President Ian's Quote of the Week:

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.     Theodore Isaac Rubin

Preet introduced our DG Linda.  She moved to Washington in 1980 from California. Started a security company “Evergreen Security”. Has been active in the South Everett community since 1989. This is her first time visiting our Club but well known to many of our long term members.

She spoke of the importance of growing the Club’s membership but also to concentrate on retention of existing members. LY our District had 2511 members and her target is to grow to 2575 members (1 per club as a minimum). District leaders consider they’re here to help us. Last year they sponsored 6 Membership seminars and plan to do another 6 T/Y

Make sure we use Social Media. It is the way to reach a younger demographic. Put stories on line “what/when was your Rotary Moment?” put action pics on websites—Rotarians at work, Rotarians having fun, etc. We have a tech team available to help expand our use of technology if required.

Learn about Rotary Foundation. Every Rotarian every year. Use Rotary Direct for payment.

Our new RI President would like to see twice as many Rotoactors this year. They are the future of Rotary. Invite them to participate in all fun activities and fundraisers. Help mentor them.

The last Saturday in April is Rotary Work Day—include Clubs, Interact, Public and family.

Use Peace Arch Journal—our District 5050’s communication vehicle—tell our other Clubs what we are doing.

November 3^rd is the Foundation Dinner.

District Conference will be April 11-14^th at Tulalip. Theme is Caribbean Inspiration.—Tour of Boeing, Art Tours, Cultural Centre. Irish/Caribbean night with Rotary Trivia. House of Friendship where Clubs bring/show what they are doing in their Communities. A big 3 day Caribbean Party. Lead by example, Serve with passion. Have fun while making the world a better place.

Announcements: This week is Darrell’s 15^th anniversary with our Club and one of our new members, Glen Brown’s 26^th anniversary with Rotary. ?

Rotary World Help has another project/container for Kenya that went on Saturday.

Rotary RIPS Saturday Sept. 22 9:30 to 1 PM Bring Family and friends

September 29^th is the Coquitlam Sunrise’s Amazing Race. They are looking for volunteers to work stations and also to sponsor teams of 4. COST $50.00 PER PARTICIPANT INCLUDES LUNCH AND DINNER.

Our Club is looking at a new International project being led by Al Stjernegaard and Glen Brown focused on literacy in Belize

Remember Tuesday September 18^th is our RIBFEST wrap up presentation to City Council.  Come out if you can, to support our Club and thank the City for their support of our big event.

Guests

    Christine Poznanski

    Lisa Barakzai - she doesn't eat very much !!!

Announcements

    - Car Free Day - August 19, 2018

        There is still room for volunteers.  Contact Meghan Lahti

    - Visioning

        Mike Poznanski will be chairing this. He will be emailing club members for ideas             for a visioning statement.  This meeting will be at our regular August 22nd, 2018 meeting.

    - International Committee Meeting 

        Al Stjernegaard chairing a meeting August 28, 7:00 pm at Moody Ales. 

Speaker's Corner

    Bill Lawrie, Club Service Chair

    Club Service includes:

        - keeping members aware of the club activities through the use of the Newsletter               and Club Runner

        - Insuring the room is set up for the meeting and cleaned up after the meeting

            To do this 3 teams have been set up (all Club members are part of a                 team).  Each team will be responsible for a month at a time on a rotation                 basis. Team captains are Darryl & Terry, Bill & Yvonne, Al Stj. & Alan K.                 Your captain will be in touch with you. 

        - greeting people when they come to the meeting

        - arranging Club social events

        - scheduling cashiers for each meeting

        - introducing and thanking the speaker

        - selling 50/50 tickets

        - taking notes & pictures at the meeting

Don't forget to bring food for Summer of Sharing - Karen says 'put your food in the car 'right now' ....if you forget, just donate $$$$ and Share can double that. Thank you for organizing Karen...

Rotary Meeting July 25^th 2018

Our annual post RIBFEST meeting where we have a chance to decompress and remember all the events that happened over the previous week of Set-up, 4^th annual RIBFEST, and take down.

Guests:  George Balzer (Music man at RibFest and Summer Sundays and Linda’s Husband) and Sean Sexton recycler volunteer for 3 days.

George spoke briefly about the success of the bands again this year—as always the music was a highlight for so many of our guests in the open area, and Sean spoke about how he worked for 3 days and helped to mentor some of the younger volunteers who sorted in our open area recycling station.

Ian led off with a big thank you to our Club—40 members who punch way beyond their weight. This year was the busiest of the 4 years—every day was ahead of the corresponding day last year. Saturday was one of the busiest days ever in the park—as we know there was absolutely no room to move in the open area in front of the bandstand and all of the “:extra chairs” were in use for folks who just picked them up and formed their own little party group. We have no final numbers yet as so many of the expenses are still being tabulated, but hopefully in the next couple of weeks. Thanks to everyone who helped make this year’s event a huge success.

Some of the category managers got a chance to tell about their areas but not everyone has spoken yet as there was so much input and memories from our members as these managers talked that we didn’t get to everyone. We also found out that all 3 of our Rotary Club “cousins” are extremely happy with their takes from the weekend—PoCo managed the Inlet Field parking and did well on donations, the Coquitlam Sunrise Club selling 50/50’s made over $10,000 and the Coquitlam Club made well on the pop up store selling pop, etc.. The Langley District Rotoactors sold out of their corn mid afternoon Sunday and our Club’s “donation Team” led by Gayle and Dan G brought in enough money to send lots of kids to Camp Jubilee next year. 

Alan S who wasn’t there (attending a family wedding 1,000 miles away) but was following everything on social media, remarked on what great stories were being posted, remarked on what a great job Claire did speaking on Global’s 6:00pm NEWS HOUR on Friday (and who was a GREAT problem solver for all of us over the 3 days—all the complaints, requests for special needs, or problems for 1 department that needed to be solved by another department, were handled quickly and efficiently—Great Job Claire), and remarked on how much he missed the excitement. He also reported that the shuttle bus on a normal weekend has been averaging 150-200 people per weekend and for our event there were 950 to 1,000 riders. Good that they added the extra runs over the weekend. We have since found out that this year’s RibFest was the BUSIEST weekend EVER for our Brewer’s Row!!

Brian Wormald took ownership of the main parking lot (and all the complaints that come with that task) he and his team of volunteers handled it wonderfully. They have some suggestions to help manage the traffic flow for next year and how to get folks dropping off in and out more quickly.

VIP tent was managed ably by John and his team including of servers, cleaners, greeters and customer service folks. Jill (Linda’s daughter from Atlanta) served as an inside head as did Jennifer MacKinnon from PCT—everyone did what it takes to make it a first class experience for our VIP sponsors and their guests—THANKS ALL. We know we need to get started earlier next year with our sales team but it will be an easier job as the experience is such a giant step up from the adult beer tent we expect to be sold out early next year. Well Done John & Team.

Bill reported almost 200 shifts and about 800 hours of volunteer time given to our recycling project. So far only numbers in are from the City Organic Handling portion and we tipped over 5750 KG of organic goods equal to 12,650 pounds up 15% from last year.

All areas of our RIBFEST are important, but without the volunteers we can not put on an event of this size.  A huge big thanks to Trudy, Karen and last but certainly not least was our 13 year old Kate from Atlanta who worked all three days from 9:00 am to 9:30pm .  What a great girl.!!!!

We will be having an official RIBFEST Review on Wednesday night, August 1^st from 7:00pm- 10:00pm at Aria ll.

GUESTS:  Welcome All.

Announcements:

1. Yvonne’s 1^st anniversary as a Club Member and, Larry Smith’s 3^rd anniversary with our Club this coming week.
2. The June 23^rd Community Fair was a great success—well attended, lots of interesting groups and services for citizens to find out about and extremely well attended by young families and kids—lots of activities for the little ones.
3. June 30^th was last Saturday.  We had a Rotary table at the Open House PCT that was held at their terminal.  It was a chance to talk to visitors about what we do as Rotary, about RibFest, request volunteers, and sell 50/50 tickets. Thank you to Ian, Ann, Gayle, Linda & Bill for volunteering for this event.
4. July 8^th is our day to visit Camp Jubilee.  Pickup will be from Rocky Point at 10 am a tour, lunch and back to Rocky Point for 2:00 pm.
5. Gayle reported on attending the graduation ceremony at CABE (Coquitlam Alternative Basic Education) High School. She was very impressed with all the good work they do there and will recommend we think about supporting their program with 2 scholarships next year. Meghan told about a young student she connected with who graduated from CABE a few years ago and has just graduated Cum Laude with a degree in Chemical Engineering from University.
6. Don’t forget we have RIBFEST coming this month—July 20^th-22^nd. Tell your friends and neighbours, remember we have a new area—VIP Tent—this year. For 50$ guests receive guaranteed seating closer to the music area without the noise that builds up under their big top, they receive 1 free drink ticket and a $10.00 voucher off your food order. We need to try to fill this venue—1 only 5 hour sitting Friday 4-9pm; 2 each on Saturday (Noon-5 and 5-9 on Saturday; and  Noon-4:30 and 4:30-9 on Sunday).

Guest speaker Brian Iwabu is the GM for the Richmond facility -- Harvest Fraser Richmond Organics Ltd.  They also have a facility in North Van.

Also from the company was Meredith Sorensen who is the Director of Communications for Harvest Power Inc. the international parent Company.  Meredith spent 2 years with the US Peace Corps in Madagascar where she demonstrated to farmers how to increase their crop yields using organic waste. 

Brian explained several of the Communities on the Lower Mainland supply Organic waste to the Richmond or North Shore facilities. The curbside waste picked up by our Port Moody system is sent there (and because the City allows us to use their curbside system for RibFest our waste goes there too). Port Moody sent about 5,000 metric tonnes a year and our RibFest organic waste (5 Tonnes) represents about 1/1,000^th of the total.

Their process involves process they call “anaerobic digestion” (A/D) comprised of a series of biological processes where microorganisms break down biodegradable materials in the absence of oxygen. It is not a new concept—first “digester” was in India in the 1800’s. They take food waste, municipal water waste solids, FOG (fats, oils, grease) and livestock manure. WHY USE IT:

1. Energy—provides Biogas clean, local, renewable energy sources
2. Nutrients—A/D provides nutrient rich soil amendments, sand, natural fertilizers, which are sold back to local gardeners and landscapers.
3. Maximum odor control—A/D takes place a gas tight environment.

BIOGAS is a mixture of mostly methane and carbon dioxide plus traces of other gases. It can be used to fuel engine generators for creating renewable electricity and heat. I t can be upgraded and injected into natural gas pipelines.

I will try to get samples we can display at our recycling stations for RibFest this year.

Meghan’s ticket was drawn but there was no prize awarded this week.