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Zoom Meeting Chair: John Lohr O'Canada led by Sue Ueffing Visiting Rotarians: Pete Smith PDG - Port Hawkesbury and his guest Rotarian Peter Akote in Cameroon. Greg Coldwell PDG - New Minas Rotary. Guests: Owen Kidston - outbound exchange student who is back from Germany. Our Guest Speaker today Happy $$: Sue for the gorgeous day and having clothes on the line outside known as "Blowing in the Wind" (get it!!) Wally for the pleasure of seeing Peter Akote as a guest on Zoom from Cameroon - Welcome Peter Guest Speaker - Owen Kidston - sharing about his Student Exchange to Germany Heather introduced Owen, he is a grade 12 student at Horton High School. Owen shared lots of very good photographs of his host families, towns he visited, the countryside he experienced, new friends made through the exchange program, and local customs and food, not too mentioned all the physical activities he did and sports events he attended. He shared that his host family decided after his initial arrival to speak German only, the best way for him to learn the language, and it worked! He loved the local cuisine mostly breads and meats and not too much in vegetables or fruits. Not like what he is used to in the valley here. He attended a private Catholic School and everyone was very conservative including his host family. He was also impressed how punctual everyone is. Owen really liked the public train system (Awesome was the word he used) so easy to get around and go to many different places. He visited several larger towns, stayed in hostels, cities like Hamburg and Cologne. He also experienced the pilgrimage to Lourdes and was glad he did. He spoke a lot of Spanish with his student exchange friends. Owen also participated in local Rotary Community Social programs and events. Owen did admit it was hard to spend Christmas away from home and it was also hard leaving early due to the Covid 19 situation as he could not get close to anyone and give hugs to say Goodbye. Our inbound student Constance thanked Owen for his presentation, she expressed that what he shared she has also experienced being here with us and could relate exactly to what he was saying. THANK YOU Owen - great presentation and we realize you had to cram in a lot in the little time we allotted!! President Phil's report:  Phil extended a special welcome to our guests on Zoom today! Phil referred to the District Meeting this past Thursday where we spent one hour with RI President Mark Maloney - interesting to hear his comments and there was time for questions from the logged on Zoomers. President Maloney highlighted that our areas of focus should be Engagment, Service projects, Fund raising and Grow Rotary, and growing rotary does not necessarily refer to increasing membership. Video recordings can be seen on the following: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzXPQKvTDVfgmXXO32s38Sg?view_as=subscriber to see what all is on our District channel. Phil also shared the following: A package of information will be sent shortly to the Directors and Committee chairs which will include: 1 the revised organizational chart for the Club, 2 the draft terms of reference for the Committees, 3 the strategic plan for the Club . Each Committee will be asked to : 1 complete the terms of reference for the committee, 2 review the strategic priorities in the plan that pertains specifically to that committee and provide feedback on the priorities that are generic to the club. 3 Confirm Chair and Committee members for the upcoming Rotary Year. This information will be used for a Club Assembly in late June. VF Committee Zoom meeting May 18th, 9am, access information will follow via separate email. Program Committee: NOTE - No meeting on Monday, next Zoom meeting (with log-in and special guest details to follow) will be on Tuesday - May 19th - 7pm. Chase the Ace - ticket holder was Greg Trefry but......................It's a Roll-over!! |
