President Michael Conway convened the meeting at 6:30 pm with a toast to the Queen and Canada.

 

There were 12 club members and two guests in attendance.

 

Our two guests, Peggy Dodds and Claire Conway were introduced by Bob Dodds and President Michael.  

 

Mahendra Shah read the invocation.  

 

President Michael discussed the vision for the past year which included many items such as “fun fun fun” reducing emails and check signing.  He concluded by saying that by and large we met our objectives with the exception of attracting more new members which was very difficult due to the need for Zoom meetings again this year. 

 

He also mentioned that there are still positions open on next years RCO Board and encouraged anyone to let the new president know that they would like to join.  

 

Richard Roberts was the Finemaster and asked a number of questions on bias.  What caused unconscious bias and how can identify it.

 

 

Clair Conway reminded everyone that the Oakville Ribfest is this coming weekend June 24-26 at the Sheridan College parking lot.  It starts a little earlier his year, 11:00 a.m. on Friday.

Clair mentioned it was drive thru event again this year and described the process for ordering from any of the four “Ribbers” who are offering meals.

RCOT have allowed us to place a Tesla in the parking lot with a large sign promoting the electric car lottery.

 

Mahendra announced that we will be having a tour of Patty’s Place on Speers Rd on Monday Aug 8.  Acclaim Health would like everyone to arrive before 5:45 p.m. as they need to give everyone a Covid test.  The tour will start at 6:00 p.m.  Club members will retire afterwards to the Brontë Sports Kitchen at Speers and Bronte Rd for dinner. 

 

Mahendra also spoke about the various donations that the Indigenous Committee has recommended and have been endorsed and approved by the RCO and RCOCF boards, this includes donations to;

 

 

The committee donations total $30,000 for the year.

 

President Michael said that the International Committee has not spent its full budget so the RCO Board, at its last meeting, decided to use the shortfall to endorse a $10,000 donation to an organization that supports Ukrainian relief.  The board identified three organizations and asked the International Committee to recommend one for approval by the RCOCF.   

 

President Michael thanked all the various committees for their support this year.  They made his job easy. He then thanked a number of people specifically for the continued operation of committees and fund raisers during his Presidential year.  Lastly, he thanked Claire for her support as well.  

 

Paul Harris Award. 

 

President Michael also announced this year’s worthy recipients of Paul Harris Fellowships. Three of the recipients are more recent members.

 

 

 

 

 

President Michael was unable to pass the gavel and the President’s pin to our new President, Amir Kawr, as Amir was out of the country.  Amin however spoke to the meeting via a taped message where he thanked President Michael for his help.  He accepted the position of President and hoped that he will live up to the club’s expectations. 

 

Bob Dodds took the floor and thanked President Michael on behalf of the club for a fun year and for all the work he has done.  The room then broke into applause in appreciation of our outgoing President.

 

The Car Raffle committee has printed a number of business card sized promotional cards with a QR code on the back that is linked to the raffle site. President Michael distributed a number of these cards to members present and encouraged them to hand them out to anyone who might be interested.

 

The meeting was concluded promptly at 8:00 pm by President Michael with a toast to Rotarians around the world.