June 14, 2018: Raymonde Abboud, “Experiences in Lebanon”, Rheo Thompson will introduce and Elizabeth Gaffney will thank our speaker.
Head Table: Our President Linda Bathe, invites Rheo Thompson, Andrea Page, Doug Page, Craig Pearce, Arlene Pol, Mimi Price and Steve Rae, to join her at the head table.
This Week: Mini Classification Speech
Rotarian Doug Page was born in 1931, attending public school in St Marys and secondary school in Stratford, where he first met his wife Shirley. Following law school, he started work in St Thomas and first joined Rotary there in 1960. Following their move to Stratford, he joined Rotary here and served as club president in 1978-79.
Doug Page shared with us some of the highlights of his early career as a civil and criminal lawyer and subsequently as the Crown Attorney for Stratford and Perth County from 1964 until 1993. Over the years, he tried 10 homicide cases, only two of which occurred in Stratford. His office staff included himself and his exceptional secretary, together handling all matters that came before the Crown.
Program (Club Ownership Meeting)
Gord Sherwin Berny and Nymeyer presented today on behalf of the Endowment/Investment Committee. Their task is to do the investing for our scholarships and other projects. The Board of the Rotary Club of Stratford Charitable Foundation has authorized the committee to act on behalf of the club. The committee meets quarterly and reports to the Board twice a year.
Gord Sherwin giving update on Endowment fund and Foundation accounts.
Bernie Nymeyer giving update on investment of funds in the Endowment and Foundation Accounts.
There are some proposed changes to the by-laws related to this committee and their work that can be viewed on Clubrunner. These changes will be brought before the club members for final approval at a later date.
The committee oversees 5 funds that total $1.4 million. Thanks to the sound advice of Berny and his team (including Rotarian Josef Frank) at RBC Dominion Securities, the rate of return on these investments has exceeded expectations within the current investment climate.
Gordon was happy to report that the scholarship payouts will continue indefinitely without any more funds being invested to support them. This is good news.
Berny reported that the investment strategy includes an equal balance between equities and fixed income accounts. The goal is to generate income to cover our scholarship obligations and increase the value of the funds where possible. This has been working well.
Thanks to all involved, particularly Berny whose work on behalf of the Club is done free of charge.
Doug Thompson:
Doug reported on behalf of this committee that is now operating under the umbrella of our charitable Foundation and is a subcommittee of the International Committee.
The group has been doing outreach work in Nicaragua for some time. They support medical clinics, an orphanage, a sewing project and work to upgrade physical structures as well as drilling and maintaining wells for clean drinking water.
They are anticipating several projects in the future, including a gardening project and a stove project so that people are not exposed to smoke from cooking fires. They hope to travel to Nicaragua again in 2019 if the political situation there allows.
The group has several fundraising projects that they plan to avoid conflict with other Rotary fundraisers. These include a golf tournament, pottery painting, a garage sale and a fashion show that are held annually.
Scribe: Wendy Anderson
Guests: Ben Kane, Denise Ferguson, and Dianne Yundt (FCRC-AG)
Foundation Draw – A dozen golf balls were donated by George Schroeder and Doug Brown was the winner.
Make-ups: no report
Rotary Announcements:
Breaking News - 300 Aquabox kits are being sent to Guatemala today to assist those dealing with the volcanic activity there.
Assistant Governor Diane Yundt brought greetings and congratulations from District Governor Martin Ward on the completion of another successful Rotary year for the Rotary Club of Stratford.
New Member – Sponsor Robert Ritz introduced our club’s newest member, Wendy Wilkinson, today. Wendy was formally welcomed by President Linda, who announced that our club has now met its goal of 10 new members this year.
Newest member Wendy Wilkinson introduced by Robert Ritz
What are the odds? Kevin Nonomura presented the fine box with the winnings from his successful golf outing yesterday at the Country Club, where his TWO holes in one, propelled his team to victory.
President’s Corner:
We received a thank you from Nelda Oliver thanking us for the donation in her husband Maurice’s honor and reminding us of the Celebration of Life for Maurice this Saturday at Elgin Missionary Church at 11 am. There will be special seating on the left side of the sanctuary for Rotarians and their spouses and a Rotarian honour guard at the end.
Our condolences go out to the Duiker family with the passing of past Rotarian and Past President of this Club Jerry Duiker,
Reminder of the Fireside Chat this Sunday – if you would like to attend and have not sent me an email please do so and I will send you the details.
Board Report
The board has adopted a Social Media Policy as recommended by the Legislation Committee. I have circulated a copy this morning by email.
I will read one of the most important points:
- When Posting material on behalf of Rotary, Members shall always be very sensitive and aware of the impact (both good and bad) the Post will have on the reputation Rotary enjoys in the Community, especially since Posts can last forever on the Internet.
President Linda giving Board report and introducing new Social Media policy.
The policy also reminds Rotarians to always use the 4-way-test when posting on behalf of Rotary and it requires Board approval for any non-Rotarian to post on behalf of the club.
The board is also researching social media professionals with the intent of hiring someone to work on our behalf and be a resource for our committees.
We are also working on a fundraising policy which we will vote on at the June meeting.
We will have a club vote to ratify both policies together likely in July.
The board voted in favour of a Quarterly payment schedule for annual dues including a processing fee to begin July 1, 2018
The Public Relations Committee has developed a PR package including media contacts, tips for writing press releases and a boiler plate message about our club to be included in all media releases:
Also, all press releases will be vetted by the Public Relations Chair or their designate
We are conducting an inventory of Rotary promotional materials such as signs, banners, aprons etc… If you have anything at your home or workplace please let Charlene know.
As you know from my email, the board has decided to expand the size and the mandate of the membership committee. As is tradition, I will be chairing the Committee and if you are interested in helping out please let me know.
Finally: The Property Committee needs some help. First with set up and tear down each week and also It was suggested we have an AV person at the head table each week. We need 3 to 4 people willing to learn how to set up the system and work it during the meetings. We will then set up a rotation schedule. This will greatly reduce new President’s Paul’s stress during the meetings and make things run smoother.
June’s Attendance Committee: Kevin Silver (I/C), Dave Scott, Gary Lingard, Paul Siberry, Pat Shewen, Doug Page, Pat Feryn, Jerry McEwin, Lisa Breault.
