Club Assembly Oct 28 focusing on Foundations and Membership
Madeleine King
President Bill welcomed 44 members and one guest (membership applicant Barbara Tolevski) to the first Club Assembly of the year. The front of house volunteers were thanked: Steacy Pinney, Bill Redmond, Dave Macdonald and Franco Savoia.
Past Chair Foundations Committee Sid Marks gave an impactful invocation about the wonderful effect of donating to our foundations.
Happy Bucks moments included surviving an extremely late night supporting the Blue Jays – and hopes for their future success!
For the nomination of the club president nominee, President Bill let us know the nominating committee has met but there is a short delay for the announcement which will be coming soon.
Foundations
Rick Erven, Chair of the club’s Foundations Committee, presented facts and figures about the history, grants and purposes of the two Rotary foundations through which our members’ donations support Rotary’s good works.
The Rotary Foundation is Rotary International’s trust fund; it has a long history funding international projects (and some local ones) supported by clubs in every country. Its Global Grants play a major role in leveraging our club funding for the international projects in which we are involved. To donate see the website: https://my.rotary.org/en/donate
The Calgary Rotary Clubs Foundation (CRCF) was set up in the 1970s to steward the endowment funds of Calgary clubs so that the capital would be preserved and would grow with the income being available to fund whatever charitable projects and services the clubs wished to provide. To donate see the website: https://calgaryrotaryfoundation.ca/contribute Both foundations have excellent track records.
Charitable giving is core to Rotary’s mission as donations enable all the good work in which our club is involved.
The subsequent Q&A session provided interesting discussions ranging from District grants and Global Grants from TRF (The Rotary Foundation) all the way to the possible need for the club to develop a new annual fund-raiser that would bind members in service and fellowship.
Membership
Peter Harrison, nobly pinch-hitting for Membership Director Craig Henderson (although not a committee member), presented the following facts and figures:
Our membership at the start of this Rotary year (July 1) was 125 active members.
Our goal as set by our membership committee is 142 members by the end of this Rotary year.
More members means more opportunity to have an impact on our community and the world, and more chances to expand our network and our reach. It also ensures we have enough membership fees to support our paid staff. Not very many clubs have paid staff and fewer still have staff like Jo-ann, Tracy and Iman.
We, of course, lose members each year for a variety of reasons. On average, we lose 14.3% of our membership each year which is in line with the North American average, so we’re pretty typical in that sense.
Taking membership loss into account, we would need to add 37 new members this year to reach our goal. Thus far, we have added 6 including recent approvals.
We need all members to be engaged in encouraging prospective members appreciative of our club.
Questions ranging from speed in processing applications to how the process currently works. This part of the program finished with a table exercise answering the following questions:
- What part of being a Rotarian am I most proud of?
- What is my favourite way to participate as a Rotarian?
- Who are the non-Rotarians in my life who would be a good fit in our club?
My table came up with the following:
- I am proud to impact so many through my roles in Rotary; Rotary leverages (amplifies) my personal impact
- Being a member of this club is my way to give back; I have a good life and for that I’m grateful to so many that it spurs me to want to give back
- The club has supported my interests
- I enjoy meeting and networking with fellow members
President Bill thanked the speakers; the 50/50 draw was won by Terry McMahon who drew a ball out of Bill’s sack which we all thought was the winning white ball but sadly turned out to be yellow instead!
Next meeting Nov 4 – Jason Kenney on trade relations – should be a very lively meeting!
