Submitted by Will Arscott 18th May, 2016

 

May 16th MEETING RECAP - REGULAR MEETING AT THE BESSBOROUGH - Club Assembly

 

The meeting was presided by President Bev Dubois

Greeter - Mike Giesbrecht on short notice

Cashier - Wayne McGillivray

Set-up - Al Morton

Visitors and Guests - Adriana Van Duyvendyk

 

The meeting started with a highlight - Wayne McGillivray was back to lead us in O Canada. The club sang out and the people down the hall were delighted at our pride at being Canadian.

 

Grace - Adriana Van Duyvendyk spun a wonderful Rotary Graced based on the Four Way Test of Rotary.

 

Danielle Booth was introduced as a visitor.

Wayne Palmer our future member was also present again this week.

 

 

- There is no meeting next week due to the Victoria Day holiday.

 

- It was announced that on June 20^th our meeting would consist of our serving meals at the Friendship Inn. This has been organized as usual by Peter Zakreski.

A sign-up sheet was passed through the table. Shifts are for two hours beginning at 7:30am and ending at 4:00pm. The sign-up will likely be available at future meetings or you can contact Peter. We would like the full club to participate in this very worthwhile event.

 

- The President’s dinner is scheduled for Monday June 27^th at the Saskatoon Club. It will be an evening event to honour the hard work of President Bev and her executive and welcome the new executive under Incoming President Jack. It should be a good night so make every effort to try to attend. The Foundation will be recognized so there is still time to get your donations in in order to be recognized at the dinner. If you wish to make a donation please see Treasurer Wayne.

 

- The club was again reminded that Gary Rusu has grocery cards and that we should buy some. Wayne Storozuk asked whether the membership was happy with the cards available from Safeway, Sobey’s and Co-op. After a bit of discussion it was decided that Wayne would try to obtain cards from Superstore.

 

- Wayne S further reminded us that fees are due and we would like them completed by June 15^th allowing everyone to get the price reduction. At present our club has ten or eleven paid members for next year. Wayne will do invoices but members can save him effort by getting those fees in. Before June 15^th fees are $250 and after are $275.

 

- The Lobster Fest is on the 28^th of May. President Bev has tickets for all who want them. It appears our club could have as many as thirty members attending. It should be a good time and there is always room for all members.

 

- Brian Henderson has resigned from the club as he is rarely in Saskatoon.

 

 

Sergeant at Arms: Bill Johnson

 

- Members were fined who had never attended a meeting this room before. To the Sergeant's surprise most members had been to a meeting in the room before.

 

- Any table where bowling was discussed was fined. (As Rotarians we are defenders of free speech but there has to be a limit.)

 

- Members were fined who did not know of the meeting in Gimli or that our executive (and others) had attended.

 

- The sergeant then decided to have a skill based competition and all members had to stand up for a Rock Paper and Scissors play-down. The winners were fined.

 

 

 

- Dave S for Raptors making semi-finals for first time ever.

 

- Maureen T (who we were all very glad to see back at our meeting) a happy dollar for the opening of a new school in Uganda.

 

- Jack B a happy dollar for the District Conference.

 

- Wayne McG a happy dollar for Blue Jays (not sure why) and a sad dollar for dog who may have kennel cough. Announced his new part-time employment as a defensive driver auditor.

 

- Paul G for the District Conference and a sad dollar hitting a deer (no it wasn’t the deer that was served for lunch).

 

- Wayne S for Wayne McG being back to sing and sad for not getting invoices out. But he announced as today was his Rotary day he would be working on them in the afternoon.

 

- Vic D also for the District Conference and for driving for nine hours home without falling asleep (we are glad too!).

 

 

 

 

- Our club was well represented with President Bev, Incoming President Jack, District Committee Member Vic D attending as well as Paul Gauthier and Will Arscott.

 

- Our club received three awards from the District 5550

- The Literary Award for having a large number of projects to develop literacy.

- Ripple Effect Recognition for out commitment to improving the lives of Children in Guatemala.

- We are FIRST in the District in per capita giving to Polio Plus.

 

We have good reason to be proud of our club. President Bev plans to post the certificates we received to our Facebook page.

 

- President Bev made several announcements at the District Conference about our 100^th birthday celebration (it has been decided it will be a 100^th birthday rather than a 100^th anniversary). She issued an invitation to all Rotarians in District 5550 to come and join our celebration.

 

- The plan was to get either Bill Gates or the Rotary International President to attend and speak. We would take whomever would confirm first. She was pleased to announce that RI President-Elect Ian Risley has confirmed his attendance at our event.

 

- The birthday party is scheduled for August 15^th, 2017 with a dinner at Prairieland Exhibition. There will be events through the day hopefully including an official monument in Rotary Park. Save the date and plan your summer accordingly!!

 

- Peter Whitenect spoke recalling our club’s 75^th birthday when the RI president also attended (your editor remembers being involved in the planning of that event). Peter reminded us that this event took place in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Regina which celebrated the same anniversary.

 

President Bev went on to summarize some RI legislative changes that have been approved:

 

- RI dues are going up by $4.00 per year per member in each of the next three years. These increases are in $USD so we may have to allow for bigger increases in $Cdn.

 

- Clubs with two meetings per week are now recognized by RI. This initiative was brought by the Moose Jaw Oskayak Club.

 

- Dual Rotaract/Rotary memberships are now possible for members still attending high school beyond age 18. This will have no effect on our club.

 

- There is much talk in Rotary about a polio-free world in 2017. There have been eight cases to date in 2016. There is hope that 2017 will be a polio-free year. Then the three year watch can begin before the world is declare polio-free. This last stage of the polio fight is most frustrating. On one hand polio vaccinators were murdered in Nigeria. On the other hand the Taliban has come on side to help with vaccinations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

- Once the world is declared polio-free we will have unprecedented opportunity to promote Rotary. Our club has a wonderful combination of events to celebrate in 2017: Out 100^th birthday, hopefully a year without polio and Canada’s own 150^th birthday.

 

- The Million Dollar Dinner made its goal finishing with donations of something like $1,138,658 to the Foundation. The hard work of Saskatoon’s Pat Chernesky was certainly instrumental in this success. There is a note on our club’s contribution further down).

 

Following her presentation President Bev invited the other members who had attended District Conference to add their thoughts:

 

Vic Dubois (committee member Public Relations Committee District 5550):

 

- Vic found the conference very useful. He is afraid that public relations on a District basis will be a daunting challenge. It is difficult to get the right people together to get a plan underway.

 

- There is not good knowledge of Rotary in the public at large. We also have an image problem. While the progress against polio has been in the news Rotary rarely gets credit. While we are not doing our works for the purpose of obtaining credit public recognition would help us in our efforts to recruit and to raise the funds needed.

 

- Vic spoke about the events coming in 2017 as a unique opportunity to promote Rotary.

 

Jack Brodsky (incoming President):

 

- Before leaving for Gimli, Jack (and Paul G) were part of a meeting that finished the strategic plan for RAP. This plan has been a slow and difficult process for all involved but is completed now.

 

- Jack recognized the success of the Million Dollar Dinner in Gimli. [Editor’s Note: We should all be proud of the commitment of members of our club to supporting this event. Members of our club were recognized for their giving at this event: Jack Brodsky, Mark Gryba, and Jim Weber. The club is proud of you!]

 

 

Paul Gauthier (member):

 

- Spoke about RI giving clubs permission to be more flexible with membership and types of meetings. The traditional meeting built around a meal is only one possible meeting format.

 

Will Arscott (member):

 

- Spoke about membership and that our club is not alone in having problems attracting and holding members. Told story about how difficult a membership could be to obtain in the early days of Rotary.

 

- Will found the conference worthwhile but noted the fact that very few regular members of Rotary attend the Conference. This is due to the high costs. With travel, hotels and conference fees it costs close to $1,000 for a Rotarian and spouse (or spouse Rotarian) to attend. The long travel times require taking more time than just the conference time. Maybe we will see more of our regular members at the conference in two years in Regina.

 

 

The planning for the next District Conference is already well underway. It will be held in Kenora from 25^th to 28^th May 2017. Note the date is later than this year. The conference website is up and there are fee reductions for early registration.

 

 

 

Gary Rusu brought a proposal for our club to participate in the Nutana Rotary Ribfest by selling corn. Last year this event attracted 21,000 people. If 20% of them purchased corn Gary estimates or club could make a profit of as much as $9,000 selling corn at $4.00 per cob. Cooking methods are being investigated. Gary thinks we would need 6 person shifts through the four days of the event. This would require much participation for our members and their families. This event still needs the go ahead from our board and final agreements with the Nutana Rotary club.

 

A social event is being planned for late July at Jack Brodsky’s acreage. Watch for further details.

 

Jack announced that the Corporate Challenge which takes place in September has chosen RAP as its beneficiary for this year. Uncertain as to our club’s involvement in the event. Watch for additional details.

 

 

 

Next Meeting:

 

May 23^rd: NO MEETING VICTORIA DAY

 

May 30^th. TBA