Dick Houston, from the Faribault Rotary Club, is our Assistant District Governor and he introduced our District Governor, Ed Marek. Ed is from the St. Paul Sunrise Rotary Club and he wished he could be with us in person, he was glad to join us via zoom. Ed reached out to our guest, Mike Berthelsen, and thanked Mike for his support and involvement with Rotary Youth Exchange.
Ed spoke of the need to meet safely and to continue to be inclusive. Rotary International and District 5960 each have recommendations for clubs during this pandemic.
NC PETS (President Elect Training Sessions), the District Mid-term and the Conference of Clubs (our year end District Conference) will all be with physical distancing, via zoom.
Ed shared that he had always been impressed with the Northfield Club’s involvement with Youth Exchange, one of his favorite programs, and with our RCAT (Rotary Climate Action Team) initiative, with the 4-Way Taste Festival and much more. He gave a shout out to Bruce Molan; they have been working together with the Braver Angels program.
Creating last change begins with ourselves and then we reach out to the community which then extends globally. We do this by increasing our impact, expanding our reach and enhancing participant engagement and being able to adapt. This year’s Rotary International President, Holger Knaack, set our motto for the year as “Rotary Opens Opportunity." What a great year for this. We are able to do this by actively working to create new club models and to expand Rotary. We can also come into this understanding by every club doing a strategic planning session and assigning a club champion to keep us on track to fulfill our goals. Ed also emphasized that clubs need to stay relevant, change with the times, there is nothing sacred that we can’t make adjustments for. We need to embrace the change to nurture the future.
New clubs are the path to growth and he gave District 5950 (our neighbors to the west) as an example of what can be done. This coming January there will be additional training on this. The District also has quarterly round table discussions on membership. He emphasized that clubs must focus on service.
Long Walk on a Dry Road is a book that Ed recommends. It shows how the author discovered Rotary and his goals for bringing water to communities in need of fresh potable water became much more attainable. It is an important lesson for us to discover people’s passions and ask them to bring those passions to Rotary for us to join forces.
The Foundation donations we made toward the goal of $400.000 for polio eradication were very much appreciated. The Foundation has fun new ways to contribute and certainly every Rotarian should think about donating to the Foundation every year, also know as EREY.
Ed highlighted the 7 areas of Rotary Focus:
- Peace and conflict prevention/resolution.
- Disease prevention and treatment.
- Water and sanitation.
- Maternal and child health.
- Basic education and literacy.
- Economic and community development.
And the newest one becoming official in January: The Environment. They all are under-pinnings for Positive Peace. Negative Peace is the absence of violence. Positive Peace is a partnership with economics and justice.
The quote for the day was a Russian proverb: “If everyone gives a thread, the poor man has a shirt."
RI and the District are both working towards expanding our reach and enhancing partnership engagement. Some of this is being done through DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs. Rotary has been public in their statements about justice and the fight against racism.
Some ideas for our club … start a book club and have a discussion around one book, have Bruce and Ed speak to our club about Braver Angels. He encouraged us to remain involved in Rotary Youth Exchange, building Peace and Understanding, the continue to be involved in bringing an end to sex trafficking, something that is on the rise in Minnesota. And to keep our promise to the children of the world ... to bring an end to polio.
The entire November 19th meeting can be viewed here.
COMING UP
December 10 — Annual Club Meeting and Voting of Officers plus Meredith Galdeen, Using Our New Northfield Rotary Website. The Northfield Rotary Club has implemented a new website and membership management system powered by ClubRunner. An introduction to the new website and how to use some great new (and not so new) tools will be covered, including updating your member profile, accessing the member directory, and subscribing to the club calendar of events. Hosted by Vicki Dilley.
December 17 — Holiday Meeting - Social Committee Richard DeBeau and Sherri Meyers.
December 24 — Christmas Eve - No Meeting.
December 31 — Holiday Meeting - Social Committee Richard DeBeau and Sherri Meyers.
Ed Makes