October 29, 2012, Weekly Bulletin
Rotary Club of Oakville
Bulletin for Meeting on Monday, 29th October ‘12
The meeting was opened by President Ralf at 6.30 pm with Grace by Jean Wettlaufer, and the singing of “O Canada” lead by Frank Morewood, followed by a toast to the Queen and to Canada
Guests
The President opened the meeting by welcoming 6 guests. They were:
Ian Ferguson, our current District Governor, who is here on an official visit
Jessica Purvis and Camilo Russo, Joint co-Presidents of Blakelock Interact Club,
Pat Milthorpe, a former member of our Club, Nupura Bakshi, wife of one of our members,
David Abboud, formerly a member of a club in Jordan, hoping soon to become a member of our Club
Attendance
Brian Tunstall reported: 27 members present together with 6 guests.
Sunshine
John Smith has returned home from hospital after knee surgery. Physiotherapy starts tomorrow, and “No Alcohol” for two weeks. We all wish him well.
Public Relations
President Ralf drew attention to several articles on local Rotary activities in last Friday’s Oakville Beaver.
World Polio Day
President Ralf expressed the thanks of the Club to Frank Morewood and the 7 members of our Club who, together with members of the other Oakville clubs, promoted the efforts of Rotary to eliminate Polio, to Commuters at the Oakville and Bronte “GO” stations last Wednesday. Armed with stickers and information about what Rotary was doing world-wide, through its PolioPlus programme, they elicited much interest, and even offers of financial support, from some.
Oakville Tree-Planting
Neil Smith reported on the Tree-Planting project last Saturday in Iroquois Shoreline Woods Park.
18 members took part, together with 5 from the Interact clubs, in planting young Oak tree saplings to replace the Oak trees previously cut down because of disease. They planted Red oaks, White oaks and Burr oaks and they were grateful for all the help given by Sheila Peace from the Town.
G.S.E. Team Farewell
A reception was held last Friday to bid Farewell to the G.S.E. Team, returning home to Brazil after their stay here in Southern Ontario. Team members said how much they had enjoyed their visit, showed a variety of photos they had taken while here, and expressed their thanks to all those who had taken part, both in organizing their visit and by welcoming them in their homes. President Ralf said that they were all looking forward to getting home to enjoy a good plateful of rice and beans.
Paul Harris Fellowship
Ian Ferguson talked about the introduction of the Paul Harris Fellowship in 1957. It was to enhance Rotary Foundation by encouraging Rotary’s members in their service to others and to invigorate the activities of the clubs around the world. This was consistent with Rotary’s purpose to promote international friendship and encourage better understanding between different peoples around the world. It was his pleasure to award a fourth Paul Harris Fellowship to Pat Milthorpe with his congratulations on behalf of District 7080. President Ralf also added his congratulations on behalf of the Club.
Blakelock Interact Club
Jessica and Camilo, co-presidents of the club talked about its programme for the year. It included:
Tree-Planting, a Float in the Santa Claus Parade, providing blankets for the Humane Society, providing shin pads and other equipment for the Oakville Soccer Club, help for children through Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and holding Afternoon Teas for Oakville Seniors.
Fines / Happy Bucks
Gary Comerford asked each table to answer a question about Hurricanes in Canada. Hurricane Hazel was the worst anyone could remember. A Category 4 Hurricane with wind-speeds up to 81 mph. A member had visited Goderich earlier in the day and found they were still clearing up from the devastation two years ago and that evidence of uprooted and broken trees could still be seen.
Peace Dinner.
Susan Howard announced that a “Peace Dinner”, with a speaker, was planned for January 28th.
She also thanked the members of her POD who had organized the meetings in October.
District Governor Ian Ferguson
Susan Howard introduced our visiting DG. As a member of District Council for several years Ian had focused particularly on Membership Growth, the work and promotion of Rotary Foundation and the District Training Team.
Ian began his talk by thanking the Club for all its efforts over the years to fulfill and expand the objectives of Rotary.
He commended the joint efforts of the clubs to improve public awareness of what Rotary is all about by publicising the clubs’ activities in the press and talking about their objectives.
He also mentioned the plans of the Toronto club which celebrates 100 years since it was founded.
He moved to Oakville from New Brunswick and soon became involved in Rotary’s activities here. To be surrounded by a bunch of “givers” and people who maintained high personal ethical standards; where else would one want to be? He found it very rewarding.
He sees the role of District as creating an environment in which clubs can succeed.
The RI Strategic Plan has three components:
- Improve Information to the Public, to foster its awareness of Rotary. $10mn. is available to the 540 Districts to facilitate this. By brand revitalization it plans to create a clearer public image for Rotary. In Ontario the 5 Districts have a programme: “Honesty in Motion”
- Enhance Rotary Foundation by creating a better focus and basing its plans on objectives developed by Rotarian clubs and members.
- Foster membership development. To recruit a million new members yet have only a small net growth in total membership is not satisfactory. RI is moving away from a “one size fits all” stance and is encouraging new ways, such as the creation of Satelite Clubs. To retain its members a club needs to have: strong programmes, good food, great speakers and be welcoming. This requires an emphasis on leadership development.
PolioPlus was visualized by a single member. He eventually gained club support and the programme now covers 106 countries and only 3 countries remain where it is endemic. Of these Pakistan and Afghanistan have nearly eliminated the disease from their populations leaving only Nigeria where it is still entrenched. There the problems are as much political as the physical distribution of the necessary vaccines. The Canadian Government has promised to match up to $!mn. of donations to PolioPlus, and so has the Bill Gates Foundation so that each $1 donated can be turned into $3.
Thanks to Speaker
Frank Morewood, adding to the spontaneous and standing ovation following Ian’s speech, thanked him for his remarks and the emphasis he placed on so much of Rotary’s major activities being done with the support of Foundation and that the future growth of Rotary is so dependent upon club leadership and support coming from RI and the Districts.
50/50 Draw
The Draw was won by Randy Shermet with another $21 going to Foundation.
Closing
In closing the meeting President Ralf thanked the POD for all that they had done to smooth the running of the October meetings and also paid tribute to the Interact Club for their very active programme.
He announced that next week the speaker will be Rob Burton, the Mayor of Oakville.