Rotary Club

[mabfan]

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of serving as the guest speaker to the Brookline Rotary Club at their weekly meeting.

The Rotarians is an organization devoted to public service that has been around since 1905. They have over a million members, and their current project is to try to eliminate polio all over the world by next year, in time for their 100th anniversary.

Their chapters have weekly lunch meetings, and as I noted, yesterday I got to attend a meeting as a guest speaker. I got to observe and participate in their rituals, which were a lot of fun -- there's some singing, some recitation, and a lot of sharing of good news. And then I gave my twenty-minute talk "What is Science Fiction?" which was apparently well-received. I began by pointing out that in science fiction, we also have our community -- fandom -- along with its own rituals, and then I went into the whole introductory talk as to what makes a story science fiction or fantasy.

gnomi ran into someone we know afterwards who was at the meeting, and reported back to me that the audience really enjoyed my talk. I'm feeling very good about this; I need these kind of egoboosts as I attempt my full-time writing year.

This week: I finished the first draft of "Denoument" and the first rewrite of "Sanctuary."

Comments

Rotary Club!

[lordavon.livejournal.com]

I love Rotary Clubs. My grandfather has been in Rotary for ages and ages and ages. And in high school, the local Rotary Club sponsored a scholarship for college that allowed me to afford books my freshman year at college.

[running-girl4.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on you new adventure. I hope it goes as well as your speech.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Isn't it fun to do this sort of thing? I'm glad it was a positive experience for you. You're right: these moments are important to us.

Years ago, I was invited to speak at to the Puget Sound Regional MENSA club on the subject of how a book gets published, and it was very satisfying. Even more so was their begging me to join the club. I passed the test without breaking a sweat, but the more I thought about the people I met and the fact that the group has no mandate to do anything with its brains except socialize with each other, the less attractive joining became.

[seborn.livejournal.com]

Trashing polio by 2005 is the sort of thing Rotarians do in their spare time? Where do I sign up?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Rotary clubs tend to organize by local communities. Go to http://www.rotary.org for more information.