Our Rotary History and Current Events Fellowship needs you. Thank you Henry Weisser, Bob Lawrence, and participants for 19 years of monthly discussions. Learning and fun about History and Current Events after regular noon Rotary meetings opens our eyes and hearts. I (Del Benson) will be carrying on the legacy and will facilitate interests and encourage broad inputs from members. Current events locally and internationally should stimulate us, and history can inform us about situations before our time of learning.
Together, let us explore and "solve" worldly problems that somehow are not yet completed. We will benefit from members' diverse expertise and informed comments. We can even safely share our ignorance occasionally and welcome opportunity to explore truths at a later date.
Recent events in the news prompted topics that we might want to address in the future, and each involved finding better ways to communicate. Consequently, we will start by exploring how to communicate better amongst ourselves.
- Conflicts in the world needing management were many such as immigration, homeless, mental health needs and treatments, police in schools and with communities of color, regulated militias, internet impacts on society, artificial intelligence, a climate crisis, UFOs, international relations with friendly and unfriendly leaders, banning books, winners of the NBA, wars, water, and wolves
- Money to govern our nation and the programs to include therein
- How to reach resolution on issues across party and ideological lines
- What candidates think and say when they run for public office
For each topic above, finding appropriate content and methods of communications were common denominators that influenced outcomes, so we will start next week with your ideas about how to communicate better within the Fellowship before we communicate about issues of interest. Former District Governor, Lynne Baker, will facilitate the discussions. I will be with family.
Conversations work best with a little preparation, so please come with:
- A couple of communication principles that you believe are important;
- Thoughts about when communication does not work for you;
- By meetings end, you might want to suggest some rules of engagement for our Fellowship discussions (4-Way Test is always useful); and
- Recommend topics to engage us for the next gathering 12 July.
I am a big fan of all our Fellowships. They are fun! Smaller educational discussions get us more involved, We listen, think, and comment. We learn about our Rotary family. They are a gift and service to ourselves. Some Rotary Clubs started around issues such as the above. Entire memberships in some Rotary Clubs around the world are less populated than many of our popular Fellowship discussions. Each of 4 weeks after regular meetings, we discuss History and Current Events, or Science and Engineering, or Investments and Finance, or Peace Building, or DEI. Some might interest you more than others, but each are stimulating and make us smarter. Get involved and bring your friends.
Use the attached Hexagon to frame your thoughts from various perspectives.
My best:
Del Benson
Chair of Current Events and History Fellowship