April 12, 2018

April 19, 2018: Rural Urban Evening “Andrew Pyper”, Katherine Hahn

will introduce, and Rick Orr will thank our speaker.

Head Table:  Our President Linda Bathe, will organize the head table this week.

 

This Week: Today we welcomed Honourable Dan Mathieson, Mayor of Stratford to the podium for his annual Stratford update talk  to our club.

Club members are keenly interested the government of our city, its economy, the quality of life, the care provided for children, social assistance, infrastructure, jobs etc. and so it is no surprise that we were an attentive audience for Mayor Dan. But still his talk was an eye opener to the challenges of managing the city of Stratford in today's world of higher costs and government grants that seem to come up short.

 

 

 

Our city budget is 140M which is broken into 116.5M operating and 23.5M capital. Our debt is 76.4M. Dan reminded us that the big part of funding for the city is the property tax base  (The average house is $288 thousand and the average tax increase per house is $60.00 this year.) Some examples of project costs are: 5.5 M for the Quinlan Pumping Station, 7M for stage 1  Queen street diversion and 1.27M for sidewalk, trails and resurfacing of roads.

 

We can be proud of the company success stories that Dan mentioned: Trillium Hatchery Inc.'s 22M innovative hatchery, Samsonite's 141,000 sq. ft. facility, South West Ontario Veterinary Services, Vic West expansion to 90,000 sq. ft., FIO Automotive Canada Inc. 9M investment, Hayashi Canada Inc. 7.6M expansion. A feature of most of these investments  is the degree of high tech that is included which helps industries to be competitive.

 

Mayor Dan talked about transportation noting that 85% of workers in Stratford and Perth County come by car to their jobs. it is worth looking at regional transportation services that would take many of these workers to their jobs and save a few cars.

 

This is just a selection of the topics that Dan covered. Perhaps the best summary is that suggests we plan for the future by taking steps to make Stratford a welcoming place for young people. Thankfully we have the University of Waterloo campus, we are adding fibre optics and 5G wireless is proposed. We support the facilities that meet the social needs of a vibrant community with a promising future.

 

Mayor Dan was introduced by Phillip Schroeder and thanked by Clark Mitchell.

 

Scribe: Norm Bird

 

Guests:  Today we welcomed Todd Clyde, Don McNeil, Brad Beatty, Doug Hunter and Michelle Webber from Stratford.

 

Draw: The draw prize today was donated by Bill Lemon and won by our guest Michelle Webber.

 

The Humbolt Saskatchewan disaster was on everyone's mind today. many came wearing their favourite hockey jerseys. a spontaneous collection of $350.00 was raised.

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Harris Award: Congratulations to Ollie Henry, our newest Paul Harris Fellow. Wendy Anderson made the presentation and the family of Ollie was able to be on hand to experience this happy event.

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Gaffney reports that Lutzen Riedstra has a form of leukemia and is undergoing treatment with a good prognosis.

 

George Schroeder reports that Norm Briscoe is still at the hospital and will be there for a while.  His health seems to be stable and he is taking visitors but has changed rooms. Please speak to George for more information.

 

 

And now for the cheer part of care and cheer, I received a photo this morning of Gerry Thuss with his brand-new granddaughter Elodie. 

 

Gerry was on his way to Boston for the Marathon and was able to visit them in Bromont on the way.

 

 

 

Wendy Anderson:  We are still looking for volunteers for the Rural Urban night next week.  Also, Catch the Ace tickets will be available at the Rural Urban Event.

 

Jo-Anne Hood Tidman:  A New Generations Exchange individual coming in on Sunday April 22.  She will be staying with Jo-Anne and John for the whole of her 4-week exchange and is interested in the arts and will be working at the Agora Gallery.  She needs a ride to the district conference on Friday May 4th.  Please contact Jo-Anne if you can help.

 

Craig Pearce:  There will be a gold committee meeting next Wednesday same place same time.  The tournament is Wednesday June 13.  Please keep that in mind.

 

Rob Ritz:  held a draw for the $50 gift card for volunteers for the parking for Dairy Expo.  Pat Shewen was the winner. 

 

 

I apologize that this is so late however I would like to report on our last board meeting:

 

We had a discussion regarding fundraising and it was decided to be fair to the Hospice Board and their fundraising efforts we must make it clear at our events that the proceeds benefit all Rotary projects, hospice included. However, if we hold a draw or a raffle for which we need to get a licence and specify a charity the funds will flow directly to that charity as is the requirement of the licence.

 

The Board approved an MOU with the Stratford Perth Hospice Foundation regarding naming rights for the hospice.  We have 10 years to reach our goal of 1 million dollars donated by all of the Rotary Clubs in Perth County and Rotarian Friends of Hospice.  If at the end of 10 years we do not reach that goal we will have the opportunity to negotiate a future pledge to retain naming rights.  If you would like to read the MOU it is posted on Club Runner.

 

After 46 years of the Christmas Silver Stick Tournament the Board voted to dissolve the Silver Stick Committee after receiving correspondence from the committee including this quote “It was the unanimous decision of this committee with regret to dissolve the partnership with SMHA at their request” The Tournament will continue to be run by Stratford Minor Hockey Association.

 

The board heard a presentation by Julie Allum, the HUB’s social media director.  The HUB proposed to donate $1000 of social media consultation to the Dragon Boat Event as part of their Platinum Sponsorship.

 

After much discussion the board decided the club urgently needed a social media policy.  The board did not think it was prudent to trust our social media to someone other than a professional we have contracted directly or to a Rotarian. 

 

For those reasons the board passed a motion to decline the in-kind donation of social media support.  The board also passed a motion: To ensure that no sponsor has any benefits beyond those outlined in the sponsorship agreement.

Thanks to Jim Young, Charlene Gordon and the Legislation and Public Relations Committee the Board will consider a proposed Social Media Policy at the board meeting this coming Monday.

 

The Public Relations Committee has also developed a PR package with a boilerplate message regarding our club, a list of media consultants and tips on writing press releases.  This package will be sent to committee chairs for their use in the next couple days.

 

Make-ups: Elizabeth Gaffney, April 2 at the Ft. Myers South Rotary Club and April 3 at the Ft. Myers Club that meets at the Ford Edison Estate.

 

April’s Attendance Committee:  Rena Spevak Orr (I/C), Sarah Hamza, Gary Morris, Ron Shaw, Roger Black, Mark Smith, Tony Carter, Patti Riehl, Guy Chadsey