The meeting today was led by Past President (and current Club Director) Mike Christie. Mike took time to mention the recent catastrophic losses in the Bahamas, as well as Eastern Canada. A recent District wide email from DG Christine was mentioned and several opportunities to donate, including to Rotary International partner Shelterbox will be available in the next few weeks.
Mike also credited the immigration policies of Canada for bringing Bianca Andreescu's parents to Canada. Her win at the US Open Tennis championship last weekend was amazing, and made history for Canada.
Rotary Club Information:
Upcoming meetings:
See the club calendar adjacent or the club website.
Housekeeping:
Please bring club draw items. It is an important part of our meeting.
If you have a Meeting Minute, please send President Margie a note (email, phone, in-person)
Board minutes can be found on ClubRunner, under Club Documents.
Upcoming Rotary Club. District and International Events:
Rotary Waterton-Glacier Peace Park celebration, Sept 13 - 15 in Waterton.
Saturday October 19th is the annual District Grant Qualification webinar. Remote attendance by club members is mandatory for access to District Grants.
Dieter Brand has planned the next Fireside Chat will be on Oct 22nd at the Cypress Club.
World Polio Day is Oct 24 - a day to celebrate the eradication of polio effort, and the work of Rotary
Next District 5360 convention May 1 - 3, 2020 in Calgary.
Next Rotary International Convention, June 6 - 10, 2020 in Honolulu, Hawaii
Future Programs:
For more Club activities, to keep up with events and stay in touch, check the Club website at: www.medicinehatrotary.com
Our Program coordinator is Jillian Koch. If you have any future program ideas, please email Jillian at jkoch@jmhca.com
The Rotary Club welcomed Lisa Kowalchuk to the meeting today. Lisa has been the Executive Director of the Chamber for slightly over 10 years, and has been a significant force in the Chambers amazing performance at the Provincial and Federal levels. The local chamber has been recognized as the Alberta "Chamber of the Year" 3 times in the last 10 years, most recently in 2018. The Chamber of Commerce has been around since 1900 and has had to adapt to grow and prosper in this changing society. there are 870 members of the MH Chamber, and over 25,000 in chambers across the province.
Lisa mentioned that one of her current Board members is Rotarian Sara Koch, who was in the audience and she acknowledged the contributions of a number of Rotary members to the success of the Chamber over the years. She talked about the goals of the Chamber, some of the challenges of a small chamber and a number (and it was a significant number) of accomplishments over the past year. Lisa spoke about the makeup of the chamber and how that has shifted over the past 10 years. As well, they want to be a credible advisor, to their members and to governments at all levels. That means their approach has to be balanced and to the benefit of the entire community.
Lisa answered several questions from the audience and was presented with a Rotary "Medalta" half-full coffee mug by Mike Christie. Lisa's presentation in "pdf" form is available on the club website under club documents and presentations.
Lisa Kowalchuk, ED of the MH&District Chamber of Commerce, our guest speaker.
Birthdays:
Joe Hrankowski Sept 15.
Anniversaries:
None this week.
Weekly Draws:
The attendance draw this week was Dave Panabaker, who has present to win a free meal.
The club draw this week was a fruit basket, and was won by birthday boy, Joe Hrankowski.
Club 500:
No draw this week.
Make Ups:
As well as the Hot Meal volunteers and attendee's at Ken Feser's classification talk, Dieter and Kitt Brand have been really busy in Markdale and Thornbury-Clarksburg.
Family of Rotary:
Anne Carrier mentioned that Dale and Lenora Stein were in Newfoundland on holidays last week, and after the Tropical Storm passed through have texted to advise they are fine.
Adolf Seiler reminded the meeting to contact him to provide club support for anyone, under the family of Rotary.
Minute People:
Mike Christie is helping facilitate some strategic planning with the Rotary Music Festival society. Please make time to attend the meeting at the Baymont Inn, on Tuesday Sept 24th starting at 6:00 pm if you are interested.
Mike Christie also mentioned that the membership committee is meeting on Thursday Sept 12th, at the Cypress Club at 5:00 pm. Everyone welcome.
For those that missed the "minute" by Les Scholly last week, PP of the MH Sunrise Club, they are current doing a fundraiser with coffee packaged especially for them by the Roastery downtown. The coffee cost is $9.00 for a half pound (ground) or $17.00 for one pound (whole bean). Orders can be paid for when the coffee is delivered. They order when a "batch" is spoken for, which is 15 lbs of coffee and it takes between 1 - 2 weeks for Mad Hatters to complete the roasting and packaging. Please contact Les at lscholly@pritchardandco.com if you would like to place an order and support their work.
Dave Panabaker advised the club that DG Christine Rendell will be in town in two weeks, on Monday Sept 23rd, to make her official visit to the club.
Dave also mentioned that he and Heather Bach will give some Clubrunner training at our next business meeting on Monday Sept 30th. If you have a laptop or an iPad, please bring it along to follow the presentation.
Dave also noted the next upcoming bingo will be Saturday October 5th, an invitation will be out later this week.
Dave also mentioned that this years District Grant qualification is Saturday October 19th, more details will come out from District soon.
President Margie mentioned that Dan Kammerer will do his classification talk at Prairie Gleaners, on Saturday September 14th from 9:45 to 11:15 am. A great opportunity to see the facility, which has been spoken of at the club, and hear about another new club members passion. For more information about Prairie Gleaners, see the website http://www.prairiegleaners.com
