During my stay with my daughter in Carmel, Indiana (near Indianapolis) I finally managed to visit a local club. During my previous stay I couldn’t as all clubs in the region were “on holiday” with Thanksgiving.
Finding the clubs is easy with the Rotary app on the mobile.

My daughter took a day off so she could take me and join the lunch on 1 April.

Always interesting to see how other clubs work and how they can be different.
A pretty large crowd, men and women. Relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Efficient handling of visiting Rotarians with attendance slip that also functions as a badge.
They read the 4-way test, as we sometimes do. Different: a (Christian) prayer and allegiance pledge to America, those would be a definite no-go in our clubs (non religious and we are many nationalities and religions). No “Happy Money” collection. Contrary to our club, I guess few visitors (only me!).
I made a short introduction of our Beijing Club and we exchanged banners.

The presentation was for me very interesting: the speaker gave an overview of the operation of the “Bankers Life Fieldhouse”, the Indianapolis indoor stadium for basketball that houses the Indiana Pacers. Just a few days earlier I visited the impressive stadium for the match Indiana Pacers – Chicago Bulls. As I worked before for the Olympics I could appreciate how much the sports industry is advanced there, certainly compared to China that is decades behind. The whole setup, security, facilities, food and beverage, merchandise outlets, the fan clubs, the atmosphere: whaw. Great stuff. See the figures of what it means in terms of contribution to the economy…

I hope next time to re-visit the club and maybe visit others in the region.