Hope you had a great summer! Alas, it is coming to an end. Fall is in the air and RCOT’s Fall Classic, a.k.a. the Bogey Bonanza, our fun golf day at Crosswinds Golf Club, is scheduled for Tuesday Sept. 5. It is always fun to be out with fellow Rotarians. There still might be time to join the festivities; please contact John Kubacki for more information.
Also, please remember to register for the 2017 District Conference, Peace Through Music, at Living Arts Centre, Mississauga, on Sept 23. At the last count, we had 12 RCOT members registered for the event.
As I mentioned in the August RIOTS, we are contemplating some changes to the meeting format to increase fellowship and camaraderie. To this extent, it is proposed that we move the meeting for the first Thursday of the month to evenings—a social get together and finger foods. There would be no external speaker; it would be internally focused: informal presentations, project updates, a classification presentation or two mini-classifications, etc. It would also be a good opportunity to invite Friends of Rotary, RCOT Alumni, potential members, etc. Past President Bent is in the process of surveying the membership on this change.
Past President Bent is also facilitating meetings with various committees to follow-up on “Taking the Pulse” survey feedback.
The first fundraising event for the 2017-18 Rotary year, Wines and Lines, is planned for Thursday, October 26. Planning for the Online Auction is also underway. More details about both fundraisers are covered elsewhere in this issue of the RIOTS and are being presented at the weekly meetings. The Ribfest Sponsorship Recognition event is scheduled for Thursday, October 12.
Several Rotary clubs are experimenting with different formats for the weekly meetings to attract younger members. These range from limiting the meetings to every other week to e-meetings to meeting in pubs in a more informal environment.
The 2017-18 Board deliberated on this at our first meeting and agreed on the following process for making changes.
Board develops a ‘strawman’ of changes and shares with the membership through RIOTS and lunch meetings – August 2017
Members discuss these changes among themselves and provide their thoughts to the Board members through email to the President, informal conversations, etc.
The Board incorporates these inputs, develops a proposed list of changes and presents them to the membership for their consideration in early September
The agreed upon changes are implemented in October on a trial basis for three months
Meeting format ‘Strawman’
The meeting format would be different for each Thursday of the month as follows:
First Thursday
Thirsty Thursdays: Lunch replaced with a fellowship meeting in the evening - a social get together without a speaker. A good opportunity to invite Friends of Rotary, RCOT Alumni, potential members, etc. in an informal setting.
We will initially meet at Le Dome, but will not be bound to it. We could possibly at a local pub if its more conducive and not difficult to work out the logistics. We would probably skip Fine-master, Happy Bucks and 50-50.
For the second, third and fourth Thursdays, the location is Le Dome, and we would retain current costs, Fine-master, Happy Bucks and 50-50.
Second Thursday
Reserved for Club related presentations: progress report on WASH project, RYLA, Student Exchange, Classification, Club assemblies three times a year: September, January, and June, etc.
Third Thursday
Regular meeting with a presentation by an external speaker, followed by Board meeting at 1.30PM.Board would meet after lunch on the third Thursdays, instead of the third Wednesday at present.
Fourth Thursday
Regular meeting with a presentation by an exceptional speaker; another opportunity to invite Friends of Rotary, potential members, etc. and showcase a formal meeting to attract new members.
Fifth Thursday
Off-Fifth Thursdays: There will be no formal meeting on Fifth Thursdays. It could be used for ad-hoc meetings by various committees, or possibly an off-site meeting, e.g. Trip to Ford, etc., or even POD meetings.
Location and costs would be variable and to be determined.
OCTOBER 26th (in the evening). Contact Janice Tobia or Jennifer Deighton for information.
Captivate your mind with this extraordinary evening of entertainment that includes fine wines, great food, and inspirational stories from well-loved Canadian authors:
KATE HILTON, Just Like Family IAN HAMILTON, The Couturier of Milan SHARI LAPENA, A Stranger in the House
It seems to me that the high-stakes banter between the presidents of North Korea and the United States is dangerous. Not because they both have nuclear weapons and ICBMs. It is because the world has not thought out how to deal with one another, how to resolve differences in the nuclear age.
The best missile defence systems will not be able to destroy all the missiles. If only one or two arrive at their targets, the destruction would be on a massive scale, far greater than the destruction experienced in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Our diplomatic skills, honed since the Middle Ages to help us deal with self-centered nationalism, were shown to be defective in the twentieth century. Our international organizations, like the UN, have not yet developed ways to protect us because, in the end, nationalist agendas frustrate the process of finding new ways of dealing with conflicts.
So far, the only working idea, dealing with a world armed with such destructive power, is to ignore the nuclear danger! Thus countries arm themselves with so-called “conventional weapons” which, with the aid of modern technology, easily turn cities into wastelands.
The urgent challenge of this century is to create a new world order with new structures and processes to resolve disputes and deal with injustices. Somehow, the United Nations must be given the tools to build and maintain peace upon the earth. When it was founded after World War II, the victors made sure they retained power. That was not surprising. Yet, the founding of the UN was a major step forward. It is time for another big step so it can fulfill its destiny in this nuclear age.
Your Community Service Committee has recently received five requests, of which four are for funding assistance and one for sweat equity help. They are as follows:
1. CYAN (Community Youth in Action Network): unidentified amount in support of CYAN’s Days of Action
2. The Willow Foundation: unidentified amount, funding for recreational programs for nursing home patients
3. St. Luke’s Community Centre: $1500 for the purchase of a copier
4. March of Dimes re. the Jean and Howard Caine Apartments: unidentified amount for assistance with apartment renovations
5. Home Suite Hope: Looking for volunteers to help with their Sleep in Your Car event on September 23, from noon onwards. Tasks are varied, from helping set up to directing parking. The request also includes some overnight stints for those night owls among us. We will have further information about specific assignments as we get closer to the event in September. This would be a good opportunity for some hands-on activity! It would also show support for Heather Donaldson, is going to be one of the participants. More information about this fundraiser can be found at www.sleepinyourcar.com.
The committee will be meeting in September to start reviewing the financial requests in more detail. In the meantime, check your calendar to see if you can give up a few hours on September 23.
Pictured above are Iona Kopriva, Judy Lilly, GogI Phalpher and Liz Behrens who are just 4 of the many Rotarians and Friends of Rotary that turned out to make the 29th Strawberry Social a success.
Once again, you all did a wonderful job. Each of you, in your own way were a great asset to the purchasing, set-up, prep, serving and clean up for the 29th Strawberry Social. Without your invaluable help, our community service event would not have been the success that it was. Please know that I sincerely appreciate your efforts in this much anticipated yearly event.
To all the wonderful spouses who showed up to help - THANK YOU!!
I do hope I can count on your help next year when we celebrate 30 years.
As the chairperson for the annual Strawberry Social that our club hosts every year, I so wanted the weather to be warm and sunny. Why? Well, it certainly made everyone appreciate that cold glass of lemonade and iced tea.
Our 29th Strawberry Social was a great success as we welcomed our guests at the Knights of Columbus hall on Sunday, July 9th. This year, over 120 attendees from Acclaim Health’s roster of clients showed up to sing some songs, dance a little and enjoy a treat of strawberry shortcake with ice cream accompanied by coffee, tea and lemonade.
For several years in a row Tim Allan has trekked his way to Oakville to entertain our guests and without fail, he delighted the crowd by playing his banjo, guitar and sing songs from years gone by. It didn’t take long for a few keen dancers to take to the floor and show off their dancing skills. It was fun to see. And, thanks to the Rotary volunteers they provided a good back up chorus. This chorus certainly helped encourage our guests to sing along too.
Several of our lucky guests went home with raffle prizes and those that celebrated a birthday or anniversary got to take home a special cupcake from Cupid’s Cupcakes. They truly felt special.
Every year, our club counts on donations from good corporate citizens. These donations are usually gift cards that we use to buy lemonade, iced tea, ice cream and supplies for our event. As well, our generous corporate donors supply us with flowers for the tables and items for the goody bag we hand out to all our guests as they leave the event. Without their contribution, our event wouldn’t be the success that it is.
A big “Thank You” goes out to our donors:
Sobeys, Fortinos, Metro, Monastery Bakery, Cupid’s Cupcakes, Healthwick Canada, Shoppers Drug Mart (Oakville Place), Husky Foods, and Tata Global Beverages.
Club members have expressed a desire to have more 'hands-on' involvement with the community.
In RIOTS and the Weekly Courier we are now showing where there are opportunities to be 'hands-on' and be involved as either a volunteer, a participant or both. We'll keep this section going as long as we have the content to support it.
Help Our Own Heather Donaldson to Help Others
Oakville has a problem with affordable housing. A recent presentation to our club by The Community Foundation made that clear. I am planning to spend the night of September 23 sleeping in my car at the Y parking lot, as part of a fundraiser to raise at least $1000 for Home Suite Hope.
I have already received a number of donations from generous Rotarians. If you would consider a donation, I'd really appreciate it. Just copy and paste the address below into your browser and it should take you to the correct site. If you have any trouble with the process, don’t hesitate to contact me and I can help you through the steps.
We supported Aldo of Rotary Bolton with $500 for shipping school supplies to Guatemala. Here is a note from Aldo, who receives these school supplies for free from the manufacturer.
“To all clubs that assisted us providing much needed school supplies to over 100 schools in Guatemala...A HUGE THANK YOU!! Click below to see the Photos of the School Supplies in the Rotary Warehouse in Guatemala. The supplies will be distributed to the needy schools in September for the 2017-18 school year.”
Hi everyone. Hope you had a great summer! Time to get started on Rotary stuff.
The first meeting of the International Committee will be held Wednesday Sept 6. at 7:00pm at my house: 1480 Seagram Avenue, Oakville (southeast of Rebecca and Third Line). Munchies and drinks provided. Please RSVP if you plan to attend. If you can’t attend please let me know your vote!
We have a very full agenda for this meeting and it will only work if you all do your homework! The attached Agenda (sent out in an email in word and PDF format just in case) has a lot of links to other files which you need to read before you come. Please be aware that you can’t just print the agenda and take it away to read it because you have to click on the links to see all the documents. Please also think about what we want to accomplish this year and my proposed plan.
The days of nice Jennifer are over and tough Claire is asking that you all take turns writing minutes for one meeting. Writing minutes is no fun, but surely everyone can manage to do it once! I really need someone else to take minutes so that the meeting can run quickly and efficiently. If we get through the agenda before we are too sleepy we can have social time!
I look forward to seeing everyone then. I will be out of the country until Sept. 2. I won’t really be checking emails very much, just scanning for emergencies! I can answer questions when I get back.
Any Rotarian interested in International is welcome to attend.
You may remember we supported this Nursery School and Teacher Training Centre in Knysna, South Africa. We contributed $5000 US towards a Global Grant that was led by Rotary Mississauga Meadowvale. Here are pictures of the opening. I love the tribute to Canada with flags, children’s crafts, and food, as mentioned below. Knysna has experienced a huge fire with many houses destroyed. Luckily the Nursery School was unharmed.
Here is a message from the Rotary club of Knysner:
“This is just a friendly (not official) hello to show you how good the KET Model Preschool looked on its opening day. I am sure that members of the GG committee will be in touch with you in more detail. Our club is very busy at the moment with fire relief activities as well as our main annual fundraiser during the Oyster Festival, the Knysna Rotary Cycling Weekend.
The opening went very well and the Canadian Embassy was very helpful with Canada 150 flags and pencils, Canadian flags, balloons, native American music etc. I decided to do a table with Tastes of Canada, in honour of the wonderful Canadian involvement. So we had blueberries, waffles, flapjacks, maple syrup, cranberries, salmon etc as you will see on the other photos that I will also send. The teachers were so taken with the Canadian menu that they decided right away to always celebrate the preschool’s birthday with tastes of Canada, just to be quite different! And then we should have more time to get into things like totem poles as well. Lets see! It was a lovely occasion. You can also see some of the first few learners.”
Our Roteract Club was in a contest this summer to win the most likes on Facebook for a chair they painted, which has been on display at Bronte Village. Thanks to Cindy, Sabrina, Scott and Phil for helping put together and paint this chair, which represents the youth and young professionals of Oakville so well. A special thanks to Cindy and Sabrina for spending countless hours painting the chair—you guys are truly gifted at this and did a terrific job!
The contest ended July 31; however, the chairs will be at Bronte lakeshore until September 5. We encourage everyone to visit and enjoy all of the chairs this summer; it is truly a sight to behold.
Morgan Loder is our new outbound exchange student and is spending his year in Australia. Below Morgan is visiting the Tantanoola Caves. No wonder it's so dark!
RIOTS - Rotary International Oakville Trafalgar Service is a monthly newsletter published online by the club and is sent to all members and friends of the club. It is available in electronic format to anyone with email.
Content for RIOTS is subject to editing and should be submitted to rotary2359@gmail.com in a non-PDF format.
To subscribe email info@rcot.ca
WEEKLY COURIER is a weekly bulletin sent to members recapping announcements.
