Well, I had every intention of ‘blogging’ from Japan, but it didn’t happen!! Between sightseeing, meetings, visiting with my son and trying to beat the heat, I somehow didn’t have time!! What a great experience! So much culture, diversity and heat to soak up! Yes, it was about 100 degrees with 85% humidity some days, but most of us still got some great sight seeing in. Our Convention was great and so was the Governor’s Round Table that I attended for the two days after conference was over. I got a lot of information that I will be sharing at Fall District Meetings!!

As a few of us get ready to leave for the SIA 45nd Biennial Convention in Yokohama, Japan, I reflect on how international this organization is and how great an opportunity we have, as members, to travel the globe and feel the unity and community with women from all over the world. I am sure many of us will share our journey on facebook, so follow us there! I will also be blogging from Japan with pictures. I urge you to put an SIA or SI Convention on your bucket list. Yes, it can be expensive, but when else can you travel half way around the world and feel like you ‘belong’ with a large group of like-minded women?! I am really looking forward to it! Join me next time!

I attended the Rotary Press Conference for their public awareness campaign to stop trafficking this morning and ran into a few Soroptimists, like those from SI Sutter Yuba!  I’m glad we attended.

Here are my thoughts (this being my first opportunity to ‘blog’, I think that’s what I am supposed to do):

I am proud that Soroptimist has led the way on public awareness on this issue for the last several years.  I am proud of our Stop Trafficking Coodinators and clubs that are out in the communities raising awareness in their own ways.  And I am proud of Rotary for taking it to the next level in the Sacramento area.  I am struck that as Soroptimist, we tend to think that people know about this awful crime and I love that they don’t think so. They got a $340,000 grant to do a major public awareness campaign! They will be buying billboards throughout the valley putting slogans on them that really bring it to the forefront of people’s minds. They have partnered with 3Strands Global Foundation to get more education into the schools for prevention. I am proud to support Rotary’s campaign.  Anything we can do to help eradicate trafficking is a win!

On another note, I am also struck by the fact that there were some former Soroptimists there that are now Rotarians.  We need to have a sit down with them and find out what drew them to Rotary and what could we have done to keep them? Food for thought.  Rotary has over a billion members worldwide.  They stand for eradicating polio, which is nearly done!  Now they want to stand for eradicating Human and Sex Trafficking.  All the more reason for Soroptimist to focus our work on standing for women and girls. “When we stand for everything, we stand for nothing”.

Governor Lane