Complaint Review: Rotary Foundation Group Study Exchange (GSE) program

I had a disappointing experience applying to Rotary Foundation's Group Study Exchange (GSE) program. GSE  organizes educational two-to-six week international group trips for working adults. A Rotarian in another city described the opportunity to me last year and I was immediately interested. 

The national website and my dicussions with Rotarians seemed to indicate that the exchange was intended to provide international experience to adult professionals who lacked such exposure, in order to increase the quantity of globally-conscious professionals in the area. The national website states, "prior overseas experience is not necessary," and that the program aims for adults to learn to “address the global needs of their own communities."
 
I applied and interviewed in Seattle, which was organizing a trip to Japan. The process is lengthy. Dozens of semi-finalists, each sponsored by local Rotary chapters, undergo multiple all-day sessions and interviews to make the finalists' group, who attend weekly sessions for three months before a traveling team of four is named. Local leaders Richard MacLean and Laverne McIntyre led the selections when I applied.

I enjoyed speaking with several local applicants before and during the process, but I was surprised that some of them already had vast experience living abroad, even in Japan itself. There were, however, several applicants who lacked international experience but who were noticably educated, articulate, gregarious and open-minded.
 
I was not selected, nor were any of the other applicants who lacked international experience. The selected team on the local website (http://www.gse.rotary5030.org/team50301.htm) all mentioned in their interviews they'd had  extensive international experience. Two of the four team members--Alice Hisako Ikeda (who is Japanese-American) and Michele M. Fugiel have--lived in Japan. The local team leader, Sayoko Kuwahara, is from Japan. An alternate, Roger Gula, has also lived in Japan. Fugiel stated several times in her interviews that she has studied or worked in a different country each year or two years since college graduation. Certainly this is an interesting lifestyle, but did she benefit from the GSE program as much as others would have?
 
It seems that rather than hosting an enriching learning opportunity in order to benefit the community, the Seattle chapter conducted a vacation for well-traveled adults. They did not choose the applicants who would benefit the most, which would in turn might greatly benefit the Seattle community.
The Seattle Rotary District (5030) seems to have selection criteria for the program that deviates from the national foundation's apparent intent. The Seattle selection committee should be upfront with the reality that local adults without international experience have little chance to be accepted in the program.