Rotary Weekly News - August 19, 2024 (Aug. 19, 2024)

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

President Mike Christie was late starting the meeting this morning, he was chatting and trying to finish his meal and just sort of lost track of time.

Once he rang the bell and got down to business he welcomed Lisa Dressler, the Executive Director of the South East Alberta Chamber of Commerce. Many of those present have known Lisa since she began at the Chamber in November of 2009.

President Mike mentioned that he received an invitation from Medicine Hat Sunrise to participate in the Terry Fox run. The run is September 15 at 10:30 AM on the Sunrise Rotary Trail at the Medicine Hat College.

Registration is done online at: https://run.terryfox.ca/55541/add/registration/team

Mike also thanked all those present who have signed up to be a "rose runner" this year, and he apologized to Dawn Barr for losing the previous signup sheet. All the months except January are filled in, and Dale Stein has the delivery responsibility this month. If you can do the January deliveries, please contact Dawn Barr.

Mike also thanked Anne Carrier and Nadia Deenen, who have volunteered to take over the Club 1000 raffle in support of the 2025 Rotary Music Festival.

Rotary Club "What-z New":

A few more meeting helpers are required to run cameras and sound during our hybrid meetings. Anyone wishing to help should contact President Mike Christie 403 878 3311.

Rotary Club Committee Membership Update:

Please continue to assist your 'team captains' (committee leads) and please also work in other areas of club activity, as you are able.
Please have a look on ClubRunner in the Committee section. You should find your name on one of the committee member lists, as per your choice(s). If not, please contact President Mike.

Rotary Club Information:

Housekeeping:
- If you have a Meeting Minute, please phone, text or email the President and it will be included in the next Newsletter.
- Board minutes can be found on ClubRunner, under Club Documents.

Rotary District 5360 and Rotary International News

RI CONVENTION 2025 IN CALGARY

The RI Convention was last held in Calgary in 1996. It’s going to be back in Calgary again June 21 - 25, 2025.
If you are interested in volunteering, contact Host Organizing Committee secretary, Luanne Whitmarsh (l.whitmarsh@shaw.ca)
PDG Sandy McKay has volunteered to be the Rotary Club of Medicine Hat's representative on the RI Host Committee. Many more volunteers are needed and will be welcomed.
Registration for the 2025 Rotary International Convention is open - https://convention.rotary.org/en-us

Other District news

Ideas for Future Programs

The Rotary Club's Program Committee members are Jillian Koch (jkoch@jmhca.com), Margie Booyens (margiebooyens@gmail.com), Terry Brekko (terrybrekko@gmail.com) and Alain Guerard (aguerard@telus.net)
If you have ideas for future programs, please contact them.

State of Area Business - Chamber of Commerce

The Medicine Hat Rotary Club was delighted to welcome back, the leader of our local Chamber of Commerce, Lisa Dressler. Lisa has been the Executive Director of the SEAC since 2009. and has led the local chamber at a Provincial and National level. Lisa began her talk by explaining some of the changes we would see in the graphics and the workload that the local chamber has taken on. They have expanded their footprint, and now look after the business community in Medicine Hat, Cypress County, Redcliff, Brooks, Bassano, County of Newell, Duchess and Rosemary. Their territory now covers almost 20,000 sq km and a population of 105,000. That has been a big change!!

The Medicine Hat Board of Trade was founded on May 28, 1900 under the Boards of Trade Act by a group of business people including bankers, barristers, ranchers, merchants, contractors, physicians, a hotelier, lumber dealer and a butcher. Over the years, the Chamber has been known as the Medicine Hat Chamber of Commerce, the Medicine Hat & District Chamber of Commerce and in 2024, transitioned to the Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce. Since that time, this member-based organization has been the voice of the business community and has always stood for promoting business, monitoring government and championing managed growth in the local economy.

The chamber has three pillars of their work; connect, support and influence. These fit nicely into their mission, "Our Mission is to be an essential source of information and solutions to strengthen our community as a catalyst for growth, uniting business, driving leadership and fuelling success through our connections, support and influence."

You can get involved as a business owner by supporting the chamber or keeping in touch by subscribing to their newsletter at https://www.southeastalbertachamber.ca/publications. They have a weekly newsletter called "The Voice", and we all love our Newsletters!! The Chamber also puts on a number of events throughout the year, probably most notably the annual "Spring Trade" show, which will be March 7 - 9, 2025.

Lisa also advised that they are hosting the Alberta Chambers of Commerce conference here from May 29-30 with our 125th Anniversary Celebration for our Chamber.

Lisa was thanked for her presentation and her work on behalf of the community by President Mike. He presented her with our Rotary Mug (manufactured locally at Medalta) and we are sure to welcome her back in the future.

Meeting News

ATTENDANCE: We welcomed 5 online participants, 22 in person Rotarians and one guest today.

GUESTS: Lisa Dressler, ED of the South East Alberta Chamber of Commerce, and our guest speaker.

CLUB DRAW: Nadia Deenen won a set of glass coffee mugs.

Please remember to contribute gifts for the weekly draw. If you are somewhere interesting, a small gift to the club is an easy fundraiser!

Makeups: Dick Bide attended the Kalispell Rotary Club.

Birthdays:

Susan Withers August 7^th.
Gregg Martin August 25^th.
Milan Vujovic September 4th.
Dick Bide September 5th.
Joe Hrankowski September 15th.
Kevin Walcer September 24th.
Stan Sakamoto September 30th.

Rotary Anniversaries:

Ken Zollner 41 years August 1, 1983.
Jillian Koch 8 years August 8, 2016.
Bernie Scott 40 years. September 1, 1984.
Dieter Brand 30 years September. 1, 1994.

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY ROSE RUNNER FOR AUGUST 2024

Dale Stein

Minute Reminders:

FUNDRAISING: BINGO:

The next bingo session will be on Thursday 5 September in the evening, with Dave Stalwick as team organizer. Dave will be sending out a sign-up email later this week.

Monday 26 August: Trip to Irvine

Mike Christie reminded the club that Margie Booyens has organized a visit to the Irvine School - Agricultural Discovery Center which is planned for Monday August 26. The intention is to meet at the MH Lodge at approximately 11:15 am, and to carpool out to Irvine at 11:30. We will be given a tour of the Center from noon, and will then assemble at the local hotel pub or restaurant to have lunch. A visit to the Irvine museum is also a possibility, and then back to MH. Fourteen members and guests have signed up so far. If you plan to go on this outing, please register by Friday 23 August. If you have difficulty registering, please contact Margie.

A FUN (and learning) SOCIAL EVENT - AT BINGO!

Dave Panabaker advised that "learn to bingo" has been proposed, to help members understand the game we work at 18 times a year. The evening of Wednesday September 18th has been set for this "class", so put this in your daytime and come out to have some fun. The host club that evening is Medalta, so that cause is one our club has supported for a long time.

ROTARY's NEW GENERATIONS SERVICE EXCHANGE PROGRAM: INBOUND PARTICIPANT

Beatriz (Bia) Souza arrives in Calgary from Brazil on Friday 13 September. She will be hosted for two weeks each, by: Nadia & Maarten Deenen; Ian & Phyllis McLaughlin; Mihaela & Carl Craciun; Peter Mueller & Gwen Dirk; and Dan Kammerer & Cheryl. She will attend a few Rotary meetings and make a presentation on herself, her family, her country and her NGSE experience. Bia is a University student, studying to become a teacher. She will do the vocational side of her NGSE program through the Prairie Public School Division (Reagan Weeks) and the MH Public School Division (Jason Peters). The humanitarian service pillar of her program is still being planned. It will likely include Bia volunteering for a few hours each week, at the YMCA, Saamis Immigration, and the Redcliff Youth Center. Bia returns to Brazil on Sunday 24 November. She is a delightful young woman and is likely to do a great job of marketing the NGSE in Medicine Hat, while she enjoys the different aspects of her 10 week program. The screenshot was taken on Friday 9 August during a Zoom meeting of Bia (top left) with three of her five host families, and a few members of the District 5360 NGSE committee.

Family of Rotary

Please keep a Board Member informed about members health and/or any other changes, so that information can be provided to the club through the Weekly News.