Rotary Meeting - November 25, 2013

Posted by Brandie Lea

Rotary Meeting November 25, 2013

President Patrick Bilyk began the meeting at 12:15

There are still shirts available for $30 from Pat to support High River.

Senior’s Dinner - Joanna Kappel

We will have about 420 seniors, we are a bit down from last year’s 450.

It will take place on Dec 8 at the Lodge.

This Saturday there will be a gift wrapping, please join us if possible to help wrap 420 gifts. Spouses and children are welcome to come and assist at both the gift wrapping and to volunteer for the dinner.

Christmas Party Update – Shanaley Galts

The family Christmas Party will take place on Sunday, December 15 here at the Lodge from 1:30 to 4:30. There will be gifts for kids, as well as crafts, snacks and caroling.

It will be a great time for all. Crafts will not be age specific so everyone can come to participate.

Sunrise Club Raffle - Don McGinnis

Their club had to cancel the Vegas night, but they still have the door prizes available to win and will be raffling them off. They have a wine fridge fully stocked with 36 bottles, a trip to Mazitland and Vegas, as well as tickets to Blue Rodeo. Please contact Don if you would like to purchase tickets.

Shelter Box Fundraiser – Charmaine Bonifacio (Rotaract Director of Membership)

The location that the Typhoon hit is Charmaine's home town and the aftermath is quite sad and tragic. There is no food, electricity or structures. Most of her family was safe, but they struggle because they lost everything and many people are still missing. They did loose one beloved family member.

Shelter box has a great potential to help the survivors and they are doing a fundraiser to assist the victims in teh Phillippines. The U of L Rotaract Club has set up a shelter tent at the University and will be there for the next the days until Thursday. Please come by and donate. All three clubs have sponsored $1000 so that takes them to over $5000.

President Patrick presented Charmaine & Marc (Rotaract President) with $1000 to support their project.

Induction for New Members - Robin Hood

Paul Harrigan – sponsored by Leslie Colburn-Swartz

Paul is from St. John New Brunswick and is the new manager of the Lethbridge Lodge as of March 2013.

Ramon Ramiriez – sponsored by Shannon Preus

Ramon is a commercial account manager for the HSBC. He was raised in Paraguay. At a young age he was very service oriented. He and his wife Amy have two children and a dog. His father is also a Rotarian in Paraguay.

Exchange Student Update - Milan

Milan had two games over the weekend. One was a loss and one was a tie. There were some fights that added to the excitement.

His mother back home also had her birthday so Milan had his whole class tell her happy birthday in Hungarian by video.

Guest Speaker Introduction - Joyanne Mitchell

Dr. Paula Burns is the president adn CEO of the Lethbridge College.

She is from Nova Scotia and we “scooped her up” from NAIT.

Dr. Burns

Paula is very pleased to be here and instantly felt at home when she arrived in Lethbridge.

The wine auction went well on the weekend so thak you to all that had been a part of that.

The Board of Governors at the College is very committed to the city and region as well as the college. Dr. Burns was faced with challenges as soon as she arrived because there was a shortage of finances. They saw it as an opportunity. They have taken time to discuss what was needed to meet their needs. They met with the board and then the faculty and asked where do we want to go and what they want to do. They developed a strategic framework in career based programming in order to meet the job needs that are here.

They also have taken time to ask the college students why they were here. The students responded with the facts that they like the small classes, the skills that they develop and that they are job ready once they are done. Paula and her team want to be on the leading edge of education.

A few areas that they envision growth and change are as follows:

Collaborative partnerships – the goal is to create unprecedented connections in Lehtbridge and the region. This is a unique location where there is a university and college in the same area and it will work to our benefit. They have found that the academic landscape is changing so they want to engage us as business people in how to change the way to learn. If you have any suggestions and ideas, please feel free to contact her.

People Development – their goal is to make sure they are able to have staff work in the areas they are passionate about and ensure that resources are available for people to do the work they enjoy that will add to the College.

Resource Innovation – the College receives funding of 50% from the government. They want to be innovative in fund development. Questions are asked such as “What are some of the entrepreneurial things they can do to inspire learning and development, but will also add to fund development”.

Right now they are working on a plan and implementation strategy. They are also working on extreme action learning. Workers are leading the change as they are learning about the change. The process and strategies emerge as they go.

Question- What changes might the government make to its funding formula to help the college? Four working groups from the college are working with the budget and connecting with the government. The funding formula is from a community college perspective as opposed to the new regional focused Lethbridge College.

Question- What is the reason for clearing the soccer field?

They are redeveloping the soccer field, but it also has to do with the trades education they offer.

Rotary Moment - Doug McArthur

Reflecting upon the time that Doug went to a student exchange program conference in a different country. It was a great opportunity to see the dichotomy between the extremely well off and very impoverished. Rotary is one of the few organizations that can bridge a gap such as this. We are very privileged to be part of an orgainzatin that can do so much good in this world.

Foundation Reminder

First $100 that the new members donate will be matched if you donate to the foundation. Any cheques towards the Foundation can be given to either Jim or Nick.

Sergeant at Arms - Charles Funk

Happy Bucks

Shannon Preus – Is happy to have Ramon at Rotary and happy that Sea Hawks had a bi this weekend.

Mark LeBlanc – Attended the Everest challenge this year at the University climbing wall for up hills both ways. People were still climbing at 3:00 in the morning. Mark was happy to see how well it did.

Murray Pritchard – Gave $5 for Umbrella bucks to speak about the fundraiser at Henderson Golf Club to help with the micro hydro project in Nepal. They have thousands of dollars of Nepalese work available to purchase such as woolen toques, and mitts, silk and pashmina scarves, handcarved chess sets, teas and spices, down jackets and mitts, buffs, Yaak wool blankets and shawls, children's wear, and singing meditation bowls. It will take place on Wednesday, November 27 from 4-9:00 pm.

Sherry Davis – Her son Nicholas had the highest math mark in grade 10. She also leaves for Maui this week.

Brandie Lea – Is proud of her four children. Two of them were on the honour roll and the other two were on the honour roll with distinction for their first report card period.

Joyann Mitchell – She has a duaghter in Macau still remembered her mother’s birthday. Joyann was also very happy for the way that things went over the weekend at the wine auction for the college.

Nick N. – Was happy for Riders Football. Also for all the Rotarians for supporting his movember fundraising.

Lelie Colburn-Swartz – She is happy to have Joanne with us as a guest and Paul as a new member.

Clint Dunford - Today we go to city council to present the bid for the 2019 city games.

Bridget Mearns – Is happy to be back and will be able to spend more time with us again. It is bitter sweet for her.

Bruce Glats – The tec and mingle that the chamber put on this past week was great.

Bill Glover- Visited the Dr. this month and had positive results. He is going on 17 years with someone else's heart. He is now in the 5%.

Draws

Rotary moment & $10 - Andrew Foster

$5 - Karlen McDonald