Digital Club Meeting: Guests Welcome!

We will be posting a link 
on or before the meeting date
for you to click to join us
at 6:00 p.m.

Read below for tips on digital meetings!

Our guest on April 23 is Christiana Flessner with the Canadian Wheelchair Foundation.

Christiana has been Executive Director of the Canadian Wheelchair Foundation since its inception in late 2002. Volunteering her time for the first 14 months of the organization’s existence allowed a strong support base to be built by her dedicated efforts and every dollar collected to be used to deliver wheelchairs.

Christiana works closely with the Canadian and foreign governments, international foundations, Rotary clubs, districts and zones and Knights of Columbus councils and states across the country. Her speaking presentations take her on the road for most of the year, but translate into ever growing support for the global wheelchair program and alliances with major foundations and organizations in many countries.

Christiana has been a Rotarian since 2001, is a past Assistant Governor of Rotary District 5050, a member and Past President of the Rotary Club of Semiahmoo, White Rock, British Columbia. She speaks German, English, Spanish and French fluently and has participated in hundreds of wheelchair distributions around the world. She was recently recognized as a Not-for-Profit-Leader by the Surrey Board of Trade through their Surrey Women in Business awards.

The Canadian Wheelchair Foundation is an independent Canadian registered charity with the goal to deliver brand new, free wheelchairs to persons with physical disabilities throughout the world who are without mobility or the means to acquire a wheelchair.

With a strong focus on developing and newly industrialized states, the Canadian Wheelchair Foundation continues to change the lives of people and communities with a gift that extends hope, dignity, freedom and independence to all.

PNW Passport Club: 
How to participate effectively in a virtual meeting:

As Rotarians one of the most valuable parts of our membership is fellowship and seeing one another on a regular basis.  As the PNW Passport Club continues to redefine the role of a Rotary Club and in response to the COVID-19 outbreak we are moving our meetings to an online format starting tonight.  We hope as a club that we will soon be able to meet twice a month in person and that all of us remain healthy and safe.

I have been working in a virtual environment for several years.  We have learned a few things that help us to be more effective when we are connected virtually through any online media.  There are many nuances, however I would like to suggest the following FOUR guidelines for online meetings.  If any of you use online meetings regularly and would like to add some suggestions, please send me an email. 

FOUR GUIDELINES

1. Preparation- do an audio and video check.  :  Zoom (www.zoom.com) is the platform we will be using.  A link for our specific meeting with multiple options for connecting, will be sent out in an email to members and posted on our website.  Guests are welcome! 

Click the link if you are using a computer. There is a Zoom app for both iPhones and Androids that you can download, and it is very easy to use-especially if you do not have a camera on your computer.  If you use your computer or a tablet, there is either the zoom.com website or tablet app available as well. 

Practice or test the application before the meeting if you have not used the app or tool before.  Figure out where the buttons are to mute your microphone, turn on and off the video, close your self-image if you find it distracting, etc.  Note there are phone numbers for both the US and Canada.  If one number does not work, try another one for your country. (Zoom and all online meeting resources are being used heavily around the world right now, so it is possible that we will run into some slow or busy signals – keep trying)

2.  Use the video function during the meeting.  It is very hard to participate if you cannot see peoples faces, visual cues and some sense of body language.   Using just the audio is very difficult for both the user and those participating, it tends to make it easy for people to talk over one another and that causes frustration and takes up time.  If you do not have video capacity, please be mindful that you do not talk on top of others.  We can have a meeting with up to 50 participants!  Fill in your name when asked by the application so that others know who is speaking.

3.  Use headphones for audio; if you use your computer to dial in, use your headphones to listen and speak.  On your phone or tablet, same thing.  Frequently the microphone on the computer will pick up background noise and cause a feedback loop that is disruptive. (this is a tough one for me – I am always misplacing my headphones…)

4.  Practice Courtesy. Unless you are the facilitator or a presenter, BE BRIEF: keep comments/responses/questions to 2-3 sentences and pause between sentences to give folks a chance to interject a question, if needed.  Then let someone else have a turn.  As a facilitator it is important to allow everyone to have a chance to speak before allowing someone to have a second turn.  It seems elementary, but it can be a challenge when we are all in different electronic and physical environments.

See you online,


Deb Wiggs