District Governors Visit – September 22, 2025
Oakville Golf Club
President Lynn Childs: called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
Lois Knepflar gave the Land Acknowledgement
Rudy Habesch led in the singing of the National Anthem.
President Lynn proposed a toast to King George lll and Canada.
George Vincent gave the invocation.
There were 22 club members and 9 guests in attendance
Guests:
Richard Delongte Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium
Neeraj Nulu Prospective Member
Ali Osman Rotary Club of Dar es Sallam, Tanzania
Stephen Brown Rotary Club of Mississauga
Peggy Dodds Guest of Bob Dodds
Dalia Kaylani Guest of Kal Kaylani
Greg Duffy
Nick Praysner
Announcements
Mike Henry announced that Joe White is officially a club member as of today. Neeraj Nulu has also applied and will become a club member on Thursday
Bob Miskelly wrapped up the golf tournament, 121 golfers, perfect weather compliments all around, the net proceeds are ~ $40K. of which half to be donated to Home Suite Hope.
Bod thanked all the golfers and sponsors and each the members of the golf committee individually.
Ralf Soeder also thanked the Golf Committee on behalf of the RCO Board and the club for the great work the committee did on making it a great event.
Gary Comerford reminded members that the deadline for applications for the Foundation’s major donation is the end of September. Applications will be reviewed at the Foundation Meeting in October.
Mike also had a short presentation on the upcoming Rotary Online Auction.
- The auction will be live from Saturday November 1 to Saturday November 15
- Last year the net proceeds were ~$14,000
- Already acquired 22 items with a value of $8,300 as part of the golf tournament
- Still looking for a warehouse,
- Will be doing gift baskets again this year, asking each club member to bring 2 bottles of wine to the club meeting October 6 or providing a cash donation in lieu. Could also be dropped off at Woodside on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday before October 10 …but call ahead. Please indicate the price of the wine on the bottle for total gift basket value.
- Also looking for more prizes and sponsors as well as volunteers after the auction. A detailed email will be sent shortly.
Susan Shepard Called for Happy Bucks and Fines
- Susan fined a number of people based on questions on various obscure baseball statistics that some members surprisingly got right.
- there were a lot of happy people including, Susan, Frank (whose always happy), Bob, Mahendra and Kal.
Presentation of Paul Harris Fellowships
Paul Harris Fellowships were presented to four members of the former Rotary Club of Oakville West. Each member was single out for their individual achievements. Some of these achievements were long service to Rotary, leading the club as President, developing the strategic plan, updating the clubs’ bylaws, planning the 100th Oakville gala and the 40th anniversary celebration of RCOW and enabling the Rotary Club of Oakville West to receive the Rotary Club Excellence Award for Rotary Year 2024-2025.
The recipients were;
- Greg Duffy
- Nick Praysner
- James Montague
Tonight’s Speaker Susanne Zbinden, District Governor
Ralf Introduced Susanne.
She has been an active Rotarian since 2008 when she joined the Orangeville Club, she is a past president of the Orangeville Highland Club and has been involves in the district leadership roles in recent years. She was born and raised in Switzerland but has lived in Tokyo, Oxford Mississippi, Miami and Hawaii to complete her education in linguistics Since 2020 she has been operating a business that imports dental products for cats and dogs, with her husband Richard Delongte, who is a member of the Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium.
Susanne’s talk.
Susanne related the health journey of her husband as a case where Rotary made a difference.
Richard was former firefighter who went to NY right after the events of 9/11 to help and unknowingly inhaled toxic waste during the two week he was there. Much later he was experiencing issues with his liver enzymes when he attended a Rotary meeting in 2014 with the guest speaker Dr Gary Lewis who was doing diabetes stem cell research. He became a patient of his who subsequent discovered undiagnosed issues with his liver from the toxic exposure. He underwent more procedures including a liver transplant that had to be postponed due a later incidence of Bladder cancer. Richard is now healthy. Her point is that “Any event (big or small), any project in your community or worldwide, any amount of funds raised has the potential to change, improve or save at least one person’s life.”
She urged everyone to come up with a least one new creative project to promote Rotary. She asked the club to
- Incorporate Rotary’s action plan into club planning
- Track goals in Rotary Club Central
- Have a solid succession Plan
- Increase membership or sponsor a new club
Susanne also asked members to Donate $100 US to RI and consider making a contribution to the endowment fund.
She capped her talk by urging members to Have Fun.
Before she left the stage, she urged club members to sign up for the District Conference to be held on Saturday October 4 at the University of Guelph. James Montague is this years District Conference Committee Chair.
James Montague thanked Susanne for her inspiring talk and presented her with a Rotary Oakville 100th anniversary golf Shirt
President Lynn closed the meeting at 8:15 pm with a recitation of the four-way test and toast to friends and Rotarians around the world
Upcoming Meetings
October 6; Speaker: Denise Kollee on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
