What a morning!
Every now and then things don’t go quite according to plan but work out really well nevertheless. This morning, we had a surfeit of important Rotary stuff to get through and for reasons obscure to most of us, two guest speakers: one planned, the other apparently just dropped on us and. We ran well over time but no one seemed in the slightest inconvenienced.
We were subject to the attention of several special guests, people with Rotary credentials that is: Dean Rohrs from Langly B.C and now an RI Director-Elect, Past District Governor Ian Fergusson, District Governor Will Pugh, and Assistant District Governor John Zinkie; and that’s just the digitaries. Also in attendance and my apologies to them for not being rigorous enough in collecting their names but: Sandhya Maini (RCBN) Augustina Perez Saucedo (our inbound exchange student) and Camilla Izquierdo (our outbound to Italy exchange student), George Archibald guest of Karmel Sakran I think, and Werner Plessl our pre-arranged guest speaker..
Dean Rohrs spoke to us for perhaps fifteen minutes about her growth in Rotary. She became a Rotarian on July 1 1986, which was, I think, the first day Rotary (grudgingly) accepted women members. Since then she’s done everything: administered Polio vaccine in Nigeria, hosted Youth Exchange students and of course made her way through the Rotary hierarchy.
She likens Rotary to a house; by joining you’re in the front hall, get on your club’s executive and you open the door to another room, take on more roles and more doors open. Rotary she says is a great organization but it’s not perfect, it has its high-level politics and she’s still trying to figure out where the crocodiles are.
She took questions from the floor and when asked what advice she had to a to a club wanting to attract members, she paused, took a deep breath and said, “At risk of stepping on some toes here. Look at your meetings. What is it about your meetings that works for a 40 year-old today? Look at your practices, your environment and your culture.”
Well I think she nailed it. I think that RCBC has a meeting style that ranks quite high on the freshness scale among Rotary clubs. But I don’t think we get a ten out of ten – or a nine. We may be somewhere near an eight; but then I’ve been around too long to be objective. Just where do you think we are on that continuum?
Dean is down to earth, and a breath of your-ordinary-Rotarian fresh air. She calls a spade a spade.
Our scheduled guest speaker, Werner Plessl is Executive Director of Hamilton Waterfront Trust (HWT). HWT’s goal is to make it possible for everyone to use and enjoy Hamilton’s Waterfront.
Most if not all of us vividly remember the old Hamilton waterfront, mostly industrial, mostly off limits to the public and not a place to be unless you rowed at Leander Boat Club or sailed from RHYC. If it wasn’t Stelco or Dofasco, it was International Harvester, Canadian Vegetable Oil Producers or Columbian Chemicals that stood between you and the water. Really, if you wanted to dip your toe in the harbour – (and for decades you probably shouldn’t have) LaSalle Park in Burlington was about it.
That was a couple of decades ago and times change. Werner is overseeing the transformations that have led to Bayfront Park, the Waterfront Trolley Tour, Williams Fresh Café, the Waterfront Outdoor Rink, Bike rentals, Music on the Waterfront, and Hamilton Fishing Derby.
On the Lake Ontario side there’s the Lakeland Centre near Hutch’s and Hamilton Beach Trail, 8 Km of smooth, scenic, walkable, bikeable and roller-bladeable surface all the way from the lift bridge to Grays Road. And, not seen by many people but a huge step forward in harbour clean-up, Windermere Basin, once little more than sludge and construction debris is now a contained and managed wetland – a birder’s destination.
It was something of an eye-opener to realize how far we’ve come under Werner’s direction.
Getting near the end now. We heard the latest from Karmel on the status of our efforts to receive a family of refugees from Syria. Karmel has linked up with George Archibald who has much experience in managing an intake like this. We know that a family of four: parents in their mid forties and fifties plus two teenagers has been assigned to us.
Lawrence Leung asks us to put our minds to suggesting recipients for the Community Service Award. The event will be on May 12th.
FINALLY . Meet at the Purple Heather restaurant at Walkers Line and Dundas St. on Tuesday March 8, 6.00 pm to show appreciation for Purple Heather‘s participation in Lakeside a la Carte.
