Chair: Ellen Crowley

 

 

Blessing: Pierre Hoebers

 

O Canada: Susan Ueffing

 

Ellen introduced the Visiting Rotarians Pat and Wade Garrison and Brian Smith and guest Jennie Barnard (Heather Lohr). Thanks for joining us!

 

 

Garth: Happy that we have the Ueffing’s in our club – they give so much to the club and community! It was a very successful weekend with the Polio fundraiser and Hospice fundraiser. Also, his Uncle had been shot down in the war and Garth received a call from BC from his Uncle’s girlfriend’s nephew who has memorabilia he is going to send!

Bill: Thanks to the Ueffing’s for hosting the Polio fundraiser and for Phil for delivering Bill and Dawn’s meals because they couldn’t go as they had a Covid exposure on their flight from Toronto (but are okay!).

 

 

Sue: Happy for successful fundraisers over the weekend and that they made $625 on the Polio fundraiser basket, and Janet Clarke (Peter’s better half) won!

Heather: Happy to have Jennie at the meeting today and happy that John got re-elected and for the all the support that she and John received during the election!

Pat (guest): Happy to be with Rotarians in person again, and thanks for inviting other Rotary clubs to events!

Carl: Happy that his son and grandkids are home to visit after almost two years – spending time out at the cottage with all of them!

 

 

President’s Report: Bill started by giving his thanks to Sue and Joe for hosting the Polio fundraiser on the weekend. Also a reminder about a few dates: next week we have a special lunch meeting to acknowledge honorary members and induct a couple of new ones!, September 11^th is the special strategic planning meeting, and Oakdene Day is on Friday and we’re doing the BBQ (Bill needed a few more volunteers and got them in the meeting!). Welcome guests!

 

 

Valley Faces (Phil): Please everyone put one hour of work into Valley Faces this week – contact any outstanding contracts!! Also, in the next two weeks, committee chairs please write up a blurb on what has changed in the past year and what you’ve been doing, especially in relation to Covid. Pierre also let the club know that Valley Faces will be dedicated to frontline workers this year. The cover will be a collage of photos of frontline workers, but they could use more photos. So, if you have any personal connections to fire departments, emergency services workers, etc, let Pierre know.

 

 

Heather introduced Rick Ramsay who has spearheaded the Strategic Planning Process.

 

 

Rick started off by explaining the definition of strategic planning, which is “simply a set of actions that enable an organization to achieve intended results”. It’s a process that allows the organization to figure out where it’s going, how it’s going to get there and how to know when it’s achieved those goals.

There are many benefits to having a strategic plan including: a focus on what the club has decided is important, helps develop a shared vision, better positioning of the club, and helps direct where future resources will go.

 

 

Strategic Plans also do carry some pitfalls. There has to be ownership of the plan by the club and buy in by the members. It can be an overwhelming process at times especially when considering it annually. It can also take away some flexibility in decision making when considering new projects. So, it is important to be aware of those things as we’re continuing the strategic planning process.

Rick then explained what the committee has done so far. The committee consists of Heather, Gerry, Bill, Pierre, Jessica and himself. The conducted a membership satisfaction survey focused on getting members opinions on culture, membership, meetings, service projects, communications/responsiveness, engagement, value and membership cost. They also did an external scan by conducting personal interviews with community stakeholders like the police, educational organizations, government, services, the Town of Kentville, etc. They will have an interim report in the week before the SWOT meeting.

The next step in the process is to have a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) analysis meeting. This meeting is scheduled for Saturday, September 11 from 9am-noon. A strong attendance from club members is critical! The process for this meeting is to review the input, work on the SWOT analysis from this input, then from the SWOT analysis develop key specific objectives (general priorities for the next three years).

Next the committee takes these results and with the Club’s committees they’ll develop specific actions based on the objectives. Then they will draft a strategic plan to the present to the board. Finally, they will help the board edit and draft a final plan to present to the membership.

 

 

Then Rick opened it up for questions. Greg asked if someone couldn’t make it to the SWOT analysis meeting is there any other way to give input. Rick let him know that yes, they would be sending out the interim report and members could reply to that with feedback.

Heather reminded everyone to sign up for the SWOT meeting through Club runner by August 30!

 

Susan – A quick reminder that the Charter Night Meeting is August 22^nd.

 

 

Started in 1957 a Paul Harris Fellow is an individual who has donated over $1000 to the RI Foundation annual fund, polio fund or Foundation Grant. It is celebrated by a certificate and a pin. Since its inception, 1.6 million individuals have become Paul Harris fellows including such notable names as former US President Jimmy Carter, former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, and polio vaccination developer Jonas Salk.

 

 

See you next week!