Sunday, March 15, 2020
By: Julie ToddMeetings for the next few weeks will be cancelled, and possibly moved to an online platform.
My Fellow Rotarians of the Rotary Club of Green Valley,
I come to you once again concerning the COVID-19 coronavirus and its effect on every aspect of our lives. It is an ever-changing situation.
I received a letter from our RI President Mark Maloney and PE Holger Knaack stating:
“As Rotary’s president and president-elect, we have been thinking of these issues very seriously in regard to upcoming Rotary events. As you may be aware, we have made the difficult decision to cancel two Rotary Presidential Conferences honoring our relationship with the United Nations- one in Paris, another in Rome. In the near term, we recommend that Rotary districts and clubs cancel or postpone meetings or events following the advice of national and local health officials.”
I took this to our Board of Directors for a vote as required by our by-laws. The majority feels that we should, in the abundance of care for our members, cancel our meetings through April 1st. We will reevaluate the issue at that time.
The RI letter continued, “We know that clubs and districts are seizing the opportunity to become leaders in their communities and are making better use of technology in this time of need. For example, a Rotary e-club in Italy held a live online session about COVID-19 awareness, a Taiwan club worked with companies and a pharmacy association to donate 1,600 bottles of hand sanitizer to the city of Ji-Long, and Rotary clubs in Sri Lanka helped upgrade software and hardware for the health promotion bureau to assist its social messaging.”
Several of our members have requested that we help where needed in the community as this situation will affect those already in a tenuous situation. We will be discussing those service options as the days unfold.
I hold you all in my thoughts during these trying times.
Yours in Rotary Service,
Julie Todd
