2020　Group 5 Fireside Meeting

Group 5 Leader 川合 利幸

“Rotary Fellowship During the COVID-19 Pandemic”

On fellowship

• Fellowship between people is difficult to build online via Zoom and similar tools; relationships deepen by actually meeting and talking about all kinds of topics.
• In Rotary activities as well, fellowship can hardly deepen from a single exchange of business cards or one dinner; members grow closer through club meetings, dinners, trips and various other activities.

So how can we deepen fellowship during the COVID-19 pandemic?!

Hold gatherings in small groups, like this Fireside Meeting. (The government also recommends groups of up to four.)

Rather than restaurants or izakaya with closely spaced seating, choose venues with private rooms where there is no contact with other customers, even if it costs more.

Although inconvenient, make the effort to put on and take off masks during meals.

Gatherings can be held with measures like these, but since the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise day after day, increasing the number of dinners still carries risk.

We therefore concluded that something we can do right away is to have newer members sit at a different table at each weekly club meeting, so they can interact with senior members as much as possible.

We would also like to share an issue that was raised at this meeting.

If you search for your name on the internet, your Rotary self-introduction page comes up.

Of course, the information is published with each member’s consent, but it shows date of birth, date of joining, hobbies, sponsor, title, company address, main business and business features — and the same goes for other members, so anyone in the world can view it.

From the standpoint of personal information, shouldn’t we review once again what information is made public, and to whom?!

End