Go Pack Go!

Today the team were invited to share a central part of the local culture with a visit to Lambeau stadium — home of the NFL team the Green Bay Packers.

Together with members of the Neenah club we toured the stadium, including getting right out onto the ground. A knowledgeable guide explained it all — and Tim filled in a lot of the gaps for those of us (like me) who were less than familiar with American Football. For example — I discovered that most of the team can’t kick, and even those who can rarely do kick the football — what a funny sport to call football!  

We visited the football hall of fame and saw the Packers’ 4 Super Bowl tropies, and browsed a gift shop with 2 stories of branded items ranging from keyrings, to t-shirts and jackets, novelty headware (like the iconic cheese-head hat) baby clothes, furniture and even a $3500 jewelled packers purse!  The visit really demonstrated the passion that the people of Wisconsin and the US have for their sport and their local team.

This evening we had a pleasant evening of fellowship with pizza and beer and plenty of laughs.

Tomorrow — our final presentation in the US!

Myf

Rat-a-tat-tat

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Yesterday the team spent the morning at a large electronic manufacturing company called Plexus. Plexus builds a range of products ranging from communication and networking to military and medical equipment. Given the “secret” projects being undertaken in regards to military equipment I am unable to make further comments as big brother was given our passport details prior to touring. What was evident was the company’s commitment to improving their procedures and efficiency.

After the morning the team went to “root” for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers who are a local minor league baseball team. The weather held off and the team had a great day at a park. Who would have known there’d be racing cheese buckets, sumo wrestling, a dancing rattle snake mascot and the seventh innings stretch where the crowd sang “take me out to the ballgame”. Just for the record the Rattlers won 7-2 after a haul of 5 runs in the bottom of the 7th. The Rattlers weren’t the only winners on the day as Jeff caught a flying t-shirt, Allen caught a frisbee and I won a baseball. It seemed the only thing we didn’t win was one of the flying bratwursts that were shot 20 metres into the air from a  cannon called the bratszooka.

In the evening we gathered with our hosts at the Whiting Boathouse for a soup bonanza with members from the RC of Neenah and guests. There were 8 soups to sample and a number of delicious salads and desserts. Many thanks to the generous members who helped to cater for the event.

District Conference

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Rotary District 6270 conducted it’s annual conference over the past weekend. The conference was at the Heidel House in Green Lake and would run from Friday through to Sunday.

The team however arrived on Thursday and were invited to a pot luck for dinner on Thursday night that was great fun.

The team used Friday as an opportunity to recharge the batteries after a busy week at Fond du lac. I was very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to head out to Ripon High School for the morning to observe some Physical Education classes and I must pass on a big thankyou to Lee Prellwitz for organising that at the last minute. After that the boys headed off to Lawsonia Golf Course to play in the 4’s Golf while the girls spent the day at the hotel spa getting pampered. That night was the introduction to the conference and the 50’s dance where Jeff showed off his moves.

On Saturday morning the team was up and firing as we had our break out session (team presentation) at 10:00am. The room was so packed they had to get more chairs and the team did a fantastic presentation that was well received by the audience. They particularly liked the ‘Australian Perspective’ of the world map. About 6 weeks ago was our very own district conference presentation in Ballarat and I must admit that I was pretty nervous prior to going out on stage that day. This time I was far more confident as were the rest of the team and it just goes to show how far we have come in such a short time.

After our presentation we were free to listen to other presenters and two of these sessions left a lasting impression in my mind. One was from a young woman from ‘The Halo Trust’ which is an organisation that is helping to eradicate landmines in war ravaged nations (google search it to learn more). It was terrible to hear about the impact these mines are having on countries more than a decade after conflict has ceased in these areas and thankfully brave people are slowly in the process of removing these mines. The second session was delivered by a young Palestinian woman and a young Israeli man that have joined together and are working to try and bring peace to a region of great conflict. It was captivating listening and to hear the struggles these young people face yet continue to push for something they both want so much is really commendable.

To counter the seriousness of the afternoon sessions, the evening was spent attending the various hospitality suites and all team members thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking with a number of rotarians and their partners and we invite all the people we spoke to to please take us up on our offers should you come visit Australia.

The conference finished after breakfast on Sunday and the team spent the afternoon on a pontoon boat around Green Lake. After that we were collected by our hosts and transported to Neenah where we will be spending the next 5 days in our final hosting location.

Finally, the conference was exceptional and a huge congratulations must be passed onto the RC of West Allis for putting on such a great weekend.

Vocational Day – 25th April

Wednesday the 25th April was day two of our back to back vocational days and it proved to be very worthwhile for me. The schools I visited were Theisen Middle School, Fond du lac Central and Fond du lac High School. I was able to observe classes taking place at all three schools and was able to exchange valuable ideas with staff members from each school. Fondy High was an exceptionally large school (almost 2300 students or something like that) and was the same size as some shopping centres and it had an enormous car park. The school also has one full time policeman employed on campus during all hours of operation. I particularly liked that their PE curriculum consisted of units of XC skiing, ice and inline skating and cycling. They also had their very own high ropes course in their gymnasium which was super cool.

One thing I have noticed across all the schools that I have visited is the great pride that the students have for the school that they attend. The school colours, motto’s, murals and mascots are everywhere (and I mean everywhere) and it instills a sense or worth to the students and it works!  I have not noticed a speck of graffiti or damaged property in any of the schools that I have visited and remember some of these have more than 2000 students. Also students do not have to wear uniform either but many still choose to wear school branded clothing.

That afternoon I was also very fortunate to join Greg Winkler and his girls varsity soccer team for practice. I was a welcome visitor and even got to join in some of the drills but was told the aussie rules ball that I took along was a little bit silly.

Thankyou to Sherry Holmes and the Fond du lac morning club for organising such valuable vocational visits. I know I am not the only team member that experienced such wonderful vocational visits as I have heard Allen say to a number of people that “it ticked all the boxes in regard to things I wanted to learn about the dairy industry here in Wisconsin”.

Next was the district conference in Green Lake and we’ll fill you in on that shortly. Thanks for being patient – we have been extremely busy!

fond of fondy

So the GSE train departed Osh Kosh on Saturday for Fond du lac (foot of the lake). It has been a hectic week so we will briefly update everyone on our movements this week

Saturday night was spent with our individual hosts. On Sunday the team headed over to Mary Jo Keating and Bugs Johnson’s lake house where we headed out onto the lake on their pontoon boat. The group then had dinner at Marcel and Heather Biros house (tims hosts) and Jeff and Allen made valuable contributions to the dinner by making salads.

Monday saw the team make their first presentation for this leg of the exchange at the noon club of Fond du lac. The group performed an Anzac ceremony and the team would like to thank the club for the manner in which it was received. We then visited the Kohler display centre which was very impressive. That night the team went to Sebastians steakhouse for tea.

Tuesday was a full vocational day. Each team member spent the entire day visiting sites specific to their job. Allen visited the Breeze farm and discussed all aspects of reproductive management and management of mastitis. Lauren and Myf went to St Agnes Hospital and the Lutheran Home  where they spoke to a wide range of professionals in healthcare. Mike Wahl hosted Jeff at Midstates Aluminium and I (tim) checked out some special educational programs offered by the Association of Commerce to expose students to work and involve them in leadership opportunities. I was also fortunate enough to visit the YMCA of Fond du lac and the boys and girls club.

Photos to come

IT’S A GIRL!!!

Myf, Tim, Allen and Lauren would like to send out a huge congratulations to our team leader, Jeff, on the birth of his granddaughter, Claire Sophia. She was born on Saturday 21st April 2012 at 6:45am (Melbourne time) at 7 pounds ,6 ounces. Congratulations to Jeff and all of the Smallacombe family!!

 

Oshkosh (B’gosh)

It has been a great week with the whole team staying in shouting distance of one another, in houses side by side and under the guidance of former guidance councillor Cecil.

I finally had the opportunity and slept in! Waking at 9am was a real luxury, after some busy programs over the last ten days or so. Each of us spent our morning in different ways “de-compressing” doing laundry, exercising etc. before departing late morning for a noon Rotary meeting at the local club. We were pleased to have the opportunity to see the local club’s presentation for the day which was about how the community coordinates emergency services and evacuations in response to local disasters, including discussion of Tornadoes, Floods, Blizzards and also how they respond to not-so-natural disasters such as armed offenders in the community. We were able to inform those around us of Australia’s emergency warning systems implemented since Black Saturday, including the ability to have regional warnings delivered by text message to mobile (cell) phones in the region of an emergency. Locals here in Wisconsin can use an emergency-specific radio device which only operates to provide warnings to homes and businesses, and there is an area wide Tornado warning.

The club presented us with their gorgeous Oshkosh B’gosh licensed banners, which are shaped like tiny pairs of overalls, reflecting the local community’s high level of involvement in manufacturing (27% employed in manufacturing businesses) and the birthplace of the B’gosh label of children’s clothing.

In the afternoon we toured the YMCA, a local sports centre with a fantastic variety of sports facilities aimed at involving the whole family (pool, gym, indoor ice rink and soccer field, childcare, preschool, and much more) and then toured a large local high school Oshkosh West. Tim was impressed by their sporting facilities, and the engagement of the whole school in school spirit, competitive sports etc, and I think we were all impressed by the number of engaging, vocational subjects on offer to around 1900 senior high school students, and the great facilities for teaching road safety including 16 driver simulator seats. School pride was clearly evident in the relative absence of graffiti on site.

In the evening we attended a 3 club “mixer” with drinks and nibbles and lots of talk.

This morning dawned and we were up and out by 0725am – we met with our driver for the day Lee Prellwitz from the Ripon club who was our gracious tourguide for the day as we attended and presented at the Montello club at noon, and spent the morning and afternoon visiting a range of businesses. These included  “Rippin good” cookies, (yes, there were samples)  a plant manufacturing recycled plastic packaging, and a timber finishing business which created a range of products we can’t tell you about – we signed a confidentiality agreement! We also visited the little white schoolhouse in Ripon – the birthplace of the Republican Party.

Today was our first truly wet day, with lots of rain coming down all afternoon. There might be snow overnight, or freezing rain, but  it isnt cold enough yet. This evening we were warmly received by the Ripon club at a pot luck dinner in one of the club members’ homes.

Tomorrow? hopefully vocational opportunities for all.

Myf.

Oshkosh and surrounds sights, sounds and smells of the day:

Oshkosh and surrounds sights, sounds and smells of the day:

-Scream of Jeff and Allen as they got into freezing cold showers

-Warm muffins straight out of the oven

-A lost and found camera (not mine this time!)

-Flock of turkeys

-Fresh cheese curds and string cheese (yum!)

-1 pound of chocolate cheese fudge

-Tactical assault rifles for sale

-Cheese head hats

-Club sandwiches

-Crashed a hot air balloon, 747, F22, raptor and hang glider at the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Museum 

-Kicked a footy

-Sound of a ripping shirt (Allen)

-Melting plastic whilst cooking enchiladas for dinner

 

Another great day in Oshkosh thanks to our great host Cecil.

Lauren

A busy few days

It has been an incredibly busy couple of days for the GSE team. After a wonderful few days with the RC of West Allis, the team headed to the Lake Country RC at Hartland for the weekend. We each did something uniquely different with our hosts. My weekend consisted of a trip down to Madison, the state capital of Wisconsin where Dan Vrakas (my host and county executive) showed me the sights.

First stop was the capitol building and then onto Camp Randall. Camp Randall is the home of the Wisconsin Badgers college football team. Despite the sign saying no entry during training, I managed to get onto the field for a photo and was even introduced to a Badger legend Barry Alvarez (former coach). That evening the team visited the lovely Golden Mast Restaurant for a Q & A with the Rotary Club. Some other highlights of the weekend included seeing a doe and her fawn walk across the backyard, meeting Mrs Wisconsin USA in Madison and having a jam with Dan on a Les Paul guitar. A huge thanks to Tina and Dan for looking after me over this weekend.

After a brief stay in the lake country, we have travelled up to the lovely town of Osh Kosh and settled in with Beer and Brats – typical Wisconsin fare with our new hosts. Today was another busy day with a presentation at the RC of OshKosh and the RC of Berlin. Inbetween these presentations were visits to a wood craft shop, the berlin hospital and then a hover craft business ran by a couple of crazy aussies.

Allens First Blog

Yesterday saw both Jeff and I take a short visit to the district asembly to retrieve a missing camera with our hosts the Spindlers. (guess who left it there) Following this we were escorted around the milwaukee foreshore and spent some time in the local river walk before lunch at Bombers Resteraunt in downtown Milwaukee.

After lunch we visited Four Winds Farm owned by Clark and Joy Vilter, this was an enjoyable visit even though the family had recently dispersed the majority of their Guernsey herd, as they had been one or the mort succesfull exhibitors at World Dairy Expo and had undertaken many cutting edge technological innovations including cloning.

Dinned was at local Rotarian Hans Weissgerbers restaurant Golden Mast, where an enjoyable meal and evening was had by the entire team getting to know the members of our host club better.

Allen Van Kuyk