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Bulletin Editor
Will Arscott PHF
Stories
ROTATELLER
MEETING RECAP - 8th January 2018
 
Submitted by Will Arscott
 
Rotary Vocational Talks Maureen Torr and Huey-Ming Tzeng
 
The meeting was held back at the Bessborough. The meeting was presided by President Mark Gryba.
 
Greeter - Mike LeClaire
Cashier - Wayne McGillivray
Visitors and Guests - President Mark
Set-up - Al Morton
Grace - Rotary Sung Grace
Sergeant - Dave Sundby
 
O Canada was led by Wayne McGillivray followed by a sung grace
 
President Mark announced our only guest Brennan Mills guest of Scott Byers
 
 
Announcements
 
15th January: Next week’s meeting is very important. Jack Brodsky and his committee will be presenting the proposal on a five club amalgamation in Saskatoon. Jack had paper copies of the proposal at the meeting. He has also emailed the information to all members. Please try to review this information and attend next week. There will be possible advantages and drawbacks if the amalgamation goes ahead. Have your questions ready for next week’s meeting. There will be a vote on the proposal with members not present able to vote by email following the meeting.
 
22nd January: will be the rescheduled presentation on Hope for Malawi with Elaine and Peter Zakreski.
 
29th January: Our club is to serve breakfast and lunch at the Friendship Inn. The sign-up sheets are on the tables please sign up for a two hour shift. As always family members and non-Rotarians are most welcome to participate.
 
Joanne Fisher was not present but it was reported that the King George Christmas Market was a success again this year. There were plenty of gifts for the students to choose from and all was completed a little early to everyone’s satisfaction.
 
Dave Sundby and Tammy Helgert worked very hard on the Enchanted Forest Project. In the end, despite the period of really cold weather, the project saw more traffic this year than last. The walking nights that opened and closed the project were particularly successful with an estimated 4,000 walkers each night.
 
Grocery cards are available. Please see Gary Rusu. Gary will take cash (does anyone remember cash?), cheques or credit cards.
 
There will be a regular Board meeting at the Saskatoon Club this Wednesday at 7:00am.
 
Jack Brodsky reported briefly on the Syrian Refugee / Red Cross Luncheon. Thanks to the Nasser family it appears at close to $40,000 was raised in this cause. Jack will put something in writing for the club once things are finalized.
 
Sergeant at Arms - Dave Sundby
 
[Editor’s Note: Dave obviously was not enjoying his Monday and made up for it by levying a ridiculous number of wholly unjustified fines. If Dave cannot come on Mondays in a better frame of mind we will have move our meetings to a different day.]
 
- Dave started with a big thank you to all the members who had worked at the Enchanted Forest. He then fined those who had the opportunity to work but didn’t take it.
 
- President Mark was fined for not saying “Merry Christmas’ at the end of our Christmas luncheon. He was further fined for sending around the duty roster without providing a pen for members to enter their name.
 
- Wayne M was fined for setting the keys too high in both O Canada and the Rotary grace. Wayne admitted to this fault and put in an extra dollar.
 
- Peter Z was fined for being unable to fill in for Elaine when she was called out of town. We know where the real competency lies in the Zakreski couple.
 
- Will A was fined for suggesting that Rotary fishing trips will now be much more laid back when we can take legalized marijuana out in the boats.
 
- Huey-Ming T was fined but allowed to announced that she had a great trip to Taiwan over Christmas.
 
- Maureen T was fined but allowed to announce that her global grant application for Uganda is now 90% complete.
 
 
Happy and Sad
 
- H Jack B for the arrival of the first grand-daughter.
 
- S Wayne M for being off $15 on his cash out. Scott B put in a sad dollar for Mike G not paying for him on the way in. H Wayne M for finding the missing payment and balancing his ledger.
 
- H Gary R. For Bev and others who worked so hard to organize the Christmas luncheon.
 
- H Will A for the world junior championship and his nephew getting a gold medal as an assistant coach on the Canadian team.
 
- H Dave S for the end of the Enchanted Forest Project. H Jack B for the commitment by Tammy and Dave to making the Enchanted Forest project successful. This was echoed by Wayne M who further pointed out that Dave not only worked the Enchanted Forest on New Year’s eve but then went on to work at Operation Red Nose. Dave epitomizes the service ethic.
 
- President Mark for a great Christmas period through Ukrainian Christmas and including a trip with family to Punta Cana.
 
Rotary Vocational Talks
 
Maureen Torr
 
Maureen is back home after six months in Uganda where she grew up in a small village. Maureen came to Canada in 2004 with her family. She has raised a mixed family some of whom are her biological children and others are orphaned relatives. All her children have now completed degrees at the U of S.
 
Maureen has been in Rotary for nine years. Her Rotary highlight is attending a Rotary International convention. It is now six years since she started her project in Uganda initially known as Joy’s House of Hope. [I believe it was named for her grandmother.] It started as an orphanage with an attached school. Now it is an orphanage and a school that serves the orphanage and the immediate community. There are now approximately 230 children in the school. Maureen hopes some of our members will be able to visit in the future and see the effect our club is having through this project.
 
Despite her two U of S degrees Maureen is now committed to doing humanitarian work. Rotary clubs in Saskatoon provided $10,000 to her project last year. Through government and other matching grants, the Rotary money has expanded to about $85,000 total.
 
Maureen had travelled to Uganda to undertake the documentation required for a global grant. When she went she expected this to require her to spend two months in Uganda. Things work slowly in Uganda and there is a great amount of corruption. This makes it difficult to get things done even if those things are clearly humanitarian. As a result Maureen had to extend her trip to a total of six months but now believes that things are in place and that the grant will be forthcoming. It makes her feel very blessed to live in Canada where things proceed by rules. She can understand the corruption because people have to live and find a way to survive.
 
In closing Maureen was asked how she came to Saskatoon. It turns out that her doctor husband was offered a position here. She met her husband when he had a clinic in his native Uganda and provided medical care to children that had no means to obtain medical care. Maureen and her family arrived in Saskatoon in November and were not sure they could survive the cold.
 
When away Maureen shares about being a Rotarian. She feels very privileged to be a member of our club. Maureen always participates when we serve at the Friendship Inn. Previously she did not know there were people in Saskatoon that required that kind of help.
 
We are proud and blessed to have Maureen as a member of our club.
 
 
Huey-Ming Tzeng
 
Huey-Ming is just back from visiting her family in Taiwan which is a small island nation. Her family is in Taiwan but she considers Saskatoon as her home now even though she has just moved here and is settling in.
 
Huey-Ming grew up in Taiwan and became a nurse there. She obtained her masters and PhD from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. During that time she had brief visits to Toronto and Vancouver. Initially she returned to Taiwan to begin an academic career but was called back to Ann Arbor where she taught for eleven years. It was a head hunter that first made her aware of the job in Saskatoon. Huey-Ming came here twice for interviews. The first time she hired a cab and made a tour of the city. She was offered the job of Dean of Nursing and has come to Saskatoon. The cold allows her to wear a fur coat for the first time. It is fox that sheds but she is still happy.
 
Heading the college of nursing is a big job. There are about 1,000 undergrad students, 100 masters students and a few PhD students. There are three staffed programs in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert as well as satellite programs in Yorkton, La Loche and Ile-a-la Crosse. Since arriving Huey-Ming has visited all of these programs. There are about 150 faculty and staff who are really good people who want to make a difference.
 
Huey-Ming is looking forward to becoming an active member of our club. She has hired some coaches. Jack Brodsky is coaching her about hockey. Dave Sundby is getting her involved in community service.. Her goal is to get to know all the members better over the next months.
 
We are proud and blessed to have Huey-Ming as a member of our club.
 
Apparently Gary Rusu was also ready with a vocational talk but it will have to wait for another time because time was up.
 
President Mark thanked our speakers and adjourned our meeting.
 
Adjournment
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