Rotary Weekly News - January 13, 2025 (Jan. 13, 2025)

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

President Mike Christie kicked the meeting off at 12:15 pm with a loud ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to our first in-person meeting of 2025. He also mentioned that he was halfway through his year as President (not that he is excited to finish, but....)

Mike spoke about the upcoming month of meetings, information is coming on the International Convention in Calgary in June and on membership from District Membership chair Jeff Voss. The next few meetings should be full of "things Rotary".

Past District Governor, Sandy Mackay invited two of our newest members to the front and presented them with Paul Harris Fellowships, and welcomed them to a distinguished group of people in the world who hold this recognition. Welcome to the Rotary Foundation family Lionel Brideson and Odessa Vermee.

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

MONARCH 1911 SOCIETY

As many Rotarians will know, our club in cooperation with the Saamis Rotary Club and the Friends of the Monarch Society have been working on restoring both the structure and the programming at the historic Monarch movie theatre on 2nd St SE.

Our club will try to keep track of events on a the Monarch, to give members a heads-up that the opportunity to serve exists. If you are interested, please let Rotarian Janessa Anderson (403-952-1907) know and she can provide details of available shifts and responsibilities.

Jake Vaadeland & the Sturgeon River Boys at the The Monarch Theatre on Wednesday January 29th. Tickets available online at jakevaadeland.com

Volunteering at a show is a great way to connect with the community and support the historic local landmark.

RI CONVENTION 2025 IN CALGARY: 21-25 JUNE

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)
Club Convention Champions are playing a vital role in communication (both ways) between the District 5360 Host Convention Committee and their Club. Our Convention Club Champion is PDG Sandy MacKay.
Registration for the 2025 Rotary International Convention is open - https://convention.rotary.org/en-us

Ideas for Future Programs

The Rotary Club's Program Committee members are Jillian Koch (jkoch@jmhca.com), Margie Booyens (margiebooyens@gmail.com), Alain Guerard (aguerard@telus.net), Sharon Hayward (sharon.hayward@medicinehatymca.ca)
If you have ideas for future programs, please contact them.

Clubrunner and You

Dave Panabaker took the podium today to introduce Clubrunner to new members of the club and explain a few of the features that make it such great software. Clubrunner is the software our District has chosen to connect clubs and RI. We use it for our website, our bulletin, the club calendar with events and membership information.

Everyone has access, to "login" go to the Club website http://www.medicinehatrotary.com and in the top right hand corner there is a spot for "Member Login". If you have any trouble both Dave and Club Secretary Doug Fleming can assist you. Inside, members can access the calendar, club documents and their personal information..

He spoke about its usefulness in keeping membership information straight and how it was used by both District and Rotary International to tie the organization together. Dave also mentioned that we use the "Events" module to sign up for attendance at meetings or things like bingo. Please either accept or decline when you get those requests, it will save you from followup emails when organizers are hunting for more volunteers.

One of the features is the Clubrunner "app", which has many handy ways of allowing club members to stay in touch. It also has the current phone and email addresses for all members of the club, so if you need to contact someone you can look them up easily. Its really a digital replacement for our yearly roster.

Below is the Clubrunner app, from the Apple App Store. It is available across all phone platforms.

There was a lot of ground to cover in the presentation, and we didn't get all the way through but it was informative and perhaps something we should try again at some point.

Meeting News

GUESTS: We were delighted to have two guests at the meeting today.

Manali Shanbhag, a potential member and guest of Nadia Deenen. Manali runs the Thrive Physiotherapy and Wellness business.
Leslie Tuchscherer, also a potential member and a guest of Gail Halderman.

ATTENDANCE: There were 18 Rotarians in person and 5 attending online.

CLUB DRAW: President Mike Christie was the lucky winner of a beer stein, or a large water glass, there was some debate as to its' "first, best use".

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: None were mentioned.

Birthdays:

Sieg Kappler. January 1^st.
Dick Northcott January 13^th.
Mark Sorenson. January 23^rd.
Melanie Harty. January 25^th.
Jim White January 31^st.

Rotary Anniversaries:

Gail Halderman 29 years. January 1, 1996.
Peter Mueller. 5 years January 20, 2020.
Igor Grujic 5 years January 20, 2020.

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY ROSE RUNNER FOR JANUARY 2024

Odessa Vermee

Minute Reminders:

ROTARY CLUB 1000 RAFFLE TICKETS

President Mike, doing a pretty good impression of Nadia Deenen, encouraged everyone to sell their Club 1000 raffle tickets in support of the Rotary Music Festival. The Festival is fast approaching and much of our Festival support comes from the proceeds of this raffle. If you need extra tickets, or have any questions please contact Nadia Deenen.

OTHER SUPPORT FOR THE MUSIC FESTIVAL

Dave Panabaker was happy to announce that the Rotary Music Festival for 2025 was the recipient of a grant from the Community Foundation of SE Alberta in the amount of $5,000. He and Delynne were on hand at the spring grant presentations to accept the check.

BINGO UPDATE

Dave Panabaker advised that the next bingo will be the evening of Wednesday Jan 22^nd, from 5 pm to 10 pm, and signup invitations have been sent out. Two additional floorwalkers are required at this point.

UPCOMING MEETINGS AT CORE

Dave Panabaker advised that as part of the education program for next week, an invitation will be going out to all members for the first meeting at CORE, which is Monday February 3rd. We would like to show how the "invitation" head count system works and get some idea of how many people will be joining us for that "in person" business meeting.

THE NEXT "WHY ROTARY" EVENT

Past President Bruce Shepard reminded members that the next introduction event to Rotary for potential members will be Wednesday, April 30th at the Grandstand Ballroom of the Stampede Grounds. The event will begin at 5:00 pm, and a buffet supper will be served starting at around 5:30 pm. The supper will increase the cost per person to $50.00 and tickets will be available soon.

ROTARY DINNER CLUB

Milan Vujovic advises everyone who has signed up for this year's dinner club that dinners can now be booked. If you have a particular date in mind, it's best to get it to him (or his spouse Almira) so that date can be fit into the schedule. Please phone and book your dinner as soon as you can.

Family of Rotary

The Rotary Club sends our condolences to the Ferguson family on the recent loss of Bob. For those who might remember him, Bob was a member of this club from 1987 until 2009.
The club also sends our prayers and best wishes along to Johan Booyens, as he battles cancer. He was moved to St Joseph's Hospice on Tuesday January 7th, and can be visited there. It would be advisable to contact Margie before visiting, just to make sure he is in shape for a visit.

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.