We Are Back In Person!: After not being at Pacific University for 595 days, we are back to our weekly in-person meetings! We plan on joining on Wednesdays at noon in the Boxer Pause room in the University Center (towards the back of the dining commons). As in the past, lunch will be available in the dining commons for a nominal fee.

For the safety of everyone involved, Pacific University is asking that anyone attending in-person meetings follow the following safety protocols:

• All persons who attend in-person meetings on campus are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

• Masks are required at all times while you are on the Pacific University campus, unless you are actively eating.

• If you are experiencing any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, please stay home and join us via Zoom. Click Here For Symptoms.

• If you have been in close contact with an individual who is a confirmed or presumptive COVID-19 case, or have tested positive for the virus yourself, follow the quarantine guidance from the Washington Country Health Department.

These rules will help keep our members and community safe and will allow us to meet in-person after such a long time apart.

If you cannot attend or do not feel comfortable attending in-person, Click Here On Information On How To Join Us Via Zoom.

Wreath Sale Fundraiser: For the second year, our club is conducting a holiday wreath fundraiser that will directly benefit our annual Hope For the Holidays service project! The greens are being provided by Fischer Greens, which is run by our own Rotarian Melinda Fischer.

The fundraiser is offering 20-inch wreaths for $30 each and 28-inch wreaths for $40 each. Orders are due by Friday, November 12 with wreaths available for pickup by members on Saturday, December 4. Submit your orders to Janet Peters.

Orders can also be made through an online form on the Club Website. The form allows for credit card sales through Square.

Garden Work Party: Get out your gardening gloves and make plans to join us on Saturday, November 6 at 9 a.m., for a work party at our McDougall Garden. The garden is located between Pacific and 19th Avenues near the big flagpole. We will be putting the garden “to bed” for the winter, weeding and taking care of the perennials that has made garden maintenance so much easier. For more information, please contact Geoff Faris or Lucas Welliver.

Road Cleanups Suspended: Due to the Oregon Health Authority’s recommendations for physical distancing in outdoor settings, Washington County has suspended Adopt-A-Road cleanups until further notice. This includes our cleanup program along Gales Creek Road and Thatcher Road.

Rotary Phone Tree: Thank you to everyone who helped lead the Rotary Phone Tree through the pandemic time and especially to Paul Waterstreet for leading up the effort. The Phone Tree will be suspended now than in-person meetings are starting again.

Welcome Seth Berdahl!: The Rotary Club of Forest Grove is proud to welcome Seth Berdahl as the club’s newest member. Seth was inducted as the club’s monthly evening meeting on Wednesday, October 20.

A native of Forest Grove, Seth is a seventh-generation Oregonian. He is a graduate of Forest Grove High School and the University of Oregon. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Seth lived and worked in Seattle, but remote work opportunities provided him the opportunity to move home.

Seth spends two hours per week on his main priority: coaching a Forest Grove youth running team, and uses the rest of his time to work for Microsoft. On the weekends, Seth works on rehabbing his 1904 house in Old Town Forest Grove, very, very slowly.

Congratulations Jeannine!: We are extremely proud that our own Jeannine Murrell has been selected to lead District 5100 as District Governor for the 2024-25 Rotary Year! The announcement of her selection was made at last Wednesday’s evening meeting.

Jeannine has been a member of the Rotary Club of Forest Grove since 2003 and served as club president for the 2015-16 Rotary Year. At the club level, she has served as a member of the scholarship committee, on the board of directors, as membership chair and as sergeant at arms.

At the district level, Jeannine has previously served as assistant governor for the Central West Region and currently serves as the administrative district governor for current District Governor Jim Boyle. Jeannine also chaired the 2017 District Training Assembly, which was received with rave reviews.

Jeannine will be the fourth Rotarian from our club to serve as district governor, joining William McCready (1959-60), Raymond Miller (1969-70) and George Horner (1979-80).

Forest Grove Partnering With Lake Oswego On International Project: The Rotary Club of Forest Grove Board of Directors voted to partner with the Rotary Club of Lake Oswego on an international project. Called Project Flourish, the project is based with the MAIA Impact School in Guatemala, which strives to teach girls, and particularly girls of Mayan descent, to finding their empowered voice and to embrace what education can do for them.

Guatemala has the worst gender equity gap in the Americas. This initiative centers on the creation and implementation of an educational program to connect talent with opportunity for first-generation “Girl Pioneers” (young women born into situations of quadruple discrimination as rural, poor, female, and Indigenous) in Guatemala. The elements of this program center on the following:

● Formal internships to generate experience and informed decision-making
● Preparation for university entrance exams
● Training on soft skills for job interviews and workplace readiness/success
● Workplace English & IT training to increase employability

This project creates a powerful pilot that will serve 42 girls and their families (approximately 336 people). These girls and families represent over a dozen rural villages in Sololá. Once created, the project will continue in perpetuity to serve generations of young women who will break out of poverty.

The project is partially funded through a Rotary International Global Grant. We will have a program on this impactful project later this fall.

ShelterBox HERO Club: Once again, our club has been recognized by ShelterBox USA as a ShelterBox Bronze Level HERO Club! The recognition signifies our club’s continued commitment to donate $1,000 per year to ShelterBox over a three-year period. We are truly grateful for the commitment of our members to continue to give to ShelterBox’s ongoing disaster relief efforts all over the world.

ShelterBox is an official Rotary partner. You can learn more about what the organization is doing around the world by Visiting The ShelterBox Website. Our own ShelterBox ambassadors, Jeannine Murrell and Pamelajean Myers, gave a program to the club on the organization in June, which can be Viewed Here.

Online Dues Payments: Our club is now equipped to process dues payments online! We can now process credit card or debit card payments for quarterly dues. Information on how to pay online will be included with quarterly billings that will be coming to your mailbox or email inbox.

With the transition to billing with Quickbooks, some members may not have received their quarterly invoice. If you did not, please contact treasurer Lucas Welliver.

FGHS Community Food Pantry: Our club’s support for the Forest Grove High School Food Pantry continues. Thanks to its partnership with the Oregon Food Bank, food donations are still welcome but are of less need at this time. Of need, however, are toiletries and hygiene products as well as household cleaning materials.

The Food Pantry is open on Mondays from 4-5 p.m. The pantry is now open in its new site in the building along Nichols Lane between the football field and the Basinski Center.

For information on the Food Pantry, please contact Brian Burke, bburke@fgsd.k12.or.us. If you wish to make a cash donation to the pantry, Click Here.

Additionally, Rotarian Gwen Hullinger has put together an Amazon wish list of items that can be purchased and donated. Click Here To View That List.

Past Programs: Did you miss a meeting or want to go back and check out a program again? Most of our programs since May 2020 are archived on our club’s YouTube page. Visit https://bit.ly/fgrotaryprograms.

Around District 5100
Rotary Story Slam: One of the most effective ways to introduce people to Rotary is by telling your story. District 5100 is holding a competition, called Your Rotary Story Slam, encouraging you to share your Rotary story.

A “story slam” is a competition based on the art of storytelling. You will present a 3-5 minute oral story without notes. This year’s topic is “Serve to Change Lives.” Share a time where Rotary service changed your life, a time you’ve changed a life or have been part of an impactful project. The story should be yours – authentic, true and fit The Four-Way Test.

Club-level winners will compete in a regional story slam over the winter. The winners from each region will present at the District 5100 Conference and will receive a $500 cash prize.

Our club will view submissions for the Rotary Story Slam on Wednesday, November 10 and will vote on the club winner to advance to regional competition. The club is offering 100 Paul Harris Fellow points to every member that participates. The winning story from the club will receive 500 Paul Harris Fellow points in addition to moving on in the competition.

For more information, visit rotarystoryslam.com.

Save The Date: District 5100 Rotary One Conference: Mark your calendars for May 19-22 as District 5100 will present its first combined Spring Training Event and annual conference in Seaside. The combined conference will provide Rotary training opportunities, inspirational speakers and a celebration of what is hoped to be a great year in District 5100.

Around Rotary International
Rotary’s World Polio Day Program Looks Towards Polio Eradication’s Endgame: Rotary’s goal of ridding the world of polio is within reach, global health experts said during the 2021 World Polio Day Online Global Update on 24 October. The 30-minute program, “Delivering on our Promise of a Polio-Free World,” provided encouraging information about the progress and remaining challenges in the fight to end polio.

So far in 2021, only two cases of wild polio have been reported — the lowest circulation of the disease ever — with one infection each in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the two countries where polio remains endemic.

During a Q&A session, Dr. Hamid Jafari, director for the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, attributed the low case count to several factors. He said these include mass polio vaccination campaigns resuming after the interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the natural immunity induced by the wild polio outbreaks of previous years, and the restrictions on travel and population movement that also were due to the pandemic.

“This is truly unprecedented that we are seeing this decline simultaneously in the two countries,” Jafari said.

He added that the low case count provides a window of opportunity for health workers, but cautioned that a resurgence of the poliovirus is possible since summer is the high polio transmission season. “So this is the time to really press hard in making use of the opportunity that presents itself now,” he told Q&A host Jeffrey Kluger, editor at large for Time magazine.

Jafari also addressed the challenges of political change and security concerns in Afghanistan and explained that the polio program there is used to adapting operationally during uncertainty. “Currently we do see opportunities coming up as well, so that we may have access to all parts of Afghanistan for implementing mass vaccination campaigns,” he said.

According to the WHO and UNICEF, nationwide house-to-house polio vaccinations will resume in Afghanistan in early November, providing access to children in areas where campaigns had been banned for the last three years. Read More

Last Week’s Program: District Governor Jim Boyle

Click Here To Watch The Complete Program

For our first in-person meeting since March 2020, it was only appropriate that our first program would be the official visit for District 5100 Governor Jim Boyle.

Jim opened his program by first bragging on our own Jeannine Murrell, who was recently selected to be district governor in 2024-25. Jim bragged about Jeannine’s organization, attention to detail and leadership skills as she has served as his administrative assistant governor this year.

Later in his program, Jim singled out the work of Claudia Yakos to help grow Rotary not only in our club but also within the district. With the upcoming addition of our cause-based satellite club, the Rotary Club of Forest Grove will be the only Rotary Club in the United States with two satellite clubs. Jim presented a theme banner to commemorate that club’s upcoming chartering.

The bulk of Jim’s program spoke to the resilience that Rotarians have exhibited in our district during the pandemic and looking ahead to make Rotary more attractive to younger generations.

In addressing the challenges, Jim asked the group to think about one person who has influenced them in their leadership journey and to think what one attribute comes to mind when you think of that person. He also addressed integrity and brought up an example of a situation in his life where his integrity caused Jim to make the decision to leave a job. We have to be able to look in the mirror each day and know that we have acted with integrity.

Jim addressed the subject of diversity and asked each person to think about how they have helped make Rotary and their own lives more diverse. He encouraged people to look up implicit acceptance tests on Google and use that as a baseline to address personal biases. Jim did this and spoke to an example in his life of addressing a bias in his life he didn’t know that he had.

Jim also addressed service and how one of the first service projects that his club did when he joined Rotary completely changed his attitude not only about Rotary but on service itself.

In talking about avenues to grow Rotary for the future, Jim uses the acronym FIRE, which stands for flexibility, impact, reach and engagement.

Flexibility: What is the product of Rotary? It is club experience. RI general secretary John Hewko has stated that Rotary does not have a membership issue but rather a membership crisis in North America. The average age of Rotarians in North America is 59-and-a-half, but the average age of a person in the workforce is 39. What does Rotary need to do to be attractive to the workforce now.

Much of that sits within that club experience. How do clubs provide weekly meetings, programs, service opportunities, etc.? In the United States, the percentage of Rotary members under 40 is 5.6 percent. In District 5100, that number is almost 11 percent. That is good but we must do better to keep Rotary vibrant.

The district has formed a Grow Rotary Committee to help clubs develop avenues to grow. The district Membership Committee is also conducting quarterly Zoom conferences to provide best practices to clubs.

Additionally, the district is making sure that all trainings are free to Rotarians and that dues are not charged for new members during the 2021-22 Rotary year.

Impact: How do we measure the impact of the district and our clubs? If each Rotary service hour is worth $25 and we multiplied that by the number of hours members have served in the 97 years our club has existed, that would be a huge number. We cannot be afraid to brag about the impact our club has on the community.

In terms of district impact, District 5100 ranks among the top-10 districts worldwide in terms of contributions to ShelterBox. The district is also working on programs this year to provide 1,000 bicycles to underprivileged children and a Rotary Day of Service in April, partnering with Habitat for Humanity chapters throughout the region.

Reach: Sometimes we confuse reach with public image. Both are important but reach is how we touch individuals with the story of Rotary. By extending to individuals the benefits of Rotary, we can extend our reach to the community. How do we leverage the things that we do well?

Engagement: How do you measure perfect engagement? What is the expectation of engagement of members to keep clubs and Rotary vibrant? This is a good discussion for clubs to have to provide that baseline.

Club Calendar
Wed., Nov. 3: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Michael Yakos, Rotary Foundation Update

Thurs., Nov. 4: Executive Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
On Zoom

Wed., Nov. 10: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Boxer Pause, University Center, Pacific University
Program: Rotary Story Slam Video & Voting

Thurs., Nov. 11: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
On Zoom

Wed., Nov. 17: Evening Meeting, 6:30 p.m.
Location TBA
Program: Jose Cassady, Forest Grove Sandwich Shop on small business