Annual General Meeting
 Ring in the new.. Sid hand off to Bill | Our speaker for the AGM, for the final time as President, was Sid Mark. Sid spoke about our club, the successes we have experienced, the challenges overcome and still to overcome, and his experience as our club’s 113th President. |
 Treasurer Nick Cosentino says everything is all right | Sid introduced Nick Cosentino, our club Treasurer, who went over the early draft of the upcoming budget. Finalization of the budget has been deferred by the Board until the end of July as we will have a better understanding of the outcome of the BBQs by then. |
 President Bill loses his tie | Bill Kaufmann, in a tradition for our club and with the assistance of two other enforcers (Eric Bennett and Tim Heaton) ceremoniously cut off the tie of our new President, Bill Avery. |
 The Board....... plus or minus 2% nineteen times out of twenty | Sid Mark passed the meeting over to our new President Bill Avery, who spoke about his new Board. The 2017-2018 Board:
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Below is a summary of accomplishments that Sid reiterated to the club:
I provide some of the information I shared at our Past President`s dinner last month which outlines the impact RCCD is having on our local and international community:
1) Legacy Project – Rotary/Mattamy Greenway project – RCCD financial commitment of $2.5 million out of $5million Rotary commitment will be met June/17. RCCD partnered with 13 Calgary & area rotary clubs along with Parks Foundation Calgary and Mattamy Homes on this successful legacy project (138 km pathway) and a targeted celebration date of Sept.2/17
2) Legacy Project – United Way /City of Calgary/RCCD collaborating on Community Hubs (6) project to reduce poverty over a 5 year period commencing 2017-18 rotary year. RCCD’s financial commitment is $2 million over 5 years.
3) Rotary House – 3 meetings have been held with Calgary Exhibition & Stampede (CE&S) and South Rotary Club to date regarding the construction of a new Rotary House as part of CE&S’s expansion plans. The current Rotary house will no longer exist as the City and CMLC has approved the expansion of 17th Ave which impacts current location of Rotary House. We are in the process of confirming a meeting date with CE&S for an update and tour for some of our RCCD community and business leaders.
4) Major Donations committee – John Boyd, Chair, presented cheques to 8 organizations totalling $175k the RCCD Major donations approved for the 2016-17 rotary year at Tuesday’s luncheon this week. John shared his committee received over $1million in requests from over 25 organizations which the committee vetted.
5) Community Service
5.1 – Small donations committee – Michael Pierson, chair – last year they approved request for 27 organizations totalling just over $50k. They received over 50 requests for funding.
5.2 – Christmas Hamper program – in Dec./16 , this committee headed jointly by George Brookman , Bill Avery, Howie Shikaze, Mark Stiles, Bruce Williams, helped 75 families and 250 family members with gift cards, gifts/teddy bears….double the amount from the previous year. All funds raised and/or donated by our membership.
5.3 – We host 10- 12 small community/school BBQ’s throughout the year. This is led by Bruce Williams, Community Service Director. The BBQ’s are aligned with Stay in School schools that we work with. Bruce has already been asked and committed RCCD to host BBQ’s for Community Hubs kick off with our partners on June 28/17 and Rotary/Mattamy Greenway celebration on Sept.2/17.
5.4 – Senior support in East Village – led by Bob Pearson and his RCCD volunteer team, we host senior’s dinner and dance events on a bi-monthly basis in the East Village area. Budget amount is $20k and replaces the senior’s Xmas event RCCD used to host.
6) World Community Service – this committee has up to 20 RCCD members. Budget amount is approx. $250k - $300k per year. RCCD has demonstrated the ability to leverage our funds on avg. 4 to 1 basis by applying for matching grants and/or engaging other Rotary Clubs on various international projects. Our RCCD WCS committee has a reputation of being a leader within Rotary International for the great work and impact they have created on projects internationally/globally. We are striving to have all of our RCCD committees model the WCS committees in the areas of member engagement, governance , collaboration, knowledge and the impact they create as a result of their committee efforts.
7) Youth -
7.1 - Stay in School (SIS) – over 80 students and 30 RCCD mentors/members currently participating in program. Program is well funded via SIS golf tourney and increased governance in place.
7.2 - Rotary Tom Jackson Stay in School program (RTJSIS) – currently has 13 students in program with 20 RCCD mentors/members. Program is well funded and Board recently approved 3 year plan to increase RCCD member engagement/support for program.
7.3 - Scholarships for Western Canada High School and music scholarships at MRU.
7.4 - RYPEN/RYLA – financial support to send 10 – 14 students to attend youth leadership camps/programs
7.5 - Youth Exchange – in collaboration with WCS, RCCD currently supports outgoing and incoming exchange students.
8) Foundations – TRF and CRCF – While RCCD continues to benefit from Ev Mayhood’s legacy and allow us to fund many of the great initiatives outlined above, there is an opportunity for RCCD members to do more to position RCCD to do more for our community. I think this is an area the LRP committee could support the RCCD Foundations Committee to make more progress in this area.
9) Fundraising – Our biggest fundraiser for RCCD is via the Big BBQ’s at Fort Calgary. Our recent joint partnership with Stampede Entertainment Inc. and CE&S was intended to allow us to raise funds for RCCD on a sustainable basis. Notwithstanding we are not where want to be for this year’s BBQ’s, we should not lose sight of our long term goal for sustainability purposes. Specifically, partnering with a 100 + year company (CE&S) with excellent brand recognition should continue to serve RCCD’s reputation and profile well going forward.
The above is a quick snapshot of the RCCD impact has on our local and international community. The collective impact of our RCCD champions and members is simply amazing and reinforces what “Service Above Self” looks like for RCCD.
Bill spoke about the incoming and returning Board members and will have more to say in his address to the club on July 25, 2017.