Burlington Central Rotary Club 22nd March 2018
Presiding: Janet Canavan.
The meeting was started by Albert Schmid with Grace, a very small Grace for very small breakfast.
Randy Smallbone probed the recent strategic plan by applying the principles of the Four-Way Test to it. It seems to have stood up well.
Janet thanked Randy for his involvement in the strategic plan. Our guests were introduced by Bernard Scrivener: our soon to be member, Keith Williams, guest of Joe Watson; Michelle Kosar, guest of Richard Pass and our "loquacious and soft-spoken" Abraham, our foreign exchange student.
Mae Radford requested, once again, volunteers for the Lakeside a la Carte.
We are reminded to apply for the Loblaw's gift cards. They have come under even more pressure recently for some of their allegedly egregious practices and we are encouraged to "get our own back" by applying for these gift cards which will be good for 10 years and when collected can be given to a charity of our choice, hopefully a meaningful contribution once the club applies for cards for themselves and for their family members.
Bill Myles is now at Cama Woodlands long term care facility in West Burlington and a card was circulated to send to Bill to cheer him up.
Abraham described his invariably busy week: a trip to Welland Canal, Port Colburn, the unforgettable sight of the biggest ships he had ever seen, perch and pickerel fish and chips dinner, a visit to a retirement home with his host family, and last week he also attended the Rotaract quiz for St. Patrick's Day. This week it's back to school, so sad!
There will be a grand prize in two weeks from the draw from among those who provided wine for the Lakeside wheelbarrow.
Yet to be fully confirmed, is a supper at Barra Fionn Tapas and Grill on April 11.
We are asked to remember to submit to Jim Brindle any pictures of the club over the years that can be used at the president's induction dinner.
If there's anything that needs to go onto the calendar of this busy and active club please submit those also.
Bernie Scrivener announced that June 5 will be the induction of Lawrence Leung as our new president.
Thursday 7 of April is the next Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
A new film on Netflix, Breathe, about Polio is recommended by Andrew Gaydon.
There were numerous fines but also a special and rather elegant award to Karmel Sakran and Mike Molloy for their ability to formulate questions that are longer than the speaker's presentation at one of our recent meetings.
The Sgt. at Arms came up with a very enjoyable fundraising quiz on the Beatles. It's not clear who did the best but money was gathered for the Shoe. There were questions such as “Which Beatle crossed Abbey Road first?" “Which Beatle song includes French lyrics", “What was the name of their first hit song?"
Our extraordinarily talented Sgt. at arms, Rod Collard had done a pencil drawing of John Lennon, the most striking likeness, concentrating only on his eyes and glasses, his nose and mouth. Somebody had the bright idea of auctioning it and David Roscoe is the fortunate winner of this remarkable portrait.
Ian Risely, Pres. of Rotary International has made a very brief video which was shown on the subject of Rotary membership. There are now 1.2 million members worldwide each with ever-changing stories and Rotary clubs that have ever-changing ways to keep members. Above all is the need to provide flexibility for the clubs which is considered to be key to welcoming and keeping members, especially younger and recently retired members. It will be essential to reduce the average age to derive the most strength out of Rotary. Currently there are only one in five members who are women a worldwide problem of unbalanced representation. Hopefully that will change. Rotary is an organization of good people doing good and needs more members but clearly efforts to getting more members cannot sacrifice standards in pursuit of numbers.
Our own club is down to 49 members hopefully to increase to 50 with our next prospective member. Several members left last year or for good reasons not reflecting on the club but unfortunately four of those were women.
Randy Reeve will be a mentor for new member Keith Williams.
We have a new brochure featuring Keith Williams photo of the Burlington pier and were encouraged to pass around or distribute by email the brochure, anything to increase the profile of our club and hopefully to encourage new members. Joe Watson suggested that we have a table at Lakeside a la Carte where this membership drive can be featured.
Rene Papin, the community service coordinator for the club whose job is to present all the reports from the various committees to the board, introduced Gerry Willard the Chairman of the donations committee. Members of the donations committee are Gerry Willard, chair; Roy Cooper; Wayne Gowan; Bryce Leggatt; Bernard Scrivener; Jamie Edwards; Johanna Haan; and Randy Reeve. The purpose of the committee is to assist the Board of Directors by reviewing requests for donations received from various organizations and individuals. The criteria include that funds should be used preferably for capital equipment or one-time expenses only rather than operational funds. No more than one donation per year is to be considered. Preference will be given to smaller organizations or individuals who do not have the organizational wherewithal to run their own fundraisers. Preference will also be given to organizations and individuals from the community of Burlington. We will strive to assist individuals or families who have been stricken by tragedies such as home fire, health needs etc. The budget of the committee is currently $9000 and has never been more than $12,000. The Board is to authorize the donations committee to allocate funds up to $1000 per month at their discretion. Requests for donations should be detailed using the Request for financial support form. Members meets to make recommendations and to vote on whether and how much to donate. It is important that donations be paid directly on behalf of an individual rather than paying checks to the individual. Whenever appropriate and desirable a Rotarian will deliver the funds directly to the recipient which will foster a more direct interaction between the donors and the recipient while at the same time allowing for more personal assessment of the need.
Past recipients are: Hamilton Food Share, food banks, Liberty for Youth, El Salvador wheelchairs, Compassion Society, Alberta flooding, wheelchair for a disabled Burlington Citizen, Good Shepherd Centre, Juno Beach Centre, Operation Smile, Able Sail, Skills for Life AEDs, Lighthouse home for grieving children, Warplane Museum for school trips, King Road Breakfast Program, First Nations 1×1, Camisole Project, Rotaract Pub quiz, dentures for a Burlington Citizen, Christmas gift cards for a Burlington Citizen, Pizzazz Baton Twirlers, an Olympic volleyball hopeful.
There was a number of questions as to the appropriateness of the limitation on donations. It was made clear that these are relatively small donations up to $1000, as compared to the $100,000-$125,000 brought in by the club annually. We were reminded of the $40,000 commitment to the hospital and the substantial donations given to Lakeside and Golf Tournament partners. There is money also being put away to make it possible to fund this year's donations with last year's takings thereby staying ahead of the game.
Glenn Warnica thanked not only Gerry but all the donations committee members for their unsung background work.
The meeting was adjourned.
Anthony Ford-Jones
