Lubricator February 6, 2017 (Feb 06, 2017)

President's Remarks

President Uwe welcomed everyone to the meeting, although he noted attendance was down a little due to the "unpleasant" driving conditions. President Uwe was spoke about being invited to a meeting of Community groups as well as political leaders with Premier Notley on her visit to the city on Friday. He invited her to speak at the Rotary club, which he doesn't think she'll accept, but hopefully MLA Bob Wanner will be a club speaker in March.

Rotary Information:

Jenna Raimbault needs additional help on the Fundraising subcommittee for the Gala in April, please contact her at jenna.raimbault@gmail.com if you can help out.
All Rotarians received an email with an opportunity to fill out a questionnaire about Rotary, our club and the District. Please have a voice in changes to Rotary and complete the document.
President Uwe had the club raise a glass and toast the Rotary Club of Port Hardy. In the mail this week, we received the attached card, which shows that the RC of Port Hardy picks a club at random each week, salutes them with a toast and then mails a very nice card to contact the club. What a clever idea and a great way to bring the Rotary world closer together. We thank them for thinking of us.

Upcoming Events:

The next meeting is February 13^th, please bring your Valentine to the meeting. An email will go out this week.
Rotary Bingo, Sunday afternoon Feb 19^th, 11:45 am - 4 pm.
The following week is the Family Day long weekend, so Monday Feb 20^th we will have a "social meeting", no regular meeting.
Centennial Gala Project team meeting, Tuesday Feb 21^st, 7 pm, MH Chamber of Commerce boardroom.
For more Club activities, to keep up with events and stay in touch, check the Club website at: www.medicinehatrotary.com

Dispute settlement through mediation

Posted by Dave Panabaker on Feb 06, 2017

Miles Thorson presented a quick primer on the use of mediation as a dispute settlement mechanism, allowing some disputes to avoid most of the court process. He's been in Medicine Hat over 25 years and has a wife and one daughter.

Mr Thorson was introduced by Jenna Raimbault, and he has had a wide variety of occupations, which gives him a good deal of insight into how to deal with stress and conflict. Among those has been a police office and a paramedic. He showed several slides which highlighted the "wheel within a wheel" of conflict and spoke about how the being of a solution is to slow down the spinning of these wheels.

He defined mediation as "a structured and sequenced process that allows for workable and creative solutions specific to the clients". He spoke about how the process took participants to a choice of paths to walk down and how his role was about "listening, re-framing and summarizing" the particular issue.

He spoke about who can benefit from mediation, and summarized them as "people who are: in conflict with others, faced with financial restrictions, looking to stay out of court and looking to create their own resolution"

A number of questions about the use and process were asked. Thanks for the great presentation!

Club Meeting News

Posted by Dave Panabaker on Feb 06, 2017

Meeting Information

Music - Don Reid

Invocation - Gail Halderman

Guest Book - Ian Mclaughlin

Greeter - Gail Halderman

Lubricator Editor - Dave Panabaker

Website Editor - Karen Blewett

Introduction of Guests

Miles Thorson, our guest speaker was welcomed by Jenna Raimbault.

Attendance Draw

Denise Henning was NOT in attendance today and therefore did NOT win a "free" meal.

Birthdays:

none this week.

Anniversaries:

Ted Cowtan February 9, 1992 2 years

Weekly Draw:

Joe Chacko was the lucky winner, and won a prize package including a baseball hat.

Club 500:

No draw this week, the February draws will be made next Monday.

Make Ups:

Members of the bingo team who worked on Saturday evening.
The Centennial Celebration organizing group, met on Tuesday evening.

Family of Rotary:

Former Rotarian Garth Vallely has been moved to the Riverview Nursing home, and although fairly weak would likely appreciate any visit.

Future Programs:

If you have any future program ideas, please e-mail Heather at heather.bach@ahs.ca.

Minute People:

Jenny Hetherington, on behalf of Heather Bach, advised that because next week's meeting falls close to Valentines Day, all Rotarians are encouraged to invite their valentine to the meeting.
Terry Brekko thanked all Rotarians for doing their Music Festival advertising packages, and encouraged them to follow up on outstanding checks.
Dave Panabaker, on behalf of Gregg Martin (the winner of the bingo pot) thanked all those who worked last Saturday evenings bingo.
Jenny Hetherington advised that although Feb 20^th is the Family Day weekend, we will be having a social lunch rather than a full meeting.
Chris Perret advised that tickets for the Rotary Vision Celebration 2017 are now available online, at website www.rotarycelebration2017.ca and paper tickets will be available at the club next week. They are priced at $103.50/person, but if you buy a package of 8, you get them for $704, a 15% discount.
Jenna Raimbault, advised that more help is needed on the Gala Fundraising Committee. Please contact Jenna at jenna.raimbault@gmail.com if you can help out.