President Uwe Krickhahn welcomed everyone to the last meeting of October and our Halloween meeting.
Rotary Presentations
Sandy MacKay presented Ted Cowtan with a Paul Harris Fellowship. Over the past year, Ted has contributed $1000 Us to the Rotary Foundation. Ted is the 40th Club member to receive this award. Congratulations Ted.
Rotary Information
Since 2017 is the 100th Anniversary of The Rotary Foundation (TRF), all Rotarians are being encouraged to make a special donation of $26.50 to Polio Plus as well as $100 to TRF. To mark this anniversary, our Foundation Chair and the Board have developed a plan that could potentail make our Club a 100% Paul Harris Club. Traditionally, the Club contributes 500 points toward a member's first Paul Harris Fellowship and the member contributes the rest. However, to celebarte this anniversary, it is being proposed that any non Paul Harris Fellow (PHF) willing to contribute at least $126.50 to The Rotary Foundation, will receive a PHF. More details will be presented in the near future.
Rotary Announcement
President Uwe announced Stu Smith has submitted his letter of resignation. Stu advised due to age and heath concerns he was no longer able to take part in the duties of a good member. Stu also mentioned his hearing was an issue. President Uwe accepted Stu's resignation with regrets.
Prospective Member:
The Membership Committee and the Board of Director have reviewed and approved Jonathan Usher for membership into the Club. Johnathan's proposed classification would be Small Business Adviser.
In accordance with Article VI, Section 5 of the Club bylaws, a prospective member's name must be advertised in the Lubricator for 7 days and if no written objections are received, the prospective member may be considered eligible for induction into the Club.
Meeting Reminder:
As many in the club know, we recently had a couple of members resign, due to extreme hearing loss. Because hearing difficulties are experienced by a number of Rotarians and guests, one of our members put together a list of helpful reminders to ensure we do our best to accommodate those with auditory challenges.
- Speak slowly and distinctly. Slow, concise speech can be learned and become habit-forming.
- Use the "4 P's" - persistent,patient, practice with a positive attitude. Emphasize each key word in a sentence with a slight pause.
- USE the handheld microphone, both for comments and during club activities.
- Keep table conversation to a minimum, out of respect for those speaking and to avoid background noise that is distracting.
With a little practice, we can help everyone in the club both hear and understand, both as a courtesy and to help engage all members in the club.
Up Coming Events:
Next Monday's (November 7) meeting will be downstairs in the Kiwanis room due to renovations in the Board room.
Bill Yuill will be speaking to the Club on November 14th. This may be a great meeting to bring a guest. Please respond to Heather's invitation to let us know how many people will be coming.
For more Club activities, to keep up with events and stay in touch, check the Club website at: www.medicinehatrotary.com
Although not guests, Honorary Rotarians Ted Clugston and Jim White were introduced.
Attendance Draw
The lucky winner of a free lunch was Dave MacLean, who was in attendance to collect.
Birthdays:
Denise Henning November 1
Club Anniversaries:
Brenda Bauman - November 5th - 15 years
Weekly Draw:
Jenny Hetherington was the lucky winner of the weekly draw for the second week in a row.
Club 500
Next draws November
Chris Perret and Allan O'Bryne who are looking after this year Club 500 draw are handing out tickets packages for the 2017 draw. If you haven't received yours yet, please get hold of Chris or Allan. This is a very important fundraiser of the Music Festival, so please make every efforts to sell all your tickets. If you sell any out of province, put your own address or an Alberta address on the ticket. Any unsold tickets are to be returned by November 28th.
Make Ups
Dick, Terry B, Cathie, John, Gregg, Allan, Bruce & Milan worked a Bingo on October 30.
Family of Rotary
It was reported that former Rotarian Garth Vallely is still in the hospital and recently moved to 2 North.
Joan Sauve's injured leg is recovering, but the extra usage of her good leg has caused some issue. Joan is hoping to be back at Rotary soon.
Please keep the above in your thoughts and prayers.
Future Programs
If you have any future program ideas, please e-mail Heather at heather.bach@ahs.ca.
Minute People:
Dick Bide advised several Dinner Club dinner have been organized, but he would like to book more dinners soon, so the fellowship can continue.
Dick reported at the bingo on October 30th, a profit of $0.31 was made. However, when the pooling, Nevada tickets and rent are factored in, the Club will make some money. Gregg Martin was the big winner of the pool.
Dick also made a pitch for the 10,000 Villages Christmas sale to be held at St John's Church this coming Saturday November 5th. All profits from sale of gifts and items go back to the third world craftsmen who made them. This is a great opportunity to purchase unique items and support third world craftsmen.
Jenny reminded members to be eligible for the draw to win a bottle of wine, donated by Sandy MacKay, you have up until November 27th to bring a guest to Rotary.
Heather advised the Rotary Christmas party has been move to December 12th due to a booking conflict.
Heather reminded everyone next week's (November 7th) meeting will be down stairs in the Kiwanis room due to renovations in the ballrooms.
Theresa Eisenbarth reported the Hat High Interact Club completed a Food Drive for the Food Bank. The club has 12 active members. See under Story.
Adolf reported Rotarians would be manning the Salvation Army Christmas Kettles at a number of location on December 3. Allan O'Bryne sent out a Google Document which allows you to sign up online. A number of members have signed up already, but more are required. If you can't access the online document, please contact Adolf or Allan.
Chris Perret is looking for Club members to participate in Random Act of Kindness Day on Friday. The plan is to again ride the City Transit and handout free tickets. Anyone who wants to help out needs to be at the Bus Terminal at 7:00 am on Friday. The plan is to go out in groups of two on the different routes handing out tickets. In past year this has been a very rewarding experience and an opportunity to see parts of the City we don't normally see, unless you ride the bus. Don't forget to wear your Rotary apparel.
Happy Dollars & Fines: Today'sSgt-at-Arms was Roger Roy.
Fines:
All members who did not dress in Halloween garb were fined. It was rather interesting that were more members who dressed up than those who didn't. Many can also thank Jenna.
Happy Dollars:
Dick contributed Gregg Martin's bingo pool winning on Gregg's behalf.
Jenna was happy that she was able to save a few poor souls from being fined by providing an array of party hats, beads and feathers.
Denise produced a happy dollar for the birthday rose.
Jim White donated his last $2 from his allowance. Someone quickly suggested that payday was this week, so Jim would probably get another allowance soon.
Margie was please to become a Great Aunt for the 8th time.
Doug thanked Herman for delivering an anniversary rose. Doug was pleased to report that he and Joan will be celebrating their 48th Wedding Anniversary on Wednesday.
Chris Perret is looking forward to riding the City Transit buses on Friday and handing out free bus tickets as part of the Random Act of Kindness Day.
Kitt & Dieter were thankful for winning the gift card for best costumes. They were dressed as Jelly Fish.
President Elect Karen Blewett presented the Club with a brief overview of the Strategic Plan. We are very fortunate, that Karen was able to undertake the majority of the work complying this plan, because preparing such plans is one the task that Karen does in her day job. Karen advised that the plan would be brought back to the Club on November 28th for a more detailed review.
The Strategic Plan process started on November 7, 2015 when 27 Rotarians met to discuss what Rotary meant to them and what was important to the Club. On January 18, 36 members had a chance to review what had been put together from the initial meeting. Then on April 18, the proposed Action Plan was commented on by 54 member. Finally on October 31, Karen presented a brief overview of the plan to date. Karen also pointed out this plan has been reviewed several time by the Board who feel the plan is ready to proceed to the next stages.
After the overview, Karen discussed points under the topics of Commitment to the Plan; Club Involvement; Our Strategic Plan; Our Accomplishments; Year in Review and finally Next Steps. During her talk, Karen talked about things the Club is doing well, things we wish to change and additional things we could be doing. The Strategic Plan is meant to guide our Club for the next 3 to 5 years, but will hopefully be reviewed and modified each year to keep it relevant.
After a brief discuss, Sandy MacKay thank Karen for a job well done and encouraged all member to review the plan and be prepared to participate in the next discussion on November 28th.
INTERACT students of the locally sponsored Medicine Hat Rotary Club collected over 524 boxes of Kraft Dinner. The project focused on food collection for the local food bank. CHAT announcer, Jim Duce came to the club meeting on Wednesday, October 26, 2016 to congratulate the students on their success. This project fit in with the CHAT radio food drive for the month of October. Celina Simmonds was present with a group of volunteers to load the food into the Food Bank Van so the many boxes can be distributed to those in need.
Photo:
In front (on the floor – left to right): Kara Gilbert, Grace Mastel, Azin Dolatabadi, Anjali Mishra, Cambria Rattai
In back: Left to right: Theresa Eisenbarth (Rotary Club Liaison), Kariann Szemthy, Heather Scott, Grace Banto, Hameedah Baruwa, Jaslin Ghotra, David Archibald, Sue Withers (Vice-Principal, Interact Rotary Advisor) – Missing from photo is Deb Rawlings (Learning Assistance Teacher and Interact Advisor
and Celina Symmonds (Co-Executive Manager of the Medicine Hat District Foodbank
