Bryce Leggatt introduced the guests: Jacquie Murray, volunteer coordinator for Ribfest. Member of Rotary Lakeshore club.

Carolyn Ferguson from the Rotary Foundation; member of the Ancaster Rotary club

 

The club barbecue will take place at Jamie Edwards home next Thursday 22nd August. There will be no morning meeting. Drinks will be at 5:30 dinner at 6:30. Today is the last day for tickets. Help will be welcome from 4:30 onwards for setup.

 

David Roscoe announced that there will be a board meeting on Tuesday and all members the club are welcome to attend. The results of the club priorities survey will be discussed.

 

It was generally agreed that Lakeside À La Carte was the best ever in many ways. There were 673 tickets sold. Burlington Green announced that 96% of waste was diverted! They will be providing their report card for review.

 

Ribfest:  Jacquie Murray, Burlington Ribfest coordinator, is requesting volunteers for the event. They have 1400 volunteer shifts to be filled. Two of the Burlington clubs have offered 10 and 18 volunteers respectively and this is a challenge to our club to step up and beat that number. Anybody who wishes to donate their time, even if non-Rotary members, to volunteering for the event will be welcome. There will be a financial donation made to their charity of choice (from their approved list including food banks, Open Doors, Friday Night at Wellington Square, Hamilton Food Share). High school students are encouraged to participate. Recycling is a very important part of the event and volunteers are needed for this. The cleanup will go on until around 11:30 PM. Greeters can be 16 years and up. The junior beverage team will be serving pop and water and this is open to anyone less than 18. 

The Ribfest is in its 24th year and so far has raised $4 million over 23 years with $163,000 last year for four days and they're hoping to make it to $200,000 this year. 

 

On Wednesday the 21st a new exchange student will be arriving. Yahel Stern arrives from Switzerland.  Contact Sheila if you would like to be part of the reception committee either at the airport or at a Tim Hortons on our way back from the airport.  Yahel will also be at our BBQ next Thursday evening. She will be staying first with the Sakrans, then the Radfords, then with outbound Sean's family and there is still a spot open.

 

Rotary's 42nd. Annual Sgambati Golf Tournament at the Burlington Golf and Country Club takes place this Monday, August 19, 2019.  It was pointed out by their club that no golfers had signed up from our club so it was gratifying that at this meeting for members sender immediately for a splendid day of golf with lunch and dinner.

 

The sergeant at arms, Rod Collard was ecstatic about the excellent Lakeside À La Carte where everything appeared to go exceptionally well, including the weather. He thoughtfully made out some colourful awards for members who had been particularly involved. Wayne Gowan was acknowledged for his huge input of work. Randy Reeve, who incidentally is a nondrinker, was the coordinator of the alcohol. Catherine Brady did a wonderful job with the silent auction. Peter Thoem along with Rod Collard managed the restaurants; Nancy Penny, the raffle; Terry Sedore, Sheila Welham, Gerry Willard, Rick Howarth, Rob Sybersma’s wife, Mae Radford, Leslie Allison and Janet Canavan were all named and a round of applause went up for them and for the several others who were unnamed but who did so much work to make this a success.

 

Peter Thoem recounted how Rose in the Kitchen on prospect Street, a Turkish style restaurant was to have been part of the restaurant group but on the day failed to show up. This was strange because Rose had been exceptionally diligent in getting ready for this great event. She had watched videos, she had trained several staff and cooks, and had prepared food for 400 people! At the last minute, she had to go to hospital and left everything, supposedly, in the capable hands of her staff but on the day, three failed to show up! As a result she had to throw out the food and incidentally she threw out three staff members, but was devastated and really upset that this had happened.

 

It was notable that there are no chain restaurants in the group, only independents. A list of the restaurants will be made available to the club to help with selecting local restaurants to patronize during the year to show our thanks for their valued efforts.

 

An incredible $50 in refunds was obtained from the wine bottles collected after the event!

 

Further business: Canadian blood drive is taking place over the 13th -17th August at the Brant Centre.

2018-2019 Rebound Student short presentations & debrief

(unfortunately our rebound Kari will not be there as she is in Italy but there will be many other excellent presentations)

51 Young Street West, Waterloo, N2L 2Z4. Park on the street or in the parking lot in Waterloo Park. Bring lawn chairs as we will be outside, weather permitting.   

Yahel Stern arrives from Switzerland.  Contact Sheila if you would like to be part of the reception committee either at the airport or at a Tim Hortons on our way back from the airport.

Yahel will also be at our bbq next Thursday evening.

Rotarians and interested host families are encouraged to attend the Rotary Youth Exchange Inbound & Counsellor/YEO/Host Family Training in Woodstock, light lunch provided (with rsvp).  Location details to follow.

 

 

Bill Clarkson introduced our guest, Carolyn Ferguson from Ancaster Rotary, the only paid member of the Rotary Foundation in this country. She had helped Bill with the process of making a bequest to the club and as a result he felt it would be of great interest to the members to hear from Carolyn.

 

 

Carolyn has two children both of whom were exchange students one in Spain one in Australia. Her father was a Rotarian DG.  She acknowledged Roy Cooper for his work for the Rotary Foundation. Most of what she spoke about today is available to be explored on the Rotary Foundation website under Legacy. She explained how funds are used in the Rotary Foundation. The basic division is that funds that go annually to the Foundation are used on the spot, analogously like giving apples to be eaten. Funds that go to the legacy however are invested and managed over many years and ultimately leveraged to amount to considerably more value even then the annual donations. It's more like giving an apple tree. $13.9 million is provided from the endowment fund each year for use by the Foundation.

 

There are six main areas of activity in the Rotary foundation: Support of Education and Literacy; Fighting Disease; Promoting Peace; Expanding Healthcare; Saving Mothers And Children; Growing Local Economies. They have reached $1.2 billion towards the goal of $2 billion by 2025. 

 

It has been said said that tomorrow depends on what we do today. Funds that go into the endowment retain the strength of the donation into perpetuity. It's possible to have named Rotary endowments with a gift of $25,000. There are six major donors in our club. There is one member in the district who has donated $250,000 to the endowment fund.

 

We have a hundred years of tradition of ongoing stewardship of our charitable goals. It's possible to customize your legacy and you are encouraged to go to www.Rotary.org/legacy. It's possible to go on line, to logon as a member, and to see your record of donations and recognition points during your time as a member.

 

Stop Press: August 2019 - Charity Navigator - we are #1 according to Charity Navigator on "10 of the Best Charities Everyone's Heard of"  These 10 charities work throughout the country and the world.  They are large, complex organizations with budgets exceeding $100 million and at least $65 million in net assets.  They have become household names in part because of their exceptional financial management, no easy feat considering the scope and size of operations. Charitable givers should feel confident that these national institutions put their donations to good use.

 

Owen McElhinney thanked Carolyn for her talk.

 

The meeting was adjourned. 

 

Anthony Ford-Jones