The Rotary Club of Calgary comprises professional and community leaders brought together in fellowship to make a better future.
Birthdays:
Nabeel Ramji
November 8
Lisa van Hemert
November 13
Andrew Buskell
November 14
Franco Savoia
November 18
Keith Visser
November 18
Tom Keenan
November 19
Dave Leslie
November 19
A Message from President Madeleine
What an excellent meeting we had last week! Our speaker was the new CEO of WestJet, Alexis van Hoensbroech. He was very informative about their priority business streams, the impact of choosing Calgary as their only hub airport and the significance of aviation to a city’s economy and connectedness.
One of the critical success factors for our club, identified by last year’s Long Range Planning group, was to “connect members with leaders, change-makers and influencers” and our Program Committee (assisted by Rick Erven who made the initial connection) certainly did that!
Another of those success factors is to have programming that is vibrant and informative ensuring members feel connected by service and friendship. The turnout of club members and their guests was over 60 and the atmosphere, with so many feeling so connected, was great.
Watch out for interesting speakers for our next two zoom meetings – definitely well worth attending. And our last in-person meeting for November (on the 22nd) will feature a presentation from our District Governor Steve Steavitt. Please do get your tickets as early as possible!
Update: Calgary Reads Big Book Sale
By Manon Mitchell
As you may have heard President Madeleine state recently, our Board of Directors has agreed to accept the gift of the Calgary Reads Big Book Sale, offering our club an amazing opportunity to get involved in the community and alongside the community.
For those of you who have not had the pleasure and excitement of seeing this sale in action, it involves collecting used books (some restrictions apply e.g. encyclopedias) from ALL CALGARIANS, organizing those books just like a bookshop and selling those books at a hugely discounted prices to ALL CALGARIANS. All of this happens at the Calgary Curling Club on Memorial Drive, next to the Field of Crosses.
Last May, over 200,000 books were collected and the event raised just over $425,000 in support of Calgary Reads Early Literacy initiatives in the community. Our club is looking forward to supporting Early Childhood Literacy programs and projects in the future.
Our club has been gifted the stewardship of an amazing event. What a wonderful opportunity to get engaged again and not only raise funds but also oversee the grant process with potential leveraging in support of Early Childhood Literacy initiatives in our community.
We held several Townhouse meetings in May to open the discussion to club members. Now it’s time to start planting seeds and chatting about how we will shadow and invite our members to the table to get moving on this big event. It’s not too early to mark your calendar and watch for engagement opportunities as we prepare for the April/May 2023 big event!
The great news is that the core of volunteers, whom you’ll have the pleasure to meet, are thrilled that the Big Book Sale will continue and that they will continue to play a key role in the handling of the books as none of us have ever run a book sale. We will work alongside these amazing volunteers to provide support where needed. They have already expressed a need for support in 4 key areas:
Welcoming Crew: assist with people arriving at the book sale – direct traffic, welcome people
Cashing out: manage payments (cash/credit/debit)
Hospitality room: there are over 1,200 volunteers who work the book sale and they have a special space to hang out on breaks. The hospitality room can be configured any way we want, providing snacks and beverages etc…
Stuff a Truck events: Community members are asked to donate their books preferably at the Calgary Curling Club, however, to make this easy a truck can be parked in an easy to access lot and community members can drop off their books there.
Of course, there are opportunities to host bar-b-q’s for the volunteers at the Curling Club and participate in the communications efforts required to advertise the Calgary Reads Big Book Sale in all four quadrants of our city.
At this time the Calgary Reads Big Book Sale website is being built and we are thrilled to announce that the Westman Foundation has agreed to continue their sponsorship of the event for the next three (3) years. We believe there are other sponsorship opportunities we can explore and add to this.
Mark your calendar NOW. The event will run from April 26 to May 26 and is divided into two parts: 1) book collection and setup 2) book sale and take down. More details will be forthcoming as we begin this wonderful stewardship of a great event. The Calgary Reads Big Book Sale Transition committee will be meeting soon to sketch out next steps. ALL CLUB MEMBERS will be asked to participate in this club wide service project.
If you have any questions, you may contact any of the following:
Steacey Pinney - Chair/Steve Allan Vice-Chair of the CRBBS Transition Committee
Trevor Axworthy: Board Representative
Manon Mitchell: Communications Director
Legacy Projects/Funding Review Task Force
By Randy Topolnitsky, Chair, Legacy Projects/Funding Review Task Force
The Board of Directors has requested a task force be created to review major funding provided by our club. As chair of this Task force, let me introduce you to the members of this committee: Michael Broadhurst, Bryan Pinney, Bill Redmond, Franco Savoia, Charles Pratt, Barb Young, Yegana Alasgarova, Tom Loucks, Steve Allan, Laurene Wilson, Howie Shikaze, Manon Mitchell, Madeleine King (ex-officio), Craig Henderson (ex-officio), Dennis Tran (Vice-Chair), Randy Topolnitsky (Chair).
Since the first meeting of the Task Force on October 4th, during Phase 1 of the project, everyone has been very busy reviewing the rich history of RCCD community funding. Both new and long-term members of the Club have been enlightened to the impact the Club has made on the Community and thought processes that have gone into making funding decisions. Many RCCD members have done some great work through the years on Legacy Projects, Major Donations, Small Donations, World Community Service committees and have spent a lot of time planning and stewarding the funds into the community and abroad.
The Task Force is now ready to embark on Phase 2, the Strategy Development phase of the project. This phase is where the real work for the Task Force begins. In this phase the framework for future funding and strategic alignment will be developed. RCCD members will have the opportunity to get engaged in the process. The Task Force will actively be looking for Club Member input and feedback at various stages throughout this phase as their work proceeds. If you are interested, make sure you participate in the opportunity when it is presented.
Uganda Honey for Sale
By Manon Michell
In September, Rotarians Lori Forand and Manon Mitchell visited the Kalisizo region of Uganda and toured two projects sponsored by our club, one of which was Michael Broadhurst and Gerard D’Mello’s Community Development project.
They met with recipients of the project. One of whom started honey production thanks to training and a grant of bees from the project. In thanks to Rotary, he offered a 2 L container of beautiful and delicious Ugandan honey. Of course it tastes different than the commercial honey we buy at the grocery store as the bees pollinate very different trees than here (Jackfruit, coffee, vanilla as examples).
We were also gifted a chicken but it was auctioned off at the Rotary club that evening for $47 USD so sorry to disappoint you … no chicken.
Manon has repackaged the honey in 250 ml jars and if you’d like some just email her at manonyyc@gmail.com. There are 4 jars available. How much? Simply make a donation to the Rotary Club of Calgary NOTE: World Community Service for Ugandan projects.
Immigrants of Distinction Award - Madeleine King
By Manon Michell
On Thursday November 3rd, the 25th annual Immigrants of Distinction Awards were presented on the stage of the Jack Singer Concert Hall at Arts Commons.
The Immigrants of Distinction Awards(IDA) is an awards gala dedicated to the remarkable contributions immigrants and refugees have made to create a strong and prosperous Canada. The annual awards ceremony uses the power of storytelling to recognize how Calgary’s mosaic of ethnicities, languages, cultures, and talents has enriched and positively shaped our communities.
Our Club President Madeleine King was a finalist in the Lifetime Achievement category and was a winner!
Congratulations Madeleine! Your impact on the Calgary Community continues to be felt through your many contributions as a great community leader.
In Person Meetings- Why Bother?
By Manon Michell
As we slowly return to doing things in person, one might post this question: if we’ve been meeting on Zoom all this time, why go back to an in person meeting? There are several answers to this and those who attend in person have experienced all of this. The benefits of In Person meetings are many.
Firstly, there are many nuances in body language which you DO NOT get on Zoom meetings and these greatly enhance the communication process between individuals. This richly enhances the fellowship experience and this cannot be duplicated on zoom.
Secondly it is an opportunity to meet and connect with people whom you have never met or have not met in a while. No one has a monopoly on where they sit and most of the time you get to sit with folks that you were meant to sit with. The relationships you build and the networking that presents itself are unique experiences with great value and therein lies one of the biggest benefits for Rotarians; it is a strong reason why people join Rotary: to meet and chat and connect with like-minded people and in the process move forward in business and in life.
Finally, the benefits of eating with others has been researched extensively and according to the University of Oxford“the more often people eat with others, the more likely they are to feel happy and satisfied with their lives.”
The reasons above clearly underscore why YOU SHOULD connect with your Rotary Club community and attend an IN PERSON meeting as often as your work schedule will allow it. You are part of our Rotary family. We miss you and would love to see you in 3D soon!
What do you think about our Foundations?
By Manon Mitchell
Our Foundations committee would love to chat with you and find out what you think about how we engage our members around the topic of Foundations. On October 18th, Craig Henderson, David Bromwich and Manon Mitchell provided a presentation all out the impact our Foundations have allowed us, as a club, to generate in our community and around the world.
You will be receiving an email and a phone call from members of the Foundations Committee to have a chat about our Foundations and to hear what YOU have to say, what YOU think about our Foundations. Of course, this is an opportunity for YOU to have your questions answered especially if the topic of Foundations is foreign to you, or you don’t know much about them. It’s all about learning how to better communicate on this topic.
You’ll receive an email and phone call this week at the latest. Let’s hear what YOU have to say!
CRCF Pin Recipients- November 1, 2022
What is an Invocation?
By Manon Michell
A Rotary Club meeting can be structured any way the club wants. Of course, there are traditional aspects we continue doing for a variety of reasons, such as singing O’Canada, introducing guests and celebrating our Rotary family members’ birthdays.
What about the invocation? What is that and why should you volunteer to provide one at a club meeting?
An invocation is a traditional prayer for the support, counsel, or indulgence of an almighty power upon the works of a body of people such as our Rotary Club. Rotary is a non-denominational organization so the invocation can be representative of the person who is delivering their thoughts. It can be as simple and expressing thanks for the blessings we experience each day. once again this can be a very personal message a Rotarian can deliver. It can be quite generic and express our gratitude for living right here in Calgary in an amazing city, province country. It can also reflect the individual’s faith.
Some club members create very eloquent and lengthy invocations and therein lies the beauty of this. You get to share what you feel is important, and sometimes, the shorter the better! Sharing an invocation at our club meetings is a gift you make to others, offering your perspectives, your humanity, your vulnerability. And it can be very simple: a passage in a book you read that made you think; your reflections on a quote you heard; a passage of scriptures in your chosen faith.
Finally, when you choose to provide an invocation, it is an opportunity for club members to get to know you and this is one of the key reason people join Rotary: to get to know, to network, to connect with like-minded people
We invite all of you to offer an invocation at least once a year. When Ryan Klink sends out the call for volunteers, choose to offer an invocation and gift your thoughts in service to the club.
Proudly Presenting Our Corporate Members
COG Staff - November 8, 2022
Editor:
Andrea Serink & Diane Macdonald
Contributors:
Manon Mitchell, Ralph Lundberg, Randy Topolnitsky and Bill Kaufmann.
Rotary Club of Calgary - Chartered April 1914 as Club #949
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