Dear Rotaractors,

We are more than 20.000 neighbours, friends and young community leaders who come together to build friendships, bridges and create long lasting change in our communities in Europe.

As President of the European Rotaract Information Centre, I am honoured to welcome you to the E.R.I.C. year of 2014 – 2015 and of course soon to the Rotaract European Meeting in Bremen. The bREMen weekend allows us to work with this year’s visions which are based on five pillars. First, E.R.I.C should be an essential centre providing information – the main purpose. Second, to focus on best practice sharing, as we need to take better advantage of skills, knowledge and talent of our Rotaractors. Third, pillar is to enhance the voice of E.R.I.C. within Rotaract and Rotary and to empower our Country Representatives, for greater link and involvement, as the fourth pillar. Remember, Rotaract in Europe will only be successful if we are working together.

In Bremen, take the opportunity to interact with the 3.100 German Rotaractors among the 170 Clubs – share ideas, discuss bylaws, plan joint projects and continue to develop Rotaract in Europe. That is what I will do.

So, what makes us different? As Rotary puts it, I believe it is our multidisciplinary approach and our way of thinking that gives us possibilities to not only apply leadership skills and knowledge but to see and face challenges in new ways and at the same time come up with innovative solutions. We have seen the fantastic presentations from the Gala evening in Monaco, showing us videos from the top candidates of BESP and TCA – giving us goose bumps and to remind ourselves that we share a passion for our community, to create this lasting change. Simply, we make the world our home.

We are more than 220.000 Rotaractors across the globe, gathering to do ‘Service about self’. Yet again, we are neighbours and friends helping each other to engage Rotaract, change lives.

Last but not least. It is important for not only me but for Rotaract to not forget to have fun and enjoy the E.R.I.C. ride during the year. Apply the Rotary 4way test. We are all doing this voluntarily, on our free time and although we have deadlines, emails to answers and power-points to produce – please do it with a smile and lets help each other J

You + Me = Success.

Emelie Aho Fältskog
President of the European Rotaract Information Centre 2014-2015