Talking Rotary

Diversity, equity and inclusion with Valarie Wafer

March 21, 2022 Winnipeg Charleswood Rotary Club Season 2 Episode 12
Talking Rotary
Diversity, equity and inclusion with Valarie Wafer
Show Notes Transcript

On this episode we talk with  Valarie Wafer the  Chair Rotary International Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force. We talk about building Rotary through diversity. 

For more information on Rotary's work on diversity, equity and inclusion follow this link:
https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/about-rotary/diversity-equity-and-inclusion

Peter Tonge:

Welcome to this episode of talking Rotary. I'm Peter Tonge and I'm a member of the Rotary Club of Winnipeg Charleswood.

Mandy Kwasnica:

and I'm Mandy Kwasnica Past President and also a member of the Rotary Club of Winnipeg Charleswood. We are so happy you have joined us here and I are so excited for this new podcast and thankful to our many listeners. Let's start Talking Rotary.

Peter Tonge:

Hi, everyone, welcome to another episode of talking Rotary. I'm Peter Tonge. And I'm here with Mandy Kwasnica, where we're talking to Valerie Wafer, and Valerie is the chair of the Rotary International Task Force on equity, diversity and inclusion. Hi, Valerie, how are you?

Valarie Wafer:

I'm really well, Peter, how are you in? It's so nice to see Mandy.

Mandy Kwasnica:

Thank you. Thank you for joining us.

Peter Tonge:

Valarie I would like to start just because our podcast gets heard all over the world. Where are you in the world? And where is that for people that don't know?

Valarie Wafer:

Well, it's cold where I am actually it's kind of a mild day today. I am in Burlington, Ontario, which is in the Greater Toronto Area. And so we I grew up in this area Mark and I just moved back my husband I moved back in August. So we're thrilled to be back in Burlington.

Peter Tonge:

Nice. And where were you before?

Valarie Wafer:

I was an you'll notice that my Rotary club is Collingwood, South Georgian Bay. So Collingwood is two hours north of Toronto. And my club is is a great club. We're a very active community up in Collingwood, because there's blue mountains and I won't call them mountain ski. If you come from Alberta or Quebec, we'll call it Hill skiing, but still is a very popular resort area. My club is involved in a lot of activities that are you know, we we do a lot of hiking for charity or just for fellowship, we do ski days, we help out the local community with a real focus on youth. So I still belong to the Rotary Club of Collingwood. And on July one, I will officially turn over to a Burlington Rotary Club.

Peter Tonge:

All right. Well, from a Canadian perspective, it's all in the same neighborhood anyway, I don't have a world perspective, not so much. Exactly. But I know where where all those areas are. So I wanted to ask you about your role as the chair of the equity, diversity and inclusion Task Force.

Valarie Wafer:

Yeah, you know, it's an amazing opportunity. I joined the board. So I'm in my second year on the board right now. And in June of 2019, it was decided that we would put a focus on dei and President Holger at the time, the board, and the board agreed that a dei taskforce would be formed with the mandate of, you know, driving a really positive culture change that's necessary in our organization and really provide those tools and resources to our clubs and our districts. So I was honored that President Holger asked me to chair this committee. And one of the first things we did was put out for nominations for members to serve on our committee and we were very intentional to ensure that we had global representation and representation of the underrepresented groups and groups that are represented in Rotary. So we have Rotarians we have a rotor actor, and we have a peace fellow in on our committee, and I heard in your conversation with Ken for all those who might want to tune into Peters interview interview with Ken Mason, that, yes, we added a person with disabilities to our task force as a result of the survey that we launched globally, in which we were told that our rotary population do not feel that people with disabilities are currently represented. So we needed that voice at the table.

Peter Tonge:

Absolutely. And I'm certainly going to talk some more about that because great probably discovered, I'm a person that lives with a disability. So it was very, very important for me to see the work that the taskforce was doing in that area.

Valarie Wafer:

Yeah, absolutely, it's, um, you know, my business, my, our business that we ran for 25 years, we were Tim Horton franchisees and our organization, our operation was known to be inclusive hiring in our business, and so we built capacity of people with disabilities of all types. And so, you know, I understand what true inclusion looks like and what our clubs should look like, you know, we're better when we're more diverse.

Peter Tonge:

So that what brought you to the world of diversity, equity and inclusion? Was your experience with your franchises?

Valarie Wafer:

Yes, I believe it was, when President Holger asked me to chair it, he didn't know my background. And of course, you mentioned Peter, that you met my husband recently. And my husband Mark is deaf, he was born deaf. And one of the reasons we hired people with disabilities was that Mark could always get a job. But Mark couldn't always keep a job. And so when, you know, when times when times were tough, whether it was economics, we need to we need to have employers recognize the value that people with disabilities bring to the workforce, and the innovation that they bring. And so we started hiring people with disabilities for that reason, and are we celebrating the fact that in our organized in our industry, turnover rate is one of the highest expenses. And because we were inclusive employers, our turnover rate was very, very low, we built an amazing culture of people who wanted to stay and come work for us.

Peter Tonge:

And of course, we can bring that same culture to rotary.

Valarie Wafer:

Absolutely, I quite often, I speak a lot on Dei. And it's absolutely my pleasure to I learned more from listening to people than I do speaking about diversity, equity inclusion, but if you've ever heard me speak, you'll hear that I quite often compare our rotary clubs to our franchise operation, and that we need to represent our community. And we need to build that team of inclusivity. And because we had customers come through the door, saying, you're not the closest Tim Hortons on my way to work or on my way home, or to pick up my children, but you represent the community, and I want to give my business to you. And so people want to walk through the door and be represented and feel valued, and feel like they're a part of a community. And that's the way our rotary clubs need to be, we need to represent our community, we need to have, you know, representation from everyone. I'll compare it to when women were invited into rotary. And you know, we all hear about the token woman who was invited to come and not necessarily accepted, it's the same thing if we reach out and we only start ticking boxes and asking, you know, somebody from the black community, somebody from the Hispanic community, the LGBT community, but we don't build that culture of acceptance and have those true authentic conversations where we value people for who they are, then you know, what, we're really great at inviting people, we're not great at keeping them and the culture of our clubs is the reason why people are not staying. So we need to build that culture.

Mandy Kwasnica:

You mentioned that part of the the board's purpose is to provide tools and resources available to rotary clubs. Can you kind of go over what those tools and resources would look like? Like if I wanted to do a website? How do I get those tools and resources for our club?

Valarie Wafer:

Absolutely. There's an amazing landing page on rotary.org. On on diversity, equity inclusion with links to all kinds of tools and resources. There has been numerous webinars. There's been in the rotary magazine if you've been reading the magazine, there's always a dedicated page and story to somebody's lived experience. And what diversity equity inclusion means to our organization. Our taskforce brought some key decision points to the board in June at the end of our rotor year, and one of them was that we took our de ice statement, we made it a commitment. So we are now stating very clearly that we are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. And we outline very specifically the contributions of backgrounds of people with visible and invisible diversities and outline every single demographic that needs to be in rotary including differences in ideas, thoughts, values and beliefs. We also recognize we haven't always got it right. We recognize we've got work to do. And this is a journey and We are committed to being honest and transparent. So we took that original, very strong dei statement. And we made it a commitment that resonates with a lot of people around the world. So that was the first tool that just really gives that tone from the top right, it gives that permission to have these conversations because you know, you're supported, and that Rotary International and the leadership are here to diversity has been one of our core values forever, right? We're now saying, here's our commitment. And here's how we're going to assist you. We also came up with a code of conduct. And this is another really important tool for our members as we go in the journey of Dei. And it just outlines things that seem pretty obvious, like how to use respectful language, how to be supportive of each other and be an upstander, and hold yourself accountable and others to the conversation and the way we should behave in Rotary, how we should celebrate diversity, and we should reach out to our community and work with some of our community partners, or celebrate, celebrate a pride event, celebrate day of disability, celebrate International Woman's Day, and make those connections in our community to show that rotary is committed to Dei. And we would like to learn more, because it is a journey. And as I said, every time I speak on Dei, I always have a key takeaway, I always learned something from those in the room. And then we also talk about what to do how to how to report those instances. Because, you know, as we start to have these conversations, and we have more people being upstanders, which is exactly how we're going to change culture, we need to be able to follow through and support those members. And to really outline, you know, the difference between a conversation and harassment, and how we can really support each other through that we also in that board decision encouraged clubs and districts to form their own dei committees. Because dei looks different in India than it looks in Africa than it looks in Europe than it does in Canada, even the US, you can also look different across town. And so it's really important that any culture change begins with our members begins with our members wanting to have that culture change, invested into having those authentic conversations, getting to know who we are before we reach out and invite other people to join us. And so what the DEI taskforce is doing is providing that leadership, some of the tools, but really, we want to see, to be there to support our clubs and our members. Because we will never dictate that you have to have, you know, a percentage of your members from this demographic or that demographic, we need to talk about what the benefits are to being a more inclusive organization. And when we talk about the benefits, then people will want to be more inclusive,

Mandy Kwasnica:

I totally agree with you, I have been in a workplace that just tried to check off those boxes. And then we had very inappropriate people working, that couldn't do the job. And it's like, they just got the job to check off the box. And that's not what we're looking to do here either within Rotary, I think you've touched on a great piece is I think that Rotary Clubs each need to have a dei person like within their club, maybe to focus on that and listening to you. I mean, I'm feeling like I think our club should do a presentation on this maybe looking at the resources that you have on the website and, and present on it. Because I know in my workplace, within the last year, they've done a major focus on Dei. And there was a lot of great presentations and I learned lots from it. And our demographic at Rotary tends to be a bit older, they probably have never heard of this stuff, because I hadn't before a lot of the stuff that was presented to me. So I think this is an opportunity for us to learn and grow within rotary as Rotarians.

Valarie Wafer:

I absolutely I absolutely agree. And I really encourage you to look at the resources on rotary.org. You know, we have an amazing learning center. And we have a great resources of modules on unconscious bias and how to create that more inclusive environment. And you know, I quite often say why don't you treat it like a book club? Why don't you have your rotary club do a module individually, on on their computer, obviously, and come together and talk about our different perspectives. You know, what did that mean to you? And is it something that you have found in your work life or in your personal life? And how do you deal with it? Right? It's all about having those personal conversations and learning from each other. So yeah, there's you know, you can invite local dei experts to come to your club thing I find really powerful is hearing about true lived experience. And we all have it. Right? I mean, you can, you may not be able to see me. But you may know that I'm a white woman with white hair and blue eyes. But you don't know how I show up what what I bring with me, you know, from my background, my family, my work experience. And so we really need to have those conversations. And so by having, you know, even using the Learning Center, and then coming together, I think I think that those conversations will happen.

Peter Tonge:

I think that's a brilliant idea. I think that's something that Mandy and I can facilitate within our own club, I think it will be a brilliant thinker within our district, for that matter, because we have work to do.

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Peter Tonge:

What I wanted to pick up on Valarie is this idea that diversity, equity and inclusion is so different all over our communities and all over the world that makes such a huge challenge for an organization like Rotary, how do you help facilitate some of that?

Valarie Wafer:

You know, we are diverse in nature, in that we represent over 200 countries. And so, you know, we each each area may concentrate on a different area of inclusion. And for some it may be for example, in Japan, there's only 5% Women in Rotary, there's a huge opportunity there. We're in North America, you know, we're 34%, we have a goal in Rotary International to be 30% Women by 2023. You know what, that's next year, and we're only at 24%. So I think that we have some work to do in certain areas. But I, you know, I think that I think it looks different around the world, there are places in the world that by law, can't have certain demographics, it'd be recognized, and certainly not in the Rotary Club. And I get that question quite often, it was very important for our task force to spell out the categories, if you will, of representation that is needed in Rotary. But I do recognize as well that certain parts of the world may have to tweak that statement, just because of their laws and their cultures. And I'm not saying don't have those conversations, but I am saying we don't want to put any of our members in danger, you know, with with our, with our commitment statement, but but it is, it is a very intentional statement. And we do recognize that diversity looks very different around the world. So that's another reason why it has to come from the club and district level.

Peter Tonge:

One of the things that I was very pleased with Valerie is, when one of the early versions of the statement came out, you didn't talk about disability explicitly and talked about people of all abilities, which made me bristle because in the disability community, we're always like, uses the word, right, we're not going to surprise us to tell us that we have a disability. So I was very pleased to see that shift, which I assume came out of the Taskforce. And I think for me, that was a big step forward.

Valarie Wafer:

Yeah, you know, and thank you for mentioning that Peter, one of the first things that taskforce did was we had to establish who we are before we can just find out or have that benchmark of where we wanted to be with measurable outcomes. So we launched a dei survey using a global consulting firm. And we listened, you know, we asked our members about their rotary experience. And we the language was loud and clear. And all of those findings, as well as some focus group interviews that we specifically did, showed us what was missing out of our original statement. And so I'm glad that you mentioned that it was also important that as I mentioned earlier, that we identified differences in ideas, thoughts, values, and beliefs as well. And that really resonates more with our with many of us, of course, but with our rotaractors I hear that quite often for rotaractors. Where, you know, diversity is not is something that they've grown up just accepting, it's who they are. And so it's that difference in thoughts and beliefs that is really important to them as well. So we thought it was very important to to really spell out each of those different areas and we spent a lot of time on that we really did. And we also because we are a global Task Force. We brought our differences of have values and opinions to those statements. And I'm really pleased where we landed.

Peter Tonge:

Yeah, I, I really like the current version of the of the statement, it's likely going to evolve more over time. But I like where it is right now is a certain starting point for sure. I'm, I'm wondering, for what you see is the next step for the task force, or what do you see is the big goals?

Valarie Wafer:

Well, and actually, so today is February 10. And this morning communication under my signature for Rotary International went out to all the participants who who participated in our survey, there was 31,000, Rotarians that participated. And so I gave them a high level overview in that communication of the eight key themes that emerged from from the survey and from our listening exercises. And those are the areas that we're going to continue to work on. And it's things like young Road, Rotary leaders don't feel that the way we have leadership opportunities in rotary is equitable to all if you know, many of our many of our leadership roles are based on the number of years you've been in Rotary, or the positions you've had before that, and it doesn't take into account some skill sets that we may have professionally, or, you know, personally, we could bring to the table from outside board experience, or etc. We were also told that the cost of rotary is prohibitive to many people joining Rotary, we were told that there's no central place to report. So you can see, as I'm saying some of these themes that they really influence the work of the task force in our code of conduct and on our commitment statement. So we have a three year roadmap of key strategic initiatives that the taskforce will continue to work on in the next three years. So we've been approved to actually work through the end of 2023. And this week going on, we have our international assembly, which is where we train our district governor, governor's elect, and President Elect Jennifer Jones from Canada, has really come out with some key messaging and key themes around diversity, equity, and inclusion. So I'm very, very excited that this is going to be a key focus in the next rotary year, and the task force will continue to work to support all of that work and drive some some change that we need in rotary as well.

Peter Tonge:

Yeah, I think from my point of view, it's an exciting time in rotary to start to see these changes, as you say, it's always been part of rotary values, but we haven't made it a priority.

Mandy Kwasnica:

What would be one specific goal that you would have for each Rotary Club? To start the process of, including dei or whatever it might be?

Valarie Wafer:

Well, you know, I think if you really want to be successful, you really need to start internally, you need to sit down, and you need to have those honest conversations with each other. And so I think if we can get to know each other better, and really, it's as simple as kind of throwing out five questions and having people answer them, and you can be as open as you want. I'll tell you a story. I was speaking to a rotary club on Zoom. And afterwards, it was like we're having a really great conversation, do you want to stick around and I said, Sure, I don't have any on my calendar, I'm happy to stick around. And we were talking about diversity, equity inclusion. And there might have been about 16 to 18, people left on on Zoom. And all of a sudden, a man put up his hand, he wanted to talk, and it was a black member. And he said, I've been a member of this club for 15 years. And in 15 years with my rotary family, my friends, the people I work alongside with, I've never felt 100% accepted, I never felt I could show up and be who I am, and bring my true self to rotary. And he was almost in tears. And he said, Thank you so much for having these conversations, for us to have these conversations without a Rotary Club. And I can tell you, Mandy, the faces of everyone on those screen, they were taken aback, they hadn't realized that they had excluded this man and who he was. And these conversations, gave him the courage to speak up and say, This is who I am. And you know, and I'm sure that continue the conversation in rotary meetings going forward. And that just to me, that was a an aha moment. That was like the light bulb going on. I still get emotional when I think about it, because it's like just having a conversation changed this man's rotary experience, and he'd been a Rotarian for 15 years. So that's where we need to start.

Mandy Kwasnica:

That's very impactful and Not only impactful for him, but thinking of all of those members thinking they were probably in complete shock. Hearing this, and then you know, you feel bad, right. But the nice thing is now it's a starting point to fix and repair. And

Valarie Wafer:

yeah, and you know, I think that's all part of having that conversation is the realization that we're not always going to get it right. We're going to make mistakes. And I might say something that might be really insulting to someone, but it was never my intention. So that's why it's really important to set that psychological safe space, if you will, where you're honest, and you're transparent, and you're, you know, committed to having these, these conversations, but everybody kind of has to be there. Everybody has to understand, you know, you know, Peter, I might ask you about, you know, the fact you're in a wheelchair, but I really want to know about your journey. And I really want to know, you know, your life experience, because I'm going to be richer for it. And so, sometimes we're just afraid to ask those questions. But I think if we just set that stage and set that safety and comfort, but I do believe we need to start in our clubs.

Peter Tonge:

And in you know, I think you're right, I'm hoping we can reach a point within our within our clubs as a start and broader where we can have those conversations, as I said earlier, is you mentioned my disability, you're not going to surprise me, I know I have one. Well, I've always groups I work with it always starts with a question, but what terminology Am I allowed to use? And am I allowed to ask somebody what their disability and that's my always my response is? Well, you're respectful to the person and the person first and then the disability, but you're not going to surprise them to bring up their disability. They know they have one.

Valarie Wafer:

Absolutely. And I know with conversations with my husband as well, you know, he's not 100% deaf, but he doesn't like to be referred to as hearing impaired. He says, I am deaf. That is how I, you know, I identify and that's really, really important that we ask people how they identify right?

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Valarie Wafer:

Yeah, no, absolutely. As I mentioned, I think we need to get more involved in our community, we really need to work alongside other service organizations and community partners, you know, to learn from them and to work side by side. And you know, it's not about DDI is not about membership growth, necessarily. It's more about membership, retention, and taking care of that comfort and care of our current members, and making sure that they don't leave. But I think the more we're out there in the community, and we're working side by side, and we're celebrating different religious or cultural events, the more we will broaden our understanding, and the more our community will see how invested we are in being part of our community. And so it's not a membership tool. But I think eventually, we will become the choice organization that people want to join in. Because we are open and we are diverse. And we provide that equitable opportunity for people to grow as leaders, to people to serve in our communities and internationally. I think, you know, it's just going to make us stronger. But I think, you know, I think we should start internally, I think we should also tell the community who we are and work alongside.

Peter Tonge:

I think your point about community building is very important because we're not going to be successful. If we say, let's, let's go out and find a member from this underrepresented group. Let's go out in the community and work with people from underrepresented groups and then your rotary members are gonna want to come in, they're gonna want to share in the work that you do.

Valarie Wafer:

Yeah. You know, I was, I was district governor in the Greater Toronto Area. And Toronto, of course, is a very diverse city. And although true inclusion is having representation within the club, we we also though did have a Chinese club, a Rotary Club of China Town, and you know, we would go and celebrate their events and, and sometimes so another example is in Toronto, we have the largest public relation of Bangladeshis outside of Bangladesh. And we were trying for years, they were Rotarians in Bangladesh, we had many friends tried to ask them to join Rotary. And they didn't, they weren't interested. They have started now a club of Bangladeshis in in Toronto. And if I'm told that if you walk through the door, you think you're in Bangladesh. But what happens is, even though that's not the perfect way to start an inclusive club, through time, and getting involved with other clubs, and the districts, and joining committees, we all start to learn from each other, and we'll get more people into rotary, I got a question asked me the other day that somebody was starting a rotary club of people with autism. And and you know, that that is something to be proud of. But my my comment back was, wouldn't it be better if all of our rotary clubs had people with autism and other disabilities and other, you know, abilities in our rotary club? Just like, we don't necessarily want to see an all man club or an all woman club. But sometimes it's the starting point.

Mandy Kwasnica:

What about if we have listeners listening to this podcast today? And they do have a strong like DEI background and feel that they can contribute to this tax Task Force? Is there any ability to reach out and see how they can also help you as well?

Valarie Wafer:

Yeah, so absolutely, I mean, farther on in the task force, we will be reaching out to other other people who identified that couldn't get we were limited to nine people on the task force. And it was very difficult. We had over 70 people apply. But what we did is we built, we built a cadre if you will have people who are very dedicated to DTI around the world. And our intention is that we provide those support groups down the road to regional dei committees that are either at the district level or the zone level. Again, you know, I can't be an expert to a dei committee in Japan or in India, I just don't I don't bring that that life experience. So that's where we're really going to tap into some of our, our cadre of experts.

Mandy Kwasnica:

Yeah, that's great. You're just really in the beginning stages of planning it all out. Really, right now,

Valarie Wafer:

We really are. I mean, this is a journey, and we're never going to be able to tick a box and say, you know, job well done. We're there. I mean, it's like, it's like our world, our work in peace, right? I mean, nice to think that we're going to live one day in a peaceful world or a world that's fully inclusive, but probably not the reality in our lifetime. So it's it's definitely a journey. Training Events, not only at Rotary International, but in clubs and districts are focusing on Dei. So, you know, when I said that we were needed a benchmark to know who we are today, before we know where we need to go. I can tell you that anecdotally, there is a huge culture shift already happening, and I'm hearing it on a regular basis. But I am being asked to speak on Dei, to President elects to district governor elects to district governors to zones and around the world. So I think I think that we are seeing some really exciting change happening, what what the taskforce, I think needs to do is in our third year, we need to relaunch that that dei survey, you see that we have moved, move the needle and and and made some of those benchmark changes that we have to do. And that might be simply people more willing to answer some of the questions on the survey. So all the survey questions, were optional, you could opt out of identifying or talking about your rotary experience. So we have more people actually answer those questions, we'll know that people are more comfortable having these conversations. So this this work is is exciting. And what I'm seeing so far is exciting. I mean, if I could show you my calendar, because I never turned down an opportunity to speak about Dei. And what rotaries doing. I'm so proud of the leadership of our organization, you would be shocked at the number of dei commitments I've had in the last two years. And it's it's incredible. As I say, I learned more from listening to people than I do speaking about it.

Peter Tonge:

Now, our podcast only has one sort of set question. And we always ask, you could be giving your time your energy and your expertise to lots of organizations. Why rotary been doing it for a long time.

Valarie Wafer:

Wow. So you know, I think we all join rotary for one reason, but we stay for another and I joined rotary to get to know my community. And I have always volunteered but I wanted to give back In a way that I grew as an individual, and it's incredible. I mean, every, every time I asked someone to join rotary and they say, I don't think it's for me, I just I, it blows my mind. Because it doesn't matter what you're interested in what your cause is, there's something for everyone in Rotary, and with the power of our Rotary Foundation. I mean, we're only limited by our own ideas. Because if you have an idea to do something, and you have a passion to do something, you can do that in Rotary. And so I learned very quickly that rotary was where I wanted to be. And it's been an incredible journey.

Peter Tonge:

Thank you, Valerie. It's been a great pleasure to talk to you about di in rotary and rotary in general. Your our listeners are really going to enjoy this. I appreciate your time.

Valarie Wafer:

Thanks, Peter. Thanks, Mandy.

Mandy Kwasnica:

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us on another great episode of talking Rotary. We would love to hear from you. Please send us your comments and story ideas and you can share with us easily by sending us an email at feedback at talking rotary.org Let's keep talking Rotary.