President Mark Sorenson welcomed everyone to the meeting today. He thanked Mayor Clugston for being with us today and providing us with an opportunity to hear from him, as well as answer his questions.
There were 36 Rotarians joining us at the meeting today, including 3 members of the Medicine Hat Sunrise Club.
Please do your best to sell the remainder of the Club 1000 tickets before March 14th. All proceeds go to the Rotary Music Festival.
Speaking of the Rotary Music Festival, did you see the great article in the Medicine Hat News on the weekend about the virtual Festival, or hear our Executive Director, Delynne Lorentzen interviewed on CHAT-TV.
A new club laptop is in our future, the current one will not provide the service required to stream our meetings.
If our hybrid meetings continue in the future, a few more meeting helpers will be required to help run cameras and sound. We are all learning as we go along here, but these type of meetings are manpower intensive.
Rotary Club Membership Update:
If you are interested in helping this working membership team, please contact Mike Christie.
Rotary Club Information:
Housekeeping:
Please collect club draw items. It is an important part of our meeting and the funds generated help to run the club.
If you have a Meeting Minute, please phone or email the Newsletter and we'll include it.
Board minutes can be found on ClubRunner, under Club Documents.
Upcoming Club Program, Activities, and Meetings
Our next "ZOOM" meeting will be Monday, Monday March 1st at noon, it will be a business meeting, following the Club Board meeting last Thursday.
The DG and President Mark have requested that we limit our in person gatherings while COVID cases are rising in the community. Our meetings will be virtual until at least Monday March 22nd that is currently our first scheduled " in person" meeting, but don't hold your breath!
Upcoming Rotary District and International Events:
Mark this date in your calendars, the 2021 Rotary District 5360 VIRTUAL Conference is Saturday May 1st, 2021 from Drumheller, AB. Please use this link to register https://www.discon5360.ca .
The Rotary International convention for 2021, originally scheduled in Taiwan will now be held VIRTUALLY as well. Watch for updates on registration and programs.
Future Programs:
The Rotary Club's Program Coordinator is Jillian Koch. If you have future program ideas, please email Jillian at jkoch@jmhca.com
The Rotary Club welcomed our honorary member, Mayor Ted Clugston to the meeting today. He has recently provided the City, through an annual speech with the Kiwanis Club and the MH Chamber of Commerce, a "State of the City - 2021" updated and he was here primarily to answer questions and provide any clarification to the speech. So to assist us in doing "our homework", he provided the link. Several Rotarians commented what a thoughtful and interesting speech it was, complete with video's and poems! Here's the link to the whole presentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u4z-TWgBLE
Mayor Ted spoke about preparing the speech, how this one was different because the presentation was virtual, and how a discussion about COVID could wash over some serious concerns in the community and some great accomplishment by Hatters, business owners, the City and other organizations. He divided the video into thirds, the first to underscore the damage that COVID isolation has been to the general well being of citizens and a significant mental health challenge. He spoke about the rash of suicide and overdose deaths that have occurred in this area, and the ongoing work to address those issues.
He spoke about the work of Council, and staff. The unusual situation that the pandemic has created and other needs, particularly the accelerated Financially Fit program, to deal with the impacts of commodity prices on our Gas/Oil and Electric Power businesses. He talked about some of the great upcoming work, due to the Federal stimulus grants that will be taking place in 2021. Some very interesting projects, such as expansion of the trail system at Echodale Park, a massive pickleball court project at the FLC, development at 603 1st ST SE and a canopy at Athletic Park, to name just a few.
In the remaining third he spoke about leading the team at City Hall through this time, thanked his staff and fellow Council members and spoke about deciding to run for mayor again in the fall of 2021.
He answered a number of questions on many of these issues, and we all thank for spending the time with us, to educate us and learn about what is going on.
Clare Lindsay, President of Medicine Hat Sunrise Rotary.
AG Keith Walker, MH Sunrise
Bill Cooper, MH Sunrise.
Club Draw:
No draws this week.
Minute People:
Dave Panabaker passed on the Club 1000 update. A total of 625 tickets have been returned sold, about 200 tickets out with Rotarians for sale. Every dollar collected now is going to the 2021 Music Festival, so please work hard over the next few weeks to sell as many as possible. "Last call" for tickets will be about March 14th, as the committee needs to get all of them in and registered prior to the draw. The draw will be done at the intermission of Stars of the Festival, on Sunday evening March 21st.
Wayne Chesley announced that he and Bernice celebrated 56 years of marriage on Feb 5th, and was hoping that we would continue the tradition of roses being delivered for birthdays and anniversaries. Adolf responded that once COVID is behind us, he is hoping to restore that service.
Bruce Shepard announced that the SE Alberta Archeological Society AGM will be Wed Feb 24th. It is a ZOOM meeting, everyone is welcome and please contact him for the link.
Clare Lindsay from MH Sunrise mentioned that their club will be starting a raffle for a pair of electric bikes in the next few weeks, so watch for the ad to come out.
Kitt Brand advised that the club NGSE team hosted a District "lookback" at the experience of Katharina Braess. Katharina joined the group from Bavaria, and shared her insights and suggestions. Rotarians involved in the program from Lethbridge, and Calgary were also "on the call". Participants viewed the experience as an extremely valuable exercise, that should be repeated before and after any NGSE visit.
Dave also mentioned, that invitations to both Stars of the Festival and the Rosebowl competition have been sent out, and will be again this week. Both events will be "live streamed" on Facebook, AND on YouTube. So anyone with a computer should have access. It's a great opportunity to invite donors, patrons, advertisers and Club 1000 ticket purchasers to see the quality of the talented performers.
If you have photos or a story to include in the Weekly News, please submit it to Dave P and we'll try to publish it.
Birthdays: February.
Bruce Shepard Feb 17.
Don Davis Feb 23.
Lisa DesRoches Feb 28.
Margie Booyens Feb 29.
Club Anniversaries: February.
Gregg Martin 30 years Feb 1, 1991.
Marg Mazerolle 29 years Feb 1, 1992.
Ted Cowtan 6 years Feb 9, 2015.
Makeups:
None recorded.
Family of Rotary: (PLEASE KEEP ADOLF INFORMED ABOUT MEMBERS SO THAT INFORMATION CAN BE PASSED ON TO ALL IN THE WEEKLY NEWS)..
Jim White is doing better and would welcome phone calls from Rotarians.
Marg Mazerolle and Dick Bide are doing great with their new knees.
Glen Presley is making slow, steady progress as him immune system is rebuilt and gets stronger.
Herman Wahl is still struggling with a fair bit of pain, and we keep him and Fran in our thoughts.
