The Paul Harris Society recognizes Rotary members and friends of The Rotary Foundation who elect to contribute $1,000 or more each year to the Annual Fund, PolioPlus Fund, or approved global grants. The purpose of the Paul Harris Society is to honor and thank individuals for their generous, ongoing support of The Rotary Foundation. Paul Harris Society contributions also count toward Sustaining Member (Annual Fund contributions only), EREY, Paul Harris Fellow, and Major Donor recognition. Recognition consists of a chevron style pin and a certificate provided by your District Paul Harris Society Coordinator.
Paul Harris Society members are listed in the Paul Harris Society Report.
Are you interested in taking the next step in supporting our Foundation? Ask me for a Paul Harris Society membership form.
All Passport Club members should familiarize them selves with our District's Youth Protection Policy. It applies to any Rotary activity members may be involved with as Rotarians with Youth.
September is Basic Education and Literary Month! In that light, let me post once again my message from last week: let’s find a school to donate these books to!
Finding a Home for Books. Back to school time is in full force at the moment, with many students returning to school after a long pause, and September is Basic Education and Literacy Month, so I’d like to ask you for your help in trying to find a home for a class set of children’s books.
As a teacher, I am always looking for speakers to talk to my students. The Rick Hansen Foundation (https://www.rickhansen.com/) has an Ambassador Program which sends disabled people to talk to students. I had the pleasure of hosting an Ambassador at the college where I teach, and since then I have discovered the many resources of the foundation. When I received an email about a children’s book telling the story of Rick Hansen (Rick Hansen – ‘The boy who loved to move’), I immediately sent a request for a class set (about 30). Now I would like to find a home for these books, and I need your help.
Please write to me directly if you have any ideas, contacts, etc. to put these books in some children’s hands this fall!
And since we’re talking about reading: have you seen the lastest edition of our magazine (September 2020), now revamped and called Rotary? It’s simply beautiful! Take a look to find gorgeous photos and excellent articles, including a tribute to past RI President Frank Devlyn, that I actually had the pleasure to meet in Quebec City many years ago. Happy reading!
Secretary's Thoughts
Hi everyone and Happy Labour Day Weekend! Rather a cool one so far! First off, though, Congratulations to Nicke Salén for spearheading such a great International “Zoom virtual experience”, with help from Past President Chris and our previous special guest Rushton Hurley, last Tuesday afternoon or rather “evening” in Sweden and Norway. Nicke was anxious to demonstrate how resilient we Rotarians are in the midst of the current pandemic and how effective on-line meetings and training sessions can be managed using Zoom-type virtual technology. Elsewhere in this Bulletin, Margaret Shibley tells us all about it. And, we had a great turnout from our Passport club members.
Later this week we will have more details coming about the special FAR Project Launch in Kingston and Online on Saturday afternoon, September 12th. I will be sending out details by email.
Finally, be sure to have a look at new member Corina Paraschiv's inspirational contributions at the end of this Bulletin including some very worthwhile links to useful activities and you tube videos.
Thanks to all who have contributed to this week's Bulletin\
Have a great week everyone!
Yours in Rotary Service,
Terry
President-Elect Maddie Roy
(Maddie's Musings will be back again next week!)
Membership Corner from Membership Chair Ariane Carriere
Members are asked to take the Protecting Personal Data course. It’s available in the Learning Centre at My Rotary. Follow Rotary Foundation guidelines with regards to photo taking and sharing. It’s now a requirement for Project Leads to take the course. I cannot give you a direct link because you need to be signed in.
Several members were asking about shirts at the last meeting. We have t-shirts and polo shirts.
The polo shirts are $45.00 CAD plus shipping.
The t-shirts are $15.00 CAD plus shipping.
If you are interested, send me your size and I will put an order together.
Our attendance this week is at 56.19%, better than last week! I know there are still makeups that have not been entered, so let's get them in there.
One of the particular strengths of on-line Rotary clubs is the ability of their members to contribute, not just to their own club, but to any club in need of their specific skills and abilities. Nicke Salén demonstrated this beautifully last Tuesday, 1 September, when he hosted, from Stockholm, Sweden, a seminar for his Rotary colleagues in Sweden and Norway: “Creating and Strengthening Connections, Even Now.”
Over 100 people attended virtually, representing 8 countries and 5 time zones — Sweden, Norway, Italy, Malta, Canada, USA, Argentina, and Japan. There were 13 of us from D7040 Passport Rotary Club, as well as DG Hadi and DG-Elect Fay.
Our own Mr. Zoom, Chris Cochrane, spoke about the etiquette for hosts, speakers, and participants that has evolved to ensure all runs smoothly.
Rushton Hurley, Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley (rotary.cool), showed us how to make use of Zoom to hold meetings ourselves. His excellent slides are available at tinyurl.com/RH-Sweden20. Rather than reproduce an instruction manual, I would share with you a few of the general learnings I took from this meeting.
Your guest speakers can come from anywhere! Now doesn’t that stir the imagination?
Try it before you have to use it. i.e. do a practice run with the technology and some colleagues before you actually try to have a meeting that matters.
Think of leading a meeting as a two-person job — one person ‘hosts,’ meaning they run the Zoom portion, and the other leads the meeting. You can always swap these roles around, even during the meeting, but you don’t want to be the one chewing your lip and squinting on camera while you try to figure out why your slides aren’t showing on the shared screen.
Webinars work for distributing information to large numbers of people, but if you want engagement and involvement, Zoom meeting is a better tool. Even with large numbers, you can easily go into ‘breakout rooms’ that permit people to share. It makes a big difference to the energy of the meeting.
So, take a look at the slides and experiment. It’s probably not a half bad idea if all of us become more Zoom-literate.