Southmouth April 14

Call to Order : President June Manning

Anthem : Paul Monaghan

Toast: Cathy Henry  

Grace: Kris Akili  

Guests and Visiting Rotarians: Jim welcomed Barb Babij, President of the Fort Erie Rotary Club, Elizabeth Rattan, our outbound exchange student, Maria, friend of Julio, and Jagdesh Mehta.

Sergeant-At-Arms: George Fitzpatrick began by fining Paul Monaghan for something and then Paul Massuet for his English. Dan Toppari was happy to announce that he had tickets - free - for those who wanted to hear special singers appearing at his church. Lataetia and Bob happy to have had a wonderful trip to South Africa. Kris Akili happy for her dad's wellness. Sheila happy to have attended the May Court Fashion show and commented on Cathy Henry's role.June happy to have been part of the Ice Dog's year which has now ended. John D'Ambrosio happy to have soldboth cars he offered at the recent Classic car Auction. Don Beard had a great trip to Cuba with Audrey. Brian happy to lean on George if necessary. Ian announced that Ashley will be making Ian and Mary grandparents in September.Bob happy for his health coverage as a Canadian! Dan Toppari said something about starting dance lessons with John Teibert - this one needs clarification...

Announcements : June reminded us of the Interclub with the Southshore Rotary Club of Blaisdell on Monday evening at the Queenston Heights Restaurant. No lunch meeting that day.

June reminded us of the"Night of a Thousand Dinners" Wednesday April 23 at John Michael's Banquet and Conference Centre. A joint Rotary Club Event in support of the Canadian Landmine Foundation.

Julio and June spoke to the ticket Sales for the May 3 gala at Club Roma. Ticket sales reported over the last week were very encouraging but more auction items and tickets sales are needed quickly.

Paul Massuet spoke to the continued progress of the Every Rotarian Every Year campaign. Keep those cheques rolling in!

Paul Massuet also reminded us of the June Bike Trek.

Julio introduced Elizabeth Rattan, our outbound exchange student. She took a moment and introduced herself to the club and her progress to date in preparing for her year away.

50/50 Draw:    Maria had her ticket drawn but unfortunately did not find the Queen of Hearts! Alas the pot grows.

Guest Speaker:  Julio Batres introduced Barb Babij, President of the Rotary Club of Fort Erie. Julio met Barb at a function at another Rotary Club and was pleased to ask her to speak on her favorite topic of "Creativity". barb is both a Canadian and an American and is a CPA. She is the founder of CPSB Niagara with more than 20 years of experience leading and facilitating change across a broad spectrum of issues. She is the author of a number of articles on creativity, leadership and change.

Barb began by bringing greetings from the Rotary Club of Fort Erie and presented June with a banner from her club. She then went on to provide us with a whirlwind tour of "creativity". Her goal today was to help us reframe our thinking about our level of creativity while having some fun at the same time. She used an example of a  few pictures to show us the limitations that we are predisposed to have. A good example was our thoughts as to the funtionality of a "wheel barrow". We all criticized it's design and were convinced that it was doomed to failure but Barb pointed out that we would have missed out on huge profits as this design is necessary for use in high building construction due to unique requirements..

Barb used definitions of creativity  from  various experts to demonstrate the process, product and climate of creativity. Climate Dimensions of Creativity include trust and openness, challenge and involvement, playfullness and humour, freedom, risk-taking, idea time, idea support, debate and conflict.  

The bottom line is that organizations with creative climates achieve improved performance. Better working climate means higher quality products and services, more market share, increased profitability, and increased productivity.