The Rotary Club of Calgary comprises professional and community leaders brought together in fellowship to make a better future.
Birthdays:
Vern Kimball
March 18
Brian Guichon
March 20
Doug Webb
March 22
George Edworthy
March 24
Ralph Lundberg
March 24
Terry McMahon
March 26
Message from President Madeleine
Well our clocks did spring forward last Sunday –here in Calgary that doesn’t mean we can necessarily rely on warmer weather following shortly behind; but I am certainly hopeful that spring is around the corner!
At the start of this Rotary year we established five Critical Success Factors, one of which is: Membership is constantly growing, helped by our members’ pride in being a sustaining inspirational investor in the community and a significant contributor to the enhancement of the Rotary brand in the communities we serve.
Later this month we’ll report to you on our 1st annual Member Satisfaction Survey. If you didn’t get it, please let me know – the voice of every single one of you is important!
As we’ve emerged from the pandemic and had some excellent in-person club meetings at the Ranchmen’s Club, and have a host of service and fund-raising activities to choose from, I trust you will want to share the advantages of membership with some of your friends, family members and colleagues. There’s no doubt our membership growth is the key path to the long-term success of our club.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to steward it this year.
Calgary Reads Big Book Sale Coming Soon
Manon Mitchell
We are now seven (7) short weeks before the Calgary Reads Big Book Sale begins and there are some key things we can do RIGHT NOW! Mark your calendar as the entire event (from setup to take down) is from April 28 to May 24, 2023. Think about making time to volunteer in some capacity (Sort books, tidy up book tables, support volunteers in the hospitality room, tally book purchases, help with parking, help set up banners, process payments at the cash out desk, help with “stuff a truck” events).
All the information you need has been clearly documented on the Big Book Sale website at
You can VOLUNTEER, DONATE or BUY books! Get involved and learn how by going to the website, reading your Rotary emails and District Digest and attending Club Meetings.
Promoting the Calgary Reads Big Book Sale
Manon Mitchell and the Calgary Reads Big Book Sale Transition Team & Committee
How do we expect to attract 1,200 volunteers and over 14,000 buyers to our event? Everyone, yes including you, is expected to promote it in some way. How can we promote our Big Book Sale?
You can register to volunteer and let people around you know that you are doing this. Right now, it is important for you to familiarize yourself with the event, which is why you need to go to the website and read about it. Don’t forget to REGISTER to be a volunteer. The volunteer slots will be available soon and they will fill up.
You can help is by collecting books and boxing them up to deliver in April when the team is ready to accept your donations. Maybe get everyone at work to donate! All the donation instructions are on the website of course! Check out https://bigbooksale.webflow.io/donate-books and scroll down to the “Host a Book Drive” section. There is a book drive kit to download.
You can also edit your signature block and add the Big Book Sale image. The more people know about this the better. Different email applications have different procedures so you may want to ask someone for help in customizing your signature. If you want to be a super geek, you can even have the image link directly to the big book sale web page.
If you’re on Social Media check out the Calgary Reads Big Book Sale FB page https://www.facebook.com/calgaryreadsbigbooksale. We’re also on Instagram and Twitter! Just do a search. Please comment, share, like, follow and all those interesting actions we do online!
Communications
As this is a major project for our club and we wish to continue the great success that Calgary Reads has created over the past 18 years, we will be communicating different information every week, via email, at club meetings and in the COG and District Digest.
Please read this information so that you are well informed and can jump on the right opportunity at the right time.
We are so proud to be working alongside over 1,000 community members and show how Rotarians are people of action! We are strongly motivated by a desire to see children grow up as avid readers, as we all know that this is one of the major levers in poverty reduction.
Volunteering at the Calgary Reads Big Book Sale
Manon Mitchell
The Calgary Reads Big Book Sale is our club’s big service project and we expect all club members to participate. Funds raised from this project will be designated for Early Childhood Literacy projects/programs in Calgary.
It is time to register as a volunteer. Click HERE and enter your information. Of course, you can invite your family and friends to do so. Right now, 900 of the over 1,200 volunteers needed are registered. So, get on it NOW!
This is our Club’s newest and biggest service project, and everyone is expected to contribute in some way. Just like when we ran the big bar-b-q’s, we expect a high percentage (over 90%) of our club members to volunteer.
Our Club’s Volunteering Priorities
Our club is directly responsible for the following activities:
Volunteer Hospitality Room (All days of the set up and sale) – Steacy Pinney
Cash Management (All days of the sale) – Lavender Neff
You can contact the Rotarian responsible for more information or to inform them of your commitment. We need to fill these positions with Rotarians NOW.
Please contact any of the above Rotary team leads to sign up. Remember that you still have to register as a volunteer on the Big Book Sale website.
So …
1) SIGN UP as a volunteer and
2) CHOOSE an area from the 5 listed and email your name to the team lead.
Let’s get on this NOW and be ready for the biggest book sale around!
Murdoch Manor BBQ
By Diane Macdonald
For several years, Steve Stein has organized Rotary Barbeques for the folks living at Murdoch Manor, a low-income apartment building near Fort Calgary. The most recent one was at the end of February and Steve reports that it was a great success. Almost 100 residents were fed pizza, from Jon’s Pizza in Douglasdale, and ice cream (always a favourite!) by a group of volunteers from our Club. The local Ron McNeil band played, people danced and everyone had fun!
The next barbeque is tentatively planned for early May, with our own Tim Heaton’s band playing. Watch for an email looking for volunteers to help at that one. This is one small example of our Club’s service to our community.
Mexico House Build!
Dan Doherty
Some of our members have participated in Homes of Hope in the past. It is quite an amazing experience to build a house in 2 days. Yes you read this correctly … 2 days!
A few of you have mentioned that you still may like to join us building Homes of Hope on April 17th to April 20th
We are going to be building 3 Homes for some incredibly worthy families. Your cost is to get yourself to San Diego on Monday April 17th by 2pm. I’ll bus you into our compound in Rosarito. We will build Tuesday and Wednesday, and I will have you back at the San Diego airport by noon Thursday to catch a flight home or you can opt to enjoy San Diego. You can register with the following link: https://ywamsdb.force.com/hoh/s/login/SelfRegister?gr=a1b8W000002coyb
Click the Read More to review the full instructions on how to self register and to even pay your personal fees, really making everything a lot easier. The following is the instructions and a few other details that may help you out as well, one being where to send any Canadian cheques. The personal fees can be summarized in $489 USD as follows: Adult Fees $429 USD and Additional Days $60 USD.
We look forward to working with you. Please contact me to inform me that you are registered and forward this on to any other friends that would like to join us.
If you are unable to build with us but would like to contribute to the Home Build Lets chat about how to make a donation. Would love to answer any questions that you have! Call me at (403) 519-5796! Hasta luego y muchas gracias! Together We Are People of Action Building Comm-unity
Recently our District has encouraged clubs to formulate a crisis management plan. We have adapted the template provided and identified specifics pertaining to our club. The Crisis Management Plan is available on Club Runner and it is also accompanied by a Crisis Management Reporting form.
All Rotarians are expected to familiarize themselves with this document and procedure as situations may happen to any one of us.
The Plan and Form are located on Club Runner at: Organization > Documents > Forms and are planned to be reviewed and approved by the board at the next meeting on March 16
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