Our speaker for May 24 - PE Jordan Eller

Posted by Alison Thompson

Jordan’s Thailand Adventure

The Rotary International Convention 2012 was held at the Impact Center in Bangkok, Thailand. Our President-Elect Jordan Eller was in attendance, and spent 14 days in Thailand, having braved the 14-hour flight from LAX to Hong Kong. Over 35,000 Rotarians were in attendance, many from India to celebrate its polio-free year. This year’s Convention held a distinctly international feel. While there were about 15 members of our district in attendance, the convention was so enormous that Jordan only ran into two other people he knew, at the House of Friendship. Indeed, the Impact Center has capacity to host over 70,000 people, similar to the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Local volunteers decorated the airport, bus stops, and nearby with Rotary welcome signs—there was no question as to whether we belonged! The Convention was very well-organized.

Some of the Convention highlights included the House of Friendship, where over 200 clubs maintained display booths promoting their various projects improvinhg lives throughout the world, and also the Hall of Inspiration. Another clever curiousity included the booth for Global Network for Blood Donation—staffed by Rotarian-vampires!

Thailand is known as the “Land of a Thousand Smiles.” To commemorate this, Rotary members at the Convention formed the world’s largest smiley face on May 7. That’s our Jordan, there in the yellow, in the lower-right cheek.

Happy Face

A personal highlight, Jordan spent 7 days on a tremendous dive boat, the last of its kind in the world, enjoying the beauty below the seas of the Gulf of Thailand, between 70 and 100 miles offshore. Before each dive, there was a ceremony with the 10 divers and 20 crew, shooting fireworks to ward off evil. And we’re glad they did… we are happy to welcome back Jordan, and thank him for a wonderful presentation!

- Alison Thompson