Fishing

Are you ready for an unforgettable yet inexpensive vacation? Would you like to spend your next holiday for free at a beach house, a mountain getaway, an apartment in Paris or London, a country home in Ireland, a ranch in Texas or a home in Australia or New Zealand from which to explore the country. As we build our membership in the Rotary Home Exchange Fellowship we know that vacation opportunities like these, and many more will be available.

Home Exchange provides a wonderful opportunity for Rotarians to experience a vacation like no other, in the comfort of a wonderful home, immersed in the culture of the location they are visiting, all the while saving thousands of dollars in vacation expenses. And it is a great way to visit other Rotarians involved in Fellowship activities.

We are very excited to announce an exclusive new benefit to all Rotary Members…www.RotaryHomeExchange.com is scheduled to launch November 1st, 2004! We are providing you some information in hopes you will help us promote this program. Since 1977, over 5,000 Rotarians have arranged wonderful vacations using the Rotary Home Exchange Fellowship, getting all the benefits of home exchange plus the added comfort and security of knowing their home will be well cared for by a fellow Rotarian.

We are offering a SPECIAL PRICE OFFER as we build our base of Listings.

Regular Price will be $50/year (US Dollars) for a one year listing. You may make unlimited exchanges at no additional cost or daily charges. Many Members even exchange cars, saving you even more money

If you join before December 31, 2004, a one year listing will cost only $25! And if you don’t get an exchange in your first year for any reason, your second year is free. JOIN NOW

Revenues in excess of operating expenses will, at the discretion of the Home Exchange Fellowship Committee, be used to assist with humanitarian projects recognized by Rotary International.

Home Exchange is the unique vacation experience where you visit another country or state and live in the home of a fellow Rotarian while they stay in yours.

This wonderful arrangement not only saves each party thousands of dollars in vacation expenses (no hotel bills, reduced food costs and often no rental car fees), but it provides opportunities which would not otherwise be available to a regular tourist such as meeting their friends and neighbours (getting first-hand information on the area’s tourist attractions), shopping in the local markets, participating in the life of the community, getting immersed in the local culture, and the list goes on. And home exchange is one of the best ways to travel with children. They often get to meet kids of their age (when does that happen on a regular vacation?), and the home often is equipped with books and toys because your exchange partner probably has children also. With the Home Exchange Fellowship at www.RotaryHomeExchange.com, you know that you are dealing with fellow Rotarians and that your home will be well cared for.

For example, when Joe Donachie and Karen wanted to take a vacation to England from their home in Nova Scotia, they knew their 4 week trip wasn't going to cost them much more than staying at home. No hotel bills, no $30 breakfasts, no car rental fees. And best of all, instead of staying in cramped hotel rooms, they were lords of their own manor in a seven bedroom former Victorian Vicarage located in a small village with a 13^th Century church and a very friendly local pub. Instead of going to Expedia or Travelocity, they did a home exchange with another Rotarian. While on vacation, they lived in the comfort of a wonderful home, not like tourists in a hotel. And indeed, meeting the neighbors and shopping at the local markets, they felt like locals, not like visitors. During their stay they used their exchange home as a base to explore a great deal of the UK.

And their English exchange partner? They were equally pleased in Joe’s spacious 3 bedroom home with heated pool and large secluded garden in a small Nova Scotia county town and both partners had the opportunity to meet fellow Rotarians while on vacation.

Thousands of Rotarians have enjoyed similar home exchange experiences. You can read their testimonials at http://www.rotary7820.com/homeexchange/testimonies.htm, but here are a few typical comments:

Holiday home exchanging is a wonderful way of truly getting the "feel" of a country and of meeting the "locals" which, as a two week tourist, one could never achieve.

The best things about Home Exchange:- immersing ourselves in the culture of the country; marketing; keeping house and mixing with people on a totally different level; making wonderful new friends; sharing local experiences; exciting social adventures; new points of view.

Our Rotary Exchange in Cannes was one of the most enjoyable vacations we have ever had and our "opposite number" had an equally memorable time in Florida.

It will be very hard to equal the marvelous time we had in Australia

Our glorious holiday lasted three weeks. We ate scones with clotted cream in Cornwall, visited castles in Wales, toured stately homes in Devon and walked around Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The Citroen registered 1,800 mls. when we dropped it off at Heathrow. We had a smashing vacation and surprisingly, the cost was just $1,819 for each of us.

The Rotary Home Exchange Fellowship is now offering a world class home exchange website at www.RotaryHomeExchange.com. Open only to Rotarians, the site features:

Only 3 Clicks of the Mouse to easily Search, Select and Contact your perfect vacation home exchange partner. No out-of-date printed directories. New Listings are posted immediately and can be edited at any time.
Unlimited Photos. Key to a successful exchange is good communication about your home and expectations. Homes don’t have to be equal in size or value, so long as they offer the utility, location and features each party needs. Post as many photos of your home, neighborhood or family with captions and descriptions at no additional charge. See an example of this great feature at http://homeexchange.com/EAframeset.php?id=15987.
Your own Member Control Panel, where you can edit your listings at any time, plus My Saved Listings and many other features
Helpful Hints, FAQ and everything you need to know about arranging your own exchange. www.RotaryHomeExchange.com/new.php.
Complete Privacy Protection. Members’ contact information is never posted on the site, nor will it be sold or otherwise made available to anyone for any other purpose. Our unique “blind” email system allows people to send you email without revealing your email address or any other contact information to them.
Each Listing will include the Member’s Rotary Club, District and Classification
FREE access to HomeExchange.com. We were able to develop this site in cooperation with HomeExchange.com, established in 1992. We have made special arrangements with them that (entirely at your option) you may elect to have your listing posted for free on www.HomeExchange.com, giving you the opportunity to have your listing seen by tens of thousands of visitors to the HomeExchange site. You can easily post or un-post your Listing on HomeExchange.com with a single click. Even if you do not choose to be so listed, you will have access to view and contact any of their 6,000 + worldwide Members at no additional cost.

Why Home Exchange is safe.

It is completely understandable that some people are apprehensive about the the idea of a “stranger” coming into their home (even if it is a fellow Rotarian). But thousands of Rotarians have been home exchanging for many years, with never a report of malicious damage or theft.

People who home exchange are like you, open, adventurous, respectable, professional, most with families like yours. And because they know you are Rotarians and that you are in their house while they are in yours, there is a natural mutual trust.

Even so, there are a number of precautions that can be taken to feel comfortable before committing to an exchange, including putting valuable things away and having neighbors stop in, asking for referrals of prior exchanges and making sure you have good prior communications including descriptions photos of the home and area, so misplaced expectations are minimized.

You can get more information at www.RotaryHomeExchange.com. Please understand that it will take a period of time to build up our listings base. To start exchanging immediately you may join now and choose the option for your listing to be immediately posted on the www.HomeExchange.com site and its 6,000+ home exchange opportunities.

Here are two informative links:

http://www.homeexchange.com/qanda.php

A Q&A used by HomeExchange.com but that should answer many of your own questions.

http://www.homeexchange.com/samplelistings.php

These and 6,000+ other HomeExchange.com listings will be available to Rotary Members and we anticipate the Rotary site will have similar quality listings.

If you have any questions, you can always email us at info@RotaryHomeExchange.com or call us at 902.667.1163. After the launch, Telephone Customer Service will be provided by HomeExchange.com 800.877.8723 (US and Canada) or 310.798.3864 (International).

Yours in the Fellowship of Rotary, wishing you bon voyage,

Joe Donachie
International Chairman
Rotary Home Exchange Fellowship

Info@RotaryHomeExchange.com

902.667.1163 (Canada)