I am a millennial. Think about that statement for a minute, what do you picture??
Probably a person with an outrageous hairstyle, free-spirited, and tattooed who most are hesitant to hire into their workforce. It's a culture attributed to many advances in technology and the way we interact with others on a social level. Gone are face to face conversations, replaced by screens and internet and social media madness.
Here is a couple of interesting facts about our generation, "Millennial's" those born between 1982 and 2000.
1.They Dominate the Workforce.
2.They Want to Make a Difference.
3.They Believe in Personal Responsibility- trying to make a difference in the world.
4.They’re the Best Educated Generation.
We make a big impact on the world, we WANT to make a DIFFERENCE, we WANT to make the WORLD A BETTER PLACE, we're smart and we are DOMINATING the workforce right now.
This brings me to share how I viewed, participated, and learned at a Rotary Spring Leadership Assembly this past weekend. I'm a first timer to Rotary, no stranger to volunteering, looking for some way to leave my impact on the world, to make it a better place, to help those less fortunate. Rotary is viewed a lot as an "old mans club," presently the Rotary community as a whole is primarily made of men and women 40+, but this is what stuck with me. Rotarian's live their lives by a 4 Way Test- of things we think, say, or do.
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
They're career men and women, from different ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, that all want to MAKE A DIFFERENCE in this world. That, I could get behind. Rotarian's are involved in many joint projects within our community: Free Skating & Swimming in our community, Koat's for Kids Annual Drive, Whitecourt Rotary Park, Adventure Program, Summer Unplugged Program to name just a few. Internationally Rotary has run campaigns on "Ending Polio" in third world countries, providing vaccines to those who otherwise would not receive them, cervical cancer screening for women in Sri Lanka, building a girls school in Malawi, and so much more.
This past weekend, myself and fellow Rotarian's attended the Spring Leadership Assembly, learning new skills and connecting with other like minded people brainstorming how we can change the lives of those in our communities and in the world. How we can all work towards our common goal; eradicating polio (https://www.endpolio.org/).
This past weekend, myself and fellow Rotarian's attended the Spring Leadership Assembly, learning new skills and connecting with other like minded people brainstorming how we can change the lives of those in our communities and in the world. How we can all work towards our common goal; eradicating polio (https://www.endpolio.org/).
We were addressed by District Governor's, District Governor - Elect's, other Rotarian's about topic's we wanted to grow in. One of those was, gaining new membership, which is part of my reason for writing this article. Rotary needs more members, of all age types, but especially us millennial's, those of us that will challenge the normal viewpoints, will break the mold's, will have different ideas on how we can effectively improve the lives of ourselves, other's, and our community and on the broader scale, internationally.
My overall viewpoint off this entire experience, INSPIRING. I will be honest, I wasn't sure if Rotary was my place, where I could help make a difference. After this weekend, I can absolutely say that it is. Here's just a few of the take away's I brought back with me.
My overall viewpoint off this entire experience, INSPIRING. I will be honest, I wasn't sure if Rotary was my place, where I could help make a difference. After this weekend, I can absolutely say that it is. Here's just a few of the take away's I brought back with me.
Friday evening started with a general address from our District Governor Elect for the 2019-2020 Rotary year. She is a soft, kind-hearted soul, Tracey Vavrek, part of her welcome presentation was a speech from Past President of Rotary International Ravi Ravindran and how with the joint effort's of his club and a club out of Birmingham, Alabama were able to help fund a project to bring cervical cancer and breast cancer screening to women who would otherwise not have access to this type of care in this area. Follow the link here to learn more: https://www.rotary.org/en/keeping-lid-cancer-sri-lanka
This project in and of itself is absolutely astonishing. Immediately I got that feel good feeling when you know you are involved with a fellowship that makes this kind of change.
Saturday morning, was more about learning how we could effectively and efficiently operate our individual clubs, how to promote, attain new members, keep members, and so much more. We had many different speakers assisting us on ideas on how to successfully implement good change in our communities, our career and personal lives. Followed by some specific role training for our incoming President-Elect's (next years individual Rotary Club's President's for 2019-2020), Secretary-Elect's training (same as President-Elect except its the secretary incoming for 2019-2020), as well as some training on building larger membership's, Rotary Foundation presentations and more, so much more. I wanted to be able to go to them all, so much learning, so LITTLE time.
Saturday afternoon we had a presentation from a past Rotary Youth Exchange student, Rotary has both long term and short term exchange programs; who went on Youth Exchange in Germany through Rotary and how her experiences helped her deal with real life battles (cancer being one of them) and how the experience impacted the rest of her life. Her name is Christina Hassan, Public Health Specialist and Law student who together with her husband Hyder Hassan co-founded FullSoul after Christina's first hand experience in Uganda while working in maternal health. Find FullSoul here: https://www.fullsoul.ca/about/
It's a true Rotary love story, as Christina and Hyder met at a Rotaract club in Calgary. Her entire presentation was so inspiring, uplifting, full of how Rotary really does make a difference in people's lives in their communities, and across the world. Her presentation was the last presentation of the day before the closing speech.
I was left in tears of joy from all this woman has overcome, battled through and how she took all her experience from Rotary and her friendships that she built through a Youth Exchange Program, a battle with cancer, her degree in Public Health, her starting a business, law school. Rotary has impacted her life in so many different ways.
This, is what confirmed in me that Rotary was indeed the RIGHT PLACE FOR ME. I can use my talents in a group setting to MAKE A DIFFERENCE in OUR COMMUNITY.
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