Submitted by Will Arscott 6^th December2016

 

December 6^th MEETING RECAP - Meeting at Saskatoon Club with Wayne Storozuk and Jim Weber giving an update on the Becas Project.

 

The new banner proved its worth in that it provided a club banner and our flags in one easy package. I suggested the next step is to put the banner on a flash drive and have it displayed electronically. I was immediately told I was way behind the curve and that the proper thing to do would be to broadcast the banner from a smart phone onto the screen. This way nobody has to bring anything to the meeting.

 

The meeting was presided by President Jack

Greeter - Adriana Van Duyvendyk

Cashier - Avis Hardy

Set-up - Al Morton

Visitors and Guests - Avis Hardy

 

O Canada - as usual with usual wonderful leadership. I saw the people in the regular dining room were all standing.

 

Grace - Gary Emde volunteered on the spot and did a fine job of expressing our thanks for our lives, and the food and fellowship of Rotary.

 

Visitors and Guests - There was only Susan Blum who hopefully will be joining us as a regular member. We sang the hello song which rang through the club.

 

 

 

President Jack began by recognizing the success of Peter and Elaine’s ‘Hope for Malawi’ brunch which had been held on Sunday. Many of our members were in attendance and there was much more discussion of this important event as the meeting progressed.

 

Joanne Fisher was not present but an announcement was made that more help is needed for the King George Christmas Fair. If you can help please contact Joanne. We also need items that would make good Christmas presents for the students to give to their family members. All contributions are appreciated.

 

Our club Christmas luncheon is coming up on Monday December 19th. We would like all members and as many family members as possible to attend. However we need to know numbers for the hotel so please let Dave Sundby know how many will be attending. We also need to know the children in attendance so Santa can be advised. Speaking of Santa our regular Santa has begged for the year off (and he only works one day a year anyway!). It appears he will have his Australian grandchildren at the luncheon and he is afraid they will guess Grandpa’s secret. We have the uniform. If you can fill a rather large pair of boots please let Dave know.

 

Next week we have our AGM. We are still tapping people to be on the board. If you would consider letting your name stand please talk to any current board member.

 

Gary Rusu also couldn’t be present but has grocery cards of many denominations for Safeway, Co-op and Sobey's. Please stock up next week on these essentials. Please consider using them as gifts to the people you need to remember at Christmas.

 

Adventures in Technology - Steve Wilson needs help particularly technical help. He will start with Gord Menuz but if you have any ability in this area Steve could use your help.

 

PETS (training for incoming Rotary executive members) is scheduled for March 17 to 19^th in Russell Manitoba. This is recommended to all incoming executive members and is a very good time. Several members will be going so expenses can be shared.

 

Thanks to all the Salvation Army bell ringers for their work on short notice this past Saturday. It is heartening when the club responds on short notice. All the slots were filled. The list that was passed for next Saturday was filled as well. Thanks to all that volunteered.

 

Enchanted Forest there is a new opening for an assistant to work the night of December 30^th. All the spots were filled but John Davies found he had a conflict. Paul Gauthier graciously agreed to work this shift. To date this project seems to be going well.

 

Peter Voldeng is undertaking fund-raising so his son Addison and his partner Alexa can compete in the ice dancing event at the 2017 Winter Universiade Games in Kazakhstan. There are brochures on your table. Please consider this. The skaters, their coach and one judge need to travel to make this possible.

 

President Jack announced, as a result of a Board decision, that Don Atchison was to continue as an honorary member of our club. The member will be Don himself office of mayor.

 

 

Sergeant at Arms: Dave Sundby

 

Our sergeant started by exempting several groups of people from paying fines. The first group was the people who had attended the Zakreski’s brunch AND contributed to their project. The second group exempted were those that had stepped up on short notice to ring the bells for the Salvation Army. Note that only those who participated last Saturday were exempted. Hopefully, the sergeant next week will exempt those who participated this week. The third group exempted were those who had worked at the Enchanted Forest. One would think with all these exemptions that very little was collected in fines but they would be wrong. Those who had not been able to attend the brunch were asked to stand up and state how much they were paying. Some very significant fines were collected.

 

2XH Wayne M for the Zakreski brunch.

S&H Peter Z for not being able to invite all club members to the brunch but very happy because $25,000 has been raised so far and based on past experience this will likely grow to around $40,000 once all the donations are received. He was also happy about his granddaughter’s Lynne’s performance at the brunch.

H Paul G for the city granting RAP its past funding. The increase was not approved. There are issues with RAP funding that are going to make for interesting times going forward but that is for another day.

H Steve Wilson for being able to fill all the bell ringing slots on such short notice. Thanks again to the club!

H&S Peter Voldeng for the success of his son and partner and sad for the lack of funding to allow them to compete internationally.

H Bill Johnson for his daughter being accepted to the Western University school of business and her having the opportunity to play basketball while she studies.

H Mark G for his son being accepted to chiropractic school in Portland.

 

 

 

The project website is just about ready to go live. This will allow interaction between us and the Becas students. Again, technical expertise is needed if you can help it would be greatly appreciated.

 

The project is centred in the Puerto Vallarta area of Mexico and currently provides education support to a total of 105 students. 48 of these students are at the University level. Once enrolled the standards are high and the students are expected to maintain an 85% average. Most do and the non-completion rate is about 1%. When students struggle it is often due to problems or changes at home. In these cases the students are counselled and given time to get back on track.

 

For the University level student the support is to be re-paid as they graduate and are able to make repayments. The idea is to provide the same opportunities for the next group of students. The current students seems enthusiastic about this plan. A commitment to giving back is not common in Mexico.

 

At this point the Becas committee is not certain what their major fund raising event is to be. Jim would like a large commitment from all members for the Kiwanis apple event in support of this project.

 

The first loan from the micro-credit facility is to be repaid in February. This loan had to do with sewing school uniforms. The micro-credit is not a loan to get around Mexican banking laws and the interest is not interest but a service fee.

 

The Becas Rotary club is going through changes and the water project is up in the air. This part may get back on stream in the future.

 

The plan had been to show a video of some of the students expressing appreciation but we had sound problems. The hope is that the Becas website can be coordinated with Facebook so our members can have regular interaction with the students.

 

Wayne and Jim were thanked by President Jack.

 

 

 

 

Next Meeting:

 

Monday December 12^th at the Bessborough AGM

 

In Two Weeks

 

Meeting on December 19^th at Bessborough annual Christmas Luncheon please confirm attendance of you and your family.