October 4th Rotaract Meeting

Happy Sunday everyone!

October is upon us and we have an exciting week coming up with our next Rotaract Meeting Wednesday night and our annual Gobble Til You Wobble pub crawl Friday night.

At our meeting, we'll be welcoming Linda Bathe. Linda is the president of the Stratford Rotary Club and a committee member of the Stratford Perth Hospice Committee. She'll be presenting on the new hospice being built in Stratford next year.

We've seen a slow start to pub crawl ticket sales. As a generation of last minute planners, I'm hoping for a lot of ticket sales this week and would like to encourage everyone to put one last push on ticket sales. Here are all the details:

Lastly, thank you to everyone who came out to our last meeting. We had a diverse group in attendance with representation from both Rotary Clubs, the Interact Club, our Area, our District and Internationally. It was fantastic to see so many like minded individuals come together :)

Thanks for now and see you on Wednesday.

Laurie

Stratford Rotaract Meeting

Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017 @ 6:30pm

University of Waterloo, Stratford

Members in Attendance: Laurie, Kelly, Lauren, Jonathan, Andrea, Cate, April, Katelyn, Brett, Sarah

Guests: Arlene, Iris (from St. Mikes), Holly (from St. Mikes), District Governor – Martin Ward, Dianne Yundt, Peter Morton, Sara, Rodrigo

Regrets:

Agenda Item	Follow up:
1. Welcome, Introductions & What Went Wells	Laurie
2. Guest Speaker Martin Ward, Rotary District Governor -Mr. Ward discussed the areas in which our Rotary District covers. There are 40 clubs in Ontario and 20 in Michigan. District Governors are Rotary International’s representatives to those clubs. Martin was kind enough to come visit our club while he was in town visiting the Rotary clubs. -He is making a tour to Rotary Clubs talking about change. Last year, the council on legislation changed its rules (for there to be less rules). Rotary clubs do not need to meet as frequently and can now define what a ‘meeting’ is. The clubs are essentially allowed to make whatever changes they need to make in order to secure the continuation of the clubs in their communities and secure the future of Rotary. -This year’s district conference is in Grand Bend during the first weekend in May. The focus will be learning from each other re: changes that have been made (successes, challenges, etc.) This will be the same weekend as the Annual Art Music and Food Festival. -Five weeks later there is an international convention in Toronto. In Martin’s opinion, every Rotarian should attend at least one International Convention in their lifetime. If you are interested in going, Martin would encourage you to make some accommodation arrangements in Toronto for that period of time. Also, register early. -Martin spoke to his experiences attending International Conventions. -Martin spoke of the Rotary Citation. It is an award given by the IRA president to clubs. For the last 2 years, the citations have been almost impossible for clubs to obtain. It is structured on the Strategic Planning goals of Rotary. -For years, Rotary has not done anything to do with the environment. All Rotary clubs have been asked to plant 1 tree for every member between now and Earth Day. This will hopefully raise environmental awareness…but it will also allow for over 1 million trees! Rodrigo, NGE Participant Rodrigo shared some information about his Rotaract club in Torreon, Mexico. He discussed the projects that his club has been involved in, including their Flagship project—Rotaracton—which is a toy drive for children in low income communities. The club members also spend time with the children. Over 4000 toys have been gathered. Another project involves providing thermic clothing and underwear for orphanages. They get specific sizes to fit the children.	.
3. Previous Minutes Amendments to previous meeting minutes	Laurie
4. New Business & Idea Sharing 6.1 New Member Inductions (none) 6.2 Rotary International Convention Interest -There will be a conversation at the board level re: cost and sending members to the convention. Laurie asked about interest. As of now, 4 people are interested.	Laurie
5. 5. Announcements Updates from committees Future events Gobble Til You Wobble Pub Crawl Kelly updated us on the pub crawl which is in 2 weeks. Kelly has tickets. We are trying to sell 100. We also have posters for people to put up and hand out. A number of vendors are contributing for the silent auction. Tickets are $30 and you get a half pint at each stop and snacks at the first stop. Laurie suggests asking people directly. Round table -The Interact committee is looking for different speakers for their business leadership course. Laurie thanked everyone for helping out at Dragon Boat. It was a successful day. Kudos to Sarah for organizing our volunteers. Aquaboxes have been shipped out to the Caribbean. We raised almost $200 to go toward building new boxes. The next build is Oct. 21^st. Club Kudos -Kelly is giving kudos to her pub crawl committee for working hard. –Kudos to Laurie for the news letter. –Sarah gave kudos to the Dragon Boat volunteers—particularly the high school students. –Kudos to Holly and Iris for joining us and to Interact for raising $300 for Aquabox. Upcoming Speakers: October 4 – Linda Bathe, Stratford/Perth Hospice October 19 – Brett Nymeyer, Classification November 1 – Janice Brown, Experiences in Guatamala November 16 – Dan Kane, Rotary’s Aquabox program December 6 – brain storm session/pulse check December 21 – Christmas social February 7 – Brent Furtney, Boards & Governance	All
6. Next Meeting and Location Wednesday, October 4^th at 6:30 UW Campus
7. Next Meeting and Location Wednesday, October 4^th at 6:30 UW Campus
8. Meeting Adjourned PARKING LOT