In March, 38 Global Travelers shared an amazing experience in the Amazon. We went in two groups, in two consecutive weeks. Member Ken Hiller has captured the wonder and magic of the trip is an immersive, informative video.

Several times a year, the members of our virtual club, scattered far and wide, work to “serve together, separately.” In honor of Earth Day and of Rotary’s April theme of the environment, Global Travelers will be doing their part to do something kind for the Earth.

The challenge runs from April 23 through May 28. During that time, we hope every Global Traveler will participate in some type of Earth-honoring activity or donate to an organization the protects the Earth.

Chesa Keane, an Associate member of Global Travelers, is a long-time consultant in many aspects of IT. As members of a virtual Rotary club, we are all, by definition, on-line to various degrees. Chesa is launching a new series to help us understand all things Internet. She starts with browser hygiene. Cookies, anyone?

The first week-end in April, thirty-two Global Travelers got together in Kansas City for fellowship and service. The weather was on the chilly side, with occasional spurts of rain, but conversation, laughs, and food were plentiful, and our hearts were warm.

President-Elect Lenet Compton and her husband Bob were our hosts for the week-end.

We’ve seen many of you wearing Global Travelers apparel (shirts, sweatshirts, etc) purchased from our Rotary Global Travelers Lands End Store. We love that!

But you’ve reported that getting hats through the store wasn’t really workable, so… We’ve placed a special order for hats. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to advertise that you’re a proud Global Traveler. We hope to see lots of GT hats at the RI Convention.

Our April 8 meeting included a quick tutorial on getting started with the IGNITE smartphone application and how to use some of its features. This article provides a recap of that tutorial. IGNITE is free and available for both Apple and Android devices wherever you get your apps.

At our last Thursday CONNECT meeting of the spring, an enterprising and well-traveled group, led by member Dan Keyport, pulled together a list of smartphone apps that they find useful when traveling. Here they are, in no particular order.

During our recent trip to Ethiopia, our Global Travelers discovered a service opportunity that’s a perfect fit for our virtual club. Thanks to member Debbie Kornhauser and her friend Tom (who teaches in Arbu Minch, Ethiopia), we had the opportunity to spend a delightful evening with English language students from the university. During that evening, we decided it would be “beneficial to all concerned” to provide more opportunities for conversation using technology.