Bulletin for February 14th, 2019

Welcome to the Hallmark fake holiday addition of the bulletin. Sorry it is late- family day weekend was busy! We started our Valentine's day meeting by introducing our guest or rather they introduced themselves!  Anel, Mana and Sean ( our outbound student)  joined us.

First order of business was to award Randy Reeve his 7th Paul Harris award. Eric commented during his presentation to Randy that his seems to becoming a weekly ritual. Congratulations and thank you Randy.

Janet gave us a B of D update which include the following.

1. Club Assembly next Thursday ( that would be tomorrow!)

2. Sadly the Rotary Music Festival has been cancelled after 20 glorious years. In lieu of our annual  contribution we are sending a one donation of $1250.00 to Shelter Box to the delight of Nancy Penney!

3. Our International project budget  for this year has been increased from $5000.00 to $15000.00. Stay tuned for details.

The full minutes are on Club Runner. 

 

Sean filled us in on his high school Robotics project and the midnight oil that the team has been burning to finish the project before the competition. He's looking forward to the 24th of February when he finds out where \he is headed next year. Apparently Sheila may know but her lips were sealed!!!

 

Anel celebrated the Chinese New Year with great food and 40 other people! She loved snow day and can now call her self a true Canadian student. She visited the Burlington Supper club last night and is in a play at  Aldershot High School at 7:00 p.m on the 26th of Feb.. Tickets are 12 bucks each.

 

Mana enjoyed a dinner at Sakai with Nima and Owen's and thoroughly enjoyed the food and the company. Felt like home.She stayed overnight with Owen and Nima and celebrated a Nepal themed New Year's party adorned in traditional  garb. She likened it to being at a hotel.  Can you say Airbnb!

She visited 2 more clubs and has 19 weeks to complete her mission. Please let her know if you can help out.

 

Camp Enterprise is on track for April 4th to the 7th.  Let Gerry know if you would like to chaperone.

 Mark May 4th on your calendar. It is tree planting day.

SAA CB provided romantic material for members to use vis a vis a trivia contest about the most romantic movie lines. Hope it was helpful!

Happy dollars:

 Rod announced that his daughter has a part in the Handmaids Tale. They asked her for another part but they were looking for a 40 year old so they disqualified her because they thought she was too young. She is actually 40. Nice compliment!!! Keep them coming!

 

Glenn was happy to announce his "retirement" form the insurance business and equally delighted to announce that Nancy had passed her RIBO qualifications and is joining the insurance firm that he has left. Good timing Nancy!  Glenn hasn't really retired- he told me he has signed a 4 year contract  within the tire industry.

 

David R. was happy to report that he was taking 17 fights in the the 3 weeks -a mixture of business and pleasure- but mostly personal. Looking forward to seeing all his girls in various parts of the world. Happy trails Roscoe!

 

Sean Thomson was our featured speaker giving us an overview of his life as a funeral director.

Originally from Orillia he  became involved in the funeral business more by accident than plan in 1986. His father told him he needed a job and he had no car. There was an opening at the local funeral parlour next to his dad's workplace so he could hitch a ride. Seemed like a good arrangement so he took it. He started by cutting the lawn. odd jobbing and helping with services.

After his obvious upset after helping a family with a suicide his boss commented on his empathy and compassion and suggested he take the funeral director course.. In 1991 he and his wife decided to seek the big city lights and saw an ad for Smith's. Not quite the big city but certainly more lively than Orillia.   He was a part of Smiths when they expanded buying up Stonehill -Whitfield and a location in Stoney Creek. 

 

Sean is responsible for co-ordination funerals and personnel form all the locations and arranging all the details. Staff used to be a mix of 60%male and 40% female. Now it is more 80/20 with females making up the majority. The job is 365 days a year and 24 hours 7 days a week. Crisis and grief counselling are a good part of the job.  He identified the key traits of a good funeral director.  Courage, understanding.  a strong ability to work under pressure and the ability to find the good in bad situations are all essential skills.  Also key to survival is the ability to maintain an balance between work and family as understandably so his line of work is emotionally draining at times. 

Today's news about the poor little souls who perished in the fire outside of Halifax are case in point. Can you imagine being the funeral director for that tragedy. Burnout is common as small funeral homes have less staff . The larger ones like Smith's have large staffs which make it easier to find that balance. While draining at times the results are rewarding. Trust, consideration and support of each other are common among staff members.

 

Smith's has always put giving back to the community at the top of their list. Their annual High School Scholarships are an example of that.  They give  to every high school in the community's where they have a location .  They  also hold Christmas Memorial services for  those who have lost a loved one and find  the holidays overwhelming. They have people from as many as 10  years ago attend and are a life line for many during ring that time.

For Sean joining Rotary was an extension of the approach that Smith' takes to the community- Heart ,caring and trust- which is why he has been in the business for 33 years.

 Thank you Sean for your your presentation

Johanna thanked Sean and the meeting was adjourned.

 Meeting adjourned 

CB

Sorry if there are spelling mistakes- typing after being to the eye doctor and my eyes are not quite themselves right now!