January 11, 2018: Roy Verstraete “Update on NAFTA K of Columbus Hall” , our speaker will be introduced by John Wright.
Head Table: Our President Linda Bathe, invites, John Wright, Gord Steed, Fritz Steigmeier, Debra Swan, Doug Thompson, Rheo Thompson and Chris Thomson, to join her at the head table.
This Week: Today our speaker was our club member Dr. Doug Thompson who presented a review of the topic "Medical Assistance in Dying".
This is a complex subject with numerous issues. but Doug covered it well including history, the place of palliative care and hospice care, and the controversies, the safeguards and the process.
On February 6, 2015 the federal prohibition on medical assisted dying was struck down and this change received Royal assent in 2016. This opened the door to allow a patient to request assisted dying and it required guidelines for all parties to follow. Key guidelines are:
- The patient is the one who makes the choice
- The reason for the request needs to include pain, suffering, and/or mental anguish and needs to include concern for others, dignity, need to share the process and the right to decide.
Doug discussed the place of palliative care and hospice because these institutions do apply to the lives of patients in the stages near death and are in compliance with some but not all of the guidelines of assisted dying such as, for example, the right of the patient to decide.
Doug mentioned the controversies and the safeguards: Controversies can be the result of ambiguous language, exclusion of diseases such as ALS. Safeguards that are required are that 2 physicians are required, a 10 day wait period, patient counselling, documentation and contact with the office of the coroner.
In South Western Ontario the SWLHIN has a committee that is able to answer additional questions.
Scribe: Norm Bird
Guests: Today we welcomed: Lori Brown, Stratford Rotaract Club, Akshar Kumar, St. Marys and PDG Doug Vincent, Woodstock.
Draw: The draw prize today was a gift certificate that was won by Wendy Anderson.
Rotary Announcements January 4, 2018
Michael Fox: The New Rotary Recruitment Cards have two choices on the back, member sponsored or club sponsored. If you present a card to a friend you would like to sponsor tick of member sponsored and write your name. If someone you do not know expresses an interest, tick off club sponsored and give them a card. If you would like a couple cards to carry around please ask Michael.
Ken Nesbitt: “Go Leafs Go” Catch the Ace in the 8th week. Last week was a bit slow and we only sold 63 tickets. We are increasing our sales locations and adding the Stratford Market from 9 to noon lead by Dave Hunt who will cover the hours for the next month and see how things go. The Jackpot will be over $1800 this week. He will be on the radio this Friday morning. Please pass on the word any way you can.
Laurie Brown president of Rotaract announcing new location with invitation for Rotary Members to attend their meetings.
Laurie Brown (President of Rotaract Club of Stratford): Update on Rotaract. The University can no longer accommodate the club’s meetings. They have found a new location at the wine cellar of the HUB on Market Square. They are using 2018 as a reset year to deal with the challenge of membership which has scaled back in the last year. Please keep Rotaract in mind if you know any young adults who would be interested in being involved with the community, please let them know. With the new meeting space the meeting will be more relaxed and social. The meeting time will be at 7:00pm but they encourage people to come at 6:30 for some social time. They meet the first Wednesday and the third Thursday of each month and they encourage us to join them any time and would welcome feedback. They continue to have their Trivia Night at Molly Bloom’s with the next one next Wednesday. They will be having a Comedy Night in February. They thank us for their support.
President’s Corner
Notes from the Dec 18th Board Meeting. Remember all the boring stuff I said could wait until after Christmas…well here goes.
Ralph presented the board with a 5-year Forecast for Fundraising Revenue against our commitments to community projects. He estimates our surplus at the end of this Rotary Year will be just over $91,000. The Board would like to see a steady surplus of close to $100,000. To reach that goal with our present commitments we will need to increase our fundraising by $10-15,000/ year. These projections did not include proceeds of Catch the Ace or the Car Rally planned for next August.
After a very thorough search of all possible locations in Stratford the Board decided on the best 3 choices: The Knights of Columbus Hall, The Festival Motor Inn and the Army Navy Air Force Hall. As you know we are going to test drive each location starting with the Knights of Columbus Hall next week.
We had a detailed discussion regarding the Rotary Complex Booth.
Facts: We are in the 11th year of a 25 year contract with the City for Naming Rights for the Complex.
The Booth does make a profit but that profit does not cover our financial commitment to the City. The total donated to the city over the first 10 years was $217,000 of which we had to contribute $63,200 including the year ending June 2017 in which we had to add $14,700.
There are 2 ways to maintain the naming rights of the Complex, donate a total of 1 million dollars or finish the 25 year contract.
The Board has decided not to ask the City to open up the contract since there is a significant risk we will lose the naming rights, Instead we support continuing to operate the booth for now and try to finish up our 25 year contract. We will address some issues with the City such as better signage and third party food sales. We will also need to use more volunteer hours to reduce our staffing costs.
4 WAY TEST
So we have talked about TRUTH, FAIRNESS, GOODWILL and FRIENDSHIP. Finally we have number 4
Is it BENEFICIAL to all concerned.
If you look up the definition of Beneficial you find….favourable or advantageous, resulting in good.
I find this an interesting one since in my work there are some interactions that I am expressly forbidden to benefit from, referrals or drug recommendations for instance. In business and in life when it comes to benefits it is always good to apply what I call the Sunshine Test. If you are willing to shine the light on the transaction and are totally comfortable sharing the truth with your client or associate regarding your personal benefit it is likely ethical.
So we have the whole 4 way test: The Code of Ethics of all Rotary Clubs.
Make-ups: Steve Rae January 2, 2018 at Estero RC.
January’s Attendance Committee: Gerry Culliton (I/C), Bob Martin, Ralph Robinson, Tracy Van Kalsbeek, Karel Hodgert, Bruce McLaren, Katelyn Aitcheson, Diane Sewell, Craig Pearce, Peter Maranger.
