Presidents message # 13

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE District 5050 Membership and Public Relation Seminar was held Saturday Oct. 13th. Facilitated by our own Gene Vickers and Barrie Seaton, Past President and Founder of Port Coquitlam Centennial. This well attended meeting was both informative and interesting. To my surprise our very own Past President Jon Dominy was a speaker. Jon was mainly speaking on the merits of attracting new members by having Clubs active and prominent in our communities. He cited, as an example, the success of the "Face of a Caring Community" An event that our Club held two years ago. While this was initially meant as a fundraiser for our Club, (it raised $30,000 in one hour!), the spin off undoubtedly attracted new members, who now actually know what Rotary achieves! It is a surprising fact that a large portion of the public does not know what Rotary is about! It is up to us as Rotarians to remind them of the benefits Rotary provides, throughout the world. When I accepted the invitation to be President, one of my wishes was for our Club to be more active and prominent and to advertise these events in the local newspapers, so our community will be aware of our efforts. In the long run this will attract new members! This is why I have suggested new activities like the Bike Project for our youth, the Food Drive for Share, the Blood Donor Project. On Saturday Caps; Westwood Cycle, Williams Moving, the City of Port Moody and Linda Balzer, our Club's photographer and myself were at the City Works Yard, loading up 12 bikes that were being shipped off to Caps, so they can perform a safety refit on these bikes. The next phase in the Bike Project will be when we actually donate them to Sheila Plummer, the Principal of Seaview Community School who will in turn, present them to 12 chosen elementary students. This type of event, which Jon Dominy is heading up, as the Community Service Chair, is such a pleasure to be involved with. The look of excitement on the faces of the students is truly heart warming. Peter�?��?��?��?��?�ROTARY SHARES #13 OCT 14TH. 2007