Announcements/Business:
 
Upcoming Events:
  • July Social: Saturday, July 17th at Amanda’s house at 6pm. We can do potluck if you like!  Details to follow…
  • Webinar: Mindfulness and Empathetic Action on August 5th, 630pm via Zoom. Sign up at rotary5450.org
  • ConiferFest: August 21st - Foundation meeting Tuesday, July 13 (a week from today) to head into the final planning for the ConiferFest
  • Membership Summit: August 21 - If anyone doesn’t plan to attend ConiferFest and would prefer to do this, the signup is on the district’s website
  • Rotary Day at the Rockies: Sunday, September 26 at 1:10pm - Rockies vs. San Francisco Giants and Tickets: $28 each. A portion of ticket sales will be donated to End Polio Now.
 
Updates:
  • 2021-22 Club Goals:
    • RI Annual Fund: Goal $2,250 (LY $1650, actual $1933)
    • RI PolioPlus: Goal $500 (LY $800, actual $635)
    • Membership: 38 (LY 35, actual 35)
  • Expectations for 2021-2022:
    • Transition to hybrid sometime in late July or August-thank you Dean McCall for going down to MRC with me last week to work on setting up the room for hybrid!  I also took the big white box and organized it for us.
    • If you need to speak or bring something up in a meeting, email me before so I can put you on my agenda.
    • Same with the Word of Focus-if you want to share one, email it to me before the meeting and I’ll have you do it.
    • We need speakers!  Who is the most interesting person you know?  Have you invited them to speak to us?  We will be able to accommodate remote speakers once we transition to hybrid.
    • We will start meetings at 8am sharp so we can finish on time.  I’m happy to leave the Zoom open for anyone who wants to chat with the group.
    • I will remind people to mute out – we often have background noise that makes it hard to hear one another.  Make sure you check your computer/device before our speaker begins so we show them the utmost respect.
  • Guessing Jar Fundraiser: (Leonor) 
    • The jar will come to the social at Amanda’s home July 17!
  • Freedom Run:
    • Thanks to Ed for the leadership at the Freedom-Run.  Over 800 people showed up for the run!  Rotary was the key player in coordinating and helping Mt. Evans with the success of the event.
  • Peach Sales: (Angela)
    • Amanda will attend Kiwanis and Evergreen Rotary to promote the peach sales.  Ed will help with those meetings, to coordinate the Evergreen peach deliveries.
  • Pass the Gavel: (Marlis)
    • Thanks to Marlis for her leadership last year!  And for the wonderful Pass-The-Gavel potluck.
    • Email photos to Leonor/Julie to be put on website.
 
Program:  Stanley Harsha, Former US Diplomat
The Root Cause of Violence and How to Address it
 
  • Stanley spoke about the war against terrorism, religious and ethnic conflict, and civil war as he experienced it in Indonesia as a US Ambassador. Click here to download a copy of his presentation: https://rotaryconifer.org/downloads 
  • Some recommended reading: High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out, by Amanda Ripley
  • Some of the different drivers of conflict include:
    • Confirmation bias
    • Conflict entrepreneurs
    • Good conflict
    • High Conflict
    • Humiliation
    • Understories
  • When Indonesia became free from the Dutch, President Sukarno was elected to guide the development of democracy.  Communism was deeply involved at that time and the Cold War was in play.  In 1965-66, over 500K Indonesians were massacred by the country’s army…to fight communism. It became a thriving democracy in 1999.  
  • Stan arrived just as the events of 2001 occurred, starting the War on Terrorism and the conflict against Islamic relationship. 
  • The US was blamed by Indonesians---based on humiliation by the Dutch and the US and the war against Muslims.  They feared the invasion by the US to destroy Islam.  
  • The US, under President Bush started a campaign to show the life of Islam in the US---to humanize the US.  
  • Stan met with a publisher who was demonizing the US and Israel and he was able to change the perspective of the publication and the people it served.
  • President Obama changed the perspective on dealing with the Muslim world.  We developed a focus of developing understanding of one another and a partnership in facing and defeating terrorism.  
  • Conflicts continue, especially against Chinese/Christians
  • After retiring, Stan wanted to move away from bigotry and misunderstanding.  He started 1000 Abrahamic Circle, bringing leaders of Islam, Christianity and Judaism together from around the world—within homes and religious institutions.  They promote dialogue and a sharing of their perspectives.
  • Stanley met Denise Onyskiw in the past year, who invited him to join our Rotary Club and to start a peace committee within the Club.  Rotarians, world-wide, are developing peace clubs, focusing on issues. See the RI website: http://www.rotary-icc.org/ for more info.
  • We will invite a speaker from Boulder Rotary to learn from them about their Peace Committee.  Morti will arrange this speaker for a meeting soon.
 
Guests:   Frank Sims