O Canada led by Sue

 

Bill welcomed everyone to the meeting including our guest Rotarian and District Governor Ian Doyle

 

 

Rod is happy that a 26 foot U-Haul is loaded, the house is empty and tomorrow he starts travelling to Calgary

 

Phyllis wishes Rod well and wishes him back! Also, she and Wally had a great trip to Newfoundland to visit Wally’s mom. She is doing well and they were happy for the visit.

 

Sue is happy Joost had a group of his friends at the cottage on the weekend. There was a fine showing of fireworks and excellent meals prepared by semi-pro chefs!!

 

Heather is happy John became a justice of the peace and performed his first wedding at White Point Beach.

 

Kelly is happy NS is reporting no active cases of COVID-19 again for the second time since March.

 

Illnesses: Sadly, Hope Chickoski is in hospital and the prognosis is not good. The medical team is giving her morphine to keep her comfortable. Phyllis is staying in touch with Hope’s family.

 

Ellen introduced Ian Doyle. He is a family dentist for 40+ years, graduating from Dalhousie, and a part-time instructor. His volunteer resume is huge and diversified from Parish Councilor to Fiddler’s Marathon. He has served as Chair of Dental Boards both for the Province and Cape Breton Island. Ian is a long-time Rotarian and our current District Governor. He has made a huge contribution abroad, participating in nine dental missions. He is married with three children. We welcome Ian to our club.

 

Ian was pleased to attend our meeting and said it was his first meeting of the Island of Cape Breton since becoming Governor. To add to his bio, he was born in Halifax, but raised in Cape Breton. He was a teacher for 3 years and a dentist for over 40 years.

 

Ian gave a very informative slide presentation introducing our club to the Rotary International President, Holgar Knacck from Germany and his leadership team. The Theme for this year is “Rotary Opens Opportunities” You’ll note the graphics in Ian’s presentation are not the usual Rotary branding, but those of the colours of Germany in homage to our new RI President.

Cease the opportunity, there are many ways Rotarians can step up and contribute even during a pandemic. We are reminded to live in the year, but keep an eye to the future. This is why strategic planning is important. In bringing new members to our club, remember not every member is a fit for our club, but there are enough Rotary clubs available that there is a fit for everyone in Rotary.

 

Next Ian introduced us to our district leadership team. Note a new position has been added this year: Conference Director, in anticipation of moving conferences to larger centers in the future (to accommodate more individuals). Our district theme is LIVE Rotary: “L” listen and learn; “I” impact and inclusion; “V” vision and value; and “E” environment and enjoy Rotary. He walked us through the 6 District initiatives: 1) redistricting, 2) TLC, 3) District 7820 Systemic Racism Task Force, 4) End Polio Tulip Campaign, 5) Rotary Atlantic Virtual Conference (October 24, 2020), and 6) Building resilience through stronger volunteers.

 

 

Bill began by thanking Ian for attending our meeting and sharing his insights with the club.

He then recollected our guest speaker of last week and the sad story of Gladys this week who could have benefited by the service. Secondly, Khayriye Hayani has been wanting to have her Mother, and younger brother and sister join her in Canada. The Kentville Baptist Church has stepped up to sponsor them. To help with the cause, Khayriye is doing some baking to raise funds. (Many know first-hand what a wonderful cook she is!!!). A separate email will be circulated with more details to the club.

 

The Board met on Tuesday. Highlights include the cheque presentation for $23,000 to Valley Search and Rescue; the Kentville Club will be receiving a citation for 2019-20; and the NKEC graduation ceremonies were very successful. On the financial side, there are a few loose ends to tie up before year end financials can be completed. It was also decided that the president, secretary and treasurer revisit the budget (which was prepared in March) in light of what we know of the pandemic now and possible impacts it may have, before presenting it to the new board for approval. Bill presented Flower Cart with a cheque for $17,000 before the meeting was adjourned.

 

As club president, many emails are received throughout the year. Bill will acknowledge the incoming emails and delegate to the committee responsible for decision and action.

 

Bill’s theme is participation and engagement. Each week as part of the Spokeperson, your commitments are provided at the end of the newsletter. Committees were reorganized this year and we welcome new participation on any committee. Please let us know if you’d like to be part of any other committees.

 

Secretary’s Report: nothing more to report

 

 

Tulip Coordinator (Phil): Our club sold 22 boxes. Please get you money in the Chris Maynard’s office before the 31^st. Our Club raised $550 for the End Polio Tulip Campaign. As well, we raised almost $2500 at the Polio Dinner event held at the Ueffing’s cottage.

 

Rotary Clubs of Kings County Charitable Foundation (RCKCCF) (Phil): Includes both the Kentville and Mud Creek Clubs. It was incorporated in 2007 and operates as a society. The Board is made up of Past Presidents. Click on the Kings County Charitable Foundation link on our Website to learn more. If you know of a charitable community organization that could use funds to support a project of more than $10,000. Please spread the word that the RCKCCF is calling for proposals. A link to the application is also available on our website. Also please save the date October 28, 2020 (at KenWo) to hear presentations from the five short listed projects. There will be a chance for a social as well!

 

Rotary Foundation (Phil): you will note a weekly Rotary Foundation Minute at our meetings and it will appear as news story in the Spokesperson. See this week’s message in our news stories above.

 

World Service (Elva): Our world service committee is a joint committee of Kentville, Middleton, Mud Creek, New Minas, and St-Pierre-et-Miquelon. Current projects include South Africa early childhood education (in lock down due to COVID 19) and a possible water sanitation project; with the District the Mobile Medical Unit project in Brazil is completed, the Kangaroo Care project in Uganda has been approved, the Labrador project to purchase 2 mobile units for dialysis has been approved and the Manila literacy project is approved. The Armenia project have received their monies, just waiting on implementation. We are supporting a global grant in Long Island New York for the purchase of PPE (US$50,000) and we are waiting on approval for this project. Note we do not have a financial commitment towards this project, our role is as an international partner. We have provided US$2,500 towards an Ultrasound simulator in Ghana (for education purposes) and have declined a few other asks for various reasons.

For 2020-21 the committee is looking at a community assessment to see if the Valley has particular needs that could be served by global grants.

 

Programs (Ellen): Please note there will not be a meeting on Monday due to the holiday. A meet up is planned for August 5 with the Town Mayor to discuss the bridge project and other infrastructure plans; Rick Graham’s classification talk is planned for August 10 and we are working on securing a link to the Online Fundraising presentation for the 17^th.

 

Persons with Disabilities (Jeff): This is a joint committee between Kentville and Mud Creek. At a recent meeting two request for tuition support were granted to students of Landmark East entering grade 3. The year end draft financials were reviewed at the meeting and the committee will end the year with a surplus in both the restricted and non-restricted accounts.

 

Valley Faces of Business (Rick G and Karen): We are currently behind in sales and need all hands-on deck to push this number as high as possible. If we don’t make our sales the club will have two options: a) have a fundraiser to meet the shortfall or b) cut funding to our programs. Editorials will be cut back a little this year to make the most efficient use of space.

Of note: During COVID the government has stepped up to help non-profit organizations who have suffered a loss due to COVID-19. It may be possible to access funds through Kings County. It is worth investigation before cutting funds to programs.

 

Chase the Ace – Chase the Ace unavailable today – stay tuned.

 

Our meeting ended with the 4 Way Test led by Bill....

 

PLEASE NOTE: there will not be a meeting next Monday due to the holiday. Instead plan to join us of our Zoom meet-up on the 5^th of August at 6pm!!!