January 18th Rotaract Meeting (Jan 14, 2018)

Jan 18.18 Meeting

Happy Sunday Everyone!

A reminder of this week's Rotaract meeting on Thursday where Mimi Price will be presenting on the YMCA and their plans as they pertain to the Cooper Site.

6:30 to 7:00 is social time with the formal meeting portion start at 7:00.

Don't forget that on Thursday meetings, the Wine Cellar is accessible either via the back door off George St, or via Bard's Steakhouse.

If you're coming in the back door, come in the back doors (the set of doors on the right side), go straight down the hall, through the door and into the Wine Cellar

If you're coming in through Bard's, follow the signs for the washrooms, go down the stairs and you'll find us.

Announcements:

Board - There will be a few openings on our Board starting in July. If you have interest in joining the Board, please speak to an existing Board member (Sarah, Kelly, Lauren, Jonathan, Katelyn, Alyssa or myself)

Mitchell Rotary Club - Hearts for Hospice Fundraiser

Volunteers are requested for this event. Please speak to Laurie if you're interested in helping out. Conversely, please consider purchasing a ticket and attending this great event in support of the Hospice.

Feedback from St Mikes Interact Club:

This past semester, the Business Leadership class integrated an Interact Club into their class and curriculum. As the semester is coming to an end, the students were asked to provide feedback on their learnings and the teacher has forwarded a collection of their responses. Here is just one of many:

"I have the Rotary to thank for the new perspective I have gained during this business leadership course. By allowing us to be their St. Mike’s Interact club, the Rotary allowed our class to receive the internal rewards of actively helping others in our own community and the world. Through the summative fundraisers put on by our class, we made a small but significant difference in the lives of many people, and that is an amazing feeling. They taught us that there is truly no substitute for hands-on experience and that you will never regret volunteering or contributing what you can to a charitable cause. The summative fundraisers that the Rotary inspired our class to put on also provided us with the opportunity to put valuable life skills such as teamwork, leadership and communication, into action. The Rotary gave us wonderful, altruistic role models to try and emulate in our futures. For example, we can look up to all of the guest speakers they provided us with, and the Rotarians who were particularly involved with our class like Arlene and Gary. They are successful people who use their wealth to do good for others, and we can honour them by passing the lessons that they taught us on. Less importantly than providing us with a bigger perspective of our world, exceptional role models, valuable hands-on experience, and essential life skills, the work we did as part of the Interact club will pad our resumés very well. "

~ St Mikes Interact Member

Membership - Having more members will enable us to increase our impact in the community and world around us. Please continue to promote membership, either to individuals or larger groups such as teams, employers, etc. If you're stuck on how to go about this, there is some great content in the testimonial above that you can draw on.

On January 4th, I attended the Stratford Rotary Club's meetings to provide them with an update on Rotaract activities and asked them to help promote the club to potential members. If we all continually plant small seeds, they will sprout into members and we'll have more help do to bigger and better things.

Festival City Rotary Club - January 30th

I have already invited many of you to this event via Facebook and my apologies to those who I've missed. This sounds like a fascinating local speaker and I invite everyone to consider attending. To date, I believe there are five or six of us going. Details are as follows:

Jerry Ennett is the founder of Taurus 3D, a 3D printing social enterprise that uses technology to increase the access to healthcare in the developing world. He has designed and made multiple functional prosthetics for kids in Guelph, Toronto, and Kitchener using 3D printing. In November, he traveled to South India and set up a 3D printing lab in a remote medical rehab clinic to make prosthetics and other medical devices for local amputees.
Join us for Rotary Breakfast and learn more about Jerry's work in 3D prosthetic printing.
Everyone Welcome
Buffet breakfast $11 (proceeds support local Rotary projects)

Have a great week and see you Thursday night!

Laurie

Stratford Rotaract Meeting

Wednesday January 3, 2018 @ 6:30pm

University of Waterloo, Stratford

Members in Attendance: Laurie, Kelly, Jonathan, Cate, Lauren, Rebecca, Katelyn, Amanda, Jen, Charlotte, April

Regrets: Sarah

Agenda Item	Follow up:
Welcome & Introductions First night in new space Many new faces
. Guest Speaker Rebecca Price, Classification Rebecca was born and raised in Stratford. She is a graduate from the Conestoga College Social Service Worker program. She is currently taking a volunteer management program. Rebecca shared photos of her and her family. She shared with us that her brother Ryan passed away when she was 16. She lost her nana and grandma at ages 18 and 19. This year, she lost her father on Canada day. She shared this with us because she believes it is important to talk about and learn from grief. These are the things that Rebecca feels grief has taught her: -Make the most of your time –You do not have to keep people in your life -Don’t be afraid –Grief is hard -Rebecca shared that she went out east with her siblings for “Operation Boot Drop” and left her brother and father’s shoes there after dipping them in the ocean. Her brother always wanted to travel from coast to coast. Rebecca currently works at the Emily Murphy Centre. She does counselling with abused women and youth. She runs groups and she is the volunteer coordinator. Rebecca also works at the Supervised Access Program as a part time job. Rebecca was previously the supervisor at the Stratford Youth Centre. She was a service provider for Family Services. All through college and high school, she was a personnel manager at McDonalds. Rebecca enjoys the outdoors. She likes hiking, canoeing, camping and bird watching. Rebecca has a lot of volunteer experience and considers volunteering a hobby. Another hobby is mindfulness and meditation Rebecca enjoys video games, Star Wars, super hero stuff, etc. She calls this “nerd life” She really enjoys baking and caring for animals. Rebecca is very goal-oriented and has goals in mind for 2018. Bettering the mind: Wants to travel to Kelowna and read more books Bettering the Body: She wants to live a healthier lifestyle—working out and eating better Bettering the soul: Wants to meditate more and find more balance (“both figuratively and literally”) Rebecca shared a “before and after” video of the Stratford Youth Centre. She decided to join Rotaract after learning about what we do while she was working at the Youth Centre. Rotaract helped with the funding for kitchen renovations, etc. Rebecca was inspired by this and ended up finding a way to renovating the entire space. Through Rotaract, Rebecca is hoping to gain friendship, make connections, learn about the community, gain skills, give back to the community and create opportunity	.
3. Previous Minutes Amendments to previous meeting minutes Last full meeting was our brain storming session
4. New Business & Idea Sharing 6.1 New Member Inductions (none)
5. Announcements Updates from committees Lauren shared that the UnValentines committee is still trying to set a date. The venue and the improv troupe are not available on the same dates, so we are now exploring potential new dates and new venues. Update to follow. Round table -Discussed ways to grow membership and get our name out there. (Contests with gift cards, promotion through the hub, etc.) Mitchell Rotary Club’s Hospice Fundraiser -Looking for volunteers for Feb. 10th Rodrigo’s Rotaract is introducing an exchange program of sorts (See Laurie’s email for more details) Laurie asked if any Rotaracters are interested in trying to set up an exchange with Rotaract clubs from other countries. Several people expressed interest. We will continue to explore this. Club Kudos Laurie gave kudos to Lauren for attending Rodrigo’s going away party Laurie gave kudos to Sarah for hosting our holiday social Upcoming Speakers: January 18 – Mimi Price – the YMCA & Cooper Site plans February 7 – Brent Furtney, Boards & Governance February 22 – Gary Wreford, Networking March 7 – Robin Spence Haffner – Choices for Change March 22 – Dan Kaal, Fundraising
6. Next Meeting and Location Thursday, January 18^th The Wine Cellar at The Hub 6:30 social, 7:00 meeting Speaker: Mimi Price, YMCA Topic: The Cooper Site
8. Meeting Adjourned PARKING LOT -Tree Planting (Spring 2018) -Rotaract Friendship Exchange