This year the conference was attended by a record number of Rotaracters and RYLA awardees… some varying degrees of participation, but we enjoyed ourselves!

I have split personalities at conference as I am associated with Rotaract but my heart lies with RYLA, the RYLA stand was all expertly set up by Tim when we arrived so all we had to do was hand out some leaflets and chat to a few Rotarians as they passed through.  But that was only part of why we were there for the weekend!

The Friday evening saw most Rotaracters dressing up in fancy dress for the evening down at the spa…  Our little party were… you guessed it (or maybe you didn’t!) Smarties and we got a lot of comments for our ‘novel approach’!  There were Pirates and Gangsters with Bob the Builder and a Cowboy to name but a few.  We enjoyed an evening of dancing and drinking the night away even if the bar did close WAY too early!

Up early (well for us anyway) and down to the Spa for a session on the stands, followed by I must say a Brilliant presentation by Rachel and Alex, you did RYLA proud guys, we are all satisfied you rasied the profile of RYLA with Rotarians very successfully.  Im sure you realised by the constant stream of positive comments that came your way – even while you were eating fish and chips on the harbour!  WELL DONE!

Another night was passed down at the Spa but this time showing all the Rotarians up with our, if I say so myself, excellent attempt at being suited and booted.  The whole of Rotaract made the effort this time, the result of which is shown below:

The only thing to critisise down at the Spa is that there was Way too much going on on Saturday evening, the atmosphere in the room with the band didn’t really get going and the room with the disco was even worse!  We don’t really understand what happened, part of the conference for Rotaract is the interaction and integration with Rotary, this wasn’t achieved this year to the extent of past years.

Its so good to be around like minded and fun people, im sure we all had a brilliant evening and we are all looking forward to Southport next year for Kens year of DG, hopefully with some support, leadership and organisation from our own Rotaract Pres! (no dig intended – ok maybe a bit) 

And so comes Sunday morning, we all donned our Raspberry tshirts and went to support the Rotaract session on stage – well done to the Rotaracters who turned up if you felt as bad as I did (only tired of course).  The weekend was finished off very well by a session on the dodgems – exactly what Rotaract is all about!

Without outgoing, willing people to participate in events like conference Rotaract for me wouldn’t be what it is… lets just hope that events like this keep happening and we can take Rotaract into the future!

Bex xx

(RYLA 2001 Course 2)