Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well.I am excited to say we had a very successful Interact District Conference. After weeks of planning and preparation, it was very satisfying to see the whole thing come together. For the conference, we had two speakers, Ben Lutz and DG Elizabeth Mahoney; three Interact clubs presenting what they did during the year; and two breakout sessions where the Assistant Governors and attendees would discuss the presentations they just watched. Ben Lutz talked about his work at Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBBI) and how his involvement in Interact got him interested in peace-building and conflict resolution. His message for the attendees for the conference was, “Don’t be afraid to fail.” Letting go of the fear of failure makes it easier to try new things because you aren’t dependent on the success of the new thing you tried. The easiest way to learn something is to make mistakes, and while failure may not feel great when it happens, in the long run, it is beneficial.
We had three clubs present at the conference: Canyon View Highschool, Bradshaw Mountain Highschool, and BASIS Scottsdale. Canyon View and BASIS Scottsdale are both relatively new Interact clubs. BASIS actually started when the schools first shut down due to COVID. Canyon View has an interesting way of running the meetings online. They make groups based on the six Rotary core pillars, and each group will have a project to work on that aligns with those values. That way, the meetings are more manageable, and new people who may be too shy to speak in front of a large group of kids feel more comfortable sharing ideas. Bradshaw is one of the more veteran Interact clubs in the district; they have been active for over six years. Hearing how a club that has been used to in-person meetings and events adapted to things online gave inspiration to other clubs that were struggling to do the same thing. All of the clubs mentioned how useful the Fall Leadership Conference was in providing ideas for covid safe events, and it was nice to see that clubs were able to benefit from that.
DG Mahoney had an interview between her and the people attending the conference. We learned everything from what first got her involved in Rotary and her favorite service event to how we Interactors can connect with Rotarians and how Rotary clubs are adapting, especially when we cannot have in-person events. We are super excited for the Rotary week of service and the ability to connect with our sponsoring Rotary clubs.
If you would like to connect with your Interact clubs, we can connect you with the club and the Assistant Governor assigned to the club. You can always contact me at ashtonkling34@gmail.com or Art at arthts@msn.com. You can also see some of the amazing things that our Interact clubs are doing by going to our official Instagram page, interactaz5495. Don’t forget that Interact is the start of the chain that leads all the way to Rotary.
Thank you, and stay safe!