President Mary opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and in the spirit of truth and reconciliation, she respectfully acknowledged that we are on the traditional territory of the Anishinabek. She was grateful to be here, and she hoped all the members were also.
If you would like to view the recorded version of the meeting this can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hOMbs89K-Q
There was a nice Doppler article featuring the clubs donation to help various school lunch programs. Rotary worked with other service clubs in a co-ordinated effort to achieve a bigger bang for our buck. Well done Peter R for taking the lead on this.
Past President Ron returned to the podium amongst much fanfare to grill those in attendance about various and sundry things Rotary.
We know that we can and we will eradicate polio, but how do we know that? Only one human disease has ever been eradicated—that’s smallpox. What makes a disease a good candidate for eradication?
Poliovirus causes acute, non-persistent infections
The virus causes acute, short term infections, meaning that a person infected with polio can only transmit the virus for a limited amount of time. Prolonged infection with wild polioviruses has never been documented and in most cases infected people can only transmit the virus for 1-2 weeks.
Virus is transmitted only by infectious people or their waste
Some diseases can be transmitted in a multitude of ways, which can make a disease an impossible candidate for eradication. But the poliovirus is typically transmitted just one way: through human waste. Eradicating polio is not an easy task, but the way polio is transmitted simplifies our ability to tackle the disease.
Survival of virus in the environment is finite
Did you know there’s just one strain of wild poliovirus that continues to infect humans? (There used to be three strains of poliovirus that regularly infected humans.) The wild poliovirus cannot survive for long periods outside of the human body. If the virus cannot find an unvaccinated person to infect, it will die out. This is why we have to keep every single child vaccinated—so the virus cannot find any humans to infect. The length of poliovirus survival varies according to conditions like temperature, and the poliovirus infectivity decreases over time.
People are the only reservoir
Hundreds of diseases can be transmitted between insects, animals and humans. One of the things that makes polio eradicable is the fact that humans are the only reservoir. No poliovirus has been found to exist and spread among animals despite repeated attempts to document this.
Immunization with polio vaccine interrupts virus transmission
Not only are there two safe and effective polio vaccines, but vaccination against polio generates herd immunity, which increases the percentage of the population that is immune to the disease.
Mass campaigns using oral polio vaccine, where all children in a specified geographic area are immunized simultaneously, interrupts wild poliovirus circulation by boosting population immunity to the point that transmission of polio cannot be sustained.
One additional way we know we’ll eradicate polio is that we’ve eliminated polio in nearly every single country in the world—even in countries like in India, which as recently as 2007 was home to 70% of the world’s poliovirus cases. There are just two countries that continue to report wild poliovirus transmission, and we’re certain we have the tools and scientific know-how to eliminate polio in the remaining two countries. Donate to the cause or follow us on Facebook to learn more about how Rotary is working with our partners to #endpolio.
A Board Meeting was held on Monday October 24 with PDG Margaret Walton in attendance. This was a previsioning session. We will soon be sending out a survey to the Club and then invite the whole club to a visioning session.
The following letter was subsequently sent out to members:
As the global pandemic continues and restrictions and guidelines are lessened in an effort to resume life in the “new normal” many are feeling burnt out and emotionally taxed.
This is understandable given the polarizing effect this pandemic has created.
Our board agrees that life must start to thrive amidst the current “new normal” if we are to address the mental health issues and economic challenges that are facing our community.
Our board would like to point out that despite all of the challenges we have faced over the last year and a half our club has risen to the challenge and managed to do some amazing things in our community as well as internationally. After all, service above self is our motto. Perhaps, though, it is time to put the “self” first for a change and really look at our club and what we stand for, what our values are ,and what it means to be a Rotarian in the Rotary Club of Huntsville.
The Board recognizes that as we have come out of lockdown and restrictions have lessened that certain weaknesses in our club have been identified. We see this as an opportunity to strengthen and perhaps reinvent our club.
The goal is to make our club “simply irresistible” both to our current membership as well as potentially new members. We began the process last night at our board meeting by having a visioning session moderated by PDG Margaret Walton. It was a great first step. In the coming weeks and months we will be reaching out to all of our members to hear what your thoughts and concerns are and we look forward to brainstorming together about ways to make our club the best it can be. We hope you will all join us in this endeavour.
We also recognize that over the past few weeks emotions have been running high about some of the policies that our club has been following and over presentations that have been made to our club. We as a board would like to address these now.
The pandemic forced us to go to zoom meetings which we all have a love/hate relationship with. However, this medium allowed us to keep our members engaged when we had no other choice. Now we are being told we can gather in person again which for many is a much needed social encounter. We as a board believe we are all craving personal contact again. We recognize that attempting hybrid meetings thus far has left something to be desired but are committed to trying to solve that issue with the help of our District. We ask you to bear with us. We also recognize that for some members meeting in person is not an option and this has been very difficult. Unfortunately, the club is at the mercy of the public health guidelines and the venue that we choose currently to have our meetings
. While not ideal we feel that by offering a zoom component we are being inclusive to those who cannot attend in person. In the coming weeks there will be more discussion around this issue and we welcome input from all members. Our club has a long history of inviting speakers from all walks of life to present to our membership. Despite our personal feelings about a topic we listen with respect. As is “the privilege of the speakers platform” we never attack a speaker for their views even if they are contrary to our own. That is not to say that we cannot ask important questions to more clearly understand their position and that after the fact we are entitled to have an opinion or position different to that presented. Brandy’s presentation to our club was controversial, technical and very confusing, quite long and upsetting to many members.
Whether you support her views or not, as a speaker (and highly regarded member of our club) she is still entitled to the respect of our members. The board found out yesterday that Brandy posted her presentation to our club, in its entirety, on a social media platform called rumble.com.
The presentation is getting viewed by followers and unfortunately Rotary has received some negative feedback for allowing her to give this presentation. The board has responded briefly with a statement on that platform and we ask that the membership refrain from making comments or engaging in social media at all around this topic. Please forward any concerns to the board and we will ensure it is dealt with. The board position currently is that we, as a club , have many different speakers on many different topics. Some topics are quite controversial but we strive to always present all sides of a topic.
To that end we have a speaker talking about the evidence in support of vaccines next week for our evening meeting. We hope you will all be able to attend. We also acknowledge that the views presented by our speakers are not always the views of the Rotary Club of Huntsville or its membership. Another controversial topic has been vaccination status. This has become extremely polarizing and very emotional. At this time, it is each members right to choose whether they get the vaccine or not. Those who choose not to get vaccinated generally do so with a great deal of consideration and research on their part and with a full understanding of the sacrifices they may be making. Our club’s decision to go to in person meetings was not made with the intent to exclude those who are unvaccinated but as a step to balance the wishes of our club membership while trying to be inclusive (zoom option). The combo in person/ zoom meeting is not ideal with our current technology but it is what we have to work with at this time. We have included here for interest Rotary Internationals statement on Why Vaccinations Matter.
In case the link doesn’t work just go to rotary.org and search Why Vaccinations Matter. https://infogram.com/why-vaccines-matter-1h7j4dvwo3dpv4n However, to reiterate, our board supports each members right to choose and we will continue to try to offer opportunities that they can participate in. Finally, the board would like to ask our members to be tolerant, be kind, and support one another as we navigate this next stage of the pandemic. We are all doing the best we can under extenuating circumstances. We are being asked to sift through a lot of confusing information these days and ultimately we all have to make choices based on the information we each place value on. This is not easy but is a fundamental way we navigate this info era. Social media and information overload in all media formats makes this extremely hard.
In summary, while working through our visioning process as a board we realized that we all, in fact, want the same thing. A safe and inclusive environment to meet and do the good works of Rotary, to serve our community to the best of our ability ,and resume the friendships and relationships that keep us coming out to meetings. We are still “all in this together” and we look forward to the day when we can put this pandemic behind us and get back to what we as Rotarians do best, doing good in the world.
Sincerely, Your Board The Rotary Club of Huntsville
The fellowship committee would like to invite you to a trail walk fellowship event this Thursday November 4th at 4:30pm at the Hunters Bay Trail. The environmental committee has been very busy installing benches and we thought it would be nice to take a stroll and see what they have been up to. There will be two starting points. You can either meet at the Centre Street entrance or the Orchard Park entrance and we will converge on the Avery Beach Shelter for Hot chocolate and cookies at about 5:00. Please RSVP myself (Jen Simpson) if you are attending so we know how much hot chocolate to get. Families and friends (furry friends too) welcome. This is a wonderful opportunity to show off what our club has been up to. Everyone should hopefully be able to get back to their cars before it gets dark. If you don't want to hike the trail then feel free to just meet us at Avery Beach for some fellowship. Dress for the weather! It could be chilly and maybe a bit wet. If you have any questions just email me.
We hope to see you all there,
Jen Simpson (on behalf of the fellowship committee)
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