Rotary: Meeting April 17th, 2013
.....Accolades: Both Ron and Trudy have reached their Drive for Five
April 17th, 2013
Guests: Jennifer Petrichenko, Rotaract Club of Cloverdale and our guest speaker today and Don K brought two guests..Arthur and Wendy, both teachers and connections from Don`s world of music.
Accolades: Both Ron and Trudy have reached their Drive for Five and Pres Al presented them with a nice pin to mark the accomplishment. President Al also mentioned that our newest member Beata,
attended last weekend`s District Assembly..great to see her learning things about the `world of
Rotary`` and great to have her with us.
Birthday Wishes: to our own Patty ...celebrating one of her two birthdays..if you missed it..you will have to ask her about her two BDs!
Announcements: April 27th..save the date..we load our next container for South Africa. We will be
sending some Days for Girls packages this time too..a great connection!
Search for the Perfect Pint...thanks to all of the hard work done by this group
all is going really well. We now need to focus on ticket sales...please bring to
next weeks meeting: any tickets you think you can not sell...we do not want them
to be lost opportunities.
Hike for Hospice..we still need more volunteers for the Coquitlam Centre booth and
for the actual event..please see Trudy if you can help.
Jon is pleased with the returns of our Club survey but asks everyone to still
complete one if they have not already done so. The information is really helpful
in charting the future of our Club.
We are reminded of our incoming GSE group..arriving April 30.
Several members attended the Vancouver Board of Trade celebratory luncheon with
RI President Tanaka.
A special note to Secretary Alan...you may need to ask about your badge when you get back!
SPEAKERS CORNER:
Our guest speaker today, Jennifer Petrichenko, is the President of the Rotaract Club of Cloverdale. The timing of her presentation was excellent as it will be so helpful to us to know
as much as possible about Rotaract..given that we are sponsors to District 5050s newest Rotaract
Club. Jennifer had her first connection to our Club when she met Patty at the RI convention in New Orleans a couple of years ago. originally from Langley, she is our District Rotoract representative for Rotoract and has been invited by President Tanaka to assist with the Rotaract session at the RI convention in Portugal.
Her presentation today was about Rotaract basics for new sponsors and she congratulated us for being one of 7% of Clubs in District 5050 to be currently sponsoring a Rotaract Club. The other Clubs in our District are found in the Langley and Chilliwack area and there is also interest in a potential new club in the Burlington area in the US.
So, once a Rotary Club has helped to sponsor a new Rotaract club, Jennifer likens the relationship to that of being a manager..we don't need to micromanage them..they are very capable young adults, but we can form trusting relationships as individuals and help bridge them in to the world of Rotary..by inviting them and involving them into our world. She stressed that everyone of us should do at least the following two things: like their web page and attend one of their meetings.
Jennifer advised us that 60% or Rotaractors say that they want to join Rotary one day. Between the ages of 18 and 30..Rotaractors will come from a different generation than most Rotarians, but we can bridge any generation gaps by speaking the same language..the language of Rotary. We all share the same desires for service and making the world a better place.
Jennifer also told us about the successes of Rotaract Clubs in other places. There are about 9,000 Clubs world wide and places like Europe have had great numbers of young people involved.
We can help secure the future of Rotary by bridging from Interact Clubs, to Rotaract Clubs and eventually into more traditional Rotary Clubs. With respect, connection and relationships..we will be mentoring and supporting our New Generations. Many thanks Jennifer for making us aware that our work is not ending with the chartering of the new Club..it is just the beginning - for them and for us. Anyone else want to attend one of their upcoming meetings..I suspect it would be very interesting and inspiring!