On October 10, 2020 Utah Valley University’s Rotaract Club had the opportunity to meet with Martha Velasco, the District Rotaract Chair via Zoom. Martha was able to speak with us about the importance of getting everyone in our club registered with My Rotary. We made a goal to get all of our members enrolled as well as making sure our advisor and president are listed correctly. We also talked about working on recruiting new members and increasing our club status.

Ms. Velasco then told us about the amazing opportunity Rotaract members have to virtually participate in the Big West Rotaract Conference. Big West Rotaract Foundation is an organization that trains students in leadership in the Western U.S. that is formed by Rotaract and Rotary clubs in the area. These clubs have been collaborating since 2010, but the foundation wasn’t founded until 2015. The conference takes place from Thursday, November 12 to Saturday, November 14. The conference will feature presenters from both inside and outside of Rotary who will speak on many Rotary topics.

After that, we were able to speak with our club about the upcoming World Polio Day that Rotaract is organizing on October 21. We talked about finalizing our key speakers which include; Dr. Baldomero Lago, the Chief International Officer at UVU’s Office of Global Engagement, Dr. Scott Leckman, the Utah Rotary Governor, and Mr. Dean Robinson, the President Elect of Orem Rotary. We discussed the coming up sixty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. We talked about Rotaract’s contribution and statement regarding it. Ms. Velasco was able to talk with us and give very insightful information regarding these events. Overall, it was an amazing opportunity to meet with Ms. Velasco and our Rotaract Club here at Utah Valley University.

Albeny Singh, Utah Valley University Rotaract member