John Bathurst introduced Dave Hamilton as the 2020-21 District 5040 DG who acted to install our club’s 2020-21 Board. In his introduction John referred to a favourite quote, “Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
Dave expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to install our Board. He spoke about the need to be change agents in Rotary as we move forward. North American member number are decreasing; it’s time to start a Rotary revolution! We all need to be willing to make significant changes where needed to encourage membership. From there he proceeded to install the 2020-21 Board: Gerry Glazier as President, and then the remaining Board Officers and Directors as a group. All swore that they will fulfill the responsibilities of their respective office to the best of their ability and in accordance with our club. See above for the list of Board members.
Our Club has been in very good hands, and is now again in good hands with Gerry. Looking forward to working with all for the coming year.
Gerry took over as Chair for the remainder of the meeting:
As they say on the east coast, today is a LARGE day!
He is delighted with the incoming board. As a group, they represent the diversity of Vancouver and our club. All will receive their pins in August, hopefully at an in-person meeting. The Board Operations Manual will be distributed soon. The July meeting has been cancelled to give everyone some time to digest the material and enjoy a little more relaxed time.
Really happy with Wayne Fraser coming in as President Elect. Wayne will be leading the Administration Committee that is responsible for all club administration activities, including Fellowship, member attendance and morale, program (that includes speakers), club bulletin (The Rotor), and anything else related to club service.
On the social side, Milton Kiang has jumped into the fray with our first COVID framed social at the pub. Katherine Copeland has lined up a couple of BBQs at Trev Deeley to raise funds for youth programs.
Thomas Reppchen & Brian Street will be taking over as co-chairs of community service.
The Public Image Committee, with Saarika Varma as Chair in partnership with Brian Gusko are doing a great job. Active in working towards upgrading our website and social media. Each committee will be responsible to provide snippets of info on a regular basis to ensure our content is fresh.
All in all, looking forward to a great year. We have a rich history to share that will provide some context for everything we do.
COVID has certainly been a challenge and continues to be so. At this point, we have no idea when we’ll be able to meet again in-person. It will be discussed with the Board as well as in consultation with our Past Presidents Committee that Bill Davidson will Chair. Certainly want to be careful and, most importantly, take care of one another.
Gerry would like to see a more aggressive agenda to bring Foundations to the fore. Sharing the work that the various Foundations support is important. Our club has 4 members who have taken the grant training and are ready to go for both district and global grants, should any committee wish to take advantage.
A new members reception will be held as soon as we can.
Peter Clarke helped get us basketball uniform crests as the official sponsors of the boys team at Britannia.
In closing, paraphrasing one of Gerry's favourite artists, Leonard Cohen, in every problem there are cracks that let the light shine through. Let’s keep working as Rotarians to make the world a better place.
