President Elect Bruce Shepard chaired the Monday 13 February meeting.
First off, condolences and sadness were expressed by Bruce and all, to President Melanie Harty, on the death of her son this past Thursday.
This was a business meeting, attended by 18 members and a guest, and 5 members via Zoom. Guest Kirk Shepard was welcomed by his father.
Reports were presented by certain Board members, followed by a focus on the Club’s newly formulated Strategic Plan.
Director/Committee Reports
Secretary Doug Fleming reported on the Club’s service projects.
A handout listed eleven service projects conducted between July 1 2022 and January 31 2023:
- 3D limbs project in Sri Lanka, a joint project with other Rotary Clubs
- Funding the decoration of the reception area at Senare Centre in Medicine Hat
- Prairie Gleaners – new equipment, a joint donation with Sunrise Rotary Club
- Sign in Rotary Centennial Park in Dunmore
- Sign on Rotary Centennial Trail along South Boundary Road (on County land, Desert Blume side)
- Collaborated with Saamis Immigration Services on 4 events with immigrant families
- Volunteered at Prairie Gleaners
- Salvation Army Christmas Kettle Campaign
- Cooked sausage and pancake breakfast at Dr Ken Sauer School
- Cooked hot dogs for lunch at Dr Ken Sauer School
- Team FreeWheels – since 2021, the Club has repaired and distributed about 265 bicycles to people needing access to resources – through 15 groups/agencies and miscellaneous others. The majority were received by Saamis Immigration (66), Salvation Army (29), Catholic Board of Education (26 for foreign students), Food Bank (17), Medicine Hat College (13 for international students), Womens’ Shelter (12), Miywasin Centre (10) and Ukranian families (10).
Doug mentioned how the move of the project to the Knowles Electric building, from Terry Cooper’s backyard, has been a godsend, providing space for the repairs, tools, and repaired bikes prior to distribution. Doug expressed appreciation for the support of the project by the public, including a family that donated no less than five bikes. All are welcome to drop by for a visit on a Thursday morning.
- Rotarians who play key roles in the Team FreeWheels project: Terry Cooper, Peter Mueller, Anne Carrier, Adolf Seiler, Ken Zollner, Margie Booyens, Dale Stein and Doug Fleming.
- Friends of Rotary who participate in the project: Marco Jenson, Bob Taylor and Ron Linowski.
There are more service projects in the pipeline for the last five months of the Rotary year, including:
- Volunteering during the Rotary Music Festival
- Team FreeWheels project that will repair and distribute an additional 100 bicycles to those who needs ‘wheels’
- Trail/Highway Cleanup (Earth Day)
- Second sign on Rotary Centennial Trail (on City land, South Ridge side)
- Canadian Humanitarian – Hues for Humanity
Mike Christie, chair of the Membership Committee and the Community Services (CS) Committee
Mike reported that these two committees had not met in December 2022 nor January 2023. The Membership Committee had held a meeting in February and the CS committee would be meeting that week. It was hoped that two new members would be inducted in the near future. The Senare Centre project had yet to be wrapped.
Past President Mark Sorenson
PP Mark reported that a full slate of Directors had been found for the 2023-2024 Rotary year, and that names would be announced at a later stage.
PE Bruce Shepard: Strategic Plan
PE Bruce then focused attention on the draft Strategic Plan of the Club, which had been emailed to members on Friday 11 February. Hard copies were made available at the meeting.
Bruce highlighted the need for planning - to answer the question of where we want to go, where we want to be, as a club – and that planning also enables us to adapt.
Bruce emphasized that while he had pulled the plan together, he had drawn on the previous strategic plan of the club, on the input of several members, and on the thinking of the Board.
Bruce took us through the club vision, club mission, targeted groups, context and limitations, measurements, objectives, strategy, actions, and structure and tasks.
The presentation was followed by a question and discussion time, during which many helpful suggestions were made for consideration, including:
- Club needs a stronger relationship with the Chamber of Commerce
- Membership categories of ‘Friend’ and ‘Corporate member’ need to be finalized and publicized
- Diversity needs to be encouraged, the unifying factor being that members are ‘like-minded’ people who put service above self and whose thoughts and actions are guided by the 4-way test
- We need a gala type event to market Rotary
- Additional marketing initiatives that the proposed ‘Public Relations and Promotions Committee’ could explore, like all members thinking of a Rotary moment or story, that could be published in a regular column in the MH News AND used for social media publicity of Rotary and the Club, TV and radio.
- We need to find out what would engage and retain younger members – not likely to be attendance of weekly meetings.
- Hold meetings less frequently?
- Amalgamate with other Rotary clubs?
Overall, Bruce was congratulated on the Strategic Plan, the feeling being that it encompassed a good way forward; a solid strategy.
PE Bruce requested members to email to him all thoughts on the presented plan. He expressed appreciation to all for their attendance of the meeting and the contributions, thoughts and suggestions that had been shared.
A copy of the detailed plan will be placed on ClubRunner in due course, when finalized.
