Rotaractors who came from Cyprus, Lebanon and Egypt to attend Rotaract Mid-Year Conference.

The event was organised in collaboration with Rotaract Jumeirah and Rotaract Dubai. Both clubs worked hard to set that up but the level of positivity was at its
highest!

The two-day workshop started with a ‘unique’ Egyptian ice-breaker (thank you Karim). Then we discovered that our President Mehdi had hidden artistic skills and an
affinity to music (you were gorgeous by the way).

Fruitful discussions sparked during these two days and participants get to know each
other better, understand how Rotaractors in the region work and raise funds. The group had a lot of fun discovering Dubai and partying together!

The gala dinner was organised in such a nice restaurant that we have to name it. All
Rotaractors have been extremely well welcomed at Vivaldi restaurant, Sheraton
Dubai Creek. The food was just exquisite.

Then everybody went to Cavalli to spend the last night just enjoying being together and sharing the same Rotaract value which ask for the promotion of friendship.

We look forward to a next edition.

Can you keep with the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah

2012 started with a lot of activities and we are really proud of our achievements! Just to give you an idea, Rotaract Jumeirah organised the first Youth Leadership Summit ever in the region, in collaboration with Rotaract Dubai. All the proceeds of this event were used to sponsor a child as part of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund program.

A great sport tournament has been organised at Senses Residential and Day Care for Special Needs to show our affection to Senses' endearing residents but also empower children with severe disabilities.

Rotaract Jumeirah helped Rotary Jumeirah to organised charity concert aiming at classical music aficionados and AED 77,360 has been collected by the volunteers. All the proceeds will go to Senses School.

Because at Rotaract Jumeirah we believe that we can overpass expectations, the Club has been working on a series of twinning agreements with regional Rotaract Clubs to share its dynamism and learn from each other.

Finally, thanks to the generosity of our members, the money collected for our Club membership will go to sponsor another child in need of medical support.

Please, spread the word and don't hesitate to ask for any information about the club by emailing pr@rotaractjumeirah.org

Awareness around the Arabian Ghaf tree

Ghaf trees are vital for our eco-system, but they are succumbing because of urbanisation and infrastructure developments, which are leaving water-tables and wadis dry.

The Rotary Club of Jumeirah in collaboration with Ecoventure organised a day of sensitisation where volunteers planted 400 seeds and were introduced to the Ghaf tree benefits.

Ghaf trees are of paramount importance as it provides food to animals which are eating from their leaves. They are also key spots to provide shade for animals during day time and arid summers in the desert.

Ghaf trees are symbol of life and its woodlands also support large populations of insects, which in turn provide food for reptiles, birds and small mammals. For centuries it has been an essential food source, as well as a source of fuel, shelter and medicine. Its roots can go as deep as 60 metres to find a source of water.

The team of volunteers had a wonderful time planting these seeds and is looking forward to see the outcome of their efforts!

Follow us on Facebook to find out more on our upcoming activities.

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.