Boston Rotaract Speaker and General Meeting

            It has been quite a while since I last posted here. I have certainly had plenty of things to blog about, but I have not had the time to write any of them. I have started several posts, only to be distracted and delayed until I cancel them. I have to break this pattern, so I decided to write about an interesting event I attended last week: the Boston Rotaract Speaker and General Meeting.

            I have written before that I intend to incorporate service into my life after college. Student government was a big part of my life at Boston University, and I am looking for an organization that can fill the same role now. Earlier this month, I searched Meetup.com for groups dedicated to volunteering. I found Boston Rotaract. For those of you who do not know, Rotaract is the Rotary Club affiliate for young men and women. Like the Rotary Club, Rotaract is dedicated to promoting service in personal, business, community life. I was glad to find Boston Rotaract, because it seemed like exactly what I wanted: an organization dedicated to strengthening my local community through service. I joined on August 14, and immediately RSVP'd for the next event.

            The Boston Rotaract Speaker and General Meeting held last Thursday night was my first event with the club. The thirteen attendees, including four new members, gathered in a room provided Fisher College. It was a remarkably diverse group. It included a high school student, a few recent college graduates, and a few young professionals. The room was fairly evenly split between men and women. The group was also racially diverse (I did not keep notes on the racial composition of the group, because that would be creepy). A few of the officers were immigrants as well. As a result, the atmosphere at the event was inviting.

The event was split in two parts. From 7:00PM to 7:45PM, the club hosted a “Professional Development Speaker.” About once a month, the club hosts a speaker to talk about a topic related to philanthropy, professional development, or life as a young professional. This time, the speaker was Julianna Morrall representing Flying Kites, an organization that serves orphans in Kenya. She explained the organization, its mission, and the orphan crisis in Kenya. The format was mostly Q&A style, so it seemed more like a conversation than a lecture. I found it to be an enlightening conversation at that. I do not spend much of my time thinking about orphans, so I was surprised to learn that there are over 2 million orphans in Kenya. That is such a huge number that it can only be called a crisis. I honestly cannot do the issue justice here, so if you want to help please do some research on your own.

After the speaker, the general meeting started. Boston Rotaract hosts these meetings on the first and third Thursday of the month to discuss the club’s events. I will be honest: general meetings are never very interesting, but this one was relatively good as meetings go. It provided a good introduction to the club in a friendly and efficient way. The meeting ended just before 9PM, and many of the attendees went to a bar to socialize.

I know that I only attended one meeting, but I would still recommend Boston Rotaract. I very much enjoyed my time there, and I am eager to participate more in the future. I strongly suggest that any Bostonians from 18 to 30 with an interest in service give Boston Rotaract a try. Just join the meetup group or like the Facebook page, and then attend a meeting. It is worth the (minimal) effort.