Another wonderful breakfast at the Next Door Social Space today-full of energy and great food! I am going to need a nap.................  Special thanks to the early risers Rod, Andrew and Wayne for helping with the prep.

First and foremost the purpose of the meeting was to present our cheque to TNDSS for their much needed dishwasher which is arriving tomorrow and can't be installed soon enough. Our contribution was kindly augmented by Randy's additional donation of $2000.00. How very kind sir! Lots of smiles all around.

 After the presentation Randy received his 6th Paul Harris pin from Eric. Congratulations Randy and thank you!

Owen spoke about our Student Exchange program informing us that next year only 7 students will be participating in our area which is down fro 28 a few years ago. Discussions are ongoing as to why. Please remember to engage our two lovely girls in your activities as they are now roughly halfway through the year and still have lots of things on their to do lists. Those lists will be sent around to everyone via e-mail.

Joe has arranged a chef's night cooking session at Fortino's in Westdale on March the 26th and April  5th. Minimum attendance is 10- Max is 18.  Cost is 30.00 pp plus the cost of food which is roughly 15.00 pp. Please contact Joe if you are interested and if you have indicated that you are attending on the March 26th one please confirm so that we have the correct numbers.

Although no official SAA we raised a few bucks with some happy dollars and an auction.

Susan and Ralph Sgro- good friends of Rotary -gave me two tickets to a play in Toronto that they can't use and Terry  ferociously fought off Karmel and Rod to the tune of 90.00 and is on his way to the "Theatah" on Feb 6th and the Next Door Social Space is 90 bucks richer. Thanks Terry! I call that a win-win.

Happy dollars fro Andrew  - thanking Joe for a lovely evening last night recognizing the Poinsettia Posse and some it's highest volume sales people. Ron Lambert won  lovely bottle of 19 something Chianti after selling $5200.00 worth of flowers!

Bit of a curling theme- Both Randy and Catherine delighted to have won their particular bonspiels. Randy and Bruce Maybury and 2 fellow Rotarians played in the Can-AM in Raleigh North Carolina and won the B event. Catherine and Nadine -Bob's lovely wife and super skip- won the Hamilton District Day Ladies Open section last week as well. Very exciting!

Speaking of Happy $$$ does anyone know what happened to the white cup with the change in it?

Our Guest Speakers were Joe, Rod, and Andrew who gave a good overview of our fundraising events and extended an open invitation to one and all to jump on either committee to help with the events. The committees are good fun and as they say many hands make light work. Please contact either Terry or Joe for Lakeside and Rod for Golf.  Dates and times of meetings will be put on our website.

Joe also talked about two new fundraisers for 2020. One is an in-house auction of neat stuff like dinners at member's homes , services etc. with the intent of holding 1 or 2 auctions monthly to raise some revenue.

The other is a clone of the Ride to Provide where teams of 4 ride stationary bikes for 1/2 hours each  (2 ours in total for all you non-math folk0) and raise money by having friends and family support us through pledges. This event raised on average 65-70K in the past two years in support of the Food Bank. So start training now-Not....you can ride at your own pace and totally block out the frantic instructions from the leader.  I know that from experience................

Just a note reminding everybody that next week's meeting will be a Jo Brant Hospital in the Susan Busby Meeting Room. 

Enter through the main entrance- the new one and turn left. Parking will be paid. You will get a chit when you pay for breakfast which will be 12.00. 

I probably should have put this at the beginning of the bulletin for those that don't read it!!! There will be fines if you go to the golf club ! Mind you you'd have to admit that first and with this crowd not so sure I would!

Have a great weekend!

CB