Rotary Club of Burlington Central Minutes for Thursday November 20th.
Well, this is a rather inglorious start to your new scribe's tenure. Barely scraping in under the 7 day wire I will attempt to remind my audience of last week's fine meeting.
Randy Smallbone had the pleasure of introducing our honoured guests: Past President, Rob Galloway, Jules Villinger from Stuttgart, Our own Juliette Gateau, exchange student from Strasbourg, and our new and very welcome and ever more regular guest, Shari Stehr originally introduced by Paul Petit.
It turned out that there was no guest speaker listed which accounted for the late start to the meeting at 7:45, well into breakfast. Kan Kalmats failed to read the Grace, Nancy Penny made the loyal toast and added the Rotary Music Festival to the list. The anthem had an interesting if rocky start but finished with a flourish. David Roscoe nailed the 4 Way Test.
We learned that the Christmas Party, I will just repeat that with some relish, the Christmas Party will be held at the Waterfront Hotel on December 4th and sign up is requested.
The Pointsettia sale is well on its way to a good finish and today is the last day.
Juliette had an interesting week having visited a Muslim school and a Hindu temple and to top it off, a Sikh Gurdwara where folks always eat well, sitting on the floor.
Our indomitable and irrepressible Cam Rothwell just never lets up. He has just completed the filling, to bursting, of a container of school furniture, books and every last crevice stuffed with soup packages from the Gleaners, that amazing organization who last year presented to us an account of their fascinating work salvaging non-salable but quality veggies and turning it into wholesome dried soup so badly needed in the Dominican Republic. It will be shipped there shortly.
At about this point Dr Richard Pass had a unique welcome for a unique arrival.
Dan Kalmats was called to present Paul Harris Society pins to Barb Keck and to Ron Lambert in his absence, and a six time Paul Harris pin to Rob Galloway. Bryce Leggat, Glen Warnica and Karmel Sakran were given pins for bringing in new members.
Rene Papin reminded us of the Football Square for polio relief and tried in vain to remind us of the obscure rules.
David Dean, about whom we heard good news as to his recovery, was congratulated for his 25 years in Rotary, Eric Anderson for his 27 years, Andrew Gaydon for 12 years, Anthony Ford-Jones for 10 years. Randy Smallbone was happy about his 9th wedding anniversary.
Randy Smallbone was excited to announce the awarding to Ellis Don of the contract for the new Joseph Brant Hospital just yesterday. It came as no surprise to him but to the various naysayers and disbelievers it came as a welcome relief finally to have been signed and sealed. Michael Lee Chin having already made a huge donation to the hospital building project still has an offer on the table to match further donations to the tune of a million dollars.
Owen McElhinney will be going to the wedding of yet another Scottish/Nepalese couple in Scotland.
Richard Pass gave us the good news of his wife's successful double hip replacement.
Bruce Maybury told us of the trip from Amsterdam to Basl in which he will have the arduous task of researching the adequacy of critical aspects of the cruise offerings...like the number of bars on board.
Dave Beckett was glad (sort of) to be home after driving around Maui and Kauai in a Mustang convertible.
Karmel bumped into Cuppy Katz who is recovering well after a stroke. He must be doing ok as they were at the Y.
Rob Galloway gave us an impassioned talk on the importance of the Paul Harris Society and the Sustaining membership that our club had the foresight to establish at its inception, the first in the district and one of the first in Canada. Our many presidents have maintained this strong support for the work of "our charity" and the international aspects of "service above self". He congratulated our club on being an early adopter of the value of women in the club and recounted the numerous women presidents that have led us so ably. He emphasised the value of becoming Paul Harris Society members and of considering bequests from one's estate.
President Catherine Brady was so impressed by the way in which the four club presidents got along and worked together and enjoyed sharing ideas between the clubs.
Karmel Sakran while thanking Rob Galloway for his presentation mentioned a documentary on how to be happy. He doesn't look as though he needs much instruction on this, one of the most infectiously happy people I know! He learned that Happiness is dependent about 40-50% on biology or brain, 10% on one's circumstances and 40% on one's choices. Happiness was intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic happiness related to family, health and how much one gave, was of service, and usefulness. Extrinsic happiness related to money Image and Status but was fleeting and not perpetual. Intrinsic happiness correlates with longevity. Denmark has the highest happiness index in the developed world, with free schooling and health and often the experience of communal mutually supportive living. A rickshaw driver in Mumbai was as happy as the average North American with all his advantages and comforts.
So, although there were no formal guest speakers we were more than adequately entertained and informed and very satisfied. Mike Molloy is always looking for potential speakers.
Finally Mike Torsney is having surgery this week. Keep him in your thoughts.
Go Ti Cats!
Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted by your newest scribe, Anthony Ford-Jones.
