Rotary Club of Regina
Club Meeting Report - January 8th, 2024
1.Meeting Chair:
The meeting today was chaired by President George Carson.
George opened the meeting welcoming all present and the Zoom attendees. His treaty recognition was: “On behalf of all of us, I begin by acknowledging the Indigenous Peoples of the lands we are on today, Treaty 4, which we all call home. We do this to reaffirm our commitment and responsibility in improving relationships between nations and to improving our own understanding of local Metis, and First Nations. As we do so, As Rotarians let us apply the Four Way Test; it has not always been so but let us Build Goodwill.”
The recognition was followed by the singing of O’Canada, led by Gilda Treleaven-Graham and the Blessing, given by Tim Fraser.
2.Speaker Name & Presentation Summary:
Our speaker today was Chris Lane, CEO of Economic Development Regina (EDR). A very interesting and most informative presentation. Chris, originally from Grand Prairie, Alberta, attended U of R and found that he liked it here so much that he stayed in Regina. He was previously with the Canadian Western Exhibition and has more than 6 years of executive leadership and 15+ years of communications and media experience. EDR is the lead agency for economic development in the Greater Regina Area and provides leadership in the community with specific accountability for supporting industry growth and diversification. This is being achieved through retention, development and attraction of industry; finding ways to promote sustainable growth; marketing and promoting Greater Regina area for business and investment; ensuring Greater Regina offers a vibrant and diversified economy for investors and is providing a climate of growth for business and a high quality of life for residents. EDR are working on sustainability between our two major industries - agriculture and energy, working together. Regina is ideally located - in an area comprising of some 80 million acres of the best crop land in the world, is readily accessible to world class potash, world class uranium deposits, critical mineral development, and has port access through multiple rail lines. Chris advised us of some of the major developments in the Greater Regina Area. Regina has the world’s leading Biogas operation - situated at our landfill, which can service 10,000 homes. Viterra and Cargill are building new processing plants to make us a global centre for canola processing. Viterra’s plant will be the largest canola processing plant in the world. The CO-OP and AGT are combining to build a major integrated agriculture complex that will produce canola-based renewable diesel. Red Leaf Pulp and Prairie Clean Energy are working toward producing biomass. Red Leaf will consume 370,000 tonnes of wheat straw in its process. Prairie Clean will use some 75,000 tonnes of flax straw to make fuel pellets.
3.Birthday and Anniversary Announcements
Birthdays: Ian Yeates - January 23rd.
Anniversaries: Gerald Fiske - 17 years on January 28th and George Carson - 17 years on January 28th.
4.Reports and Announcements:
- President George confirmed a number of our club members had volunteered to assist the Knights of Columbus with their December 4th and 5th fund raising concerts at Knox-Met United Church. The proceeds went to support orphans in the Ukraine.
- We were reminded of the annual Regina Music Festival coming April 14th to 28th. Please block off some time to volunteer.
- Soup After dark sets up daily behind Knox-Met church to assist those in need of some warm food. Volunteers needed. Donations welcome. For further information contact Amanda Lanoway at: amandalanoway@outlook.com.
- We are looking for ideas for our next social event. There was little interest in attending a Pats hockey game (no Connor Bedard) so this was shelved. Suggestions most welcome.
5.Other Newsworthy Items:
- George thanked the volunteers who assisted with today’s meeting. Our meetings cannot function without these folks. Please volunteer, whenever you can, when the call goes out.
- Today’s crew: Setup: - Mitch, Russ and Amir; Greeters - Monica and Charles; National Anthem - Gilda; Blessing - Tim; Attendance - Katherine; Four Way Test - President George; Meeting recorder - Stewart.
- Our club historian - Joanna Alexander, discovered in the club archives that on January 11th, 1965, Mrs. Normas Langdale, in memory of her late husband, Norman, a long time Rotarian, donated the bell used at our meetings and 26 bells (cast at the Whitechapel Foundry in England) to the club. These bells were played by members of the club known as the “ding-a-lings”. They performed at the Rotary Carol Festival for 20 years, played at various club functions, the district conference, hospitals and retirement homes. The group disbanded in the late 1960s. Question: where are the bells today?
- Bob Terichow conducted the 50/50. Sales today were $75. (Thank you everyone). The pot was $156.50. Participants: Pete Peters (Eastview), Gilda (Regina), and Vic Wiebe (Eastview). The pot survived for another day.
6.Attendance: Members: 17: Visiting Rotarians: 8 - seven from the Eastview Club and Bill Fitzsimmons from the Calgary West Club; Guests: 2 - Amir Zhahzad (guest of Russ Hart), and our guest speaker - Chris Lane, Economic Development Regina. Six folks attended the meeting on Zoom.
7.Next Meeting and Speaker/Agenda
- The next joint Rotary meeting, hosted by Eastview Club, will be on Thursday January 25th. It will be Robbie Burns Day - complete with haggis and bag pipes. Don’t miss it!
- Our next meeting will be on February 5th, Guest speaker - Evan Bray. Evan hosts a radio show so is not able to get to the meeting until 12:45. There will be a Rotary information session followed by Evan’s presentation. Evan is a most interesting speaker. Please plan to attend this meeting and be prepared to stay until 13:20 or so.
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