Chair: Phyllis Jarvis

 

 

Blessing: Matthew Connolly

O Canada: Susan Ueffing

 

Phyllis introduced the visiting Rotarian Peter Smith and guest Krista Noel (guest speaker). Thanks for joining us!

 

 

Garth: Happy that we had a great Strategic Planning meeting on the weekend! Also, he had a great weekend visiting friends he hasn’t seen since the beginning of the pandemic and visiting Annapolis Royal and taking in a number of historical events.

Ellen: Happy for a successful Radiothon last week, and happy to announce the total funds raised so far for their CT for Life campaign is $433,000! Yay!

Rick: Happy to have had such a great strategic planning session – he put in $18 happy dollars, one for each person who attended.

Chris: Put in $20 happy dollars, one for every year since his daughter successfully got out of New York City on September 11, 2001. She was working just across the Hudson River on that day, and her hotel was in one of the towers. She managed to cross the border back into Canada the following day.

Craig: Read a “Rotary Ralph” story about flying a kite at the beach, from an old Spokesperson. He was inspired to bring it back based on the “Harry at the beach” exercise at the strategic planning session!

 

 

Bill: Got to visit Lunenburg on the long weekend, and Dawn got a surprise phone call that her sister was in Mahone Bay for a visit. The early morning phone call gave her a fright but she was happy to see her sister.

Sue: Happy that she won a “Knickering” tournament (sorry, I have no idea what this is – I even tried to look it up online!), and that she is visiting her family in Ottawa again on the weekend.

 

Phyllis made two quick announcements: one – that there were Rotary t-shirts for purchase, she just needed to check on the cost (that info to come soon). Two – that she had an extra pie plate and carrier! If anyone was missing one, it must have been from a recent event.

 

President’s Report:  Bill said his quick thanks to Rick for a great strategic planning session on Saturday, and reminded everyone of Charter Night on September 27^th at KenWo.

 

 

Secretary’s Report: Rick presented one piece of correspondence from Michael O’Leary – a card with thanks for the scholarship – he has started at Acadia this fall. (Former club member Rea O’Leary’s son).

 

Pierre introduced the guest speaker, Krista Noel the coordinator for the Nova Scotia Invasive Species Council. One of Rotary International’s areas of focus is the environment, so we look forward to learning more about invasive species and what we can do to help.

 

 

Krista began by explaining who the NS Invasive Species council is and what they do. They have three main areas of work – they do outreach and communications, research projects (for example on the impact of an invasive species on the native environment), and reporting and mapping (where invasive species are, how many, etc.).

 

Krista explained that invasive species have to have three characteristics: they are organisms that are non-native, cause harm to the native environment and spread quickly. They can be animals, pathogens (bacteria, fungus, nematodes), or plants. Invasive species can arrive in their non-native environment in many ways including shipping, planting in gardens, releasing unwanted pets, etc. They can spread naturally but more often they are spread by humans, intentionally or un-intentionally.

 

Invasive species impact the environment in many ways: reduced native biodiversity, increased competition for resources, increased predation, harmful to human health, harmful to infrastructure, harmful to recreation.

 

Some examples of invasive species in Nova Scotia can be seen in the photos below.

 

 

Krista explained that eradication of invasive species costs a lot, and is intensive in terms of time and resources. So prevention and reducing the spread of invasive species is the best option. The NS Invasive species council has a few programs to help with these goals: “Clean, Drain, Dry”, “Don’t Let it Loose”, “Play, Clean, Go”, “Buy local, burn local”. They also have an app called iNaturalist where people can take pictures and report the things they are seeing in their local area. The next project they have upcoming is boot brush stations to help make sure any invasive species would be brushed off boots before moving on to a new trail.

 

Peter Clarke thanked Krista for her terrific presentation and suggested that as an agricultural community this was of real interest to the club.

 

Ellen – there is a centurion committee meeting next week after the business meeting.

Phil – Valley faces news – the selling is over and the books will be distributed the week after Thanksgiving. It looks like we will have reached or exceeded our goal of $140,000!!

 

Major Donor – The Rotary Foundation recognizes individuals or couples whose combined giving reaches US$10,000, regardless of the gift designation. This recognition level can be achieved only through personal contributions. Since Rotary’s Major Donor recognition began there have been over 30,000 Major Donors.

Arch Klumph Society – Donors whose cumulative gifts total US$250,000 or more are recognized as Arch Klumph Society members. Recognition includes an induction ceremony and your picture and biography in the Arch Klumph Society interactive gallery at the Rotary International headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, USA. Members also receive invitations to society events, along with membership pins and crystals that commemorate their giving level. Since the society’s creation in 2004, there have been over 700 Arch Klumph Society members.

Are you interested in becoming a Major Donor or AKS member?

 

Krista drew the lucky ticket… Peter won… but didn’t get the ace, so it’s a roll over!!

 

 

See you next week!