The Rotary Club of Kirkland held a meeting on July 18, 2022 at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel.
President Amy Mutal rang the bell at 6:15 p.m., calling the club meeting to order.
John Pruitt led the membership in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Attending were George Anderson, Pete Anderson, David Aubry, Gary Cohn, David DeBois, Donald Dicks*, Jocelyn Ellison*, Rashmi Garimella, Mekonen Giorgis, Brandon Honcoop, Michael Hunter, Jim Meniketti, Amy Mutal, Kristin Olson, Joanne Primavera, John Pruitt, and Rick Walter. *Attended via Zoom.
Guests:
Guests this evening were Heather Riplinger and our speaker, Ty Reed.
Greeter:
Our greeter this evening was Jim Meniketti, who was at the front desk to greet members and guests and collect dinner fees.
Announcements, Club Business:
Gary Cohn reminded us about the Duck Dash race date, branding party next Monday, and ticket sales opportunities. There are sign-up sheets on all the tables. Still need additional help with race-day setup and take-down. Also, Rotarians who volunteer during Summerfest will receive admission to the gated portion of the Summerfest event! Gary will submit names of Rotarians who are signed up to work the Summerfest booth and the Day of Race activities to the Summerfest organizer this coming Friday.
President Amy announced that there will be a board of directors meeting this Thursday at the Prevail Wealth Management office, at 5 p.m.
The Salmon Bake will be August 20 at Bob Auslander’s house – watch for an email with details.
The regular meeting on August 1 is cancelled in favor of the Duck Dash Day of Race activities the prior day. The speaker will be rescheduled.
Happy Bucks:
Rick Walter led Happy Bucks, and several Rotarians were happy this evening. Thank you to George Anderson, Dave Aubry, Mike Hunter, Kirsten Olson, Joanne Primavera, John Pruitt, Rick Walter for Happy Bucks contributions!
Program:
Our speaker was Ty Reed of Recovery Career Services, back for another visit about career coaching. He spoke to us about “Taking Bias out of the Box: How Curiosity Can Help Businesses Solve Recruitment and Retention”. He spoke about how it is important not to automatically be put off by people’s negative life experiences, and how we need to try to determine whether the person is successfully making progress in rebuilding their lives. He suggested we use questions to help us get beyond such things as prior brushes with the law, and prior homelessness or substance abuse.
He is laser-focused on bias – this is not only about race. We need to be careful about putting people in boxes bounded by behaviors and points of view. Washington state law now prohibits pre-interview questions about criminal convictions. He drew a contrast between bias and prejudice. Bias takes many forms and can be used positively.
We want to be able to find out how a person has changed (i.e., a person who has been overcoming past issues), and how the person is dealing with life in a different way than before.
We need to give ourselves two challenges:
- Ask additional questions of someone with a troubled past in order to illustrate what they are doing to move beyond that part of their life.
- We need to be someone who assists people on a path to recovery.
There were several questions from Rotarians about how the ‘system’ is or is not working.
Reminder: no regular meeting for the next two Mondays – Duck Branding at 6 p.m. at Lee Johnson next week. The following week everyone will be in recovery from Duck Dash Weekend.
Adjournment:
President Amy rang the bell at 7:12 p.m. to adjourn the meeting.
Respectfully Submitted
Dave Aubry, Acting Scribe