Hello Rotaractors,
I hope you had a great long weekend! It's hard to believe summer has come and gone. Now that the calendar has flipped over to September, there is a lot on the Rotaract schedule and I hope you'll take a few minutes to mark your calendars for the following:
This Wednesday, September 6th - our next club meeting. Tracy Van Kalsbeek of the Stratford Perth Community Foundation will be our speaker. Tracy is passionate, full of energy and very committed to giving back. Come and learn from her experiences.
We will also be reviewing all existing and upcoming committees with the goal of identifying and filling vacancies. If you currently don't sit on a committee or are looking to switch rolls, this will be the time to do it. If you can't make the meeting and are interested in the opportunities available, please let me know your interests and I'll pass them along to the appropriate committee chair.
*New* at this meeting: as per Sarah's suggestion based on the Mitchell Rotary Club, we'll each share something that went well in our week while doing introductions :)
Saturday, September 16th - Dragon Boat Festival. We still need approximately ten volunteers, primarily for the 2:00-5:oopm shift. If you've been holding off on signing up, here's your chance; we could really use your help! Please sign up via ClubRunner or contact Sarah (smerkel2@gmail.com)
Friday, October 6th - Gobble Til You Wobble Pub Crawl. More details to follow, but please mark your calendars. Back this this time will be the silent auction. Please consider contribute an item to help us raise money for all our great causes.
Reminders:
Membership dues - if you'd like to remain a Rotaract member for the 2017/2018 Rotary year, please bring your $20 membership dues to Wednesday's meeting. Time is running out to maintain your membership in the Club.
Upcoming Webinar: Rotary International is hosting a "How to create a Rotaract Outstanding Project" webinar on Tuesday, September 19th at 10:00am. If you're interested in logging in and learning more (and sharing that info with the Club), please contact me for sign up details.
Agenda: Wednesday's agenda is attached at the very bottom of this email.
Thanks and hope to see you on Wednesday!
Laurie
Stratford Rotaract Meeting
Thursday August 17, 2017 @ 6:30pm
University of Waterloo, Stratford
Members in Attendance: Laurie, Brett, April, Kelly, Sarah, Genevieve, Lauren
Regrets: Allie, Arakua, Jonathan, Katelyn
Agenda Item | Follow up: |
1. Welcome & Introductions | |
2. Guest Speaker – Lisa Wilde from the Emily Murphy Centre “Finding herself professionally” -Lisa outlined the role and services of the Emily Murphy Centre (2nd stage housing). –Supports women and children who have experienced violence -One to one and group counseling with women and children, art therapy, tangible supports (furniture, clothing), full time children’s worker -Outreach program -Run and supervise the ‘caring dads’ program –Lisa does individual counseling with men who have experienced or perpetrated violence -EMC runs the supervised access programs in Huron and Perth counties. –Offer a safe place for kids to change hands Lisa has mostly an administrative role. She likes this role and aims to “make the best program that [she] possibly can.” That said, the finance/budgeting part is her least favourite. She is a Social Worker and that is what she loves to do. Lisa describes her role with EMC as being “Big enough to be meaningful and small enough to be personal” -Started career working in daycare; then worked with young offenders in corrections and eventually ran an open custody facility for young female offenders—she enjoyed working with this population. –Eventually the government pulled their funding. This gave her a push to do something different. She has always been involved with women’s issues This opportunity came up in Stratford and she feels it was the best decision she ever made Taught the Sociology of health and illness at Fanshawe (she is a sociologist) -certified in reality therapy and choice theory -she has worked as a consultant for others -Graduated from Western with a BA in Sociology and continued to upgrade her education throughout her career and continues to do that now EMC 4 different funding streams—United Way, MCSS (for programs), City of Stratford and County of Perth, Ministry of the Attorney General (funds the supervised access program) *Without fundraising, they would run at a 15-17% deficit -A lot of funds go to deficit; a lot goes directly to the women (food, taxi, necessities, x-mas presents). Annually, they raise about $40,000. 1 in 3 Canadian women will have experienced violence in her life before she is 15. 1 in 5 men. Currently looking for board members – relies heavily on her board of directors for guidance and support –specifically legal, accounting, and bookkeeping experience Volunteers do childcare, special events, maintenance, yard work “Sage words of wisdom” -Mentorship –find 2 or 3 mentors, ask questions, follow what they do, watch how they work…but also…be that mentor -Volunteer…you are needed and you will get so much back -Find your passion…you’re going to love what you do if you’re passionate about it. There are appropriate ways to let your opinions be known. The more outspoken you are about the things that mean a lot to you, the more people will listen to you. Take a stand and let people know what you believe in. Be a champion for a cause. -Thanks to Rotaract’s trivia night donation to the Emily Murphy Centre last year, every child got a stocking at Christmas time If anyone would like more information, they can contact Lisa at: lwilde@wightman.ca | . |
3. Previous Minutes No amendments | |
4. New Business and Idea Sharing Membership dues paid Lauren Collected dues from 2 members 4.1 New member induction – April Haggart 4.2 Presentation to Mitchell Rotary Club Sarah was asked to present about Rotaract to the Mitchell club. They thought we do amazing things and were so excited to hear about it. club kudos –Perhaps they can present to us in the future. –They do a breakfast club and right after breakfast, they all say something that went really well about their week (Sarah found that it was neat to see what people are passionate about and how they connect to each other). She thought it was a cool idea. She wanted to bring this idea back to our club as she thinks it would be a good way to get to know each other. –The Mitchell Club also had a banner stand (which we are considering) so she took a picture and sent it to Laurie. –They have an exchange student coming in September. –And a dentist is hosting a dental student who was a rotaract president. -They also do the “Don’t Meth with us” program Laurie continues to encourage us to check out another club’s meetings (it would count as a make-up) 4.3Public Image Grants -up to $400 available through the district…for things like a banner stand, or something else to improve the public image of Rotaract. Laurie asked if anyone had any ideas of projects people could do. | |
5. Announcements
-At sept. 16th meeting, we will do a quick review of what our committees are and who is on them. Give some thought to joining them. –Funding committee –Need people to look after website and social media; Trivia could also use another person or two
-April has expressed interest in volunteering. Possibly Brett as well. -Sarah has indicated that she will donate for the silent auction -Discussion of a ‘photo session’
-Let Laurie know if you have any suggestions. There are a few openings in October but we are mostly booked for the year.
-Laurie has added several people to the District Facebook page. You can leave the group if you are not interested, but it is a good opportunity.
-Kudos to Sarah for attending the Mitchell Rotary Club meeting
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6. Next Meeting and Location Wednesday, September 6th at 6:30 UW Campus | |
7.. Meeting Adjourned |