David introduced our speakers:

• Henrike Herbold, Rotary Club of Hochstadt a d Aisch, Germany, NGE Secretary
• Michael Fischer Rotary Disctrict 1950, Germany, Youth Exchange Program, Chair

Michael started the talk and later handed over to Henrike.  He spoke of requirements if our club is interested to get involved with Youth Exchange activities.  It is necessary for the District to be registered (and District 3400 is registered).  

This means our District has accepted the guidelines that are designed to prevent problems of sexual harrasment.

He has been involved with Youth Exchange (now New Generations Exchange) for many years.  Many German clubs are active and the total number of exchanges from Germany each year is about 800.

A significant change within Rotary this year has beent he adding of "New Generations" as a fifth avenue of service - see http://www.rotary.org/en/mediaandnews/news/pages/100428_col10_5avenue.aspx

Henrike used slides for her talk on NGE, and a copy of the slides are here (file size: 367K).  She told us how New Generations Exchange is new and not widely known in Rotary yet.  It is aimed at 18-25 year-olds - that is older than participants in Group Study Exchange (GSE) who are under 18.

There is another new Rotary concept of a Coodinator (not a manager) - see http://www.rotary.org/en/mediaandnews/news/pages/100107_news_rotarycoordinators.aspx .  

For NGE, a coordinator is someone who looks at the bigger picture for the participants to get a balance.  The aim is to avoid problems like the "ABC syndrome" - which refers to "another bloody church".  Please look through the slides for more detail.