President Melanie Harty welcomed everyone to this busy meeting and wasted no time in getting the program started.
One reminder was that next week's meeting, is a "Rotary in the Community" day, where we will visit the Veiner Center, now operated by the Kirby Center. The Executive Director will give us a talk about their revamped facility, and a tour. Lunch will be available in the cafeteria after the meeting, which should start about 12:10 and run until 12:45 pm.
Rotary Club "What-z New":
A few more meeting helpers are required to run cameras and sound during our hybrid meetings. We are all learning to adapt to this new reality. Anyone wishing to help should contact Mike Christie 403 878 3311.
Rotary Club Membership Update:
Would you like to join the membership team? Check out a meeting of this team and see how exciting it is! The committee meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 5:00 pm. Contact Mike Christie to join in.
Rotary Club Information:
Housekeeping:
If you have a Meeting Minute, please phone or email the President and it will be included in the next Newsletter.
Board minutes can be found on ClubRunner, under Club Documents.
Upcoming Club Program, Activities and Meetings:
Monday January 23rd - Meeting at the Veiner Center for a presentation about the new operation.
Monday January 30th - Meeting at the MH Lodge with Corlaine Gardiner
Saturday February 4th - Rotary Bingo (afternoon)
May 8th and 9th, 2023 - Next Rotary Club Casino
Upcoming Rotary District and International Events
Rotary Monthly Learning Webinar: watch for February's topic and time next week.
Secret Marathon - website and registration are available for March 8th, 2023 - International Woman's Day, https://www.secret3k.com . AG Keith Walker invited all members of our club to walk the Sunrise Rotary trail at the Medicine Hat College that evening. Park in the Cultural Center parking lot and the walk will start about 5:00 pm. All are welcome!!
Rotary Board leadership training is happening on March 1st and March 11th. Registration is available on the District website.
Next District Conference: Lethbridge: May 5/6, 2023. Registration is now open and January has the early bird rate. The conference website is located at https://www.discon5360.ca
Ideas for Future Programs
The Rotary Club's Program Committee members are Jillian Koch (jkoch@jmhca.com), Dave Panabaker (d.panabaker@hotmail.com) and Margie Booyens (margiebooyens@gmail.com).
If you have ideas for future programs, please contact them.
Every year, the Rotary Club holds a cash raffle in support of the Rotary Music Festival. Tickets for the 2023 Raffle are now available from Rotarians and online. This raffle is the Rotary Clubs primary support mechanism for the Music Festival, which is in its 67 year. Please consider purchasing a ticket (or two!!) to help us keep the Festival growing.
The Rotary Club welcomed the current executive of the Medicine Hat High School Interact Club to our meeting today. Introduced by the Club Director of Youth and Vocational Service, Peter Mueller were Bethany Klein who is the Interact President for 2022-2023 and Mo Subaru who is this year's Vice President. Both girls attended "ZIC", which is pronounced like "sick" but with a Z.
ZIC stands for "Zone Interact Conference", held in Calgary in October of 2022. It was the first time Interact students from across the Zone 28 and 32, which covers much of Canada and the north-eastern United States has been held. The girls spoke of days of fun filled events, developing leadership skills, learning about empowering youth and lasting friendships. The "fun" was purposeful, it tested them and educated them. They specifically mentioned the value of the "privilege" walk.
They discussed how the development of leadership skills is a requirement in some areas, and how that will benefit them in their upcoming post-secondary admittance.
The attendee's got a bus tour of Calgary, and saw a great many of the local attractions. The girls spoke about being local tour guides, for those who had never been to Alberta.
They finished with a short video done by one of the participants which can be accessed on Youtube at https://youtu.be/otPu6HmtNcc. They also thanked the club for sponsoring their trip, which they truly enjoyed. It was a great presentation and the club saw that our investment in this conference was well spent and will pay back for years to come.
The Club also welcomed this year's District Governor Steve Levitt, for a "return engagement"! DG Steve is a member of the Rotary Club of Raymond, and was specifically attending meetings with clubs to promote the 2023 District Conference, which will be held in Lethbridge on May 5th - 6th, 2023. This year's conference theme is " Dreaming the Future", so he was especially delighted to share the stage at our meeting with members of Interact, truly the future of Rotary.
DG Steve spoke about the upcoming conference, May 5 - 6, 2023 in Lethbridge. A group from the Strathmore High School theater will be performing and several special guests will be in attendance to present awards. He very much encourages everyone to consider attendance, Lethbridge is not far away. He also spoke about the Secret 3K Marathon event, a project of PDG Martin Parnell. An opportunity to participate in the fundraising exercise is noted in our Minutes.
Lastly, Steve was very happy to present the local Interact Executive with a banner of this year's theme, "Imagine Rotary" and some Rotary pins to share with the Interact members.
It was a busy meeting, with a total of 25 people in attendance as well as 4 ZOOM participants. Lunch was delicious
Club Draw:
Marg Mazerolle was the winner of a coffee mug.
Makeups:
Those who worked the 15th bingo were noted.
Birthdays:
Siegfried Kappler Jan 01
Dick Northcott Jan 13
Roger Roy Jan 19
Mark Sorenson Jan 23
Melanie Harty Jan 25
Jim White Jan 31
Rotary Anniversaries:
Gail Halderman 27 years (Jan 01, 1996)
Roger Roy 17 years (Jan 01, 2006)
Igor Grujic 3 years (Jan 20, 2020)
Peter Mueller 3 years (Jan 20, 2020)
Wedding Anniversary Rose Runner for January 2023:
Gwen Dirk
Reminders about important Minutes:
Team Freewheel Bike project: The Bike Project encourages everyone to visit the project at 551 Spencer Street (Knowles Electric building). Thursday mornings are a good time to swing by for a cup of coffee and a chat with the team working on the bikes. Active involvement in the project would be warmly welcomed!
Sign Up for Door Monitors and Information Desks at Music Festival: Rotary Music Festival ED Delynne Lorentzen has created a sharable Google spreadsheet to sign up volunteers for the Door Monitor and Information Desk positions during the Music Festival. The Festival runs from March 5 - 19 this year. Please use this link to access the spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TKWeqg9ypAuAtwhYBjOjVTi33sj0mkHqpS2HOb_LGUA/edit?pli=1#gid=0
Dinner Club startup: Please consider signing up with Dick Bide or Milan Vujovic - it's big fun!
Bruce Shepard's other job: Bruce advised that in his other executive role, that of President of the MH Archialogical Society he wished to invite those interested to their next meeting, on Wednesday Jan 18th at the Crowfoot Room, MH College. The guest speaker will be talking about the Metis society in Chimney Coulee, Cypress Hills. Contact Bruce if you would like a ZOOM link.
Rotary Bingo's: Dave Panabaker thanked those that worked the bingo on Jan 15th, as Dave Stalwick promised a profit of $366.75 was made toward the pool. Approximately 60 players were present and Dave Panabaker was the lucky winner of the guess pot. The next bingo is Saturday afternoon, Feb 4, 2023.
Next Rotary Executive: Club Past-President Mark Sorenson is still on the hunt for two directors and a President-elect for the Rotary year 2023-2024. Please advise Mark if you are interested in serving the club by working on our internal administration or would be happy to take on the role of President in 24-25.
Meeting Room Setup
John John needs assistance setting up the meeting room on a go forward basis. The time commitment is about an hour before the meeting, starting at 11:00 am and about a half hour after the meeting, usually ending around 1:30 pm. If you are willing to help, please contact John or Dave Panabaker.
Family of Rotary:
Please keep Adolf informed about members health changes so that information can be provided to the club through the Weekly News.
The Rotary Club of Medicine Hat has returned to meeting in person, face-to-face meetings as of Monday March 21. A ZOOM link will still be available for those who are cautious, ill or are away on vacation.
