With President Melanie Harty up to her eyes and ears at this time of the tax year, President Elect Bruce Shepard stepped in and welcomed all, expressing thanks to City Editor Ryan McCracken for receiving the Club members for a visit to the Medicine Hat News.
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 Mike Christie 403 878 3311.
Rotary Club Membership Update:
Please consider joining 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, text 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 May 1st - Business Meeting (ZOOM)
May 7th and 8th - Next Rotary Club Casino
Tuesday May 16th - Rosebowl Performance, Recital Hall, Cultural Center 7:00 pm
Friday June 16th - Rotary at the Ballpark, Athletic Park
Upcoming Rotary District and International Events
Rotary District Club Learning Webinar: Registration is open for the next Learning Webinar to be held on Wednesday May 16th at 7:00pm: "Reining in the June Membership Stampede"
Next District Conference: Lethbridge: May 5/6, 2023. Have you registered yet? The conference website is located at https://www.discon5360.ca Margie mentioned that some ride sharing and car pooling might let more folks attend. Anyone interested?
District 5360 Annual General Meeting: Monday May 8 at 5pm.
Rotary International Convention: 27 - 31 May 2023, in Melbourne, Australia.
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.
Medicine Hat News (MHN) City Editor, Ryan McCracken, has a degree in journalism from a university in Ontario. During the two years he worked as a (mainly) sports reporter for the St Paul journal in Saskatchewan, he covered several significant, traumatic events. One was a bus crash and another the murder of a priest.
Ryan moved to Alberta in 2014. He covered sports in the area for the Medicine Hat News for six seasons, before taking on the role of sports editor in 2020, then city editor in 2021, the position that he still holds today.
The COVID era had a hugely negative impact on the MHN. For example: No sporting events to report on; staff had to do as much work from home as they could, which was very challenging, and they had to relay times at the office to get the layout etc. of the paper done. Most devastating was that the number of journalists on the staff was reduced from 12 to 6 – a City Editor, a Publishing Editor and just four journalists. This had to be done due to the reduction in advertising during the COVID years. The Monday edition had in turn to be axed because of the reduced size of reporting staff and the rising cost of newsprint. Over the years, the total staff contingent has been reduced from about 100 to the current 30-40.
Ryan described the office as a positive environment, with the journalists working hard and often overtime (“For the love of the game”) to get each edition of the MHN shipshape for the 7,000 (mostly) print subscribers.
Ryan shared a few funny typos, and his typical working day. He explained how important it is that the paper balances out space and attention, particularly on the front page, e.g. to political parties, not appearing to favour any one in particular. He described the process followed each day, from content to layout to submission for printing, reception of the printed papers from Lethbridge, insertion of flyers in the mailroom at MHN, and then the distribution of papers in Medicine Hat by the carriers.
Ryan pointed out the important role played by the MHN, having a foothold in the community, which allows the journalists to cover and explain decisions made by e.g. City Council and the Police, as well as covering events of local interest.
Three of the things Ryan and his team are working towards are more ‘proprietary content’, the digital copy of the MHN being different to the hard copy, and more cohesion between the many newspapers in the Alberta Paper Group.
The tour of the MHN building revealed a development that few know about. The MHN is now printed in Lethbridge, alongside sister newspaper, the Lethbridge Herald, and several other local (mostly weekly) newspapers. The printing machines at MHN now stand idle.
Ryan and his team were sincerely thanked for the exceptional coverage given to the Rotary Music Festival each year.
Rotarians and guests were interested to see and hear that the Santa Claus Christmas Fund operates from the MHN offices, reducing rental costs.
In sum, this was a very interesting and informative visit, for which we once again thank Medicine Hat News City Editor, Ryan McCracken.
We wish Ryan and his staff the best for the vitally important role they play, inter alia, in helping to keep our leaders challenged and accountable, and our community informed and vibrant.
There were 17 club members and 3 guests in attendance - a good turnout for our "Rotary in the Community" meeting
Guests at the meeting today were:
Johan Booyens, guest of Margie
Elaine Fulton, guest of Margie
Keith Walker, our Assistant Governor and friend
We enjoyed a full hour with City Editor, Ryan McCracken, at the Medicine Hat News office.
After a presentation by Ryan, and a robust question time, the group had a tour around the offices. It was an informative, interesting visit to a key resource in our community. See more in the STORY section of our newsletter.
Club Draw:
No draw this week
Please remember to contribute items for the weekly draw as the stock cupboard is running low.
Makeups:
None mentioned
Birthdays:
Anne Carrier May 5
Doug Fleming May 19
Ian McLaughlin May 20
Ted Cowtan May 25
Dawn Barr May 31
Rotary Anniversaries:
Ian McLaughlin May 01 1992 31 years
Dick Northcott May 1 2000 23 years
Dan Kammerer May 19 2004 19 years
Susan Withers May 14 2018 5 years
Wedding Anniversary Rose Runner for May 2023:
Gail Halderman
Reminders about important Minutes:
Bingo
Dave Panabaker reports that the Bingo team served 86 players on Sunday April 23, earned a pool profit of $1,275.00, and that Anne Carrier won the 'guess pot'. Well done, team!
Next Bingo: Friday May 19, evening session
Dinner Club
Dick Bide would like to get the Dinner Club underway. He encouraged those put their names down, to send him a date for the dinner at their house.
E-bike Raffle Tickets
The e-bike raffle generates funds for the Sunrise Rotary Club to sponsor community and international causes, one of which is literacy, through the “Sunrise Rotary Ride the Road to Reading” program at the Medicine Hat Public Library, for grade 4 students in the city. Use this link to buy tickets with a credit card: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/18de336b-5b29-4ee9-8e0a-81ade75a8684
Sunrise Rotary Club anniversary: June 20: SAVE THE DATE!
Just a reminder of the 25th anniversary celebration of the chartering of the Sunrise Club which will take place in the evening of Tuesday June 20, 2023 at Paradise Valley. The draw for the two e-bikes will be done same evening. There will be an outside dinner starting at 5pm. Cost: $25 p/p for the meal. A cash bar will be available. All are welcome - BRING GUESTS!
The Medicine Hat Club chartered the Sunrise Club in June 1998. Past President of our Club, Mark Sorenson, was one of the charter members.
Team Freewheel Bike project: Terry Cooper 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!
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
Former Rotarian Ray Kemp is now out of hospital and has been recuperating at home. He resumes his radiation treatment in Lethbridge this week and will be staying there until the treatment has been completed. We wish him the best.
The Rotary Club sends our condolences to the family and friends of James Murphy, a former member of the Club back in the 1980s. Col. Murphy (Ret) passed away in Calgary, last week.
Please keep Adolf Seiler 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.
