The meeting was attended by 30 Rotarians for our monthly administration meeting.
Ken showed three Rotary Club banners that the visiting Scottish curlers gave to our members: one from the Troon club and two from the Broughty Ferry club.
Thank you correspondences received included :
- Red Cross for Ukraine $1,200
- Guatemala Literacy $500
- Polio Plus $750
- Legion Poppy Fund $100
- Legion rent $500
- Legion wreath
- Foodbank Christmas $1,000
- Bottle depot rent
Trudy advised members that the current members of the Board have agreed to serve again. That leaves nominations for President-Elect as the only open position that does not have a candidate. Bill Mitchell, a Past President, gave an impassioned appeal for candidates to come forward to lead our great Club.
Yvonne presented the Treasurer’s reports for September and October. The full reports will be posted on our website later today. She highlighted the fact that the bottle depot profit is over half of the budget after only a quarter of the year. Trudy said the hospital fund raising record on our thermometer at the bottle depot will be updated with these results. Howard moved that these financial reports be accepted as presented, Chris seconded the motion. Carried.
Christine gave a Communications report that she is preparing a 4-page ad for The Times to celebrate our 20th Anniversary.
Dawn gave a progress report on the Spelling Bee and asked for two volunteers to help her promote the Bee in County schools and to recruit their participation. Christine and Norm (two former teachers) offered to help her.
Norm reported that he is promoting the Free Reading Program to County principals.
Peter gave a Membership report that he has ordered hats for the Friends of Rotary that are strong participants and don’t have hats yet. Also, he is reviewing the inactive list of members to “clean it up”.
Lyn advised that one New Initiative that had a report was the Rotary Camp of Hope to which Ken reported. He said that after evaluating last summer’s management by the Children’s Foundation, he concluded that we could do a better job for Wellington children if we identified our kids and managed our participation ourselves. The application form that we had designed to manage our participation had only been used by 6 of the 24 kids going to camps. At a later date, the Club would be asked to approve $4,000 to fund the program, but in the meantime, Trudy has volunteered to get information on the various camps available. Ken asked for a volunteer to lead the camp program for this year, to which Shawn agreed.
Family Day, to be held at the Wellington Community Centre on February 20, would be an ideal venue to promote and recruit children for the Rotary Camps. For this day, Shawn will need 3 or 4 volunteers on his Camp Committee to man a booth and distribute information, to which Peter and Christine responded. This discussion led to other aspects of Canada Day. Our Club’s participation on Family Day has included recruiting cooks to prepare and serve soups to the public who attended. Dave Robinet may have the photo album of past participants that will tell us who to contact for this year. Also in the past, Liz has operated a play area with HUB equipment for the younger children attending. No Family Day Rotary lead was solicited at this time.
Ken acknowledged that David MacKinnon had an update on his new initiative Committee to address the shortage of first line health care workers, but we did not have time in this meeting to give the update a proper hearing. It will be scheduled for next meeting.
Ken reported that the Board is recommending to the Club that $2,000 be spent to provide two $1,000 scholarships to Lakehead University to be administered by the Indigenous Peoples Partnership for two indigenous students. Trudy made the motion to the members and Howard seconded it and it was carried. Ken also reported that a $175 Christmas hamper for Iqaluit had been approved by the Board. An additional request for $350 to provide 12 electric heaters had been declined by the Board. Liz gave an explanation of the need for the heaters and asked the members to reconsider the request. Trudy explained that the Board had turned down this request because it had decided to focus on education, and David MacKinnon had concurred because his experience in the North showed him that providing equipment did not work. Other members asked Liz for more information to which she responded, then she moved a motion that the request for $350 be granted and Dawn seconded it. The vote was 14 in favour, 10 against and 1 abstaining, so the motion was approved.
In recognition of “Every Rotarian, Every Year” donations, and that November is Rotary Foundation Month, Trudy moved that a donation of $2,000 be made to the Rotary Foundation of Canada, seconded by Peter, carried.
Ken reminded members that our Christmas breakfast will be held on December 13. Howard asked that members advise him if they are coming so he can manage the arrangements.
Ken reported that he has fielded some complaints about the lack of heat in the bottle depot. It has resulted in some members not feeling warm enough to serve on very cold days. Ken is referring this question to the Facilities Committee to ask Mark to consider a couple solutions: upgrading the electrical panel to accommodate a heater or buying a quiet generator to provide a power supply for a heater. Tim estimated the first option would cost about $4,000 but Ted said that Mark was against it. Lyn said she would bring in some hand and foot warmers for volunteers to use in the meantime.
The 50:50 draw was successful for David Hawkins this week. He won a little over $110.
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