Two months have already flown by this year. Yikes!

 

Between July and August I have visited 28% of our clubs and their Boards of Directors: 14 via Zoom and 3 small in-person gatherings with social distancing. ALL of the clubs have been so welcoming. Thank you! It is heartwarming and inspiring to hear the stories of how our clubs are reaching out and helping even in the face of CV19 - with meals for youth and health workers, with trash cleanup and shredding projects, with backpacks filled with snacks and school supplies, with community gardens and city park enhancements. The list goes on and on. Rotary is out there, in our communities, changing lives. Thank you.

I am scheduled to meet with fourteen more clubs in September, which means that by the end of the month, I will have visited more than half the clubs in our district; and tentatively, a few of those will be in person.

 

The question has come up whether any of our clubs should be meeting at all in person because our RI insurance has an exclusion about communicable diseases. Every club should be following the mandates of their local governments and health regulations, and then making an informed decision about whether it is safe to meet in person or to continue with virtual/online meetings. Click on the blue hyperlink for some Re-opening Considerations from Zone2627.org.

 

No club can guarantee complete protection or safety. Life itself doesn't either. It is critical to know that NO Rotarian is required to attend any in-person meeting if he or she feels unsafe or uncomfortable. That is why we are hoping that as communities do begin to open up, our clubs consider "hybrid" meetings, where club members have the option to attend either online or in-person, based on what works best for them. This hybrid approach will take some getting used to, of course, and may require the purchase of some equipment to make it work, especially with our larger clubs, but it is a positive choice. I believe there will be some clubs who choose to continue to only meet online into the future. And that decision is perfectly acceptable as well, since as clubs, we need to respond to our members’ needs and preferences.

 

Now is a great time to reach out to speakers from around the country or around the world to speak at your club’s Zoom meetings. Zoom has opened up our ability to find speakers to talk about fascinating subjects, from archery to astronomy, from human trafficking to humpbacks, from midwifery to motocross, from cattle ranching to conflict resolution. We are no longer limited to finding people in our local areas. Survey your club members to see if anyone has a contact with a noted authority on a particular subject. 

The key is to remember that we are People of Action and our mission is to find solutions to problems in our communities and around the globe, whether we do that together in one room or one location, or spread across many rooms and many locations. The key is that together, we serve others. And when we give joy to others through service, we find joy in our own Rotary journeys.

 

Stay safe. Be well. Make your meetings meaningful. And F U N. See you on the trail.