State of the Region Luncheon Region of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Background:

For info on the region see https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/index.aspx#section1/1

There are eight chartered Rotary clubs in Waterloo Region and one club in the process of getting their charter. The oldest club is the Kitchener Rotary Club which was chartered in 1922, and the Chair of Waterloo Region is Karen Redman, a member of the Kitchener Rotary club.

Purpose:

Karen Redman and members of the Kitchener Rotary club and the Kitchener-Westmount Rotary club worked together to hold this event. The purpose of the event was two-fold. Karen wished to convey her thoughts to the public about her role as Chair of the Region as well as provide an update on the current state of the Region. The second purpose was to remind non-Rotarians in the Region that Rotary is still a strong force and always looking for new members to help us make our community, and the world, a better place to live.

Success:

As this was our first State of the Region event, we were unsure of the number of attendees so originally estimated around 250. We arranged a venue that had a maximum of 400. We were pleasantly surprised when we filled the venue to near capacity.

Our financial goal for the event was to break-even and it appears we will actually make a very small profit. We are discussing how to make this into a fund raiser for next year.

It is too soon to tell if we will attract any new members because of this event, but we are hopeful.

Waterloo State of the Region Address 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=M71wq6ZknJM&feature=emb_logo

From Howard Pell, Rotary Club of Kitchener