MEETING RECAP - 23rdth October 2017
Submitted by Will Arscott
World Polio Day presented by Dave Sundby
The meeting was presided by President Mark Gryba
Greeter - Huey-Ming Tseng
Cashier - Paul Gauthier
Visitors and Guests - Gary Rusu
Set-up - Al Morton
Grace - Gary Rusu who gave appropriate thanks.
O Canada was sung led by Wayne M. Which made our hardy little band of Rotarians sound much bigger than we really were.
Visitors and Guests - Gary Rusu
Gary did an outstanding job of introducing all of our visitors and guests of which there were none.
Announcements
Again, the duty roster for meetings through to Christmas was circulated. There are not that many regular meetings left but there are still spots available. Please take a spot or two so the same people don’t get the opportunity for service each time.
President Mark reviewed our future meetings:
Oct 30th we serve breakfast and lunch at the Friendship Inn. We still need several more volunteers. Dave S has the roster so please help us complete. Family members or non-Rotarians are most welcome.
Nov. 7 (TUESDAY) Five Club Meeting. In lieu of our Monday meeting there will be a five-club meeting on Tuesday at the Bessborough. This meeting will be a presentation on the current crisis in Syria. A representative from the Red Cross is coming to Saskatoon to speak at the meeting. Kareem Nasser (was a Nutana Rotarian) will also speak. Kareem is from Lebanon but has been involved in Syrian charities for some time. The meeting will start sharp at noon and the cost is $40. It will be a served luncheon. Dave S has the tickets for sale until Jack B’s return.
Nov. 13 - there will be no meeting due to the Remembrance Day holiday.
Nov. 20 - Foundation Dinner. This is an evening meeting. The location is still to be determined but will be the Bessborough or the Saskatoon Club. Mike asked for a show of who was coming and eleven people confirmed their attendance. The Foundation is an important Rotary tool so it would be good to have as many members present as possible to recognize their fellow members who have contributed. An email concerning this event will be out shortly.
November 27th will be the next regular club meeting and the guest speaker will be the new director of aboriginal relations of the city of Saskatoon.
Dec. 4 - Club elections. Some people are considering joining the board but if you have any desire to serve please contact Paul Gauthier.
Rotary Leadership Seminar will take place over three Saturdays. This provides a very good way to get further into Rotary. Emails have been sent but to refresh: You do not need to be able to attend all three. If you miss a meeting it can be caught up another year. Please take in one or more as you are able. Dates:
October 28th in Prince Albert
Nov 4th in Saskatoon at the Parktown
November 25th in Saskatoon at the Parktown
If you participate in one or more of these events your $55 registration fee will be covered by our club. Please pay at the event and present your receipt at the next meeting. More information is available on the District 5550 website.
Grocery Cards: Gary Rusu assured the club that the pantry has been re-stocked with cards of all denominations ahead of the Christmas season. Please plan to do your shopping with our cards this year. We all consume groceries and this is as easy and as profitable a project as we have.
King George Christmas Market - Joanne Fisher announced that this will take place at the school on December 21st (Thursday). We need help to set up on Wednesday and help throughout Thursday. On the table were sheets describing the items we need for gifts. Please take the time for you and yours to help with this. Joanne suggested setting up a drop box at your place of work.
Salvation Army Bell Ringing - this will take place on Saturday December 2nd and Saturday December 9th. The shifts are one hour. Please sign-up. A sheet was sent around at the meeting. To reserve your shift please see Mike Giesbrecht.
President Mark received an email that our club had received an award at the District 24 and 32 Rotary assembly. These two zones cover 63,000 members in Canada and the Northern United States. We were awarded a public image award for the work that took place around our centennial celebrations. Congratulations to all who made a success of that project.
Adventures in Agriculture is a program sponsored by the Regina Eastview Rotary. The program takes place in late November and we could send someone if they came forward. Please nominate anyone that would be interested. The program is generally for grade XI and XII students. The Regina club provides meals and accommodation and we could look after transportation.
Mike LeClaire announced that a very successful event had taken place on Friday to recognize RAP sponsors and stake holders. All five Saskatoon Rotary clubs were present and signed on to be RAP sponsors. Out club was presented with a sponsor plaque which Mike presented to the club.
Steve Wilson reported having received a phone call from a person wondering if Rotary provided drivers for people needing rides to events such as medical appointments. Apparently we did this at some time in the past. Would we still be interested?
There was a reminder about the grants webinar on November 7th at the Saskatoon Club. Seven members are attending but there would be room for more. The webinar starts promptly at 7:00 pm so they are asking all to arrive by 6:15 pm. Apparently grant information goes better with a glass of wine.
Reminder of the Membership Committee meeting to take place at 7:00 am Friday at the Saskatoon Club.
Sergeant at Arms - Jim Weber
Happy and Sad
- 2H Wayne M for attending a family wedding in Ottawa. Also happy for singing at Husky games albeit with mixed success in terms of their winning. Enjoyed attending citizenship court presided by our past member John Cross.
- H Mark G for Hilltop success looking forward to a whale of a game this Sunday.
- H Mike G for the opening of the Remai Modern Art Gallery and the good time his family had attending.
- 2H Peter W for a great golf season and for his Chicago Bears going on a long winning streak of two games. Also happy for watching his grandson play a new game called footsol. This game is a soccer derivative with a heavier smaller ball. It is played in a gym-sized space and is very fast. Peter reports it is a great game to watch and his grandson prefers playing it to regular soccer.
- H Gary R for the new Rotary magazine and for all the good things Rotary does in the world. Announced that he has decided to attend the next RI Convention in Toronto. Asked for people to give consideration to joining him. Several members showed interest.
- H Will A for attending the book signing for the new biography of Ted Hughes. Ted was Hugh’s first cousin and Will’s Uncle Ted. Will briefly reviewed Ted and Helen Hughes’ contributions to Saskatoon and Canada.
- 5H Jim Weber for Peter Voldeng agreeing to be the new head of the membership committee. Further Gary Rusu has agreed to take on the task of making sure that new members are welcomed at meetings and made part of things from the beginning.
[It seems we were a particularly happy bunch this week.]
WORLD POLIO DAY - Dave Sundby
The 24th of October is World Polio Day. Eradication of polio is Rotary’s signature project. The chair of the Polio Plus committee for District 5550 is Brenda Banbury of the North Club.
It was Dave’s intention to share with us several very short videos from
www.endpolionow.org. Unfortunately internet buffering issues made it difficult to view these videos. Rather than attempting to describe the content here I would challenge all members to take the time to go to this site and view these excellent videos for themselves.
Our view of polio plus should be a celebration as we have been on the verge of the complete eradication of polio for some time. This will be the second human disease, after smallpox, that has been eradicated. We can celebrate in four ways:
1. Plan a local event.
2. Triple our impact by accessing the two times matching grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
3. By sharing stories of our success in ending polio. [Why not post
www.endpolionow.org to your personal facebook page?]
4. There will be a live podcast from Seattle in celebration on Oct.24th but by the time you are reading this it has taken palce.
Brenda Banbury has an ambitious plan to raise $70,000 of Polio Plus in District 5550. Money is required for much more than vaccine. Much of the major cost of the program is in organization and transportation. In the city of Saskatoon, Brenda will be assisted by the huge generosity of our Past-President Jack Brodsky. Jack has announced he will match donations from members of the five Saskatoon Rotary clubs up to an amount of $10,000. This will result in six to one matching as follows: A Rotary member from Saskatoon contributes $1, Jack Brodsky matches that $1, the Bill and Melinda gates matches both at two to one for another $4. By giving $1 your can make $6 available.
If you would like to take part, please be aware of the following:
1. Some final details are pending. There should be an email shortly from Brenda Banbury announcing this program and outlining how to make sure your donation is recognized for the matching grants. You might want to hold your donations until this information arrives.
2. Contributions to Polio Plus, though undoubtedly valuable, do not count as contributions to the Rotary Foundation for the purpose of District Grants. So if you contribute to polio please do not ignore your regular Rotary Foundation giving. We need regular giving of $50 per member per year in order to qualify for district.
grants.
John Davies spoke very briefly of his experience of seeing Polio Plus in action in Namibia. He said the he saw people stepping up without question to deliver the vaccine under difficult circumstances because they knew how important the mission was. This went to the point of crossing rivers crawling on a rope like a monkey with a box of vaccine. Or, in other cases, accepting a road trip of 500km to deliver the vaccine.
President Mark thanked Dave for his talk.
Adjournment
