President Iain Scott opened the meeting with a land acknowledgment and we sang O'Canada.

Sarge Lyle introduced and welcomed guests Pedro and Wellington (prospective members).

Chair announcements

World Immunization Week, (24-30 April) is coming to an end. We know that vaccines work. Rotary members around the world use them to fight vaccine-preventable diseases such as malaria, COVID-19, HPV, and hepatitis. And we have been using them successfully for decades in our work to end polio. Rotary and our partners have reduced the number of polio cases worldwide by more than 99.9% since 1988, with Rotary clubs and members everywhere amplifying their efforts to create a polio-free world. The future of polio eradication is surveillance to detect the virus, and wastewater-based epidemiology will be a key tool in those monitoring efforts.

Lobsterfest: Jim Forestell, Chair, circulated a volunteer sign up sheet for a variety of Lobsterfest roles. Cathy Skene has a supply of tickets. Members are asked to take a supply to sell. Please reach out to your family and friends to ensure they participate in our biggest and best fundraiser.

Past DG Fred Wright is proposing a LinkedIn campaign - Your Rotary District 5550 Public Image Team is beginning a social media advertising campaign. Fred would like participation to make it a success. They are gathering promotional material about RAHR, MUNA, RYLA and other youth initiatives with testimonials from participants. Their plan is to start with one youth promo and one club promo per week. 25 or more of these impact statements are required prior to beginning the campaign. We will be advised when these ads are on LinkedIn. Fred is also seeking club stats to use in promoting Rotary's impact locally and internationally. This will require someone to gather information. Is there a member to volunteer to collaborate and collect the information? Please reach out to Glenn, Cathy or President Iain with your thoughts.

District Conference - several club members are attending the conference in Moose Jaw. Are there any questions to bring to the conference or messages to be relayed to the conference organisers? Contact President Iain at wpgcharleswoodpresident@gmail.com.

Ukrainian Project - Thank you to everyone who took part in our Furniture drive on April 27. At estimate we had around 30+ volunteers. In total we supported 11 families with furniture and household items. Once again we had a very efficient day with our families all completing their shopping by 11:00 am and all delivery trucks out after a quick pizza lunch.. With this week's drive complete, we have now supported a total of 268 Families since starting in October 2022! Our wait list currently has about 100 families in need of furniture.

Our families we supported this week were very appreciative. Some recently arrived while others have been in Winnipeg for about a year and are still in need. A couple of families had young children that were thrilled to receive toys and books. It is so rewarding to see how thankful these families are, but when you see the children get excited to receive a new toy it melts your heart. Seeing these little boys get excited over the fire truck or this little girl pushing her little shopping cart around the store brought so many smiles to our volunteers. These donations are making a difference!

Special thanks to Lyle for arranging the U-Haul despite some challenges with our reservation. Thankfully it all worked out. It was really nice to see a large turnout of Ukrainian volunteers come out to support as well. Our free store is now fully stocked again and ready to go. *Next drive in 2 weeks* If you are not on the volunteer list, visit https://bridgeofhopeukraine.com

Before we go to dinner.. Today I saw an ad that said, "Radio for sale, for 1 dollar, volume stuck on full." I thought, "I can't turn that down".

In advance of the presentation, President Iain projected examples of how to use ChatGPT (e.g. club marketing plan). ChatGPT has become part of everyday language and is seeping into everything we do. Within 2 months of its release in November 2022 it had 100 million downloads across iOS and Android platforms. It is being used by most companies you will know and especially in the background by processing information.

Microsoft is the largest investor in OpenAI which created ChatGPT and hence the Bing Search engine has incorporated it into its search engine. Download the app and decide for yourselves. It is a creative and useful addition if you choose to use it. The app is free.

Zoom, which we are currently using, can create a summary of a conversation being discussed after a meeting. That is hearing the words and converting the conversation into text.

News stories of AI have included stories of voices being cloned, images being replicated and books being written with AI. Being aware will help each of us navigate this world in the future.

Currently Ontario is expanding a pilot program that will see family doctors use artificial intelligence technology to transcribe and summarise patient visits.

Some 150 primary care clinics will participate in the project. The pilot program is part of the province's ongoing bid to reduce time family doctors spend doing paperwork and other office administration.

The AI software is called Scribe. It can summarise conversations with patients who consent to its use into electronic medical records.

How do we feel about this? Could this be the start of Telehealth or is this a good way for doctors to spend more time with patients?

President Iain then played a video about how future engineering is helping the world in places like Rwanda voiced by Mark Rober, who previously worked for NASA. You may know him as the creator of the Glitter bomb. A link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOWDNBu9DkU

In wrapping up, like Rwanda, we have remote locations in Manitoba which would benefit from this technology. How we make it happen is the question to answer.

Thank you to President Iain for preparing this presentation on new technologies that will surely impact society including Rotary.

Happy Bucks

• Mandy put in $5 for a few happy occurrences. First for an excellent Bridge of Hope on Saturday. From worrying about not enough volunteers, they went to having too many.
• The Jets lost but the White-Out party they held was fun anyway.
• Mandy has won a trip to the Philippines from her employer, for sharing her family's adoption story.
• Ed Toews was happy that his new hearing aids have finally arrived and are working pretty well.
• Sharon had a shout-out to Mandy for her success with Bridge of Hope.
• Len had a chorus of frogs in his yard. He also shared that Margaret's Choir will be holding a fundraiser at Prairie Spirit church in support of Urban Stables.
• Alan was pleased that his wife's art group had their best show ever. An attendance increase of about two hundred, and more money raised both for artists and charity than ever before. He saw a number of Rotarians in attendance.
• Ed Thompson added $2 to the pot because he saw a wild turkey in his backyard for the first time, and because his dentist replaced a chunk of tooth that had broken off, and after insurance, it only came to $5.
• David happily reported that his garage is finished.
• Chuck was at Westgrove School dropping off snacks and enjoyed seeing the happy children. The school is looking for reusable (dishwasher safe) water bottles, and newspapers.
• Joyce was happy that her family joined her to celebrate her 80th birthday. She also enjoyed a walk in Assiniboine Forest, and she thanked Charleswood Rotary for their fellowship. We sang Happy Birthday to Joyce.

World Polio Month - Dave Morris held the winning 50/50 and Anya pulled out the blue marble on Dave's behalf. Sarge announced that as it is World Polio Month. Dave said that all donations to Polio will be matched by Morris Insurance. This resulted in Sarge's pot filling up with many more coins, and even some folding money.

Next week our guest speaker is Garry Boltun (Monday, May 6). He will speak about the history of Minaki and the region. He has a family cottage there and is the resident historian. He's a Honorary Member of the Winnipeg West Rotary Club. Garry also has a history at Breezy Bend, being one of the first employees.

Now just before we go.  The other day my doctor recommended I buy orthopaedic insoles. I didn't think they would work, but now I stand corrected.