RCO Meeting September 14, 2020 (Sep 14, 2020)

Announcements:

President Mike gave a shout out the Community of Service Committee for the Hands-on Outdoor Service day which took place Saturday, September 12 from 9 am-noon. Thirteen club members turned out at Stewart Street Senior’s Apartments and participated in various activities such as building benches, horseshoe pitches, rock painting and gardening. COVID precautions were maintained. Fun was had by all.

1. Art for Aid Presentation-Judy Warrington

Art for Aid is a project spearheaded by Metis artist Colleen Gray. Its goal is to support art education programs in remote indigenous communities. Both our Rotary club and the Rotary club of Oakville Trafalgar collected art supplies for this program. The flyer for the Art for Aid program is on our club website. In all, sixty donations were collected. These are currently in storage locally. We now have enough donations to send out a shipment. The donations will be shipped to Colleen in Ottawa on September 26, 2020. Colleen will then co-ordinate the shipment of these supplies onward to the communities. An example of a community that will receive art supplies is Nibinamik, in Northern Ontario.

Judy highlighted the problems in indigenous communities and how art can be a conduit to help children express themselves and develop new passions and talents. Indeed, she hoped that Art for Aid will promote the benefits of art throughout the community, not just for the children. Judy referred to the Proverb “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; Teach a man a fish you feed him for a lifetime”. She noted that the gift of art supplies would be akin to giving someone a fishing rod. Judy mentioned that this was an easy project which raised awareness of Rotary.
Colleen Gray also supports the I love first peoples program. This organization runs life skills programmes for urban Indigenous street kids and indigenous children in remote communities coast to coast. As an FYI, Nibinamik is currently raising money for a school trip to Toronto. Their goal is to raise 60k (See link for more info: Nibinamik School Trip GoFundMe Page).

2. Water for Life-Mahendra Shah

Mahendra noted that our club gave $5000 to Water First. He reminded us that John Millar (Executive Director and Founder of Water First) gave a presentation to our club a few months back.

Thanks to a Rotary Club of Guelph initiated effort, Water First received a Global Rotary grant of roughly 90k. This funding (along with other funding) has allowed Water First to expand their program.

Our next meeting with the RC Guelph Cluster will be on September 24^th. The focus of this meeting is to discuss whether this can be an ongoing project between the Cluster and Water First. Mahendra will send out a link to all members to view the Water First video.

3. Golf to Give/Online Auction -Mike Henry

The Golf to Give tournament has been cancelled but will be coming back in September 2021. In its place, we will be participating in the Rotary Online Auction (ROA), to be held November 7-21, 2020. This is a team effort that involves eight Rotary clubs across Oakville/Burlington and nearby areas. We have lots of experience with this type of fundraising, including an administration process, history of the prizes that yield the best returns and a tip sheet on how to approach potential donors. Each of the clubs participating will keep the returns from the items they collect minus a small overhead.

Our next steps will be to contact prize donors and former golfers from Golf to Give. They will be asked for donations and informed about ROA. We have reached an agreement with Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar not to poach their donors, although historically many of our donors overlap. Our Golf to Give Committee will be reaching out to each RCO member.

Each member will be asked to: (1) identify and contact 5 potential donors not already on the list to request a donation-businesses should also be given the option of sponsoring ROA for $250; (2) Provide 2 bottles of wine for the wheelbarrow of wine, which is a tradition from Golf to Give that will be carried over to ROA; (3) Participate in the auction. All items must be donated by October 31^st. President Mike thought that we might be able to get 10k which we split 50:50 with Oakville West.

4. Resumption of in person meetings at Oakville Golf Club (OGC)

Some clubs are meeting in person already. District is okay with this if local health authority recommendations are met.George Farrow contacted OGC and they are willing to welcome us back in the first week of October, under the condition that we follow COVID meeting guidelines. They suggested we move to a bigger room and there be a maximum of 5 people per table. There will be no self-service options for food or beverages (i.e. table service only).

Rae Townsend asked about the COVID care and controls that the employees of OCG are taking.
Ralf Soeder proposed that we have an anonymous vote on whether we should have a return of in person meetings. This proposal was accepted.
Reena Sandhu asked if we could have a hybrid model (i.e. people who are comfortable meeting in person come to OGC with others joining virtually). President Mike said that we would need some equipment for this. George Farrow will ask OGC if they might already have something.
There was a discussion about how many people would be too few to make it worthwhile for us or OCG to have an in-person meeting. No conclusions were drawn.
George Farrow asked the Board to come up with a list of questions he should go back to OGC with.
Judy Warrington proposed that if we want to see each other face to face, we could engage in more hands-on activities, such as Stewart Street.

5. Happy Bucks and Fines

Ralf Soeder was grateful that a family member of a Syrian refugee family that was sponsored 4 years ago by his neighbourhood will be arriving in Canada on September 16, 2020
George Farrow and his wife Diane celebrated their 62^nd wedding anniversary
Ray Townsend was selected to sit on the advisory board of a new venture at Brock University
Jean Wettlaufer’s church reopened after being shut down due to COVID

6. Passport Club Speaker Norma Gamble

Michael Conway jovially introduced Norma as an “Entrepreneur on Steroids”. Norma has been a member of Rotary for 30 years!

Norma told a heartwarming story of how she felt when she was turned down for an American Field Service Scholarship as a high school student growing up in South Africa.
Ten years later, when working as a Management Consultant, she learned that Rotary also sends students all over the world through “exclusive” Rotary Exchange Student scholarships.
Exclusive because at that time only men could be awarded these scholarships since Rotary was a men’s only club.
Rotary has transitioned over the years from being exclusive to more inclusive, and the Passport club is an example of this.
The passport question is the birthchild of a “What-if” conversation between her and Lesley Barmania that took place 2 years ago. What Norma liked about the idea of a Passport club was that it embraced a new membership-young people.
The Oakville South Passport Club has 26 members. They have engagement and service committees. They typically have not done fundraising but may need to.
The President of the Oakville South Passport club is Jananee who is only 24 years old. Norma hoped that Jananee could speak at our club meeting in the future.

Norma talked about her work with the Tamarack Institute and her role at District. She also talked about what she felt were the greatest needs in the community today:

Indigenous Issues
The Opioid crisis
Social Isolation
Affordable Housing

To help us chart the future of Rotary, Norma asked a series of What If’s, similar to the What If that got the passport club started:

What if Rotary had a seat at the table at the United Nations?
What if we could increase memberships?
What if we could find new ways to raise funds?
What if we could reinvent our clubs, districts, and ourselves?

She mentioned an upcoming event OneShared.World Interdependence Summit, Rise and Fall Together on Thursday, September 17^th, 2020. John Hewco, the General Secretary and CEO of Rotary International will be speaking, along with his holiness the Dali Lama and others.

Q&A:

Rod Craig asked about the difference between Rotary and the Passport Club

Norma indicated that the Passport club is a satellite club which means that it needs to be managed by an existing Rotary club. She mentioned that it removes some barriers for young people-membership cost is lower, they do not have to pay for a meal, nor show up for meetings as often as with other Rotary clubs. Their expectation is 40 hours of service per month (minimum). There is only one Passport Club in our district (Passport South). They are hoping there will be more.

Rod Craig asked Norma: How can Rotary clubs help the Passport Club and How can the Passport club help Rotary?

Norma responded:

Passport club wants to participate in events and committees and be of service
The Passport Club applied for a District Grant on behalf of the Oakville Cluster for the Oakville Rotary Relief fund and is expecting the check for $5000, shortly.

Final Comments:

Of note, Zone 28 online summit will take place September 23-25^th Plenary sessions were planned in Toronto for Rotary GETS/GNATs training. More info can be found here: Rotary Conference Plenaries

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