Maintaining Member Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic
As I write this note Sylvia and I are entering the final days of our COVID-19 Self Isolation after returning early from our Snowbird trip to Florida and we are looking forward to a celebratory virtual party at 8:30pm on April 2nd.
I send my best wishes to you all and your families as we all grapple in responding to this unprecedented event.
If I cast my mind back to a month ago when I was drafting my March Newsletter, like many I did not fully foresee the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the mind boggling short and long term impact to our daily lives. Businesses are closing their doors and some may never re-open. The consequences to our members and our communities will be dramatic. I have reproduced a thought provoking article entitled “Disruption” from Trevor Huddleston’s blog in this month’s Bridge and I encourage you all to read it as we come to terms with the changing world we live.
As a District we were keen to see our members connected and provided with the best possible guidance and have expeditiously implemented the following actions:
Rolled out Zoom Video Conferencing to ALL clubs so they may meet and stay connected
Instituted a weekly District wide Zoom Forum for All members to exchange ideas
Launched a centralized webpage of information and best practices which has been regularly updated
Developed a tool to further share best practices, created by our Rotaractors
Moved to provide access to District Foundation Funds specifically dedicated for COVID-19 Response.
Communicated extensively with a combination of all member bulletins, President and Secretary updates and a range of social media blasts and the creation of a District wide Zoom Forum.
Connected the Rotaractors throughout the District by hosting a District wide Zoom Meeting
The Rotary Youth Exchange Team have been working 24 x 7 in supporting our inbound and outbound students and they deserve a big thank you for their efforts.
Our approach to COVID-19 response is being shared by Rotary International’s Club and District Support as a best practice with other Districts who have been slower to react to the uncertain times we now live in.
I continue to be impressed by the out pouring of support by volunteers in our Communities and ALL the various innovative and caring activities clubs are getting involved in to help the communities they serve with their Dogoodery! Check out our website at https://rotary6330.org/ or District Facebook Page for the latest information and don’t forget to share your experiences so we can all learn together. Shira Ginsler from the Rotaract Club of Stratford has quickly developed an online form to collect the information which we would like you All to share your ideas and experiences.
Many events have been postponed or cancelled but I am thrilled that our District Conference Team have taken the bold decision to re-imagine the Conference into a Virtual Event. They are not quite sure how??? But have engaged the help of some volunteer techies and are rapidly putting together a comprehensive plan to deliver a slimmed down conference on June 20th to inspire, engage, provide learning opportunities and above all have fun..! Reserve the Date now for 2020 “E” Vision.
Whilst we have all been consumed with our response to COVID-19 we should remember that April is Maternal Health and Child Healthcare Month, and with that in mind we must keep on persevering with raising the awareness of Rotary’s challenge to eradicate polio. We must keep on giving to END POLIO NOW so that that no new children will contact this debilitating disease and hopefully one day very soon we will be able to proclaim success. Much of the vaccination and monitoring infrastructure that is now in place because of the END POLIO NOW Campaign is in many countries around world providing a basis for responding to this pandemic.
Stay connected with Zoom…the new normal for meeting, not just for Board Meetings and Club Meetings but for your Committees and try it out social online events too. There are now 36 Clubs with Zoom capability. If you don’t have one yet get one NOW by emailing us at rotary6330@gmail.com
Our theme this year is “Rotary Connects the World” Our theme next year is “Rotary Opens Opportunities” both are so true and we need to remain connected and actively grasp the opportunities that this unprecedented event puts in front of us.
Stay safe, stay connected and Thank you all for what you are doing!
Together we may flatten the curve and as my club says “Keep Calm and Rotary on!”
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With the help of Shira Ginlser from the Rotaract Club of Stratford, we have created an online form to collect ideas, experiences as we all grapple with how to operate in this new CONVID-19 world.
These ideas will then be sorted into categories and then posted on the District Website and shared via Social Media.
Click on the link below to access the form and you may complete more than once.
District Grant Funding May Be Available to Help Your Effort
The Trustees of The Rotary Foundation are allowing the use of District Grant funds to help with club projects related to easing the burden caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Any project related to relieving the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic started after March 15, 2020 can apply for District Grant support. District 6330 has some available District Grant funds that can support your club project. Projects that have already started are eligible.
This is a time when the world needs service more than ever. Our motto is Service Above Self and we now more than ever need to rise to this challenge. However, we all need to urgently reflect on how we adapt to this rapidly changing environment so we can respond to support our members and the communities we serve in the most effective way, while still following Public Health guidelines and protecting our members and our communities. This means that Service Above Self may take on a slightly different meaning. Rotarians LIKE to be doing things. It is tough to accept that the best thing to do may be staying home and connecting with others via the phone or the computer. It is also tough to accept that due to decreased fundraisers we may not be able to financially support our community in this time of crisis as well as we might like. These things combine to add stress to our big-hearted Rotarians.
Bottom line - We need to give ourselves permission to do things a bit differently now so that we will be able to assist others and truly put Service Above Self in the future, when the crisis passes. Give yourself permission to sit back a bit. That action is actually serving your community in this time of crisis. Stay in touch with each other but stay home when directed to do so. Call someone in your community who may not have close family members or friends. Check in on the mental health of people in isolation. Sometimes a cheery “Hi, just thinking about you” is all it takes to turn someone’s day around.
During this time of Social Isolation you may find you have extra time on your hands. We've been very busy gathering up a lot of useful information and putting it at your fingertips in one useful convenient place. Visit the District 6330 Homepagehttps://rotary6330.orgfor information on the following:
Rotarians, we are people of action. Right now our action just looks a bit different than it did a month or two ago. One of the best things that we can do right now is to STAY AT HOME and use our large lists of contacts to share accurate and needed messages. They may simply be messages of encouragement or they may be messages that will help to protect our front line workers and our neighbours.
The Ontario Government is telling residents in urban areas to avoid heading to their cottages and rural properties across the province during the COVID-19 pandemic. We would like to reinforce that message as small towns in “Cottage Country” are in a high-risk situation at the moment for the following reasons:
I truly believe that there has never been a time where Rotary has been more relevant. This relevance starts with the physical and mental health of our membership. Yes we aren’t “out” in the Community but that doesn’t mean we can’t be connected to the Community and still have impact.
Attached is a copy of a presentation that I am making to our Zone(s) leadership Wednesday Night . We ran the core of this presentation in District 5360 in 7 one hour long Zoom meetings to our District leadership, Club leadership, and a number of members. The response was amazing and has stimulated a number of members to reach out for support, Clubs to start to engage with their members with Zoom meetings, our District to develop a COVID-19 website to unrolled tomorrow. It was also a rallying cry and gave our membership a “Purpose” and quite frankly a sense of Hope.
Please all of you stay safe, stay home, and connect with your members
Reprinted from Mark Huddleston’s Blog. Saturday, 28 March 2020
For a number of years, successive Rotary International leaders have been calling for disruption. Well, now we have it. COVID-19 clearly wasn't what they had in mind, but I'd suggest it will act as the biggest peacetime disruptor Rotary has ever seen.
I recently received a phone call out of the blue from a Rotary friend interstate. I won't name him here, but he is a fellow maverick and out-of-the-box thinker with an impressive record of membership development across a number of clubs, and a fellow new club initiator. He rang me to ask if I had any thoughts on how COVID-19 would affect Rotary's membership. My initial response was that I hadn't really had time to think about it. I've recently had a change in career path and Rotary has fallen a rung or two on my list of priorities.
The Corona Virus has impacted so many parts of our traditional Rotary experience, and now our planned Rotary East Coast Kitchen Party (RECKP). We are not confident that by May 29th, the world will return to its old normal and people will be comfortable to be out having fun with 450 of their friends. We are fortunate that the Hellenic Community Center has offered us a new date, Friday Sept 25th and Shane Cook and the Woodchippers are available that same evening!!!! So we are not cancelling, just postponing!
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