A Presentation by District Governor Elaine Thompson 2018-19 on the 2018Rotary International Convention in Toronto.

1. Report
on
RICO
2018
By ElaineThompson
DG 2018-2019

2. Toronto excels in confusing
its visitors
 1The Convention’s General Sessions
were held at the Air Canada Centre,
where you had to line up and go
through security. However, the
House of Friendship and the
Breakout Sessions were held in the
MetroToronto Convention Centre
(MTCC), 1.1 km away.

3. Toronto excels in confusing its visitors
 2 To get to the 700 level of the South
Building of MTCC (where some of the
Breakout Sessions took place) or to the 800
level of the MTCC (where the House of
Friendship was located), you entered at
street level and then took escalators DOWN
three or 4 levels in the South Building of
MTCC.
 3 If the breakout session was at one of the
100 or 200 levels of MTCC, you had to go
over to the North Building of MTCC and
follow the signs to find the room.

4. The2018-2019RI Boardof
Directorshas no women on it.
(CanadianDeanRohrs was on the
previousRI Boardof Directors)

5. The Master of Ceremonies of all
the convention’s general
sessions was Brittany Arthur, a
young Australian who was an
Ambassadorial Scholar in Berlin,
Germany where she formed and
was president of a Rotaract
Club.

6. Adhanom of WHO speaks
 The Director-General of the World Health
Organization (Dr.Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus) commended the sustained efforts
and funding that Rotary has provided towards
the eradication of polio AND, in the process,
providing the valuable information to aid the
WHO’s efforts to prevent other diseases –
especially in isolated areas that local volunteers
and international Rotarians identified while
administering polio vaccines to children.

7. The president and CEO of UNICEF
USA, Caryl M Stern, emphasized the
need to support children’s rights to
health services, education, food, clean
water and the security of love and
family (with a nod-nod, wink-wink that
reminded everyone of recent events at
the Mexico-US border).

8. Three
Breakout
Sessions
 A new fellowship formed in RI called the
“Fellowship of Rotarian PDGs (and friends)”
 A breakout session provided hints on using
photographs to tell Rotary’s story
 Another session pointed out that it’s not
enough to simply welcome a member of the
LGBTQ community into one’s Rotary club – we
need to communicate to the LGBTQ
community that our club’s idea of diversity
includes them.

9. Prime Minister
JustinTrudeau was
given Rotary’s Polio
Eradication
ChampionAward
by RI President Ian
Riseley for being
the first
government to
formally fund the
fight to eradicate
polio back in 1986.

10. Since then,Canada has provided over
$750 million in support of a polio-free
world, which includes a $100 million
pledgemade at the RI International
AtlantaConvention in 2017. InJune 2018,
as host of theG7 summit,Canada was
joined byG7 leaders in affirming a
commitment to polio eradication.

11. AmericanRotarianswere
impressedwiththe
presentationmadebyPM
JustinTrudeauonthelast
dayoftheConvention.
OnecommentIheard–
“Itwassonicetohavethe
PrimeMinistercometo
speaktothepeople----in
completesentences!”

12. Two pithy
comments
made by
American
Rotarians
about their
president:
About his short-lived staff
appointments –
“It’s like bowel movements!”
About the president himself –
“a few sandwiches short of a
picnic”