The Buzz - September 21, 2015

 
 
This week we hear from Kyle and his Rotary Youth Exchange year in Holland.
 
 
 
 
 
The Buzz -  September 21st, 2015
 
President Tony opened the meeting at 1217pm and welcomed guests Ken Rostad and Kyle Nickel.
Health of the Club – no report
Announcements –
                Need volunteers to help at the Women’s Shelter on Wednesday at 5PM to help spread gravel.
                Tony had sent out a list of greeters for the 4th quarter of the year. Please consult the list and be prepared for your Greeter duty.
                There has been some discussion about changing timing of the annual District conference. The 2016/17 Conference will be held on the May long weekend.
                Membership survey – Dawn provided a snapshot of the membership survey  conducted earlier this year.
                                -abolishing the attendances is not an option.
                                -about 65% of members prefer all lunch meetings; however, 16 of those are retired or semi-retired who are gone from the area between two and five months a year.
                                -there is a willingness to try to have evening meetings part of a lunch/evening combination
                                -to reflect this opportunity for change, the last meeting of each month beginning in January will be an evening meeting with the remainder of the Monday meetings held at 1145am.
                                -format of the evenings meetings are yet to be finalized.
 
Communications chair Dan provided an update from his committee
                -moving to bring more digital communications into the committee – Jenn Stone has been working on our Facebook and Twitter accounts
                -Roger has joined the committee to help producing the Buzz
                New videos from Rotary International are being reviewed and sent to Cable 10 for public airing.
                -Oct. 23 is Polio Day – Rotary.org has lots of great \PR materials to promote the event. Will be working to publicize the event to encourage public contributions.
                -despite several points of contact, support for our Rotary Cares raffle winners is met with very lukewarm receptions from the local papers.
                -working on a new window sign for the hotel foyer
                -working on a Tour of Camrose for the District Governor for October 25th
                --speaking with Odell Olsen from Daybreak about updating the Rotary signs at the entrances to Camrose
                -working to summarize stories about Ron’s activities in Belize, and the Wheelchair project to submit to the Rotarian Magazine
                -following a few articles in the local papers submitted by event participants, there appears to be some misinformation in the community about what Rotary is and what Rotary does in the community. Trying to develop a ‘facts at a glance’ for media outlets.
                -Rotary Cares Raffle 2016 has been sent to AGLC for approval – three weeks ahead of last year.
 
Happy Bucks –
                -Ray H for chef’s table dinner at Stockman’s, plus Guess who’s coming for Dinner experience
                -Maurice – Guess Who’s coming for Dinner at the Henderson’s
                -Grant – swimming in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in two years
                -Roy F. – thoughts of Norway
                -Al  - Emanuel Foundation will be helping with the wheelchairs this year, taking care of the solid-seated chairs and the bathing aides. Items were shipped to Sherwood Park Monday.
                -Dawn – Terry Fox Run (Daybreak out-participated our club 8 to 1), bottle drive for hockey and Hawaii in a few sleeps
                -Tony – tokens for discounted cab rides are in circulation and the process is working well.
 
Guest Speaker – Kyle Nickel – 2014/15 RYE outbound student to Holland
                -Stayed with three host families: Frank & Elly, Herman &  Jose, and Nettie, Luis, Leike & Floor
 
                -What Rotary Youth Exchange taught me/and how I have developed…
                                -there is a difference between being comfortable and being happy
                                -it’s OK to ask for help
                                -how to travel
                                -Failure is part of the process
                                -I have  an International Family
                                -RYE is going to look great on my resume
                                -I developed a fashion sense – I dress better
                                -I have infinite stories to tell…where do I start!
                                -I have an appreciation for service
                                -Lifelong connection to Rotary
                                -I had a whole lot of fun
 
 
                -How Rotary Youth Exchange changed my life…
                                -I have more confidence
                                -appreciation for art – seeing great works of art is different in person than seeing pictures
                                -appreciation for history and the world wars
                                -I have a ‘wanderlust’ – a desire to travel
                                -greater appreciation of Canada
                                -if I could describe RYE in one word, at one time it was “exciting”, but now that word is “TRANSFORMATIVE”
 
 
                                Kyle expressed his deep gratitude to the Rotary Club of Camrose and all the Rotarians who helped him experience the past year in Holland.
                                Donna P. thanked Kyle for his presentation and for his blog, photos and Facebook updates over the past year.
               
                50/50 draw – almost $300 now. Paul Pederson had the lucky ticket, but drew the unlucky Ten of Spades.
 
 
Next Meeting – Monday, September 28 at 1145am at the Best Western Plus Camrose Resort Casino.
 
Guest Speaker – TBA
Greeters – Ken D. and Don R.