Carol Horner, District 5650 Governor, presented the program on August 11. She showed a short video of Rotary International President, Shekhar Mehta, who emphasized diversity, equity and inclusion.
Carol expanded on the theme of diversity, saying "We promote inclusion biases of diversity, not in spite of diversity." Carol emphasized Rotary's vision statement that together we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves. The core values of Rotary, fellowship, integrity, diversity, service and leadership, are a focus of District 5650, and each club in the district should aim to make those values a part of its culture. She announced that a new code of conduct for Rotarians will be issued in December.
We learned that District 5650 was the first district in Rotary International to have four female presidents serve or to serve consecutively in the world.
Carol's challenge to our club is to increase members through diversity and inclusiveness. Some of Carol's points on adding new members are:
a. Membership is everyone’s responsibility. Be on the lookout for the characteristics we want in our members. Such things as integrity, leadership, action-oriented, service focused, diverse in background and experience, and inclusive.
b. Speak about your club’s strengths, purpose, focus, and accomplishments. Share why you are a Rotarian.
c. Grow your club through diversity. You will not only gain members but gain trust from your community, innovation and new ideas, and positive energy and engagement from existing members.
d, Stay tuned for the district’s public facing membership recruiting website that the Public Image team is developing this month.
Each member was presented a lapel pin showing R focus of inclusiveness and Carol was presented our gift to guest speakers, a ballpoint pen with the four way test.