MEETING RECAP - 3rd December 2018
Submitted by Will Arscott
Finding a new organizational model for our club PART II
This week was our second meeting held in a ‘discussion’ format to discuss ideas about reorganizing the structure of our club. We met in the upstairs lounge at the Saskatoon Club. The tables in the room were laid out in a rectangle formation to facilitate discussion. There was a good membership turnout. President Paul presided.
Cashier Maureen Torr (always good to see a member learning a new job)
Greeter Jack Brodsky
Set-up Steve Wilson
Visitors and Guests Gary Rusu
O Canada was sung without the leadership of Wayne McGillivray and it sounded great from the downstairs coat room. Grace was given by Steve Wilson.
Visitors and Guests were introduced by Gary Rusu
- Donna Gauthier a guest of the club and wife of President Paul
- Wendy Cooper a prospective member and guest of Gary Rusu
- Linda Petrow a prospective member and guest of Gary Rusu
It is now official that Linda and Wendy will be inducted as new member of our club at the Christmas Luncheon on December 17th.
Happy and Sad Dollars
Again, your scribe needed to eat so there was no attempt to record all the happy and sad dollars. Peter Zakreski spoke briefly about the very successful Malawi luncheon at the Top of the Inn. A great time was had and considerable funds were raised for this very worthwhile project. He stated that he was sad that it wasn’t possible to invite all of the members of our club.
A great thank you to the members who volunteered at the Grade VII Rock Concert event. Much worthwhile information was shared with the students. It may seem that it would be unlikely that such a short event could have much impact, however President Paul read a student letter that drove home how important such an event could be. Hopefully we can assist Prairie Financial again next year.
Announcements
Next week (December 10th) there isn’t a regular meeting due to the hands-on service project at the Friendship Inn. There are still time slots available so please consider volunteering. Peter Z announced there would be an email going out to remind members of the time they indicated they could volunteer. It is also a good opportunity for fellowship.
Grocery Cards - We are currently sold out of cards but more are coming. Let Donna Gauthier know if you need one or more cards. If you want cards before the Christmas luncheon phone or email and we will find a way to get them to you. We are still supposed to have Co-op cards in the future.
There was a sign-up for Salvation Army bell ringing on one of the white-boards. We are manning the pots on December 15th (Saturday) at the food-court of the Midtown Plaza and on December 22nd (also Saturday) at the Stonebridge Walmart.
There are still quite a few spaces left to sign up to help at the KG Christmas Market. Please get your items in. If you can help contact Avis or Joanne.
Our club Christmas Luncheon will be on December 17th. Santa has been booked and confirmed and the goodies for kids has been organized. This is always a special day fo r the club. Members are welcome to bring family or friends and make it even a merrier time. It is special that this year we will use this event to induct three new members - Parm, Linda and Wendy. All three have confirmed their attendance.
In conjunction with our Christmas Luncheon we make our annual donation to Bethany Homes in honour of our guest speakers for the year. This is usually coordinated by Wayne McGillivray but he is in the unfortunate position of having to travel to Australia over this Christmas season. He will arrange for the Captain of the Salvation Army who manages the Bethany Home to attend. Wayne Palmer will have the cheque available to present the Captain. Members are asked to bring gifts for distribution to the women at the Home. It has been our tradition to give articles for personal hygiene. Please bring your contribution to the Christmas luncheon. Linda Petrow has graciously agreed to collect and make sure that the Salvation Army representative receives these gifts for distribution.
Gary Rusu announced that he has arranged for our January 14th meeting to take place in the lounge at Merlis Belsher Place. The meeting will include a tour of the facility. Several members were interested in a future meeting and tour at the new Gordie Howe Bowl facility.
DISCUSSION MEETING
A summary of the new club structure had been distributed prior to the meeting with the last Rotateller. President Paul had sent some further notes in an email. Paul began the discussion by opening the floor for discussion of what had been sent. There were few questions and no alternate proposals. The club seemed to accept the proposal and is waiting to start to put it into action.
There was some discussion about by-laws and whether they needed to be changed. The answer is probably yes but the intention is to run the new system concurrent with the older system for at least a couple of months. Once the new system is up and running it may be necessary to look at by-laws.
Prior to the meeting easels had been set up around the room one for each of the teams under the new organization. Members were asked to go to the easel for the group they wished to contribute to and sign up for the team they wanted to be on. There was some confusion as some of the classifications are quite large. For example: local community service has Adventures in Technology under it. There were members who indicated that they had more interest in one project under a team than in other things that team might be responsible for. They were assured they could be on the team and put their major effort into only one or two of the projects under that team.
It seemed that the members were ready and many names appeared on the easels. I would be sure that most members signed on with more than one team. President Paul asked each team to set up a meeting and get underway. A member was assigned to facilitate that first meeting for each team. That member need not be the team leader once things get underway they are only appointed for the purpose of starting the team out. Here are the teams and the initial facilitator for each team:
(This group now includes Paul, Vic Dubois, Mark Gryba, Jack Brodsky, Maureen Torr and Steve Wilson.)
