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At its June meeting, the RI Board of Directors, with guidance from the DEI Taskforce, took additional steps to ensure our organization values and lives the principals of diversity, equity and inclusion by revisiting and strengthening Rotary's 2019 DEI statement. The result is a new Commitment to Diversity Equity and Inclusion adopted in June 2021:

At Rotary, we understand that cultivating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture is essential to realizing our vision of a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change.

We value diversity and celebrate the contributions of people of all backgrounds, across age, ethnicity, race, color, disability, learning style, religion, faith, socioeconomic status, culture, marital status, languages spoken, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity as well as differences in ideas, thoughts, values, and beliefs.

Recognizing that individuals from certain groups have historically experienced barriers to membership, participation, and leadership, we commit to advancing equity in all aspects of Rotary, including in our community partnerships, so that each person has the necessary access to resources, opportunities, networks, and support to thrive.

We believe that all people hold visible and invisible qualities that inherently make them unique, and we strive to create an inclusive culture where each person knows they are valued and belong.

In line with our value of integrity, we are committed to being honest and transparent about where we are in our DEI journey as an organization, and to continuing to learn and do better.

The Board of Directors convened the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Taskforce in 2020 and tasked it with assessing the current state of DEI within Rotary and developing a comprehensive plan of action with achievable, measurable, and meaningful outcomes for Rotary. This plan is currently in development and will be presented to the Board of Directors in October 2021.

Additionally, the Board agreed to:

Provide DEI training for incoming, current, and past RI officers

Promote the Rotary Code of Conduct

Establish protocols to report Code of Conduct violations

More information about these decisions, and our ongoing focus on DEI, will be available on rotary.org/dei in the coming weeks.

The Board thanks the taskforce for its ongoing commitment to creating a more just, open, and welcoming Rotary experience during this past year. The taskforce's work is critical to the organization's long-term success. The Board also extended the work of the DEI Taskforce through June 2023.

If you witness or experience someone acting in a way that violates Rotary's DEI statement, email DEI.Inquiries@rotary.org.

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Thought it might be interesting to look at a couple of pictures from two of our most popular service projects.  Beginning in 2004 and continuing for 12 years when we became an EClub, we distributed large size paperback dictionaries to approximately 8000 students in our 4 schools.

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One of the most educational and fun projects was painting third graders' pinkies purple to teach them about polio and how a vaccinated child in another country is marked so the volunteers know who has not been given the oral vaccine. Our club did this for 10 years in our 4 schools and raised several thousands of dollars for polio/

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You can drop images, audio, video, documents or type text here :-)