For our in-person meeting of 27 October, Rotarian Lynne Baker, with the help of Mary Ontiveros and Del Benson, reviewed for us the new Rotary International policy on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and then summarized the results from the recent Club survey of attitudes across our club on DEI. She pointed out that the survey and analysis were organized by the DEI Subcommittee of the Noon Program Committee and that they are consistent with and parallel to the recent programs that have been relevant, informative, and transformative in the area of inclusion and diversity.
The survey, completed by around 53% of our members, was the first step in trying to organize and implement a plan for improving the diversity, equity, and inclusion of our club. The original plans for rollout of the survey results included having round-table discussions on October 27 and actual presentation of the numerical results on November 3. However, a change in plans resulted in presentation of the results on Oct 27 to be followed by round-table discussions at some future meeting.
The presentation started with a reading of the recent policy statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from RI president Shekhar Mehta and president-elect Jennifer Jones. This statement may be found in the October 2021 issue of the Rotary Magazine on page 28. The statement itself is wide-ranging but somewhat bland in order to allow individual clubs and districts to flesh it out depending on their own situations.
The statement was followed by a summary of some of the facts about diversity in our club and the Fort Collins area. In 1988, the first three women joined our Club– the first break from “old white men” – and some of the “old white men” resigned. Today, even though the Fort Collins area is around 1/5 minority, our club is only around 1/10 minority (not including our substantial female membership). In age, some 50% of our members are 70 or older, around ¼ are 50 to 70, and the remaining ¼ are younger than 50. Although those statistics paint a rather poor picture, Lynne pointed out that our club has a wide range of “invisible diversity” – some 16 areas which impact our communal ideas, thoughts, values, and beliefs.
The results of the survey, presented by Del Benson, showed that a most of our members are familiar with and supportive of DEI concepts (some 60% of respondents strongly agreed with the RI statement on DEI and around 2/3 of our members have “diverse” family members). Some 85% of our members feel welcomed, valued and affirmed through Rotary and some 80% feel comfortable discussing issues and concerns related to a number of commonly contentious issues (e.g., ageism, gender equity, LGBTQ). Some 75 – 80% of our members recognize that there are significant differences between diversity and inclusion, between equity and equality and that DEI contributes to higher performing organizations. Although all of us seek to understand each person’s unique qualities, some 40% of our members agree that visible differences influence how they interact with others. Just over half of our members are interested in learning about Critical Race Theory. And finally, our members were somewhat ambivalent with respect to the idea of reverse discrimination being a problem.
The presentation ended by revisiting the 4-way test, which led to the question: how can any Rotarian, believing in the four-way test, not believe in and support the concepts of DEI? No answer required or given.
It was suggested that we needed an improved definition of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This pointed specifically at qualifying the difference between Equity and Equality. The simple answer is that Equity means that everyone gets what they want or need whereas Equality means that everyone gets the same thing.
The presentation started with a reading of the recent policy statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from RI president Shekhar Mehta and president-elect Jennifer Jones. This statement may be found in the October 2021 issue of the Rotary Magazine on page 28. The statement itself is wide-ranging but somewhat bland in order to allow individual clubs and districts to flesh it out depending on their own situations.
The statement was followed by a summary of some of the facts about diversity in our club and the Fort Collins area. In 1988, the first three women joined our Club– the first break from “old white men” – and some of the “old white men” resigned. Today, even though the Fort Collins area is around 1/5 minority, our club is only around 1/10 minority (not including our substantial female membership). In age, some 50% of our members are 70 or older, around ¼ are 50 to 70, and the remaining ¼ are younger than 50. Although those statistics paint a rather poor picture, Lynne pointed out that our club has a wide range of “invisible diversity” – some 16 areas which impact our communal ideas, thoughts, values, and beliefs.
The results of the survey, presented by Del Benson, showed that a most of our members are familiar with and supportive of DEI concepts (some 60% of respondents strongly agreed with the RI statement on DEI and around 2/3 of our members have “diverse” family members). Some 85% of our members feel welcomed, valued and affirmed through Rotary and some 80% feel comfortable discussing issues and concerns related to a number of commonly contentious issues (e.g., ageism, gender equity, LGBTQ). Some 75 – 80% of our members recognize that there are significant differences between diversity and inclusion, between equity and equality and that DEI contributes to higher performing organizations. Although all of us seek to understand each person’s unique qualities, some 40% of our members agree that visible differences influence how they interact with others. Just over half of our members are interested in learning about Critical Race Theory. And finally, our members were somewhat ambivalent with respect to the idea of reverse discrimination being a problem.
The presentation ended by revisiting the 4-way test, which led to the question: how can any Rotarian, believing in the four-way test, not believe in and support the concepts of DEI? No answer required or given.
It was suggested that we needed an improved definition of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This pointed specifically at qualifying the difference between Equity and Equality. The simple answer is that Equity means that everyone gets what they want or need whereas Equality means that everyone gets the same thing.