Ron Hanson, who was responsible for today's program assignment, tried out our new Smart TV for the first time to show us 2 Rotary videos. 
 
The first video was shown at the recent District Conference in Bismarck and was created by a Rotary Youth Exchange student from France. The theme was Rotary's Youth Exchange Program. The video showed Youth Exchange students involved in a variety of American activities - with Santa Claus, trying curling, eating, dancing, celebrating New Year's Eve, tobogganing, hugging, posing, ice fishing and driving, all set to French music. The video made us feel like we were at the District Conference and feeling the excitement of the event.

The second video featured the Rotary International Council on Legislation. One of Ron's goals is for our club to propose legislation for the council. The council meets every 3 years at the Chicago Marriot hotel and representatives vote on rules and resolutions for Rotary International. The video was made as a guide for the voting representatives. They all get a binder of legislation, rules and a guide book, which they need to bring with them and read before the council meets. They have assigned seating and headphones to translate the spoken transactions. Officers preside and screens show
the item being discussed. They start with the Strategic Plan and the 5 year Financial Forecast, then proceed to the main business, the proposed legislation. Representatives from every district in the world are present and may go to the microphones to propose legislation. They have 2 to 4 minutes to do so. Then a debate is held where representatives may speak from 1 to 3 minutes. Voting is done electronically with the results shown on the screens. A simple majority wins.

After the video, Ron Hanson added that our District Representative is Tom Riley. He also mentioned that the Council on Legislation meeting costs $3.2 million every 3 years and we pay for it by having $1 from our annual dues reserved for that purpose. Thanks for all the information, Ron, shown on our new Smart TV!
 
 
Excerpts taken from the Cloquet Rotary log, edited by Rachael Martin