The Rotary Club of Kirkland held its regular weekly meeting online on August 17, 2020.
Attending were James Nevers, Dave Aubry, Darcia Tudor, Gary Cohn, Dan Bartel, Joanne Primavera, John Woodbery, Don Dicks, Amy Mutal, Stefan Landvogt, Tricia Stromberg, Rich Bergdahl, Rick Walter, John Pruitt, Rick Ostrander, Margie Glenn, George Anderson, Brandon Honcoop, Dave Debois, Mike Hunter, Monica Fratita. Let me know if I missed anyone.
President James Nevers rang the bell at 6:23 p.m.
Rick Walter recited the Pledge of Allegiance again, because he had a flag screen backdrop, while the rest of us stood, mostly mute, in order to avoid ‘out-of-sync-problems’ with our audio.
Guest: Paula Clements, next week’s speaker.
Announcements: Joanne Primavera reported that the International Service Committee has held a couple of virtual meetings with some international Rotary groups. They have requests from Clubs in Rumania and Kenya for assistance with projects. A Club in Mexico primarily made up of North American expats has put forward an idea.
We then had a 5-minute break-out session in 5-person groups. Our group mostly discussed how everyone is coping with the virus and the current hot weather.
Our speaker for the evening is Joshua Cooper – a manager at Price Waterhouse. He is a Gay man whose subject is LGBTQD inclusion. He gave us some background information on his education and upbringing. He also has a brother with Downs so he learned early in life about the difficulties various people have in fitting in and adjusting to being a minority. The question is often – how integrated can one’s personal and professional lives be?
Having a corporate culture of inclusion is critically important to being comfortable and successful in various facets of life. He had us do a self-reflection exercise designed to raise our awareness of the problems that mostly visible minorities have in coping with daily life.
We then discussed our reactions to the questions and how easy it is to be comfortable in situations where we perceive that people around us are ‘like us’. Conversely – can we be comfortable in situations where we perceive everyone around us might not be ‘like us’? What can we do to reduce barriers to ourselves and to others? This takes effort and receptivity by all parties. The exercise did raise awareness – it reminds us that we all have a responsibility to help society function well for all its members.
Many of us can be thought of as privileged – some privileges are earned, some are not. The fact that we can have these kinds of conversations is a good thing. We all need to realize that we have varying areas of ‘privilege’. These areas can vary over time, such as aging and ageism.
Corporations are beginning to take the lead on diversity and inclusion. Many parts of society are changing – mostly ahead of the legal system. Being marginalized negatively impacts some people because they have to hide part of themselves.
We adjourned at 7:32 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted
David Aubry - Acting Scribe