Patricia Fiske's final report

2007-08-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

July 19, 2007

Linda K. Nedved
D5450 GSE Chair
Cover Letter: District 5450 GSE Shanghai 2007 Final Report

Dear GSE Chair Linda:
The GSE Final Report Form is well done and gives TRF a lot of information, yet, when I completed the form, I felt that the GSE with China was sufficiently unique that it might be useful to have some details of the exchange. I also want to acknowledge the individual members of our one-club host, the RC of Shanghai…much as another team would acknowledge the many host clubs it visited.

Foremost, I need to express my deep-felt and sincere appreciations to you and to DG Frank Sargent for making this highly unlikely exchange with China happen. It is my strong suspicion that you were quite protective of me as team leader and I don’t even know all that you did. What I do know is that each of you brought your “Little Engine That Could” attitude with you whenever and wherever the track to success got blocked and especially whenever new track needed to be laid. I think I can, I think I can, I think I have a plan. And, I can do most anything if I only think I can! And, you could and did!

My appreciation also includes Talee Crowe, D5450 Foundation Chair, who is a strong advocate of GSE and the knowledgeable TRF GSE Coordinator Erin Lieg who never broke protocol while flexibly exercising her gracious imagination to bring the D5450 exchange with China to fruition.

Rtn. Jim Shreck, DRFC 5630, also deserves special recognition in this report. For with his collaborative spirit, D5630 provided the generous contribution that allowed us to have our fifth team member, Melanie Gentz.

There are not sufficient words to appreciate our alternate team leader, Craig Essex. Rtn. Craig not only attended every meeting, he always arrived ready to participate with a Rotary story, wise advice, a helping hand, needed equipment, and a lovely bottle of his home-brewed wine. I always felt 150% comfortable that should a calamity occur in my life, Rtn. Craig’s leadership of the team would yield a great exchange.

With foresight, you and the selection committees gave the D5450 China 2007 team a nine-month gestation period…time for us to become known, thus real, to the RC of Shanghai. And, it gave us time to bond. During our gestation, we met 18 times…some team members said that was “too many”! At our first meeting, we viewed the 2006 GSE Shanghai Team’s blog which was an invaluable orientation. Later we were fortunate that TL James Ayers spent a long evening of his Colorado holiday sharing his GSE experiences with us.

Learning about Rotary… The team learned to apply the 4-Way Test from Parker Rotarian Doug Young. PDG, Diane Kessel, provided a thorough view of TRF, an RI briefing and the invaluable advice to “always be flexible” that she garnered as TL to a GSE team to Brazil. TM Julia Weise met with us to share her experiences of her GSE. All but one team member, Ryan, who was sponsored by eClub One were able to visit their sponsoring clubs. In hindsight I recommend that future TLs encourage eClub sponsored TMs to attend a terra firma club meeting.

Learning about China… Each TM selected an aspect of China to present to the team…Amy-history; Melanie-ethics; Megan-business and economics; Kecia-government; and Ryan-miscellaneous factoids. A labored decision process on how best to learn the Chinese language provided the team with insight into one another’s personalities. “Learn Chinese together as a team from a live instructor” was the consensus. Our Chinese teacher, Jing Wei, tailored her instruction to our need to know enough Chinese to ‘survive’. Jing Wei was delightful in her knowledge of history and culture as it related to the Chinese language and consistently stayed beyond her paid time to instruct us. Though we did not use it very much, our limited command of Chinese was good to have for it provided us with a glimpse of the dedication it takes to learn the language and great respect for the Chinese people who spoke English.

Scheduling the exchange… The Rotarians in Shanghai were amazingly resourceful in scheduling our exchange. During our nineteen-day GSE, all businesses literally closed down for China’s bi-annual ten-day break and people, including Rotarians, went on holiday. It might be a best practice to schedule a GSE with the first criteria being what is happening in the country to be visited…and scheduling to mesh with Rotary’s District Conferences or the exchange teams sharing a flight as secondary and tertiary considerations.

Being with Chinese people…Inasmuch as the Chinese government does not yet allow its citizens to join organizations, members of the RC of Shanghai are expatriates who live and work in Shanghai. Thus our connection with Chinese citizens was limited to service personnel in shops, restaurants and the marvelous and enthusiastic young men and women who wanted to be photographed with us or practice their English. The grateful exceptions were the GSE Team that came to District 5450 and visits to the RC of Shanghai’s projects. Rtns.Terry Chu and Kim Fi escorted us to two hospitals where in collaboration with Gift of Life the RCS is supporting Gift of Life’s open heart surgery on children at the older WuXi No 1 Peoples' Hospital where we were hosted by the children’s heart surgeon and the brand new state of the art Suzhou Kowloon Hospital where we were hosted by the chief administrator.

Scheduling the vocational visits…In a district where there are few, or as in our case, only one host club, a best GSE practice would be for the exchange to be vocational specific with an eye to vocations that are plentiful in the city or district. Our team represented five vocations…Megan, business data analyst; Amy, journalist; Kecia, marketing consultant; Melanie, travel advisor; and Ryan, petroleum engineer. For example, the petroleum industry is government controlled in China and is based in Beijing, thus a petroleum vocational was not available in Shanghai. While they were clear on the reasons it happened, most members of my team felt that our exchange was short on their specific vocational experience.

That said, the vocational visits we had were valuable as they provided insight into the day to day and working lives of expatriates and the diplomatic negotiation required to make joint ventures with the Chinese work well.

 Rtn. Jukka Kantola (Finland)- Provided a tour of Stora Enso Paper Mill in Suzhou where we saw how paper is manufactured.
 Rtn. Elmar Weitzel (Germany) – Arranged tour of Bosch’s joint venture where we saw auto parts being manufactured and personally gave us a corporate presentation on Bosch (China) Investment Ltd.
 Rtn. Brinton Scott (USA) – Met with us in his offices and described China’s legal system with insight to its inherent risks.
 Rtn. Patrick Boot (USA) – Arranged a tour of the new Shanghai Water Port which is not yet open to the public as well as a tour of ProLogis Park, an enormous warehousing facility for goods coming and going via the water port.

 Rtn. Lilian Tan (Singapore), GSE chair, was imaginative in creating vocational opportunities during the weekend she provided at the Shanghai Tennis & Racquet Club, a western style compound for expatriates living and working in Shanghai. Ryan enjoyed a very informative tour of the electrical/water/hvac systems with the ST&RC’s maintenance engineer, Megan met with the ST&RC’s financial chief, and Lilian invited a resident, the manager of the Shanghai office of the global advertising agency JWT to meet with Kecia for an informative hour of the advertising scene in China.

 Rtn. Bill Crampton (USA), founder of Shanghai based Boston Training Technologies China, spent two days with us…one indoor day of lecture at the ST&RC and one on the streets of Shanghai…enlightening us with his vast knowledge of China, its language, architecture, culture and business practices.

We also experienced locally owned businesses.
 Rtn. Randall Eastman (Australia), TRF Chair and a consummate consensus builder, relieved our jetlag with a session at Dragonfly, the chain of spas he and his wife have founded. Rtn. Randall also introduced us to Chinapod, an effective method to learn Chinese online; and when the government officials would not allow us to visit the Shanghai Daily, arranged a meeting with Sino Media, independent publishers of China Economic Review, SpaChina, STARDOM and EuroBiz, where Amy had a small glimpse of journalism in China and we learned about the Chinese version of freedom of the press.

 GSE China TM, Yvonne Fang invited us to Shanghai Megaarach Media Network where we learned about the Chinese consumer.

Cultural events:
 Rtn. Frank treated us to a weekend in HangZhou, a lovely village of only eight million people outside of Shanghai with a lovely walking park, an important temple and tea plantations. It was a memorable respite from the hustle and bustle of Shanghai where Frank excelled at encouraging Chinese/American Friendships…exchanging smiles, a few Chinese words, and sharing photo ops.

 Rtn. Volker Wenk (Germany) provided a tour of the Mogan Shan Art Galleries at Suzhou Creek where we saw the work of modern artists and a visit to the antiques market and were treated to a dinner of scrumptious Shanghai dumplings.\

 Rtn. Wee Siew Yen (Hong Kong) spent a delightful day with us at the Zhujiajiao Water Village, China’s version of Venice with lunch in a tea house on the water.

 Rtn. Ralf Barbian (Germany) made us feel great about the day he spent with us. After six years of living in Shanghai, he finally had the opportunity to visit the Shanghai Municpal City Urban Planning Centre, the Art Museum, and after a lunch of Middle East food on the lake a leisurely walk amongst several million people in People's Square, YuYuan Garden, and on the Bund.

 Rtn. Jukka Kantola (Finland) gifted us with his Chinese teacher and advisor, David Zhoa, who after a lovely buffet lunch, shared his articulate expertise on the history and design of the famous SuZhou gardens.

Food is most important in the Chinese culture. Every lunch and dinner offered a different and plentiful array of foods for us to try. Though many of the foods were totally unfamiliar, the team members were curious, enthusiastic, and willing tasters of all that was offered. Our host families were always generous. And special lunches and dinners were hosted by
 Frank Yih & Tom Thong (USA) – welcoming feast of Chinese dishes;
 Joerg Brenn (Denmark) – sophisticated M on the Bund;
 Volker Wenk (Germany) – mmmmnnn those delicious Shanghai dumplings;
 Edwin Ngoi (Singapore) – spicy, varied Singaporean dishes
 Edwin Ngoi (Singapore) – traditional Chinese with mask dancer entertainment;
 Helmut Schneider (Germany) –lovely Thai food;
 Bill Crampton (USA) – imaginative Chinese vegetarian;
 John Marsden (Australia) – delicious Korean specialties;
 Lilian Tan (Singapore) – plentiful Brazilian grill;
 Members of the Rotary Club of Shanghai hosted our farewell dinner at Paulener,
a German pub in Pudong.

Home stays…we were grateful and enjoyed the opportunity to stay with Rotarian families including Thomas Andaemeer (Holland), Michel De Vriendt (Belgium), Jukka Kantola (Finland), Helmut Schneider (Germany), Wing See (Hong Kong), Lilian Tan (Singapore), Elmar Weitzel (Germany), Marjorie Wu (Hong Kong), and Frank Yih (USA born in Shanghai)

Recreation...Rtn. Michel De Vriendt (Belgium) gave us a day of sailing at the Shanghai Boat Club. We thought we’d spend the day standing around on a big boat…but Rtn. Michel had other plans. This team of non-sailors became quite proficient on a very windy, choppy water day sailing a small sailboat or catamaran. A wonderful day of new experiences and Rotary fellowship.

Shanghai is a vast city with intense traffic. The story shared by visitors to Shanghai is that at least half of your vacation will be spent in transit to your destinations. We found that story to be accurate and are grateful for the cars, vans and drivers provided by Rotarians Ralf Barbian, Patrick Boot, Joerg Brenn, Alex Chu, Michel De Vriendt, Jukka Kantola, Christian Kober, John Marsden, Roger Owens, Helmut Schneider, Wing See, Christian Weidemann, Volker Wenk, Elmar Weitzel, CC Wu, Wee Siew Yen, and Frank Yih.

Rtn. Frank Yih, was deservedly cited as the “Most Committed Rotarian” in the RCS this past year. Frank is the father of GSE in Shanghai and he and his wife, Nancy, are an extraordinary host family. The Yih’s ‘penthouse’ easily and comfortably accommodated our entire team with private rooms and bathrooms and communal meeting spaces, We found that in addition to the normal transit time, staying with a variety of host families who lived in different parts of the city could add up to two hours of travel time to a team member’s day. The few occasions when we were all together at Rtn. Frank’s were ideal for team bonding, communication and catching up on sleep.

Rtn. Frank is now devoting his life to providing education and health services to the poor of China. Through his private foundation, HuaQiao, he made it possible for the team to become part of China during a visit Henan Province – one of the poorest provinces in China. Each member of the team joined the RC of Shanghai and HuaQiao Foundation in making a contribution to the building of an elementary school in ShengShui, a farming village, where the little children walked for two miles to the nearest school. We attended the ground breaking ceremony and laid the foundation stone which includes the inscription GSE D5450 2007. Later, the team met with the leaders of the village, accepted their gratitude and learned of their plight and plans. Rtn. Frank’s private foundation is also supporting AIDS orphans living with aging grandparents in straw and mud houses with no ventilation, plumbing or electricity.

During this and my prior visits to Shanghai and from my reading, China’s growth and prosperity seemed ubiquitous and it appeared that this vast country of 1.3 billion people was capable of being self-sufficient. That impression changed dramatically after Rtn. Frank arranged to take us to Henan Province. Rotary can make a significant difference in the relationships of populations of the developed countries and this land of need with its water, health and hunger and literacy initiatives. It is important that GSE continues with the RC of Shanghai and begins with the RC of Beijing. It is important that the visiting teams have the opportunity to see the poor provinces as well as the industrialized cities…for it is in the poor provinces that our work needs to be done.

GSE in Beijing…The fourth week of the GSE team’s stay in China was in Beijing. Though the team’s visit to Beijing was not an official GSE, it was a GSE in spirit with the unofficial support of the RC of Beijing who accepted our offer to be the program at their meeting. PE Mike Ma arranged for Ryan to meet with the manager of Shell Oil Company and hosted us with an extraordinary Peking Duck dinner to which he also invited Int. Svcs. Chair Bunrei Hirata. Rtn Bunrei and I were able to meet to talk about international service projects as well.

Vocationally, Megan arranged for a visit to Ball Metal and Container Corporation, a sister company to her employer, Ball Aerospace. After learning about and seeing how aluminum cans are made, we all agreed we would never again take an aluminum can for granted! Kecia also had the opportunity to visit WE, a Chinese owned marketing communications company. Culturally we visited Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City and The Temple of Heaven and their lovely gardens. We also visited the Great Wall at Mutianyu and again at YuangyaGuan where Megan ran the full Great Wall Marathon and Melanie and Ryan ran half-marathons. During both visits, we had the amazing experience of being alone on portions of the Great Wall…a treasured memory for each of us.

It is my hope that our work to bring GSE to Beijing will result in the the RC of Beijing hosting a 2008 GSE Team…and that direct experience will then result in their continuing participation in the years to come

GSE Chair Linda, as I believe you recognized after your own experience as a member of the GSE team to Thailand, assimilating the GSE experience simply takes longer than two months. As it has for you, my GSE experience will be a lifetime memory. I appreciate what TRF is doing to create world peace and understanding in the lives of thousands of young professionals and the people they touch around the world. I am honored and thankful that I was selected to lead our D5450 Team on the ground-breaking exchange to China.

Yours in Rotary,

Patricia J. Fiske
Team Leader District 5450 GSE to China 2007

Patricia's final report

Patricia Fiske's final report