Service above Self. Despite the weather, another successful Rotary Pro-Am was completed on Tuesday at the Harvest Golf and Country Club. No other golf tournament in the interior of B.C. is as successful as our clubs. Over a 100K will directly impact the needs of individuals in Kelowna from our service efforts.
Personally, I love data and algorithms and the information you can glean from statistical analysis. There is even within Rotary an overwhelming desire to validate outcomes by data. But, are we making something important because we can measure it rather than measuring something because it is important?
Case in point, Gregor Mendel is sometimes referred to as the father of genetics. In 1860 this Austrian monks’ laws formed the theoretical basis of our understanding of inheritance, based on his work with pea plants. Almost a century later two researchers named Watson and Crick famously unraveled the 3-dimensional structure and sequence of our DNA. After the human genome was sequenced by Watson and Crick there was this hopeful thinking based on the data that there would be one gene that would express or define the shape of your nose and one that would express and define your height. But this as it turns out is not the case. There appears to be networks of genes that working together in incredibly complicated ways, that then interact with the environment that is the determinant of gene expression. Here in lies my thoughts about how Rotary expresses and defines its effect on us and our community.
Best practices and courses of action around having us all express and agree in the same way, which in common sense would lead to one dominant result, turns out in fact to lead to an opposite recessive result. The genius of our founding fathers is in diversity, both in personhood and in vocation. When this diversity is expressed through a belief of service above self our uniqueness and talents, then interact with our environment, can best be expressed. The Rotary Pro-Am is such an expression. So, we can put away our algorithms and data for awhile, at least until our next board meeting.
Thanks again to Robin Smith and his very capable team for all their efforts.
At the board meeting on Thursday we dispensed with 2 motions to be approved by the club this Tuesday. First, the approval by the board (as outlined in our sponsorship letter) to direct 5% of the gross proceeds from the Bollywood Gala to the club account. And Secondly, to direct 25,000.00 to the dispersible account in the RCoK foundation. The remainder of the time was spent on coming up with creative ways to make this year’s committees more fun and engage the membership. Exhausted we adjourned to Browns Social house for refreshments. All club members are welcome to the after-hour board meetings.
Gordy Charles would like to remind us of the Mock Interviews at KSS on Wednesday May 29th.
See you all on Tuesday. The place to be in Kelowna at noon!