Meeting Highlights: March 22, 2018
April 5, 2018 – Women and Men working Together in Rotary
District Governor Nominee Maureen Fritz-Roberts started off the evening by encouraging all members to make sure they purchase their tickets for the April 5 event at Native Sons Hall. This Rotary celebration will feature short presentations by the first local women involved in Rotary, including first female member in the Comox Valley, Marg Grant, who joined our club in the 1991-1992 Rotary year. Our club led the way in including women, who have joined with men to continue to achieve the aspirations of Rotarians the world over. The featured speaker will be Rotary International Vice President Dean Rohrs; always a moving story teller, she is not to be missed.
It all takes place at our club’s usual Rotary time of the week – just go to Native Sons instead of D’Esterre House. Join with the other local clubs’ members, District Governor Tom Carroll and Laurie Schouboe Carroll, DG Elect Craig Gillis, and MC for the evening, DG Nominee Mo Fritz-Roberts. Be part of history and this great celebration of Rotary – People of Action.
Two ways to get your $35 tickets:
Online at https://rotarycourtenay.tickit.ca/e…/4189-celebrating-rotary
Order them from President Jo at joannemcoyle@gmail.com
Do it today! The organizing team of local club Presidents needs to finalize numbers for catering.
Rotary Moment
John North talked about the personal gratification brought about by doing hands-on service work in Rotary, and also the gratification as a club member. He said that his friendships in Rotary have come from getting involved – for him, right off the bat, it meant accepting the suggestion that with his project management skills he would be a great person to take over as the Chair of The Ducky 500 fundraiser! With some great club mentorship, it was a success, because Rotarians worked together to make it so. Since then, having also had a chance to see the good in the community that Rotary can do as a result of hard work, John values the opportunities he has through Rotary.
Thank you from Lake Trail Middle School Principal, Gerald Fussell
Gerald expressed his appreciation for the school soup making efforts of the club, organized by VP Charlene Davis. He said that the kids love the soup every time!
Lake Trail School, at which Club Member Brian Mather taught for a decade, has a commitment to feeding its students. To this end, they have a Concession Kitchen at which students can buy good quality, inexpensive food, the proceeds of which are turned back into providing the food. They have an employee whose job it is to cook for, and run the concession. They also have a school community garden where they cultivate growing/gardening skills and reap the produce for a weekly free salad bar during certain months of the year. The school has a large multi-station kitchen where they can teach cooking skills.
Gerald challenged the public perception that his school suffers from negative social behaviours and problems and says that, on the contrary, his school students are at a formative age and are orderly, motivated to learn, and there is a great school spirit. Programs like our monthly soup provision help create the positive school culture that exists. He expressed his gratitude to all.
Next Soup Date: April 17 from 4 – 6 pm at Lake Trail School
Mark your calendars and just show up with your apron and your knife! Thank you to Charlene for continuing to organize this service project.
Induction of Sofia Murillo de Gagne
Assistant Governor Stu Tunheim performed Sofia’s induction ceremony with Membership Director Henrie Beaudoin. A feature of this ceremony was an informal “Proust Questionnaire” in which Sofia was a good sport about participating – she answered 28 questions in the 2 minute time frame!
Welcome to our club, Sofia – and we hope you will enjoy your Rotary experience! Sofia has already expressed interest in joining the Literacy Committee, potentially to help address mathematical literacy – already, she is considering her contribution in the Vocational Avenue of Service!
Community Paul Harris Fellow Nominations
Foundation Director/Awards Committee Chair Rod McKenzie has sent out messages requesting nominations for a deserving non-Rotarian community member to receive from our club a Paul Harris Fellow Award. Rod still has room for another nomination, so please don’t hesitate to speak with him and nominate someone who upholds Rotary values in volunteer work in the Valley. Rod will send you an application form. The Awards Committee meets March 29 to hopefully finalize the recipients.
Some Club Administrative Messages
Website – take a look at the progress Public Image Director Leif Jason has been making with our club website – thank you, Leif!
Next Board meeting: May 23, 2018 – The April board meeting has been cancelled unless something pressing comes up that needs board attention…..Please let Pres Jo know if you would like to attend in May.
Copying and Printing:
As reported in the Bulletin last week, a request is being made for all copying and printing expenses that the member pays up front and submits the receipt and a completed Expense Claim Form to the appropriate Committee Chair for approval, signature, and submission to Treasurer Norma Pelletier, who will reimburse the member. Thank you for your cooperation!
Meal Payment Coverage Policy:
Following is the Meal Payment Coverage Policy approved by the board:
– All club members are responsible for payment of meals for themselves and their personal guests.
– Visiting Rotarians must pay either $20 for the meal or $5 for coffee.
– All external Guest Speakers’ meals are covered by the club. As appropriate, and at the discretion of the Program Chair, one guest of the Guest Speaker may be covered.
– Guests identified as potential members by an existing member, as authorized by the Membership Director are covered for their first visit to the club.
– Mark R. Isfeld Interact Club members’ meals at a regularly scheduled meeting to which they are invited are covered, to a total limit of 14 Interact meals per year, this amount to be budgeted and authorized by the Youth Service Director. Interact students are welcome to attend any meeting as self paying for a meal or to attend free of charge if not taking part in the meal.
– Non-Rotarian Guests may attend a meeting and pay $20 for the meal or, without taking part in the meal, for a fee of $5. At the discretion of at least 2 members of the board present at the club meeting, the $5 fee may be waived.
– Meals for children 12 years of age and under are covered by the club at a reduced rate from the caterer [Currently, this rate is $5.]. This is to encourage the participation of families at club meetings and ease child care to allow members to attend.
Meals for Other Guests of the Club: The club will pay for the meals of:
– The District Governor and spouse
– The Assistant Governor and Spouse on official visit
– Club Short Term Exchange Students and accompanying family
– Club Long Term Exchange Students
– Community Paul Harris Fellow Recipients and immediate family
– At the request of the Community Service Committee, recipients of Rotary donations
– At the request of the Vice President, top three prize winners of the Ducky 500 race
– Others, at the discretion of the President, as put forward by a Board Member or Committee Chair
Weekly Club Meeting Payment
In accordance with an announcement made at the February 15th Rotary meeting, and a follow-up email by Treasurer Norma, April 12 will be the first meeting at which members, visiting Rotarians, and guests for whom the club is not paying, must pay as they go for meetings, or purchase a set of meeting tickets – either the $20 or $5 sets. If you are able to come a little early that first evening it will be appreciated, so that we can work our way through the prepayment process. Norma will send out another email to make it clear how all this will occur. Change always takes some getting used to, so bear with us while we make this change that will greatly simplify our bookkeeping and reduce our expenses.
Member Satisfaction Survey
At time of writing, we’re at a 30% response rate in our surveying of members. So we’ve made a good start, but we have a way to go. Let’s all weigh in. Is there something you’re itching to say? Do you want to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction with any aspect of being a Rotarian in our club? This is your chance! Please click on the link and complete it anonymously as soon as possible. Use the comments sections to enlarge upon your responses and empty out your mind on being a member of the Rotary Club of Comox!
Here’s the link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5LJH7QH
Next Meeting: Club Social Games Night on March 29!
This coming Thursday, on March 29, plan to arrive a little early. Dinner will start being served at 620, followed by Team Games… If you are not already on a team, fear not, you will be placed on a team. Bring a couple of loonies and toonies for small contributions towards your success! All for a little fun and fellowship for the cause of Rotary. Get into the spring spirit!
Speakers – Report of the Rotary Peace Conference
Rod McKenzie and David Peat, who attended the Rotary Peace Conference in Vancouver in February reported on their inspiring experience: hearing Dr David Suzuki and others, participating in the breakout sessions, and networking with like-minded Rotarians. David, as our club’s recipient of the scholarship to attend the convention expressed his appreciation.
David Suzuki, in his reality talk about the state of the planet said that he was speaking as a scientist, as a grandfather who cares about our environmental legacy to our youth, and as an elder who speaks his truth, no longer caring how people might judge him.
Another speaker’s message was “Why don’t we stop killing things [and people] and try to understand them?”
Rod and David reported that Rotary’s new priority world-wide is peace-making, something we can all get behind in our personal expressions and pursuits in being a Rotarian. To this end, Rotary has teamed up with the Institute for Economics and Peace, with the following narrative:
“Peace is much more than the absence of violence. Positive Peace describes the attitudes, structures and institutions that underpin and sustain peaceful societies. The Institute has developed a conceptual framework, known as the Pillars of Peace, which outlines a system of eight factors that work together to build positive peace. Derived from a statistical analysis of over 4,000 datasets, the Pillars of Peace provides a roadmap to overcome adversity and conflict, and to build lasting peace.
The Pillars of Peace are:
Well functioning government
Equitable distribution of resources
Free flow of information
Good relations with neighbours
High levels of human capital
Acceptance of the rights of others
Low levels of corruption
Sound business environment”
From this perspective, Canada is 8th on the Institution’s 2017 Global Peace Index out of 163 countries. (The United States is 114th and Mali is 140th). Mali is where our forces are going to be deployed for peace keeping duties.
Surely there are no more pertinent principles for Rotary than upholding the Pillars of Peace in all we do.
Some light-hearted fun at the convention: RI President Ian Riseley, being the enthusiastic Aussie that he is, regaled the multitudes with his rendition of Waltzing Matilda. Unforgettable, apparently. Thanks to Sound Man Russell Ball, we all got to hear a sample!
Rod and David were thanked by Rob Van Haarlem.
Come on back next week for the fun! Don’t forget to arrive at about 6 for an early start.
