Rotary Weekly News - March 3, 2025 (Mar. 03, 2025)

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Another month has rolled around, and it was time for our ZOOM business meeting. President Mike Christie welcomed everyone who was on-line with us, and mentioned that with this past week's warm weather and melting the Monthly Rotary theme of "water and sanitation" is entirely appropriate.

Mike mentioned that there would some updates on meeting locations at the end of this meeting, as we try to coordinate a few visits to the CORE rental venue on 3rd St SE

Past President Bruce Shepard spoke about the upcoming "Why Rotary" event. He reminded everyone that it was scheduled for Wednesday April 30^th, with doors opening at 5:00 pm and a buffet supper at 6:00 pm. The cost is $50.00/person and they are looking at a maximum of 150 tickets, to be divided up by each of the four clubs based on membership numbers. We expect to have approximately 40 - 45 allocated to our club.

There will be tables set up around the outside of the room, highlighting many of the Rotary projects in the community. Please put the date aside, to attend and bring a potential Rotarian or to help with setup and cleanup.

Bruce mentioned that there has been enthusiastic response from the other clubs to this event, so we are hoping to see a lot of interest in tickets and in recruiting new Rotarians.

Bruce also mentioned that as Past President, one of his responsibilities is to recruit the next President-elect, to follow Milan Vujovic who is our 2025-2026 President. He will be setting up a meeting with other Past Presidents to talk about this subject.

President Mike then asked other directors to do short updates, a number were not on line and some committee meetings are in the next few weeks, so there weren't too many updates.

Club Service Director Dave Stalwick did speak about the locations of our next few meetings, so here's the plan. Please watch for President Mike's weekly email reminder, in case things change.

Monday March 10 - in-person meeting at MH Lodge. (ZOOM available)

Monday March 17 - onsite visit at Saamis Immigration downtown (No ZOOM)

Monday March 24 - in-person meeting at CORE rental space, 3rd St SE (ZOOM available)

Monday March 31 - in-person meeting at CORE rental space, 3rd St SE (ZOOM available)

Monday April 7 - in-person business meeting at CORE (ZOOM available)

after that business meeting, we'll decide about the future.

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.

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
The convention website is http://www.rotarycalgary2025.org

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.

Meeting News

GUESTS:

none today.

ATTENDANCE: 18 Rotarians joined the ZOOM business meeting today.

CLUB DRAW: No draw today.

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:

Brenda Mercer. Mar 1^st.
Dave Panabaker. Mar 7^th.
Manali Shanbhag. Mar 7^th.
Odessa Vermee. Mar 14^th.
Terry Cooper. Mar 25^th.

Rotary Anniversaries:

Stan Sakamoto 41 years, Mar 1, 1984.
Jack Snedden. 36 years, Mar 1, 1989.
Dave Stalwick. 23 years, Mar 4, 2002.
Mike Christie. 23 years, Mar 4, 2002.
John John. 22 years, Mar 10, 2003.
Bruce Shepard. 11 years, Mar 10, 2014.
Alain Guerard. 2 years, Mar 13, 2023.
Dawn Barr. 21 years, Mar 29, 2004.

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY ROSE RUNNER FOR APRIL 2025

Bruce Shepard (no wedding anniversarys in March)

Minute Reminders:

ROTARY CLUB 1000 RAFFLE TICKETS

Anne Carrier spoke about the upcoming 2025 Rotary Club 1000 raffle. Anne is requesting that anyone who sells a ticket using the ZEFFY site, which facilitates the use of a credit card, PLEASE advise herself and Nadia, so they can match tickets to incoming funds. Rotarians who sell that way need to write out a ticket for those purchasers so that they are entered into the raffle. Advising the organizing group will avoid duplicate entries. The cooperation of everyone is truly appreciated and will make financial reporting on the raffle much simpler. Please work hard to sell the raffle tickets, as they are the primary fundraising tool that we use for our Music Festival support.

ROTARY CONVENTION INCENTIVE

Club Treasurer Gail Halderman reminded members that due to the proximity of the convention to our club, our 2024-2025 budget includes a sum of money to be shared between those members who are attending the event. By a show of hands it appeared that 7 or 8 members of those present are going, so please sign up and share in this thoughtful idea.

Kitt Brand advised that their "small" table in the House of Friendship, to show support for Peace in the Ukraine has "exploded" into a great many projects going on in that area. Watch for them, if you are going to convention in Calgary.

BINGO UPDATES

Dave Panabaker advised that he has a full team for the bingo on Monday evening March 3rd. Thanks to the group for volunteering.

THE MONARCH THEATRE - OPERATING CAPITAL DEBENTURES

Dave Panabaker advised that he had received a request from the "Monarch 1911 Society" to introduce the concept of their operating debentures. During this startup period of time, while expenditures exceed revenue, the.y are setting up a series of Operating Debentures and are looking for Rotarians to invest. The debentures cost $5,000 and are flexible in the repayment methods. The debentures pay a 5% interest rate and if you are interested in supporting the Monarch Theatre project, Dave can send you the document or you can contact Frank Devine at the Saamis Club for more info.

UPDATE ON NGSE PARTICIPANT

Margie Booyens sent along this great photo of former NGSE participant Katharina Braess and her parents at her law school graduation. Congratulations and best wishes from all of us.

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

Bernie Scott was very happy to get out of the hospital in Calgary over the weekend and to get back home to Medicine Hat hopefully on Tuesday. He wanted to thank everyone who has sent along best wishes and we hopefully will see him out to a meeting soon.

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.