This Week’s Meeting

Week beginning February 15, 2015.  Presiding today is Diana Martinelli.

rotary-bellDing! We’re now in session.

Welcome all – Visitors, fellow Rotarians and guests alike to the E-Club meeting for the week of February 15, 2014.

Remember the smiling pot. Donations to our E-Club help support our service projects.

We’d like to respectfully remind all visitors that if they would like to contribute the normal cost of a meal for your makeup, we would be grateful. These funds go directly to our many and varied service projects around the world. You can make a contribution in the Donation box on your left.

Four-Way Test

At the beginning of each meeting we remind ourselves of the Four-Way Test.  Therefore, please remember to ask yourself always . . .

Of the things we think, say or do:

1. Is it the TRUTH?

2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

A Reflective Moment

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”

–John Quincy Adams

 

A Light Moment

msre 20150215

 

This week’s Program:

In Mentorship, Every Moment Matters

Happy Presidents’ Day! Last week Jeffrey Tinnell discussed the importance and power of mentoring. Did you know January was National Mentoring Month? President Obama’s Dec. 31 National Mentoring Month proclamation said, in part, “Mentors and caring adults serve as essential sources of inspiration, lifting up young people and positioning them to build the America of tomorrow.”

As part of that effort to inspire us to become mentors, Colin Powell urged us to mentor young people to help them “build confidence and give hope for the future.”

Mentoring is often viewed as a formal relationship that takes place over time. A Washington, DC, based group called Founder Corps, “Experienced Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs,” has posted best mentorship practices and frequently asked questions on their website. Included is information about what to expect from a mentoring relationship, such as the following:

The mentor/mentee relationship should usually be free of conflict. The best interests of the mentee should be tantamount. Following from this is an expectation that the mentor is not exposed to liability or financial obligation. The best mentor/mentee relationship is based upon advice and support freely given and freely ignored.”

As part of National Mentoring Month in 2012, the Christian Science Monitor ran an excerpt from the book The Person Who Changed My Life, edited by former New York First Lady Matilda Raffa Cuomo, and listed 10 celebrities’ brief accounts of how someone had changed their respective lives. It includes anecdotes from former President Bill Clinton, Walter Cronkite, Nora Ephron, and James Earl Jones to name a few. Among them, they cite teachers, colleagues, coaches, and leaders who changed their lives, often in an instant, by saying something that changed their perspective about life or work. And that’s really the key: Working to change someone’s perspective about what’s right, what’s wise, what’s possible.

Such informal mentoring, the things we say and do each day—our spontaneous observations, comments, and responses—can be just as powerful and significant as long-term, formal mentoring. Attorney Karen Russell acknowledges this idea in her TedTalk called “Modern Mentoring: The Good, the Bad and the Better,”in which she says that mentoring can last “a moment, a few months or a lifetime.”

Renowned violinist Joanna Kaczorowska draws on her own life’s mentors in her TedTalk, discussing three distinct types that built on each other to help her progress. It started with a patient mentor who served as her initial coach, progressed to a pushy advisor who challenged her limits, and ended with a champion who empowered her success and instilled confidence. All three of these models share two traits, she says; 1) they share a love of purpose, and 2) they do what they teach and preach.

Whether it’s formal or informal, intended or happenstance, good mentors (and leaders) inspire others, and know that every moment matters.

Thank you for participating in this week’s meeting!

And . . . don’t forget to leave a comment after this week’s meeting in order to spur further discussion.