John Stewart and Todd Clancy, representing our club at the Mexico-US Friendship Conference & Global Grants Exchange in Yuma

Todd Clancy and John Stewart did a tag-team presentation for our club meeting last Wednesday, designed to help our club members understand how Rotary Foundation Global Grant Projects are built and presented for support at the annual Mexico-U.S. Friendship Conference & Global Grants Exchange.  Sunup Rotary has been a respected international projects leader over the years at these conferences, and our club is curently ramping up to sponsor another major Global Grants Project at the 2027 Conference.  Therefore, it is important that our club members comprehend how the process works.

The dynamic duo explained that this conference, which PDG Don Schiller helped begin more than 25 years ago, is the “launch pad” which Rotary Clubs in Arizona and parts of Mexico have been using for these many years to build the necessary partner support from other clubs and districts for major international projects, which may be located anywhere in the world.  They told us that, for the first two days of the conference, clubs and districts are making 15-20 PowerPoint and Video presentations about their proposed projects.  Next, each of the projects is posted on the walls of a room.  The representatives of the Rotary clubs attending the conference then record the amount of support their club is willing to commit to each of the projects they have selected.  After all of the club commitments have been recorded, conference leaders add up the numbers and determine which projects have gained enough committed partner club & district support to enable the project to advance to the stage where it is presented to The Rotary Foundation to detertmine if it qualifies, by Foundation guidelines, as a TRF Global Grants Project.  If it qualifies, and has sufficient committed funding for half of the project's total amount, it advances to the stage where it can be approved for the requested Global Grant matching amount from the TRF World Fund.  In many cases, recruitment of support from other clubs and districts for a particular project happens prior to the conference, so the sponsoring Rotary club knows how much additional support needs to be raised during the conference.  In closing their presentation, club members were given a first glimpse of the Global Grant project our club is intending to propose.  The conference alternates years of being hosted in Arizona and Mexico.  It was in Yuma last year, will be in Mexico this year, and willl be back in Arizona in 2027.  It was explained that our club's project is not yet at a stage when it can be proposed at this year's conference, but should be ready to present next year. 

COMMMUNITY SERVICE

Tiffany and Emmett report there are still a few slots open during  these Fall Ball games.  Please take a look on SignUpGenius, and see if you can help:

Have you purchased your $25 ticket yet?  How many tickets have you sold to others? The chefs from the restaurants above are two of the six chefs who will be competing for the “Best Chili in Prescott” recognition at this year's Sunup Rotary Chili Cook-Off. 

Tickets will be available during our Sunup Time club meeting this week.

DISTRICT NEWS

ROTARY CONNECTIONS has been rescheduled.  It will still be held at Glendale Community College, but the new date is Saturday, November 14.  See Russ' Prez Says article for more details.