Hi
I did two Rotary club talks last month, an evening after dinner for the main Rotary club and an early morning breakfast slot the very next day for the Sunrise Club (kind of a younger version).
The dinner event was rather formal- wear a tie and toast the Queen - but the members were very supportive and overall extremely aware of what is happening with climate change. Very sensible and genuine questions were asked and they were clearly impressed with what Greenpeace do. After all Rotary are a charity and aim to do good works so we are in the same boat. the only difficult moment was from a member who claimed that there was no evidence for climate change at all, wind farms were eyesores, etc (basically deniers 101!) so it wasn't that difficult to deal with. The mood in the room was definitely on my side!
The following morning was a 15 minute breakfast talk at which I chose to talk about the principles of direct action. Lots of questions about the efficacy and legitimacy of direct action and breaking the law but very spirited and very supportive. I enjoyed them enormously and a member has already booked me for April 2012 to speak about Greenpeace in Russia (Rachael, if you're reading, we need to talk!!!).
Don't be nervous of the Rotary - they are sharp and charming and on our side - mostly. But do remember if you are a bloke doing a dinner slot, to wear a tie!
John, Canterbury
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Wow, sounds like you made a great impression John :)
Russia eh? Not sure we've money in the budget for that but we'll see!!
One lovely touch that I forgot to mention was that on the dinner menu for the evening, they had cut and pasted a picture of The Rainbow Warrior. Really rather touching.