Submitted by Will Arscott

 

 

 

This week we were back at the Bessborough. The meeting was presided by President Paul Gauthier

Greeter - Mike LeClaire

Cashier - Wayne Palmer

Set-up - Al Morton & Wayne McGillivray

Visitors and Guests - Jack Brodsky

Grace - Al Morton

Sergeant - Dave Sundby (will be fined next week for lack of attendance)

 

O Canada was led by Wayne McGillivray. Wayne has now remembered the newly changed words for our anthem correctly for two weeks in a row. Another couple of weeks and he may have them.

 

Grace - led by Al Morton who reminded us that Rotary is a call to service to our fellow man.

 

Visitors and Guests - Jack Brodsky

Rob O’Connor guest speaker and guest of the club

Lynne Pearson a past member of our club and now a member in Parksville, British Columbia. Lynne is in the Southland AM club and has served as president since her move to BC. She is now Foundation chair.

Wendy Cooper was a guest of Gary Rusu and a possible future member.

 

 

 

- Email Read Rate: President Paul has done a survey in this area and about 65% of the club emails sent out to our members are opened. Most of us miss now and again with holidays or other matters so this accounts for about 10% of the emails. Five individuals were identified who rarely read emails but were very involved in the work of our club including attending meetings. There were six individuals who Paul identified as neither reading emails or having club involvement. These members seem to be at great risk of leaving the club. The names were given to Jim Weber who assured us that in a couple of the cases the individuals were still involved in club work. As an editor of the Rotateller I can attest to the amount of work that goes into what is sent out. In order to be knowledgeable about the happenings in our club, it would be great if people would read their emails.

 

- President Paul would like every member to review and edit their profile as it appears on Club Runner: For those members with access to ClubRunner it is a matter of going on and bringing up your profile and making the needed changes. For others, Paul had the current profile for each member on paper. Please review yours and mark any changes and return to Paul. Out of date information is almost worse than no information.

 

- Five Club Public: This was a discussion at the recent president’s council. It was decided that a five club committee would be formed with two members from each club. Our club will be represented by Vic Dubois and another TBA.

 

- Meeting Format: Over Paul’s presidency we will be alternating between four meeting formats. The first is our traditional meeting of which the meeting on September 25^th was one. We will also have ‘hands on’ meetings such as one in December when we will serve at the Friendship Inn. There will also be some meetings that are purely social such as our traditional Christmas luncheon. The fourth and newest format will be the discussion forum meeting. We will have the first of these next week. Next week the tables will be set in a ‘U’ to facilitate discussion. Much of the regular meeting items will be dropped or curtailed. We will have happy and sad dollars to have some fellowship content to the meeting. We will do this type of meeting again on December 3rd.

 

- Assistant District Governor Colin Taylor has stepped down. He will be replaced by Asit Sarkar of the Nutana Club. Ruth Merritt will retire in one year so there would be an opportunity to serve as an ADG

 

- Health of the Club: Bev Johnson has had her fifth and last Chemo treatment. It has gone well and she has had less of the side effects that might have been expected. Surgery will likely be the next step. She follows the club and the club is thinking of her.

 

- Kiwanis Apple project is this Saturday. It is a good time and profitable for our club. The costume is optional. If you can help out please see Mike Giesbrecht.

 

 

 

In the absence of the sergeant, we did not have the usual fines but members were encouraged to give their regular happy and sad dollars:

 

H Gary Rusu for our guest speaker and for Wendy Cooper as a possible new member of our club. Also happy for his 50^th anniversary including a European River Trip that is coming up soon.

 

H Lynne Pearson our past member and visitor. She listened with interest to our plans for new meeting formats. Her club is Parksville and it has two business meetings and two social meetings per month.

 

H Wayne McGillivray for Tiger Woods return. It is always good to see someone overcome through perseverance. This editor agrees and thinks the experience has led to a new and welcome humility in Tiger. He is still a truly great golfer! He was also happy for the Huskies and Roughriders. The ‘Riders won but it was clearly not their fault.

 

H Wayne Storozuk for Hilltops and H for Roughriders ever though they have little beyond their special teams.

 

H Garry Kerr for the Roughriders kicker whom they wouldn’t have won without.

 

H Mark Gryba for the Hilltops who only managed to double the score on their opponents this week.

 

H Jack Brodsky for the start of hockey season and two early wins.

 

20H Graham Pearson paid fines for the time he expects to be away in Penticton.

 

Finally a SAD: Jim Weber was initially happy as he is going on a river cruise similar to Gary Rusu. However, he was sad for an intentional injury situation in the Huskies game this weekend. Jim hopes it will be properly addressed by the CIS.

 

Guest Speaker - Rob O’Connor “Ag in Motion”

 

Introduced by Gary Rusu. Rob is a farmer in Vibank with a special interest in pure-bred Herefords. He has a wife that is an RN and two young daughters. The whole family is very involved in 4H projects.

 

Most of Rob’s professional background has been in agricultural communications. He graduated in Agriculture from the University of Guelph. His first job was in marketing with Purina.

 

Early on he moved on to working in farm shows. First, he did smaller shows in Manitoba and eventually moved on to the Farm Progress Show in Regina. These shows were all winter events and did not take place on the land.

 

Rob was involved in the creation of the ‘Ag in Motion” show from its inception. It is an ‘on the land show’ where attendees can see crops being grown and see machinery in the field. There are relatively fewer of these shows only about thirty in all of North America. Some of those shows are more specialized and include shows devoted to historical farming and lifestyle. Ag in Motion is Western Canada’s Outdoor Farm Expo and is held over the third week of July on land owned for the purpose near Langham. It is not a lifestyle show but an opportunity to share the most up to date methods and approaches in agriculture.

 

Initially, the need for such a show was determined. This was followed by a search for land suitable to the show. They wanted a real farm setting yet one close enough to a city so their hotels and other amenities would be available. Saskatoon was identified as a good location. Initially, the University was approached but they do not have sufficient land to run their own projects never mind a large show. Finally, the land was identified near Langham and purchased by the sponsor. Since then another half section has been added.

 

Now the show holds 640 acres in the Langham area. The exhibition itself uses 100 acres. There are also crop plots within the show. Next year they are going to add large plot trials. The results of the test plots are shared widely through the publications of the show. An example of the kind of thing that is studied: Tests were done to relate seeding speed and depth with the outcome. These results are an important part of the show.

 

The Ag in Motion show started in 2015 with 200 exhibitors and 11,500 attendees. The 018 show had 450 exhibitors and 30,000 attendees. This is quicker growth than had been anticipated. Last year the show sold out all the hotels in Saskatoon. Though it is to be a western Canadian show, guests come from all over the world. Saskatoon is fortunate to host this show in its backyard.

 

Attached is Rob’s full power point presentation. This presentation has much additional information beyond that part Rob was able to present in the time he had. From a Rotary point of view, it is worth noting that the Saskatoon North Club runs the largest food concession on the site and this is their most important fund-raiser.

 

Rob was thanked by Gary Rusu.

Adjournment