President's Update: In Person Meetings
COVID is impacting how we manage our lives yet again. As we all are aware, today the Governor’s mask mandate for all public indoor spaces is now in effect. With the significant increase in COVID cases in our community it has caused the board to re-evaluate when BBRC resumes in person meetings. For those who may not have seen the email I wanted to send this out again through our member bulletin. As you are aware, a couple months back the BBRC Board had sent out a survey to membership as to their thoughts on when we should return to in person Rotary meetings. From the survey results, it was determined to return to in-person meetings beginning September 7th. However, the situation we are currently experiencing with COVID in our community has changed significantly since this decision to move forward with September in-person meetings was made. As Whatcom County is in the fifth wave of the virus, we are seeing reported COVID cases at levels seen at the peak of the pandemic back in February of this year.
The BBRC Board wants to check in with membership and ensure that they are comfortable and safe in returning to in-person meetings. We have drafted a simple survey we ask that you complete at your earliest convenience, so we know how you feel in returning to in person meetings and what precautions you see that are needed to be comfortable to resume our lunch meetings in person. While there is a great AV set up with the Bellingham Rotary Club to allow for a great hybrid experience, we still need to ensure that if we move forward with in-person meetings we need to ensure members are comfortable in attending. We also need to be able to have enough attendance to meet the required minimum of 20 people for in-person meetings with the Four Points by Sheraton or the Club will be paying to meet the differential amount. We hope the Board will have a decision on how we proceed next week and will inform you.
Your input as to what you are comfortable with in this current environment is very critical for the board to hear. If you have not yet completed the survey, we ask that you please take 2 minutes to complete this survey so we can move forward with the club membership’s interests clearly in mind. Please check you email inbox, or contact President Lance if you need the survey link. Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts!
Rotary Mentors needed for WCC’s Bachelors of Business program
Given the success of our mentorship program with Western students, we are now pursuing a mentorship program with WCC students. WCC has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, and we are looking for Rotarians interested in participating in a mentorship relationship with students in the BUS 460, Organizational Leadership, course next winter 2022. Mentors would be expected to meet with their mentee weekly for approximately 8 weeks (Jan 24th-Marchc 14th). More details about the nature of these meetings will be sorted out this Fall with the Business Faculty at WCC. When Mike and Tresha met with the faculty last spring, both stated how valuable their mentorship experiences were as undergraduates, and were excited to offer this to their students.
1st Annual Stan Dyer Day of Service: A Success!
Thank you to all the volunteers for attending the first annual Stan Dyer Day of Service! As you can see, the blackberries were fierce but the crew did great work to help remove many of them. Special thanks to Tony Freeland for organizing the event, bringing the tools, the refreshments, and the donuts. I think we made Stan proud.
