Lynn : said a Toast to King Charles III and Canada
Amin Kawr shared this evening’s Invocation:
Attendance: 28 members, 0 guests
Announcements:
Members who will be celebrating a birthday in February include:
Reena Sandhu
Michael Conway
James Montague
Lynn Childs
Lynn updated us on some District events done by other clubs
Susan shared a local event called “Coldest Night of the Year” (CNOY) which is a national event with a local event taking place in Oakville on Saturday, Feb. 28th @ 4pm. The walk (or run) is either 2km or 5km. Susan has registered a team for our club, named “Unite For Good”. Susan encouraged members from our club to participate by joining the RCO team Unite For Good. Members can register at: https://cnoy.org/location/oakvillenorth
Ralf announced that our club has approved sponsoring 2 young adults to attend RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Academy) in late April. This is a 4 day leadership for adults between the ages of 18 & 25. Should any members know of potential candidates please let Ralf Soeder know. RYLA is a Rotary District program, info can be found at: https://rotary7080.org/sitepage/ryla
Mike Henry announced that Erin Oaks is a potential donor recipient from our club. A tour was planned for interested members on Feb. 5th.
Happy Bucks Reena facilitated Happy Bucks, where many members contributed $ for recent happy celebrations and events.
Lynn: Had dinner at her daughter’s & boyfriend’s place
Frank attended a concert
Rudy updated us on his daughter’s travels thru Chile
Mark was honoured as a honorary member of his former Rotary Club
Rod recently returned from a vacation in St. Maarten
Karen enjoyed attending, with fellow curlers, the women’s national bonspiel “Scotties”
Susan announced that the guest speaker at an event at her church, Walton United, was Global Medic’s Executive Director Rahul Singh
Club Assembly – Updates from 3 RCO related Boards
Trafalgar Senior Homes Inc. (TCHI)
George Vincent stepped in for TSHI Board Chair Bob Dodds at the last minute. Bob was not able to attend due to GO Transit track issues.
The Seniors housing tower on Stewart St. has been sold, subject to contract
The buyer is waiting for the CMHC formal approval, which is essentially a formality, but a slow process
Net proceeds from the sale are expected to be in the range of $7 to $8 million.
The buyer’s deposit of $400,000 was received a while back.
Due to the time it is taking for the sale to close, Melanie Warrington’s contract has been extended for another 6 months. She handles the administrative duties for TSHI.
RCO Foundation – Presented by Board Chair Gary Comerford
Gary reminded us of the current Board members; Gary, George Farrow, Frank Morewood, Paul Bannon, Jean Wettlaufer, Amin Kawr, and Bruce Friesen (RCOT member)
Paul Bannon is the Chair of the Audit committee within the RCO Foundation
The RCO Foundation was created in 2018
The investments held by the RCO Foundation are now worth appx. $21,000,000. Despite having donated appx. $550,000 in past year the fund grew from an opening balance of $19,700,000.
First significant donation, other than to RCO CF, was $268,000 for a truck donated to Food For Life
To date the RCO Foundation has donated over $1,400,000
Gary reminded us that the CRA requires registered charities with assets over $1 million to meet a minimum annual disbursement quota of 5% of their assets, which for the RCO Foundation means it needs to make annual donations of at least $1.05 million (5% X $21m)
The RCO Foundation plans to continue to donate 50% of this sum to RCO CF and use the other 50% for one or more significant donation each year
Donations to RCO CF are made twice per year, which for the current year would be 2 X $260,000 = $520,000 ($1.05m X 50%)
Gary reminded us that the RCO Foundation Board has chosen to donate 90% to local charities and 10% to international projects, so for the current year $105k (1.05m X 10%) will be donated to the RCO CF for international projects, as proposed by RCO’s International Service Committee
RCO Charitable Fund (RCO CF) – Presented by Board Chair Sid Joshi
Sid was proud to announce that the Grant Request Procedures Manual has been completed
RCO CF has 2 key stakeholders, Rotary Club of Oakville and Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA)
Procedures include: all payments require 2 signatures on cheques, minimum of 2 board members approve any request, and requests of significant size or complex requests require a vote from the full RCO CF board
In July/August 2025 RCO CF received appx. $400,000, from the Rotary Club of Oakville West (RCOW) when RCOW merged with RCO, and Sid assured us that some of RCOW’s key legacy projects (primarily the Oakville Rotary Education Awards) will be respected going forward
There was a discussion about whether RCO CF was going to retain part of the $400,000 as a reserve to fund future donations over a period of time or donate the whole amount during the current year, and how this decision might affect RCO Foundation’s commitment to donating $260,000 to RCO CF every 6 months
The conclusion from Sid and Gary was the RCO CF Board would make a decision on the process for making donations from the $400,000 and this would not affect RCO Foundation’s commitment to donating $260,000 to RCO CF every 6 months
Toast to Rotarians everywhere by club President Lynn
