Aruba Quota Club Hosts Deepak Chopra

The Aruba Quota club's annual personal development seminar for women was a smashing success in May 2001, with best-selling author Dr. Deepak Chopra as the featured guest.

Quotarians from QI of Aruba have their books signed by Dr. Deepak Chopra (seated).

Chopra is known as the "poet-prophet of alternative medicine" for his views on the health connections between mind and body. Author of 26 books about wellness and spirituality and one of Time magazine's Top 100 Icons and Heroes of the Twentieth Century, the founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in La Jolla, California, U.S.A., brought noteworthy cache to the 13th annual event.

Fulfilling a Genuine Need

The Aruba Quota club offers the seminar as a service to local women. Since 1988, the event has featured many international speakers on personal growth. "We are fulfilling a genuine need, enabling us to contribute to the community at the personal level," says past club president Mena Lacle.

Deepak Chopra is the most prominent speaker the event has ever attracted. Seminar committee chair Edie Beaujon says the time was right to host a speaker of Chopra's caliber, and a local chiropractor put her in touch with him. Chopra agreed to appear for a reduced fee, but a greater challenge was finding an auditorium big enough for a big name appearance.

Engaging the Whole Club

"Getting a place large enough for the event was the hardest part. This seminar has grown from 80 women in attendance 13 years ago to over 900 people in 2001, with both men and women involved. And it could easily have gone to 1,500 people if we'd had the space," says Edie.

Edie and co-Chair Adwina Arends steered the committee toward organized ticket sales. Rather than rely upon advertising and spontaneous sales, the committee tasked every club member with a specific number of tickets to sell. Astrid Muller went beyond the call of duty and sold the most tickets—150 in all!

After a press conference about the event, seats sold out very quickly. And although it was never designed as a fundraiser, the seminar made a profit that the club distributed to various charitable organizations in Aruba.

If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It!

The seminar committee is busy with details for the 2002 event, which will focus on empowering women in the community. Featured speaker Dr. Martha Beck is founder of a life-coaching firm and author of Finding Your Own North Star.

Edie has encouraging advice for other clubs thinking of hosting a similar event: "You can do anything. The only limits are those you create. If you can dream it, you can do it!"

—Blaire Fallon Byrley
© 2002

For details on the Aruba seminar, please click here.