Monday, 4 April 2011

Meeting Minutes - 4th April, 2011

A HUGE thanks to Miriam for keeping the meeting on time and on topic. We left refreshed.

8:00 Eat, Drink, & Network

8:10 Scheduled Start-Time

8:12 Start: Agenda
1. Exercise (not the physical kind, rather, the "use or application of a faculty" kind.)
2. Video
3. Caribbean Update
4. Committee UPdates
6. Video

8:13 The Exercise:
1. Summarize why you joined Rotaract in less than 25 words.
2. Put in two words about what you want to achieve.
3. Write down what your community service passion is.

8:16 Video 1: A club promo. Full video is ≈5min., showing 1st 2 minutes. Let it load while we do Caribbean update.

8:17 Caribbean update. May 6th. Meydan.
Silent Auction. Buffet. Dancing. Costumes from Brazil & Trinidad. Steel Pan Drums. Same DJ as last year (he was great.) Ad for the Rotarians. Ad for the General public.
8:19 2 things we need: 1 auction item from each one of you.
8:21 Invite anyone. There's 15 items on the Buffet plus desserts. Can invite friends on Facebook. OK Mag. will have it the last two weeks before it happens. For Senses.
8:22 Discussion on the night; we get flyers for the event.

8:24 Video. District 7070, 2008 Rotaract Club Promo. Habitat for Humanity. Tree Planting. Bottle Drive.

8:27 Mehdi; Club Service
8:28 New Internet, homepage.
8:30 Calendars.
8:33 Gannter project manager, currently in Beta & Free.

8:34 Pay it Forward Update
Business plan has been tweaked to be generic. Had 2 meetings with a restaurant that is almost a go-ahead: I picked places because I like them and I know the owners.

8:39 Pro-Dev Event: The Extraordinary Entrepreneurial Mind

8:42 Mehdi; Gant Charts for Project Managment.
Tracking & Task Assignments

8:45 Community Fashion Show Report
Met with Red Crescent, they will do all the registration, etc. We go through the ministry of Islamic Affairs. However, one snag: Can't serve alcohol at event. Which wouldn't be a problem, except our current venue is in a bar. Need to either move the venue from the bar or change the venue if they won't close the bar for us.
8:47 Discussion, on the Fashion show - we have tons of sponsors; Canon, Pace e Luce Salon, ...
8:51 Further discussion on Fashion Show

8:55 Wrap-up by Miriam.

8:56 Note by Sevan, the Club President; we've got a list of on-site logistics we need done for the fashion show, we'll share that with you.

8:57 Miriam: Thanks for the updates! We wanted an update from the International Committee but no one was available.

8:57 TED Talk Excerpt: Daniel Goleman on compassion

There was a very important study done a while ago at Princeton Theological Seminary that speaks to why it is that when all of us have so many opportunities to help, we do sometimes, and we don't other times. A group of divinity students at the Princeton Theological Seminary were told that they were going to give a practice sermon and they were each given a sermon topic. Half of those students were given, as a topic, the parable of the Good Samaritan: the man who stopped the stranger in -- to help the stranger in need by the side of the road. Half were given random Bible topics. Then one by one, they were told they had to go to another building and give their sermon. As they went from the first building to the second, each of them passed a man who was bent over and moaning, clearly in need. The question is: Did they stop to help?

The more interesting question is: Did it matter they were contemplating the parable of the Good Samaritan? Answer: No, not at all. What turned out to determine whether someone would stop and help a stranger in need was how much of a hurry they thought they were in -- were they feeling they were late, or were they absorbed in what they were going to talk about. And this is, I think, the predicament of our lives: that we don't take every opportunity to help, because our focus is in the wrong direction.

9:00 Stops the Vid, (it's a taster!), Intro's the guest: Ibrahim, interning at PR company in Dubai and hopes to find a job and be able to stay!

21:01 End.

Post-Meeting Conversation:
1. I talked with Miriam about having profiles of all the members with their name, country, company you work for.
2. I thought of getting people within Rotaract to give feedback on each other's resumés, but then I thought: Perhaps we could make a list of people's LinkedIn profiles, and help each other work on those as well. And then link to those profiles from our members page.

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