President Mahendra Shah called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
Hart Jansson gave the Land Acknowledgement and led in the singing of the National Anthem.
President Mahendra proposed a toast to King George lll and Canada.
Richard Roberts gave the invocation.
Ralf Soeder notified the members in attendance about the sad news regarding Sundeep Khosla. Sundeep has been diagnosed with a serious medical condition. He is to be released from hospital shortly and will start hospice care at home.
Members were asked for ideas for what we could do as a club to help Sundeep and his family at this time. (Sundeep has a wife, two married daughters and 2 grandsons)
A number of suggestions to honour Sundeep’s contribution to Rotary over the past two years were discussed at the meeting. If any one has any further thoughts they are asked to contact Mahendra.
Sundeep is a very active member of the club, He has set up a number of hands-on initiatives for the club including the Global Medic food packaging, the Adopt a Road program and the Bruce Trail planting. He also sponsored a number of new members and found a number of speakers for the program committee.
In lieu of happy bucks Hart Jansson asked if anyone was “grateful”. Many club members related a number of situations and recent activities for which they were grateful, and Hart collected a sizeable amount of cash for RI.
International Committee Update
Michael Conway provided an update on the International committee
Currently four members, Michael, Hart Jansson, Peter Chaba and Nancy Eichenberg. Peter and Nancy still working on Global grant training.
Meet monthly on Zoom RCO Commitment Highlights in Last 12 Months
- Donation of $5,000 to HPIC in April 2023
- Championed a donation of $25K from the MOB for Soymilk for Rural Woman in Kenya. RCO will provide an additional $5000 to $7500
- Donation of $3000 to St Anille Marie Orphanage in Cameroon
- Participated in a district grant for repairs to Luky School Guatemala. RCO donation was $2900US of the $6800US total
- Donation of $5000 to Mukuru school in Kenya for new computers. Have supported this school in the past. A district grant is also in process.
Under Review/In Progress
- Water Project in Guatemala - $4K of a $200K project plus $1K assistance for a Water Assessment
Nancy Eichenberg gave a short talk on the history of the St Anille Marie Orphanage and her personal experience with this charity
Electric Car Lottery
Michael Conway gave an update on the future of the Electric car lottery. It will be put on hold for 2024|
Main concerns are “workforce” related
- Delay in startup this year
- Current core members have some health and personal concerns
- Had not finalized a strong committee of 7+ people……past years core committee of 4 members is too small.
- No lead found in managing the 4 charities.
- Want to review the advertising. ($25K to make $40K each time we did an advertising push)
- Intense 12 weeks to run lottery
The committee is confident that there is no damage to the brand
Will build project team starting in August/September 2024 to run a lottery in 1H2025.
Golf Tournament / Rotary Online Auction
Bob Miskelly announced net proceeds of ~$38K in total for both events to be shared by RCO and RCOW.
Target for 2024 is $60k, package to come. Will need engagement from all club members to find sponsors and golfers to achieve this goal.
Membership Minute
Ralf Soeder spoke about the need for members to step up and join club committees to help strengthen club activities. He challenged everyone to be on least one committee and hopefully two.
Upcoming Meetings
Christmas dinner is December 18 with the other clubs at the Oakville Golf Club. Members need to sign up on ClubRunner by Monday, December 11. Everyone is asked to bring winter hats, scarves, and mittens for donation to the Salvation Army.
We will be meeting at Amica Brontë Harbour for the first quarter of 2024. Parking is available and the price of the meal expected be less. More information to come.
Our first meeting at Amica is Monday, January 8.
Paul Harris Award Dinner – Tuesday, January 30
Amin Kawr is coordinating in behalf of our club and looking for more nominations. They need to be forwarded to him by Friday December 8. More information to come
President Mahendra closed the meeting at 8:10 with a toast to friends and Rotarians around the world
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