President Joan
started the meeting at 12:30 as we had a jam-packed agenda.
Past-District
Governor Joan Firkins introduced the following guests: May Croft, guest and
mother of Tom Croft, Maness Samuel, APU graduate, Christie Johnson of Peason
College, Janet Welham Interact Liaison hosted by Ron Cooley, and Moira Hall,
Samarah Johnson and Rain Smith all Oak Bay Interact Students hosted by Heather
Aked.
Health of the Club:
Mary Canty informed the club that Lori McLeod’s father passed away and that a
condolences' card was being passed around for everyone to sign. Joan Peggs
mentioned that she visited Ted Harrison, but wasn’t sure he recognized her.
Announcements:
Perry Bamji informed the Club that we have collected $667 worth of pennies
which will be matched if sent to Rotary Foundation by both the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation thus
bringing the total to roughly $2000. He encouraged members to keep bringing in
their pennies and to solicit pennies from colleagues at work.
Heather Aked reminded us that next week is our Social
meeting at the Victoria Golf Club where our speaker Don Addams will be telling
us ghost stories. If you haven’t done so please sign up with Brian Lamb bjlamb@kpmg.ca if you plan to attend. Cost is
$20.
Fines Master:
Vicky Pitt handed out a few interesting fines today. First was to those women
who at one time in their lives had to wear stockings held up by garter belts.
The second fine was to men who enjoyed the advent of the mini skirt. A few
other fines were imposed and then followed up with happy and sad dollars.
Happy and Sad
Dollars: Tom Croft let us know the lost “flags” had been found. Ron Cooley
realized that his whining about doing extra work on the Merrython fundraiser
was nothing compared to the work some others on the committee were doing. He
congratulated them all. Heather passed out fliers related to Guide Dogs and
informed us that we will be having a speaker in the new year talking about the
guide dog program. She is also off to Vegas and promises to pass some of her
winnings to Polio Plus. Perry noted that his sister passed away.
Birthdays – past and
present: Donna, Lori, Peter Sou, Emma and Rod. Only Rod was present today
so we sang him Happy Birthday.
Club Anniversaries:
Hans has been a member of our club for 10 years and a Rotarian for 38 years –
WOW! Mary, Jerry and Corey have been members for 11, 7 and 3 years
respectively.
Speaker: Christie
Johnson introduced Maness Samuel (right), an APU graduate from the first graduating
class of the Malawi Girls School. Maness was the head girl for each of the four
years she attended the school. She is currently a student at Pearson College.
There is nothing that is more rewarding and heart and soul
rendering than to see and hear this lovely young woman who has reaped the
benefits of the support and generosity of so many of our club members and our
club in general. The title of Maness’ presentation was Giving Girls a Voice and a Choice.
She was extremely grateful for all the support she has
received for it has allowed her to learn and know what it means to be a woman as
a whole and worthy human being. Being able to attend the APU Girls School has
provided her with opportunities for hope for a future in which she has both a
choice and a voice.
Maness’ presentation focused on 3 key points: 1) Happiness
and hope about the future, 2) Giving girls a choice and a voice and 3) changing
girls’ perspectives of what it means to be a woman.
The next step for the school is to build a teacher training
college as there are few opportunities for employment for women. However, there
is a shortage of female teachers across the country. They expect to have the
college operational by 2014.
In closing she mentioned that all this was only made
possible through our support and she thanked us for that and reminded us that
“if you educate a woman, you educate a nation.
Tricia Timmermans thanked Maness.
Club Assembly
Canada Flag
Fundraiser: Jim Laing and Jim Force presented the current state of the
Canada Flag fundraiser. The following club members make up the “flag team”: Jim
and Jim co-chairs, Jack Petrie as sales captain, Don O’Coffey as Placement
Captain, Will Carter as Storage Manager, Tricia Timmermans as PR liaison with
PR Committee, Rod Sims as Project Treasurer.
Tricia passed around sample brochures for folks viewing
pleasure. We expect to have 1000 brochures printed by the end of November. We
will start sales to club member in mid-January and to the public the first of
March. The Edmonton Club has generously donated 100 flags, poles
and spikes to get us started. This is close to a $5,000 donation. We expect to
receive the flags by mid-January.
International Report:
John Jordan presented the International report. John reminded us that the heart
of Rotary is in assisting the less fortunate with the purpose of creating a
fair and better world. He outlined the Rotary vision for international
development as follows: 1) build sustainable lives, 2) develop partnership in
which there is an investment in the future, and 3) maintain patience and
respect for those with whom we work. John also mentioned our 5 international
projects that current club members are directly involved with. They include
projects in Mexico, Guatemala, India, Malawi and Rwanda. At this past year’s
District Convention our club was awarded the Fred Olson International Service
Award.
Financial Report:
Anne Sims provided a handout with the July to September financial numbers. In brief,
our total revenue amounts to $16,147, while our expenditures amount to $15,998.
Our estimated revenue for this Rotary is budgeted for $57,000. So get out there
and help fundraise, for without funds we can’t provide the services we hope to.
PR Report: The
focus of Perry Bamji’s report was on Knowledge Management. Perry informed us
that the function of Knowledge Management is “information dissemination.” He
outlined 5 steps in this process: 1) capturing information, 2) organizing information,
3) storing information, 4) diffusing information and 5) utilizing information.
He mentioned that the Club has several Preferred Practices documents, which can
be found on our Club website, that describe how the various processes of the Club
function. He encouraged committee chairs to pay attention to these documents as
they provide valuable information.
Closure:
President Joan closed the meeting with God
Save the Queen.
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