MEETING RECAP - 27th February 2017
Submitted by Will Arscott 28th February 2017
MEETING RECAP - Meeting at Bessborough Rotary Vocational Tallk and introduction to our newest member Susan Blum
The meeting was presided by President Jack
Greeter - Wayne Storozuk
Cashier - Brian Palmer
Set-up - Al Morton
Visitors and Guests - Wayne Storozuk
O Canada - in the absence of Wayne M we were honoured to have Roger Ducette sing O Canada. He sung in a higher key and used some different lyrics from the ones were usually sing but the full orchestra was a nice touch. Thank Roger!
Grace - Al Morton reminded us that Rotary is a call to service in all the things we do and is a way of meeting with our world.
Visitors and Guests - Wayne Storozuk
Our guest was Carm Michalenko the Executive Director of the Saskatoon Community Foundation and guest of Will Arscott. Carm is checking out our club and is a prospective new member so all were on their best behaviour.
Announcements
Seniors Tech Buddy Program - this is an exciting new project growing directly out of our RAP project.
. . . see image, at end, following Bulletin stories . . .
“The Saskatoon Restorative Action Program Inc. (RAP) undertakes a number of projects each year to provide leadership opportunities for youth in our RAP schools.
This year, RAP has partnered with the Saskatoon Council on Aging (SCOA) to have students teach seniors how to use technology.
The program is called Seniors Tech Buddy Program.
Tech Buddy runs twice per year March/April and October/November. Those who sign up get 2 hours of one on one time with a high school student on whatever device they choose, learning whatever they choose. There is a $10 registration fee, payable when dates are confirmed with the participant. Each registration provides the participant with the two one-hour sessions.
The sessions are offered at Holy Cross after school starting at 3:30 pm and at Bethlehem school during the school day, usually between 1 and 3pm.
Dates for the respective schools for sessions starting this March are as follows:
Holy Cross:
3:30PM – March 6 + 13 or March 20 +April 3
Bethlehem:
March 7th 1:16 – 2:18 pm + March 13th 2:23-3:25 pm
The contact person at SCOA is Sandra Schweder and she is available for inquiries at 306-652- 2255 from 8:30am to noon Monday to Friday.
Attached is an electronic copy of a Tech Buddy poster with appointment times listed in the reverse side.
RAP is also aware that many Rotarians are interested in learning more about social media. RAP Executive have asked SCOA to set up a special presentation on social media at the SCOA offices located at the Field House. Our target goal is September 2017 for this portion of the program. From these presentations, it is hoped that a better understanding of what training would be of interest regarding social media. From that knowledge further one on one training appointments will be pursued.
RAP will advise in due course.”
There is a possibility that this program may expand from its current basis as early as this September with classroom instruction on using social media. Dave Sundby suggested that this new program be presented at our meeting with the Adventures in Technology students on April 24th. The hope would be that one or more of them might pick up on it and try it in another city. His suggestion was very well received by the people working on this project.
Hope of Malawi Lottery - Despite the announcement at the last meeting Peter Z sent a note saying there were still tickets available. Peter thought Wayne Shad some tickets but Wayne does not have tickets.
Serving and Friendship Inn - Peter Z is back March 14th and will confirm the volunteer times. We could still use two more people on the mid-morning and clean-up shift. The date is March 20th and there will be no regular meeting on that day.
Rotary Alumni Identification - There is an event planned involving several of the Saskatoon Rotary Clubs for past Rotary members. The hope is that some of our lost sheep may return to the Rotary fold. Can anybody help in this regard? [Editor’s note: if Al Morton has access to past Rosters maybe some of the longer-term members could review the rosters and make a list of people who are alive and living in Saskatoon.]
Website Content - Several new project profiles are up on our site. Members are encouraged to go to our site and check it out. There are still more projects that haven’t been written up on our site. We would like more content so if your project isn’t showing please put something together. Gord Menuz can help get it up on the site.
Badge Shield and Star Dinner - save the date April 12th for this event. The guest speaker is the fire chief of Fort MacMurray who will speak of the fire and evacuation. The price is unchanged ($125) and tickets will be available soon.
Grocery Cards are available from Gary Rusu. You can put in your order for next week today. Gary indicated that sales had been steady but after the meeting Gary appeared to be doing a brisk amount of sales. Thanks to Gary for his attention to this project and to all who are contributing. This is as easy and effective as a fundraiser that we have.
Masters of Golf Pool - the licensing for this project is complete and the Saskatchewan Golf Association should have the list of golfers shortly so the forms can be printed. This project takes place at the same time as the Badge Shield and Star but is a separate project. Most tickets are sold to non-Rotarians. The costs of the project are donated and we get a 25% top-up of our earnings from the SLGA. This is an easy and worthwhile project. The money raised has to be spent in Saskatchewan so we can use the money to benefit RAP and our scholarship program at Sask Polytechnic.
Sergeant at Arms: Gary Rusu
Started by testing the club on the historical documents set out by Al Morton. In 1947 the Bessborough Hotel wrote the club with an increased meal cost. Meals had been $1.00 and the hotel proposed increasing them to $1.10. In 1942 our club welcomed a new member by the name of Fred Mendel.
Gary went on to grill us about the contents of the latest Rotary magazine. He reminded us there is an upcoming Rotary International convention in Atlanta. In the article on the Rotary program ‘Feed the World’ Gary reminded us of the work that is needed. The program estimates that each day sixty-six million children attend school hungry. Finally, he brought up the latest statistics on the largest preventable cause of death in the world - smoking. At the present time it seems we do not have a single smoker in our club. This would have been very different when Fred Mendel joined the club. There are now 6.4 million smoking related deaths each year due to smoking.
Happy and Sad:
H Tim Cholowski five happy dollars for second grandchild on the way.
H Wayne Kerr for mountain holiday.
H Wayne Storozuk for his 35th anniversary and 10 days in Mexico
S Paul Gauthier for his credit cards being compromised.
PROGRAM: Susan Blum Rotary Vocational Talk
Susan is our newest member and is a relative newcomer to Saskatoon. One of her grandfathers came first to Saskatoon before settling in Southern Ontario. Susan grew up in Southern Ontario in a farming family. They were in an area where the soil was right for growing tobacco. Susan participated in the tobacco harvest throughout her youth often delaying school in the fall until the harvest was completed. As a child she already earned her own money.
Initially Susan attended Western University but found she had a desire to travel. She did outdoor education at Lakehead University completing a honours in biology and geography in three and a half years. First field work was a bird watcher and bander in Belize. After Belize she participated in a Beluga whale study out of Churchill. This began her association with northern Canada.
In her graduate work she worked on Polar bears eventually leaving off her masters to complete her doctorate. This led to her appointment as a polar bear biologist for the government of Nunavut. Getting to do work on polar bears was sometimes difficult as a woman. She is grateful to one particular researcher at the University of Saskatchewan who was willing to give her the opportunity to participate in this work. She claims to have darted over 2,000 bears. In her research much was determined about the different populations of bears and their ranges (polar bears are not territorial but tend to move over particular geographical areas. A decision to marry ended Susan’s Arctic career.
Susan came to Saskatoon when she accepted a job at the U of S as director of research services. At this time she also became involved with the ethics in research office. She now is at Sask Polytechnic as director of research. In this capacity she now works regularly with both Saskatchewan universities and groups in the private sector. She still does some guiding in the North for the University and private companies.
Susan had been aware of Rotary for some time. Recently, she represented our University at an ethics conference in Brazil. As chance would have it, there was a Rotary International Convention on at the same time. She had the opportunity to take several local excursions and found the others on the tours were Rotarians. Susan met the then RI President and he encouraged her to try Rotary. Are we ever lucky she chose our club to join!
There were questions following Susan’s talk. She touched on at least five subjects that would be of interest or deserve more in depth presentation to our club. Maybe we can have Susan back as our guest speaker every Monday for a month. Here are some highlights:
- Ethics of research when it involves people has to be respectful to the people and to their culture. This is particularly true with regard to aboriginal populations who have often been the subject of study without participating in that study.
- Research should not use animals unless there is no other possible alternative. Animals need to be protected against cruelty.
- There is a great deal of original research going on at Sask Polytechnic. One area of expertise is IT in general and the cloud in particular. There is also work in the production of prototypes and research in foods and crops. There can also be a symbiosis between research at the University and the students and equipment at the Polytechnic. An example would be allowing University grad students time on spectrometers at the Polytechnic and having the Polytechnic students assist them as part of their training as technicians on those machines.
- Polar bears are very endangered by warming and the retreat of the sea ice. There are already changes in the populations and in the bears themselves. This effects both their food supply and mating habits. Currently there are around 30,000 bears in the world and we have two-thirds of them. They may not survive global warming. The warming that is taking place will not be reversed quickly and things will become warmer. Large carnivores will be the first animals lost.
Adjournment
Next Meeting: Monday March 6th at the Bessborough TBA
