November 18, 2015 (Nov 23, 2015)

Announcements

Birthdays – Brandon Flewwelling
Anniversaries – Andrew Williams and Tracy
5 Club ‘Cluster’ meeting news – Fundraisers:

Conestoga Club – Turkey Drive

Waterloo Club – Citrus Fruit sale

Grand River Club – Skate 48

Kitchener Club – on-line auction

Jack Kinch announced that he will be running a pool to raise some additional funds related to the World Junior International Hockey Tournament – stay tuned.
Chuck Thompson will soon be in touch re. Gingerbread House judging
The Club’s annual Christmas dinner is December 16^th at Westmount GCG – please register or decline your attendance on Clubrunner (see Mark Erb’s email)
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – first inaugural dinner held last Saturday evening hosted by Kathy Loveys was a smashing success, due in no small part to Kathy’s skill in the kitchen. Jayne Matzeg is hosting the second dinner scheduled for this month this coming Saturday. All members are encouraged to join the group the next time around (likely February of 2016) – the goal is to enable us to get to know our fellow members a little better by having each member host one meal annually, and attend three other dinners annually as a guest with their ‘better half’. Cost is a $40 donation to Polio Plus for each person attending (a tax receipt will be provided so you’ll only be ‘out-of-pocket’ $23 after you claim the donation on your tax return).
John Thompson announced that the new KW entry in the Canadian Basketball League will begin play in fall of 2016, which should give the team’s management sufficient time to build a franchise we’ll all be proud to call our own. With John at the helm, we all can rest assured it’s going to be a great success.
Jerome Frieburger announced that he is once again involved in the Knights of Columbus toy drive. Toys or donations can be brought to the Santa Claus parade or dropped off at any fire hall in the Twin Cities. The group has collected over $3 million worth of toys for needy kids since its inception.

Motions

President Tim Bradich presented the June 30, 2015 financial statements for both the Club and the Foundation for review and approval by the members present. A motion was made by Doug Fischer, seconded by Jack Kinch, and supported unanimously by the members present to accept the financial statements for both the Club and the Foundation as presented.
President Tim Bradich also presented his budgets for the 2016 fiscal year for both the Club and the Foundation for approval. A motion was made by Everton Wilmot, seconded by Neil Aitchison and approved unanimously by the members present to accept the budget as presented.

50 / 50 Draw

The $439 pot remained unscathed as Leo Tobi, Ed Simon and Simon Adler all failed to yank the coveted black marble.

Speaker

Mike Gauthier spoke to the membership about Rotary Foundation, clarifying the differences between Rotary International (which typically deals with management of Club activities, such as meals, speakers, training, administration, etc.) and Rotary Foundation (which is the ‘charitable arm’ of Rotary, dealing with collection of donations and fundraising and implementation of charitable programs world-wide and redistribution of funds back to the Districts and ultimately to the Clubs for charitable programs launched at the Club level, through ‘District Grants’. Mike explained that the Foundation holds close to one billion dollars at any given time. He also explained that the Foundation has two significant Funds – the Annual Fund, which supports District and Global programs, and the Polio Plus Fund, which supports the world-wide fight against polio. Mike explained the workings of both District Grants and Global Grants. Programs supported by the grants focus on water, health, education and economic development. At last count, there were only 69 documented cases of polio world-wide and 2 of the 3 strains had been eradicated. It’s estimated that it will take approximately another $5 billion to completely eradicate polio, and the Gates Foundation has pledge $4 billion of this in matching funds.