Posted by Pete DeLaunay on Sep 01, 2021
President Jimmy rang the bell promptly at 12:30 in the Westin Hotel’s Cascade Ballroom, followed by the day’s anthem,  America the Beautiful,  led by Cynthia Chirot accompanied by Burr Stewart.  Bill Center delivered the day’s inspiration that took the form of an update about past president Todd Summerfelt’s battle against cancer.  “Cancer is an insidious disease inflicting untold anguish,” Bill said, “as Todd has been grappling with cancer since the first of the year but doing better than expected. "
 
President Jimmy asked past president and KING-TV anchor Mark Wright to introduce and interview the day’s featured speaker, Paul Shoemaker, founding president of Social Venture Partners International (SVPI) (www.socialventurepartners.org), and one of the Northwest’s leading experts on activating social change agents, and how individuals can be the most effective.  His new book, Taking Charge of Change: How Rebuilders Solve Hard Problems (www.paulshoemaker.org/taking-charge-of-change) describes how the social, economic, and health challenges facing America in the 2020s are radically different than those we faced even one generation ago.
His perspectives about inequity stemmed from his observations as a youth about the subtle differences in behaviors between his father’s white Methodist Church and an all-black Methodist Church across town. “As pastor of the white church my dad partnered with the black Methodist church in many ways,” he said, “and when that minister visited our congregation people looked at him differently.”
Fast forward 50 years to his study with the Balmer Group about economic and racial inequity.  “America made so much progress coming out of WWII,” he continued, “yet in the last 20 years it feels like America is not coming out of inequity at all.” 
He described how the Me-Too movement, the killing of George Floyd, and income inequity across the board have been a “rude awakening” for leaders in government, private and non-profit sectors; and moreover, what can America do to get on the right path. “Leadership is the seminal lever to make a change,” he began.  Researching his book for more than one year, he asked who are the best leaders and what are their traits and qualities?  He wanted to understand who is out there making true change, and what are the challenges of our time.   
He came away with a set of “intentional traits” that seemed to characterize true leaders: authenticity, integrity, a generosity mindset, complexity & capacity for constant change, data conviction used wisely, and ability to move across all sectors.
His book, Taking Charge of Change: How Rebuilders Solve Hard Problems profiles leaders who make a difference by applying one or more of the “intentional traits” he describes as key to rebuilding America. 
For example, he cited Roseann Hagerty’s NYC-based organization, Community Solutions, which focused on veterans and homelessness.  “To be effective you need a generosity mindset or a person like Roseann that will not be distracted by egos and sidebars but want to get the best out of people,” he said. After years of dedication, her organization has all but ended veteran homelessness in 16 cities by bringing a generosity mindset.  She is “the kind of leader American needs”.
He hopes for companies to look beyond quarterly profit and instead focus on the generosity mindset.  He said we are blessed in this part of the country as we have a range of people who embrace the generosity mindset, calling out Microsoft president Brad Smith, former Governor Christine Gregoire, and former Starbuck’s executive Howard Schult as examples of those who see the best in everyone. 
“Brad Smith is a cross-sector fluent leader that can cross the private and non-profit sector with ease, and Chris Gregoire is the ultimate cross-sectional leader who brought pandemic issues early on to her team of CEOs and saved a lot of lives,” he said.
He characterized it as a “Can’t Not Do” attitude to motivate people to jump in with both feet.  “It goes into specific leadership qualities and a self-assessment tool,” he concluded, “so, people can put it into action themselves and drive home how important leaders in the corporate and public sector need those five traits. 
 
The day’s short program was a ‘member spotlight’ delivered by John Steckler who introduced Tom Hayward with 44 years of Rotary membership and a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy --  from flying combat missions over Korea and Vietnam to becoming Chief of Naval Operations in the Pacific Fleet to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Tom graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, won his gold wings, flew 146 combat missions in the Korean war, many missions in the Vietnam war, and rose in the ranks to become one of America’s most distinguished Naval officers,” John said.  Since his retirement from the Navy Tom Hayward has founded and funded four educational foundations and launched the first online courses when online learning was in its infancy.  Tom continues to lead on Seattle 4’s Education Committee.
 
President Jimmy asked Rotary Cares’ co-chairs Liz Powell (elizabeth@remaxonmarket.com) and Marsha Mutisi (mambokadzi@msn.com) to the podium to invite members to join the Rotary Cares committee.  They said the committee is looking for good and bad news that would touch club members from new jobs, to new babies to illness. 
 
VP Programs, David Fain, encouraged Rotarians to attend next week’s meeting on Zoom (no in-person meeting) to welcome former Seahawk and KIRO TV sports/news anchor Steve Raible who will talk about the upcoming Seahawks season. 
 

Thank you Newsletter Reporter Pete DeLaunay!

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