It all began way back in the last quarter of the year 2024 when the then DGE Rtn Santosh Marathe convened a meeting of few Rtns from Rotary Club of Poona West, his home club and discussed his vision of District conference. The then DGND Rtn Charu Shrotri was selected to Chair the conference. We, home club RC Poona West members, knew that we have to be hosting the conference, but beyond that was a vast canvas of the unknown. What followed was series of physical and online meetings, brain storming sessions, collective thought process right from selecting the name RUTURANG and multitude of actions resulting in actually hosting RUTURANG conference in Feb,2026. Once the venue was decided, detailed estimation of conference costs, deciding the charges for the conference, sponsorship targets, listing the total work involved, estimating manpower requirements, formation of committees and selecting committee members and several other activities including numerous visits to Mahabaleshwar followed.
We launched RUTURANG during the Dist conference of DG Rtn Shital and within the first 3 days the patrons quota got completely booked. Rotarians of our district saw the opportunity of attending a conference and simultaneously enjoying a family holiday at Mahabaleshwar.
The unique plus points of Ruturang conference were 1) Its attractive location 2) Well Chosen speakers who actually are involved in doing relevant and good work for humanity.3) Adequate time for Rotary business and Avenue report presentations 4) Great Fellowship, pre tested high quality veg and non Veg food 5) Superb entertainment during both the days of conference and the gala night.6) more than 25 stalls at the venue, from where the delegates could buy goods of their liking, including Rotary branded materials 7) A gift hamper including products and discount coupons for shopping in Mahabaleshwar market.8) Facilitated stay arrangements for delegates in 10 different hotels in Mahabaleshwar 9) information available on every delegate’s mobile phone from a central information channel. 10) More than 50 home club volunteers manning various committees looking after services for comfort of delegates.
A lively Patrons evening set the ball rolling. The two day RUTURANG conference took off with President of host club Rtn Santosh Chiplunkar welcoming all the dignitaries and delegates. Then followed a superb Bharat Natyam performance of Ganesh Vandana by a group of young artists trained by Ann Gauri Deshpande, after which Conference counselor PDG Rtn Mohan Palesha narrated the purpose of the conference in his own lucid style. After this DG Rtn Santosh Marathe shared his vision with all the delegates. This was followed by a speech by RIPR PDG Rtn Ashok Kantoor. GML special edition was published on this occasion. Then Conference Chair DGN Rtn Charu Shrotri explained the conference Logistics.
During the conference, attending delegates were overwhelmed with the contents and insights shared by experienced Speakers Lt Gen (Rtd) A k Singh, Shri Yajurvendra Mahajan, Rtn Sanjay Takle, Shri Hanmantraoji Gaikwad, Dr Avinash Pol, Padmashri Manoj Joshi, Padmashri Dr Prakash Amte, Padmashri Dr Mandakini Amte.
Apart from Dist Director reports for Various Rotary avenues, the audience also witnessed a lot of introductions, recognitions, felicitations, Entertainment fillers presented by COPS group, Dist Cultural team members and others were additional attractions. The special musical show by Star Melodies of IPDG Rtn Shital Shah actually had the entire crowd dancing at the Gala Dinner during the conference.
The 4 MOCs PP Rtn Dr Rajiv Deshmukh, PP Rtn Dr Amod Divekar, PP Rtn Snehal Bhat and PP Rtn Vaishali Varnekar did an exemplary job of linking the submodules of the entire conference and beautifully reaching out to the audience. The conference closure was done with a formal Vote of Thanks by Conference secretary PP Rtn Vishwas Sapre after which president of host club Rtn Santosh Chiplunkar declared the conference closed.
All in all the Rotarians and their spouses who took the unique opportunity to attend RUTURANG Conference returned home with a feeling of a lot of positivity, having received quality inputs and having had a fun filled enjoyable conference experience memories of which will always be cherished.
Team Ruturang
