Hi Everyone,

 

Wow, I hope you all are safe and warm in your homes, fires going, pets cuddling, movies on or reading, playing games, whatever makes a perfect snow day for you!  This is amazing for April, let's hope Mother Nature finds her happy place soon!
 

Thank you all for a great meeting on Friday. I don't know about everyone else but that hour goes by like a whirlwind, we seem to be such a busy group of people with so much to share.

 

First things first, it was my absolute pleasure to present our Doug McDonald with a much deserved Paul Harris Fellow. Many of you have known Doug longer than I, so it's no surprise when I say he truly does epitomize the Rotary way. Always on the go and always promoting the good work of Rotary and introducing new people to our Club. Congratulations Doug!  

 

IMPORTANT message! The Tree Planting this coming weekend is on Saturday April 21st.  I'm so sorry for the confusion. My conversations and emails with Area 4 Rotary Clubs and City Hall have been all about doing this on Sunday, I know this because I'm not available Saturday and haven't been for a year...sigh.  So, I'm hoping that you will put on a colourful Stoney Creek parade and join in if you can.  Please let me know if you can make it, then I will pass along our numbers to the organizers. It's Churchill Park, 187 Cline Ave. North, Hamilton. Planting gets underway at 10:00am. Festivities go on until 3:00pm. There will be exhibits and food vendors.  Please wear your bright yellow/green shirts and/or vests so everyone knows where your from, we'll follow up with meeting location details and what to bring, etc.  And hope for dry, warm weather!!

 

During our Club Assembly our Treasurer showed us the updated project contribution list for 2017-2018. This will be updated again after year-end. It's a fantastic tool to share with potential sponsors, new members or anyone interested in what Rotary does in this community and worldwide. We've shared it with our District Governor and Assistant District Governor. They commended us on creating the document and the amount of work that is represented within it.  Well done team!

 

Also shown was the Rotary Strategic Plan 2017-2020 Dashboard.  This document represents the work that has been done by your Strategic Planning committee, in capturing your thoughts and suggestions last year, then tailoring those to best fit the goals and priorities of the Club and its Executive members over the next three years. The intention was to find a high level document that clearly states the goals, a description of measurement and a way to easily track whether we are progressing to attain those goals. We hope you like it.

 

We also reviewed the Rotary Citation Dashboard. This is a document generated by Rotary International based on the annual goals set by each Club President at the start of their year. We are on track for completing all the goals I set for the year, in fact, I set more than the minimum goals required to attain the citation, and we are on track to meet all of them. Way to go team!!!  You will notice that volunteer hours need to be inputted along with some details about donations to the Rotary Foundation. Those will be completed before year-end. We are an active, focused and a vibrant member of Rotary International, consistently meeting their high standards.

 

Our Gala is coming up on May 26th.  Please reach out to everyone you know, tell them about the good work we do and why we are looking for support. Any indication of interest, big or small, is hugely valuable to us so please pass along information. We are happy to follow up if you don't have time.  During the last week of April/first week of May, we will be contacting each of you to confirm your attendance, your gift or your contact information for a lead to support. Thank you, we know we're going to knock this out of the park!!

 

Sending best wishes to those who couldn't make the meeting; I know you were sad to miss your friend Doug receiving his award - and you also missed cake!!

 

Stay safe everyone and particularly those traveling this week, please take care of yourselves.   Have a great week and see most of you Friday!!

 

Best wishes,

 

Tina B.