Rotary Meeting May 23, 2013

 

President Dennis opened the meeting with an exceptional rendering of O'Canada to 20 members and guests. We sadly learned of 2 passings...Cheryle's mom in Vancouver and Michael Newman, a past Rotarian and friend of our club.

Ron introduced our guest and speaker Dennis Jacobsen, a member of the Penticton Okanangan Club and Assistant District Governor for our District 5060. Dennis is the liason for our club to the DG and as such brought us up to date on District and International news. From the District, there is a plan to grow the Bob Winter fund which supports outbound YE students who cannot totally afford the $5700 it takes to go abroad. The plan is for the 59 clubs in 5060 to develop a permanent fund over time which will provide funds from interest earned on the principle. He also announced that there will be a District websight launched July 1 that will replace clubrunner and be a resourse for news, bulletins, RI interfaces, and more. One facet supports membership with formats for new members and mentorships pamphlets that can be customized for each club. Sounds good!

From RI, Dennis reviewed Rotary's 6 areas of focus within which all of the service projects should fall. They are:

-Peace and conflict prevention/resolution

-Water and sanitation

-Maternal and child health

-Basic education and literacy

-Economic and community development. 

Dennis distributed a new pamphlet that describes these focus areas and presents ideas on how to contribute. Finally, a reminder of progress against polio with stats showing that from the 350,000 cases in 1985 worldwide, there were only 223 cases in the 3 remaining endemic countries in 2012 and 34 cases so far this year.