50/50 participants  Maria Horner, Troy Stuebing and Jerome Freiburger.   No winner.  Pot will grow from $607

 

 

 

 

Guest Speakers were Alison Scott and Karin Voisin. 

 

Karin just took over as chair of the membership committee and Alison is the Board representative on the membership committee.  Karin provided an overview of what the membership committee is all about and what the role of this committee will be moving forward.   The role of the committee is to implement a plan for recruitment and engagement of our members.

 

Recruitment:  All members are encouraged to think of someone they know or have met that they feel would be a good Rotarian and approach them about joining our club.  Its not the role of the committee to find new members but to provide different ideas for the general membership to find new members and then the committee vets these new members and recommends to the board these potential new members they feel would be good for the club and good for Rotary.

 

Engagement:  We are looking for ways to help our members have a sense of belonging to the club and Rotary.  Friendship and fellowship are important to keep members engaged.  We want to find ways to reduce barriers to joining Rotary and have active participation things like “live meetings” or putting meetings on You Tube so they can be viewed at a later date.  In the past 10 yrs we have had 59 members leave the club.  10 due to death, 2 mat leaves, 4 for non payment and the rest the main reason was as a result of business pressures.  One good thing is that the majority of our members are averaging 20 to 38 yrs of service…so when you are engaged in Rotary you stay in Rotary.

 

Alison then led us through and exercise that would help the committee form a work plan to improvement engagement within the club.  There was great group discussion at the tables and we were encouraged to write our suggestions down and then she collected them so that the committee could review at the meetings and start on a plan.  Also a survey monkey survey would be coming out to all the members and you are all asked to complete this survey as this too will assist the committee in formulating an action plan.

 

Number of members - 68

Active - 39

Senior Active - 12

Honorary - 17

 

Years of Service (excluding Honorary Members)

 

38-20 Years            15 Members

10-19 Years            13 Members

5-9 Years                14 Members

0-5 Years                  9 Members

 

In the past 10 years 59 members have terminated - most due to work relocation or job expansion, 6 deceased, 4 non payment, 2 maternity, 1 prison sentence, 1 went missing.  

 

These statistics indicate a healthy club where member join and stay for respectable lengths of time and leave only due to circumstances beyond their control.  

 

 

 

Hello fellow Rotarians!

Ruth and I are well settled in here in our Israeli home-away-from-home.  Thus far, due to babysitting opportunities/commitments, I’ve only attended one Rotary meeting here as all local ones are in the evenings and only take place once or twice a month.  At the meeting I attended a very interesting talk described how local Nobel Prize winners (6) are lending their influence to a programme intending to reform the teaching of STEM subjects so as to increase enthusiasm of the students.

Weather here seems to alternate in an unpredictable manner between what you’d expect in Kitchener for mid-November and late May.  Spring is clearly on its way and the desert areas which we visited down south near Gaza are beginning to bloom.

The Trump Peace Plan and the upcoming election are both getting much press and comment but, so far, it seems to me that the Trump Peace Plan has not become a serious election issue.  The leaders of the two large central parties Netanyahu (for Likud) and Gantz (for Blue and White) are both on record as supporting the plan.  The parties and commentators further from the centre – on both the left and the right – are vehemently against.  Most interestingly, but not really unexpectedly, there is HUGE opposition from residents of certain primarily Arab areas within Israel which the Plan suggests might be transferred from Israel to a new Palestinian State.

I have written an analysis of the Trump Peace Plan which I’m happy to share if you are interested.  Spoiler alert: the Plan is very well-founded in reality, makes much good sense, has a few weaknesses; but has a slim to no chance of actual implementation.

In a week or so, we’re going to follow in Paul Puopolo’s footsteps and have a two week holiday in South Africa.

All the best to all!

 

Simon