MEETING RECAP - March 25, 2019

 

Submitted by Steve Wilson

 

Gary Rusu was our MC which allowed President Paul to be the Greeter. We sang ‘O Canada’ followed by the Rotary Grace which will continue to be sung at each meeting now. If you are unsure of the words you will soon learn them.

 

Visitors and Guests were introduced by Dave Sundby.

 -Aurelio Henriques - a Visiting Rotarian from Ottawa

 -Winston Blake - our Main Speaker from RAP

 -Darren Bowman - a RAP worker from Bethlehem High School

 -Danielle Sharpe, a corporate member, from Scotiabank,

 

Announcements

 

Out annual Badge Shield and Star Dinner is on for April 17th. It is an evening event at Prairieland Park. This is our largest fundraiser of the year but will only be successful if tickets are sold. Please buy your tickets. They are now available on line and there will be a link from our website and President Paul sent out the link is his last email.  

 

The Rotary Park Clean Up is set for May 11th at 10:30 am. We will likely have some food after, possibly from a food truck.

 

Vic Dubois has returned from PETS and may have an announcement about an alliance with Toastmasters.

 

Masters Gold Pool: Entries are rolling in. The tournament starts on April 11th. Let your friends and family know and get your own entries in.

 

Adventures in Technology (AIT) is taking place from April 28th through May 3rd. The lead club for this year’s event will be the North Club. Jack Brodsky will be coordinating our contributions. We need billets for the participants. There is a information available as to what is required of billets. Please help Jack out if at all possible. We will also need van drivers and other help. Sign-up sheets will be available at future meetings. You can also contact Steve if you want information or would like to volunteer.

 

Foundation We are trying to organize our contributions to the Foundation as we need at least a minimum amount to secure Grants.

 

Shelter Box - Avis gave us some more information about the chaos in Africa from Cyclone Idai . It is estimated that 125,000 people were forced from their homes and many are missing. Shelter Box has provided water treatment supplies and mosquito nets in addition to other standard provisions. If we can give $300.00 by the end of June we achieve Hero Bronze status with Shelter Box. We can donate on line.

 

Next Meeting April 8: We will have Michelle Prytula, Dean of the College of Education as a speaker.

 

Vocational Talk

 

Linda Petrow gave her vocational address.

 

She is the youngest of three children who met her husband, Emil, while working for 5 years at the Bank of Montreal. They have been married now for 40 years and Emil worked for 31 years at SaskTel, now retired. They have two daughters, Haley, an advocate for foster families in Saskatchewan, and Erin, who is a journalist. There are no grandchildren but 4 grand-cats,

1 grand-dog, 1 grand-salamander, and 2 grand-turtles.

 

After her 5 years at BMO she entered the travel industry and has been happily involved for 37 years, and still is. When she started they hand-wrote tickets and used telex machines. Now the internet is king. She says that for a while people tried to plan their own vacations without a travel agent. Now more and more people are coming back because they like to plan their vacations with help rather than being stuck with local tours.

 

Because Linda is now semi-retired she has time to volunteer and join Rotary.

 

Happy and Sad Dollars

 

H&S    Peter Zakreski, back from Hawaii, announced there is strife in Malawi because of heavy rain and a cyclone affecting that country, Mozambique, Madagascar and Zimbabwe.

H&S    Graham Pearson enjoyed his time out west with his father, who is 93.

H         Will Arscott is happy that Steve is doing the Rotateller

H         Peter Whitenect has a 15 year-old grandson who is able to go to Glasgow, Scotland, with some other boys and girls for a special soccer camp.

H         Dave Sundby is happy with the entries in the golf pool.

H         Mike Giesbrecht enjoyed his time in Mexico and is impressed with the baseball fields at Gordie Howe complex.

H         Claire Heagy is happy that Winston and Darren are here for RAP and says it's been great to see the progress of RAP over the years.

H         Danielle Sharpe is happy to be with us from the Scotiabank and she is trying to have co-workers join us as well.

H         Gary Emde is pleased to announce that he is a grandfather for the fourth time.

 

PROGRAM

 

WINSTON BLAKE - C.E.O. of RAP

 

Winston first pointe out that the idea of RAP started with our club and then began in Mount Royal in 2002. It is in 9 schools now and we have 7 RAP Facilitators (2 handle two schools each). Our goal is to bring RAP to all 16 High Schools. For this to happen more funding is required. RAP started with the support of our club and now is supported by all five clubs in the city, which is great. Annual Reports are available on the tables.

 

Darren Bowman, who works at Bethlehem, points out that when RAP started the bulk of the referrals came from the administration of the school. Now it is mostly peer or self-referrals, which is exactly what we want. The students get a voice and there is often a mutual agreement, which takes care of issues. Conflict can be addressed immediately instead of putting it off. When something is not resolved right away the conflict escalates. Regular teachers aren't trained it dealing with this and they have classes to teach. Seven percent of communication is words and the rest is tone and body language etc. Fortunately conflict resolution is something that can be taught.

 

Winston and Darren were thanked by Gary Rusu and the regular donation will be made to the Salvation Army Bethany Home.

 

 

Adjournment