Peace Endeavors (Mar 08, 2022)

Miscellaneous

Repeat from last week or until no longer relevant or until I delete it:

The external Paul Harris Dinner is now scheduled for June 15th and tickets will be $75 each.

The Hanging Basket Sale will be going on line again from March 8th to 26th. Pick up will be on April 30th at the Banquet Centre. Lunch provided for volunteers.

The Foundation Dinner is tentatively scheduled for April 16th and it appears we have enough members interested in attending that the Club would buy a table.

Zoom Meeting Rules

THE LINK TO OUR THURSDAY MEETINGS WILL NO LONGER BE EMAILED BUT ACCESSED THROUGH THE LINK BELOW.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86855229058?pwd=c1pxUklLeDMwWGpCdjIrOS9Oak4wUT09

Meeting ID: 868 5522 9058
Passcode: 473892

1) Mute your microphone if you aren't already muted. Background noise is distracting.
2) If you are not engaged in the presentation, turn off your camera.
3) Chat function should only be used to address the speaker, not for Club member remarks during the presentation

4) Unmute when harassing the Sergeant at Arms or taking your turn during Sergeant at Arms.

Presidents Report and Announcements, committee and board news and other stuff.

Thanks Mary Lou for being the Zoom host today.

Always seems impossible until it is done.

The Flower basket fundraiser sales are over $3,300 so far.

Let Sandra know how many tickets you need for the Gala and if you are going to etransfer.

Debbie M. will send an Email about the External Paul Harris scheduled for June 15^th at 6 pm at Quilchena costing 75$ per person.

Amanda looking for baskets will be on April 10^th basket making.

Peter reports that he has started getting responses to the silent auction. 7 live auction items now and looking for more. Can’t stress enough that we all need to band together.

March 15^th is the next Board Meeting, Kal you are soooo right!

Please direct any questions to the President or a board member of your choosing and we will discuss any and all questions or concerns during our board meeting. Also please refer anyone who may be interested in attending a meeting or joining the club.

Be kind and be calm and safe...

Visitors

The Righteous Brothers - have you lost that loving feelin'?

sergeant At Arms Tidbits

Mary Lou is continuing her Judy month of birthday celebration. Oscar day today who will be getting a fantastic digger.

Debbie M. calls the digger "that machine". Which makes it perfectly clear. She is still in covid head quarters. Miles is good and but misses seeing granddaughter and us.

Ipad(aka Ron Schuss) got to 12,000 steps yesterday but not 30,000. Ron hit different restaurants all weekend including Land and Sea, Acorn and Fable. Ron has been to every restaurant in Richmond in the last two years so needed to try Vancouver Restaurants. Gastronomic extraordinaire!🍔

Dick's weather report this week was from the Ukraine where it was minus 3 with 25 kilometer wind and is very sad for them.

Susan avoided "mute shame" and was coming to us live from the Costco parking lot warm with her beautiful hat. She had to leave early so would not hear all of Dalbir's presentation. She loved the mediators beyond borders and is amazed at what can be done through facilitating peace.

Kal was sorry not live and in person today and reported he has found a new Dr. who sent him for blood work at the lab. Fell asleep while waiting for an ECG and they almost started CPR. Yikes! Now going in Thursday for an 8:30 ECG. What will they find?????🍔

Larry is busy at work and taking a day off today. He enjoys the lighter mornings for our meetings. But changing the clocks this weekend will set that back for a time.

Belinda hard to imagine life in Ukraine right now. Her church has sponsored families and has been working on one family for four years now. The family is coming on April 1^st from Pakistan and had been persecuted for their faith. She will be away for two weeks at Ucluelet with family for whale watching and beach walking.

Elena was happy to see son and grand child in Washington who works for micro soft (the son that is) has been promoted to manager and works from home. She is getting walks in everyday. She will bring a potential new member next week. She is also packing Rotary World Help Network containers for Africa and Poland on March 19th.

Bill is enjoying 84 degrees in Florida and will be buying cheap t shirts in Kal's size. 50$ for a covid test and a 10 minute wait. Involved in discussion with wedding venues and costs for Kayla and Jakes weeding with the costs up 20%. The wedding party will wearing size XXXX t shirts.

Debbie T. was in Victoria on time share points by herself so went biking and roaming around Victoria without the dogs. A needed and deserved break.

I had a nice weekend at my sister's granddaughter's second birthday. Went golfing and not afraid to say I had three snow men on my score card. That's an 8 for those of you who are not familiar with the nomenclature.

Garth and his choir during a weekend retreat had an hours long course on equity, inclusion and diversity. His renewed sensitivity did not deter him from taking $15 from the other golfers on Thursday.

Bobby had a Caesar salad from the harvest of one of their green houses. Advised that because of the uncertainty in costs and supply chains prices have been going up 20 – 25%. Went for his first run last week and his old achilles tear was acting up. But will keep at it. I say try the amble jog.

Handsome Gord said it was nice to be here and touch people again(politically correctly of course). He is impressed with steps our walkers are achieving and he started counting his steps but ran out of fingers. His Easter resolution is to stop listening to bad news. Support for Ukraine makes one think there is good in the world and to think more positively.

Amanda nothing to report other than sister and she are heading to Lift for a meal.

Sandra went for a facial for the first time and the touch of her skin was different(or maybe I did not get the full context). She has a peleton addiction and has completed 571 workouts. But Gordon only counted 10!

Dalbir says Bobby does not part with money easily so hit Michael up. We should look around our house for surplus items and donate them to Save Up who will sell the items and use the proceed for a soup kitchen and support families in need.

Peter started renovations with the bathroom and now moving throughout house. Will be replacing the flooring in the living room, dining room, and hallways. The house was built house in the 1970s so they may get rid of stuff. Peter apparently is not on Janes disposal list.

Marg enjoyed the ballet and watching tennis. Ben wants to go away for spring break but of course there is no spring break if you are in the work force so was sent to Victoria.

Judy had a busy week as Warren turned 46 making Judy hmmmm???. Babysitting this week and Saturday had a get together that her niece organized for ten women in the family with appies, drinks, and played games. A new bi- annual event. Heading to Birch Bay until Wednesday and then back with all the kids.

Sam up close so you could see the pores in his skin said it was nice to see every one. Justin last day of work this week and new business next week.

Melinda has to pay for going away with working the books in office. Her new little one is talking and grand kids bring such joy. Garth helped with a business call while she was away.

speaKER

Dalbir spoke to us about the Peace Conversation Courses he and Susan attended.

The courses focused on how to have difficult conversations with those who have different views and/or life experiences. Dalbir thinks it would have been useful in having discussions with members of our club who have left.

One of Dalbir's motivation was his son's relationship with first nations woman and wanted to equip himself to have a conversation with her. If you have not walked in someone else’s shoes you do not know how dramatic certain circumstances can be. She refused to go to hospital to have their child. Dalbir did not know how to talk to her about that. She has two other children who do not go to school.

There are Mediators Beyond Borders that focus on peace in world like war torn areas. Rotary International has eight other partners who share a strong commitment to peace building. Many of the facilitators are indigenous. Peace conversation facilitation is about just getting the conversation going and not changing minds. It is up to each individual to make up their minds. The course itself was three months of instruction on line. He did not notice the length of time on line because he was so engaged in the topic. The exchange students become better peace facilitators and ambassadors of peace because they learn the people in the countries they visit are not that different. He has had difficult conversations about have core beliefs. Such as interfaith and cultural differences and human rights and trafficking. There is a literacy around conflict which is not necessarily bad if you harness it to be positive influence toward better understanding. Dalbir learned for the sake of doing better not his professional life. There were 3 live webinars on conflict literacy and confrontation and on line practice with people from all over. There were two full days of 7 hour seminars followed by practical hands on training and seminars every month. District 5040 has 15 who are trained. Dalbir recommends the Club set aside a Saturday and bring someone from outside the club to do a peace facilitation. There would be an in person session and a break out room for 20 minutes. Dalbir provided us with examples of club members with these skills such as David Richardson in Restorative Justice and Chris Brodie with Station Stretch.

International institute for restorative practices training have trainers from around the world who do restorative practices in inner city schools. The approach is do not blame the child and put the antagonists in the same room to work things out. If they can be shown a different way to behave they are unlikely to stray from that for the rest of their lives. If Dalbir had this training at the time the experience with Lucas would have had a different result. He would have worked to keep Lucas in the program and worked toward changing his behaviour. Dalbir encourages the club to get involved in more hands on projects. He mentioned the indigenous training that will be implemented in high schools and the need to educate the administrators so the change will be permanent. He recommended three books, Restorative Justice, Restorative Practices Handbook, and Restorative Circles in Schools.

Meanderings

So, I am sure you all remember last week how big our solar system is and how it is mostly empty - like by trillions. Guess what - so are atoms. This is also from the book I am reading A Short History of Everything.

"It is still a fairly astounding notion to consider that atoms are mostly empty space, and that the solidity we experience all around us is an illusion. When two objects come together in the real world - billiard balls are most often used for illustration - they don't actually strike each other. 'Rather,' as Timothy Ferris explains, 'the negatively charged fields of the two balls repel each other ... were it not for their electrical charges they could, like galaxies, pass right through each other unscathed.' When you sit in a chair, you are not actually sitting there, but levitating above it at a height of one angstrom (a hundred millionth of a centimeter), your electrons and its electrons implacably opposed to any closer intimacy."

So as my PB(no not peanut butter) butt is levitating above the chair I am sitting in, it is worth recognizing that all of us are pretty equal in the sense that we are mostly nothing. Perhaps while waiting for Godot!

Upcoming Events

March 15th is the next board meeting.

External Paul Harris June 15th, 2022.

Please note the date for the Auction

Friday May 6th 2022 Auction Fundraiser with final details to be determined but anticipating live and in person.

TODAYS CHUCKLEs

🥸

I had my patience tested. I'm negative.

Remember, if you lose a sock in the dryer, it comes back as a Tupperware lid that doesn't fit any of your containers.

How to start an argument on line. Post an opinion and wait.