ROTATELLER

Submitted by Will Arscott (A special thanks to Steve Wilson who took notes when your regular scribe was late coming from another meeting.)

 

THE SASKATOON OF SASKATOON ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND ELECTIONS

 

The meeting was held once again in the Main Dining Room at the Saskatoon Club with a Zoom alternative. President Wendy presided. Kent Smith-Windsor was greeter to everyone even the late straggler. Cashier was Wayne Palmer. Paul Gauthier handled technology. Members sang ‘O’ Canada. An appropriate grace was asked by Steve Wilson.

 

 

There were no visitors or guests at this meeting.

 

 

There was no report.

 

 

Paul Gauthier shared a notice from the Rotary Foundation that, going forward, charitable receipts would only be issued on an annual basis and would be issued in December or January of each year.

 

Grocery cards are still available from Donna. The stock is dwindling and only Sobey’s cards remain.  Talk to Donna before or at the meetings and help us get the cards out of inventory. In the review of the financials later in the meeting it was shown that this is an effective fundraiser for our club.

 

 

Not a lot of action in this area for this meeting. Only two of our members came forward:

 

 

 

 

 

In the absence of club secretary Graham Pearson, official minutes were taken by Steve Wilson.  No attempt will be made to record official minutes here.  The meeting followed the usual format with proof of notice being given, a quorum being established, a recording secretary being appointed and the acceptance of the minutes from last year’s AGM. There were no issues.

 

President Wendy went through some of our highlights and the sheer number and variety of the projects our club pursues. Our membership is down five members in the past year resulting in lower membership fee receipts.  

 

The financial statements were presented by Wayne Palmer. During most of the year we had a deficit in meal costs but that has now been rectified through an increased meal cost. The grocery card fundraiser raised $1,900 and the Golf Pool raised $3,000 including the government grant associated with the raffle. The International Craft Fair netted almost $3,500. This total was due to the generous gift of payment towards the facility provided by Elaine Zakreski. The raffle raised $2,852 not including some donations that arrived as a result. The net revenue from the Badge Shield and Star Dinner was down as expected due to both the new sharing formula and less interest in this event.  Hopefully it will be addressed by the proposed change in format for this year’s event.

 

Our project grants were split almost evenly with $12,400 going to International Service and $11,380 going to Local Service. This does not include the $40,000 that was paid this year from our centennial money to the urban garden project.  [We will hear more of this project when we meet at the new building for our meeting on March 25.] The regular authorization to waive an audit was passed.

 

The club owes sincerest thanks to Wayne Palmer. He has one of the biggest jobs in the club.  Even just tracking attendance and doing quarterly billings and reconciliations, that result in a significant job. We are lucky to have Wayne in our club.

 

We then had the election of the new club executive.  The slate was approved as presented without further nominations or votes.   The club executive for the year beginning 1 July 2024:

 

Jack Brodsky

Will Arscott

Don Lepp

Wendy Cooper

Graham Pearson

Wayne Palmer

Paul Gauthier

Don Lepp

Linda Petrow

Mark Gryba

TBD

Jim Weber

Paul Gauthier

 

The one spot that needs to be filled is Program. Will Arscott is retiring after being in this position for two years. It is not onerous, and Will is available help. Some of the spots fill themselves and several members have been very good at helping with meeting content. Please consider putting you name forward.

 

The AGM of the Club was followed by the AGM for the Rotary Club of Saskatoon Charitable Trust. Paul Gauthier presided with Donna Gauthier as the recording secretary. The official minutes are available from the Foundation and no attempt will be made to reproduce them here.

 

The most important part of the meeting was some changes to the by-laws. This was done in several areas: First, the structure was made more flexible.  Previously, the Foundation had to have seven members now it will be five to seven members but will have to include the president of the club and the president elect of the club. This is designed to make sure the club retains full control of the Foundation. A by-law was approved to specifically allow the Foundation Board to meet by electronic means such as Zoom. Some language was changed to bring the Foundation into compliance with some changes in Saskatchewan corporate regulations. One such change is that government approval is no longer needed for routine by-law changes. Another change is the result of an increase in the amount of money a Foundation is allowed to hold before a full audit is required. Beyond this, language was changed throughout the by-laws to make the by-laws gender neutral. All the proposed changes were approved without amendment.

 

Thanks to Steve for being the recording secretary.  A huge thanks is due to Paul and Allan Liebiszczak.  Both do a great amount of work that is largely unknown to our members.

 

 

Next meeting is March 11, 2024. Grant Devine will give a presentation on the Carbon Tax.