The Weekly Westerner Edition 54.52 (Jun 07, 2021)

Members and guests were warmly welcomed by our greeter of the day, David Mills.

President Bill Fitzsimmons opened the meeting at noon and our guests were introduced by David: Stephanie Rodrigo from Sri Lanka; Laura Istead, our guest speaker; Jim Willson, past member of RCCW; and Past District 3560 Governor, Rick Istead.

Drew Turnbull, director services and grants, was recognized by President Bill as this week’s recipient of The Golden Stetson. Drew had been tasked with huge responsibilities in his directorship and has performed everything with exemplary dedication. Congratulations Drew!

President Bill noted he was wearing an orange tie for the meeting and had been thinking of the Kamloops revelations, hoping this might be a turning point in Canadian history for our better awareness, and changing perspective, of our past and future relations with Canada’s indigenous peoples. He recalled a ball game he attended many years ago as a youngster at which there was a young indigenous woman on the team. Bill was shocked and appalled at the way in which she was addressed and (mis)treated by others. The incident, still recalled so many years later, opened his eyes to the mistreatment of indigenous youth. Bill was not asking for a specific Rotary call to action, but said we need to really listen to their voices.

Dan Doherty provided our inspirational moment, first recognizing our presence on the historical lands of Treaty 7 nations, and acknowledging his son-in-law’s father who was a residential school survivor. The finding of the 215 children’s remains at the Kamloops residential school revisits the pain experienced at their disappearance. Dan asked each of us to take a moment for reflection; to pledge to learn their story, know their pain and to become engaged as part of the solution.

Guest Speaker: Laura Istead, Executive Director, Two Wheel View

Rick Istead introduced our guest speaker, his daughter, Laura Istead. Laura is the executive director of Two Wheel View. Her organization uses bicycles as a medium for cultural change, a topic about which she is extremely passionate. In her “free time” she is a Brownie leader, enjoys cooking and gardening and initiating small service project to assist seniors. Her topic was “Cultivating Culture – building belonging, planting inspiration and sowing seeds of change”. She began with a quote from Roald Dahl – “Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it”.

Through Two Wheel View, Laura’s organization provides opportunities for (pre-teen) kids to earn their own bike by learning how to ride, maintain and repair a bike. Her program has expanded to assist 18 to 24 year olds in developing life skills, partnering with other community organizations such as Momentum. Bikes that are surplus to their own needs and that have been fixed up by the kids are sold to generate additional funds for the organization.

Laura realized that companies do not reach their optimal potential without a strong organizational culture. A short video, The Dumpster Fire and the Garden, by Brad Montague, provided an excellent example of her thinking about the importance of organizational culture. It serves to empower, increase retention, and improve the bottom line so much more.

So how do we go about improving our organization’s culture? First, we must clearly identify and evaluate our values and determine how we are showing up relative to them. Do people feel like they belong? There must be some level of vulnerability, or preparedness to take risk, in the organization. It’s about connection and trust. Reflection is important, asking what else we can do to continue to feel like, or grow, as a team. Trust, connected to vulnerability, is important for consistency. What gestures can you make to demonstrate trust in your team? Communication is central to everything; speaking with intent to understand rather than respond and speaking in the other’s language. Finally, reflect: think about ways you communicate with all your stakeholders. What messages are you sending internally and externally? Are they similar? Your environment must also be considered. What does your physical space say about you, about accessibility, comfort and sustainability? What does our physical, and our virtual, space tell about our culture and our connection?

Laura told us of a special screening about her organization, scheduled for June 10 at 7 pm at Twowheelview.org. She emphasised her pride in it, what her organization is and what they are achieving. It is her cultural practice at the end of every meeting to express appreciation, and Laura expressed her great appreciation to us for the opportunity for her to tell her story today.

In response to questions from the chat room, Laura advised that funding is received from a number of sources: Family and community support services, individual donors, small corporate donations, foundation grants and their own social enterprise (surplus bike sales). Pre-covid, they had about 450 kids annually in Earn a Bike and perhaps 20 in their employability skills programme. Learning bike trips are another aspect of their programmes, and anywhere from 30 to 150 kids participate in these annually. They also operate a joint programme with a school in Morley.

Joe Klassen expressed our thanks to Laura for her great presentation, providing a template for us to seriously think about, and expressed our best wishes for her future.

President Bill told us to expect to hear from President-elect Marlene Doherty next Monday about our strategic plan and from Judy Cochran about our vocational programmes. Our guest speaker will be from Friends of Fish Creek, an organization that we will be hearing more about in terms of hands-on volunteer opportunities.

Marlene thanked all those who volunteered this year to make the NStep flower and veggie plant sales a success. The incredible effort by Claude Massé was especially appreciated.

Move for Polio will kick off on July 1. Spearheaded by Martin Parnell, incoming DG. This will be a three-year initiative and allow almost any form of movement – riding, cycling, walking, running and even fishing (15 minutes of fishing equates to 1 km of travel).

President Bill will be resending a link to the upcoming House of Friendship. He closed the meeting after thanking team 4 members for their various roles in today’s meeting.