The Rotary Club of Tacoma #8 is open to all people who want to make positive changes in our community and world. We welcome all members and guests, regardless of race, nationality, religion, faith, gender, sexual orientation, cultural background, and ability.
We will not tolerate racism. We strive to become an anti-racist organization. We are committed to learning more about how systemic racism has led to inequality in all systems– including education, housing, health, employment, wealth accumulation, policing, prosecution, sentencing, and incarceration – and working to eradicate inequality wherever we encounter it.
We will take these actions:
- We will review and update our club’s procedure, policies, meetings, events, communications, grants, projects, scholarships, and traditions.
- We will broaden our recruiting practices to align our membership more closely with the demographics of Tacoma.
- We will use our grants, projects, and scholarships to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice in our community.”
Our club formed a DEAI Committee and we have, to the best of our ability, conducted the three actions described above. We wrote a recommendation for each one to our Board of Directors. We also did a survey of our Club’s members about DEAI. Overwhelmingly, members wanted our Club to take action on DEAI.
At the beginning of each meeting, a member reads our acknowledgement:
We acknowledge that our meeting today is taking place on the traditional homeland of the Puyallup people. We acknowledge that this land was not freely ceded to the settlers who claimed it. We recognize and honor the significance of this land and its waters to the Puyallup people, who have lived on and stewarded this land for centuries and continue to do so today.
We have recently distributed a Request for Proposal (RFP), which is due on November 30th, for a consultant(s) to review what our Club has done, to see if we missed anything, and to recommend to our club a Roadmap for the future. We want to be known a welcoming to all.
We realize that most RFPs, from business or educational organizations, usually result in DEAI training, and attendance is mandated by the leader of the organization; however, our club is a volunteer organization, so we are looking for a contractor(s) that has experience with volunteer organizations.
We would be most interested to read about what other clubs in District 5020 are doing for DEAI, and to gain any useful ideas.
