Rotateller

MEETING RECAP - 27 January 2025
 
Submitted by Will Arscott
 
 
The meeting was held in the Main Dining Room at the Saskatoon Club. President Jack presided.  The meeting began with members singing O Canada. Steve Wilson asked a very appropriate blessing. Cashier was Wayne Palmer. We had a full hot meal of herbed chicken. The meal was excellent. The Board is currently considering ending hot meals to reduce costs.  If you have an opinion on this, please talk to a board member as it will be on the agenda at the next meeting.
 
Visitors and Guests   
 
Wilson Nabiimpa handled visitors and guests. The only visitor present was Ednali Fertuck-Zahair who came to check out Rotary and our club. We hope to see her again soon.
 
Health of the Club
 
Each year the clubs in District 5550 report the members, current and past, who have passed in the prior year. This year our club is reporting four members: late in December we recognized the passing of Arie Van Duyvendyk. As well as Frank Garrity, Keith Chow and Hank Ejack.  All four members left the club and had made significant contributions in their time; none had served as president.
 
Announcements
 
Presidents’ council meeting will be held tomorrow, and President Jack will represent our club with incoming President Will to represent us at the February meeting.
 
There will be a meeting of our new members with some of the senior members of our club to explain to them more about what our club does.  There will also be an opportunity for the new members to indicate what areas of the club’s activities in which they may be most interested in becoming involved.
 
The AGM of the Saskatoon Rotary Club Charitable Trust will be held at 2:00pm on Saturday February 8 at the offices of Allan Lebisczak. All are welcome to attend in person or by zoom. If you want to attend in person, please let Paul Gauthier know as soon as possible so you can be given instructions of how to enter the building.
 
Adventures In Technology: The club recognizes the hard work that Steve Wilson has done in this area, and it appears billets are coming together. Watch this space for further news. Once the project is confirmed there will be a need for drivers and other volunteers.
 
As always, grocery cards are available from Donna Gauthier. Please support this fundraiser as it is the easiest one we have.
 
President Jack is going away for February to explore New Zealand.  Incoming President Will Arscott will chair the meetings and the executive meeting.  Please send announcements materials to Will so they can be included in regular meetings or the monthly board meeting.
 
 
  • 50H from Mark Gryba for Dorothy’s ongoing recovery.  Mark reports that she can now put about 50% of her weight on her leg. Things are going as well as expected.
  • 100H from Jim Weber who celebrated his 40th anniversary in Rotary. It is also 20 years since his project took on its first student in Puerto Vallarta. The project has recently had a student graduate from university and the student, and their family were very appreciative of the help they had been given.
  • 10S from Will Arscott for the past members our club has lost this year. Will fondly remembers both Keith Chow and Hank Ejack as members of the club.
  • 200H from Graham Pearson for celebrating his 70th birthday. He also reports that, on his birthday, he received a request from CRA for a great amount of tax information.   Graham seemed mostly concerned about the time it would take to answer CRA rather than concern about his situation.
  • 200H from President Jack.  Not sure what it was for other than matching Graham.  Happy about the great football team in Kansas City and the opportunity to explore New Zealand with Shirley.
Program:  AGM of the Rotary Club of Saskatoon
 
Minutes for the AGM will not appear here. Formal minutes were taken by Steve Wilson and will be available to members. Our Secretary Graham Pearson attended by Zoom and Executive Secretary Paul Gauthier was present.   
 
The financial statements were presented by Wayne Palmer and approved by the membership.   Several committee chairs gave short summaries of their activities. This information has appeared in recent Rotatellers so it will not be repeated here.
 
Paul did report that we didn’t have any District Grants for this year. We qualified easily for grants contributing $8,000 to the Foundation.  For this year we have already contributed $5,000 so we will qualify for District Grants.
 
On Fundraising it was again reported that the Badge Shield and Star fundraiser has been dropped by RAP.  The club is exploring the possibility of finding a new partner to continue this project into the future.
 
The club executive for the Rotary year beginning July 1st was elected by acclamation.   Here is the executive for next year:
 
President                                 Will Arscott
President-Elect                        Don Lepp
Vice-President                        TBD
Past-President                         Jack Brodsky
Secretary                                 Graham Pearson
Treasurer                                 Wayne Palmer
Executive Secretary                Paul Gauthier
Public Image                           Don Lepp
World Community Service     Mark Gryba
Local Community Service      Linda Petrow/Wendy Cooper
Youth Services                        Steve Wilson
Program                                   Maureen Torr/Gary Rusu
Membership                            Jim Weber
Rotary Foundation                  Paul Gauthier
 
Next meeting is on February 24. Presenter is Erica Weber from the Saskatoon Police Services.
 
Adjournment