Summer has truly launched here in Canada, and so has our Vision Exercise. Votes for Round 1 on our collected ideas are due tonight (17 July). Round 2, with the most heavily supported ideas presented, you will see shortly. Please be sure to respond on the Survey Monkey link you have been sent. Even if you did not respond to the Round 1 survey, your opinion remains important.
Round 2 will be open until end of day 23 July. Lars and Team will then be getting ready for our club discussion on 26 July.
Our July Business Meeting (26 July, 1:00 – 3:00 pm. EST) will address normal business briefly at the outset, but subsequently be devoted to a presentation of our collected and prioritized thoughts by Lars Henriksson and his team (International Visioning Facilitation Council (IVFC) Visioning Team in District 7070), a brief refresher on strategic planning, and subsequent breakout rooms where we can take one or two issues and begin to develop an implementation strategy, and then come back and discuss further.
Given the depth of thoughtful consideration and conversation that needs to go into this stage of the exercise, the length of the meeting is extended to 2 hours. For our members in a time zone significantly offset from those in this District, our normal meeting time would be late at night. (Sweden, for example, is currently 6 h ahead of this District.) To facilitate attendance of our members the time for this meeting only is 1pm EST.
Margaret Shibley
President-Elect's Report
As a significant part of my work over the last few years has focused on training organizations and coaching leaders in Diversity Equity and Inclusion issues, I was pleased when I joined the passport club to see our district had an active DEI committee. A few months after joining the club, I got in touch with the committee chair Martha Weaver indicated my interest and communicated a willingness to do what I could to support their work.
A few weeks ago I was invited to become a member of the committee and I am excited that in the coming year I will get to work alongside other Rotarians in the district in promoting this important work.
I'm really excited to explore DEI within our own Passport Club. Due to our unique position as an online club, our membership already has an interesting mix of creative and interesting professionals from around the world. It has been a source of joy for me to be able, through the miracle of the web, to share my Rotary experience with Rotarians from around the world and I hope we never lose sight of the rich experience this diversity brings to our club.
As we move this year into creating a vision, and strategic plan for our club we need to ensure that Equity Diversity and Inclusion play an integral role in our vision of what our club can be. We need to ask ourselves the following questions:
how can we expand our international presence
how do we engage Rotarians from around the world in a common and inspiring vision
how do we reach out to groups who aren’t currently represented in Rotary and let them know we have a place for them
I have always been proud to be a member of Rotary International, but our club gives us a unique chance not just to be members of Rotary International but to embody it.
A number of years ago Vera Meyers, an inclusion strategist, cultural innovator, thought leader, and social commentator said ‘’Diversity is being invited to the party, and Inclusion is being asked to dance’’. In recent years others have expanded on this idea and I invite you to reflect on this.
‘’Diversity is being invited to the party without having to chase the invite, Inclusion is having the music to dance and not being judged on your dance moves, Equity is being able to attend the dance without barriers or access issues’’ and somewhere in the middle of all three lies Belonging.
My sincere desire is to work alongside you to make our club that place of belonging.
David Carey
Secretary's Thoughts
Welcome to a new our new members. In the coming weeks, we'll ask each for some words about themselves we can publish.
Our July 26th meeting is your chance to have direct input into the future of our club.
Timely reminders will be sent to everyone.
Plus the July "Coffee with a Rotarian" list should've been email to you. Please enjoy your fellowship.
For our new members, “Coffee with a Rotarian” is one of our means for increasing socialization, fellowship or connectivity. it's one way we can get to know others. The list will change each month, though some pairings may repeat occasionally, as members are added or removed.
When you get the email each month, open the attachment and follow the directions.
Once you've connected, please send me a brief summary of what you learned about the other person
Chris Cochrane
Membership
We have the pleasure of greeting new members and saying goodbye to some friends who have moved on.
Let’s welcomeEsther and Lionel Arlan as Honorary members having spend long careers in Rotary Service.
Also joining as an honorary member is RushtonHurley of Santa Clara, USA. (More words on him in future bulletins ).
Joining us from the Perth Rotary Club which is currently being dissolved, please welcome:
Ray Hook & Doug Thorne.
Returning to the District and now in our club is past District 7040 Governor Dr.Greg Campbell of Jonesport, ME, USA.
Welcome to Charles Stewart of Charlottesville, VA. USA.
All are long time Rotarians.
We say goodbye and best wishes to some departing members Ariane and Fred Carriere,Renee-Claude Drouin, Colin Lyle & BrianPatterson.
We look forward to a proper induction to our new members. There are more potential new members in the cue, David Wood
Member Thoughts
A Special Invitation to All
Many of you know I started a Diverse Book Club in 2021-22 as Literacy Chair for the District.
I had a lot of fun hosting four different sessions where the participants discussed various books (works of fiction and non-fiction; authors from the US, Canada, and one Icelandic writer; and various genres).
I'm continuing the book club this year and I would love to see many of you online for one or more session.
To start off the new Rotary year, I wanted to honour our first female (and Canadian) RI president, Jennifer Jones, by choosing a female, Canadian writer to focus on.
So, it is with great pride and excitement I invite personally everyone to join me online for a Q & A with Canadian author Genevieve Graham, and to discuss her most recent book, Bluebird. Ms. Graham is the bestselling author of historical novels such as Tides of Honour, The Forgotten Home Child, and Letters Across the Sea.
The event will take place on Zoom on August 16, 2022 at 7:00pm EDT. Details can be found on District 7040’s website:
