May 15th – Student-led Meeting with Exchange Student Frank Speaking
It’s our annual Rotary Student of the Month, student-led meeting! All of this past year’s students will be returning to take over, lead the meeting, and fill all the positions that make our Club meetings amazing.
Rotary Exchange Student Frank will be joining us to share about his experiences at South Salem High School and in our community. This will be a meeting you do not want to miss!
Program Chair: Elise Bauman
Meeting Location: Willamette Heritage Center – Spinning Room
Back By Popular Demand: The 4-Way Test!
Greetings, Fellow Rotarians! I hope this note finds you well! What gorgeous weather we are enjoying!
May I offer a few reflections? I mean, honestly, starting with the phenomenon that is Rotary – in all of its facets – the global aspect, the local aspect, the ingenious infrastructure, its ability to remain relevant and vital for over 119 years that saw unbelievable worldwide changes. World wars. Industrial revolutions. Unbelievable technological advancements. Astronauts on the Moon. Remarkable ATVs being dropped to the surface of Mars by parachute. Hubble. James Web Space Telescope. And through it all, Rotary Clubs meeting weekly. Now, in this moment, over 46,000 Rotary Clubs involving over 1.2 million humans. Meeting weekly. With other Rotarians they might not otherwise have ever had a chance to share a meal.
And glued together by what? Four simple questions. Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned? Will it build GOODWILL and better FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
And THIS Rotary Club – the Rotary Club of Salem? Special. Remarkable. Resilient. What is our secret sauce? We truly care about each other. We love welcoming new people. We love our youngest generations, especially students. We value education. We are gutsy – we dream, take on big projects, and work hard to get them over the finish line. We try to be good communicators.
The 4-Way Test quietly weaves itself in and among us and is a silent partner, helping us succeed in the moment and bravely face the future. So allow me to ask, in the spirit of curiosity, what is YOUR relationship with the 4-Way Test? Do you ever think about it? Here is a different angle: think about what you most love about our Rotary meetings. What if a fellow Rotarian not only didn’t love that thing, but was offended by it? How would you handle that? Would you get mad, take offense, and allow your anger to get the better of you? Or would you own your feelings, allow for the reality that we are a big club, and seek to understand on a deeper level the perspective of the other person?
The 4-Way Test, our silent partner, allows us to honor our own opinions while at the same time open our minds and hearts to the ideas, values and opinions of others. It is exactly the secret sauce that gives us the resilience to adapt and embrace new things – a critical element of Rotary International’s Strategic Action Plan (https://portal.clubrunner.ca/3868/Stories/rotary-international-s-strategic-plan).
Fellow Rotarians, thank you for being YOU and for embracing the 4-Way Test. YOU are contributing to the remarkable resilience of Rotary.
Yours in Rotary Service,
Kindly,
