February 27, 2003
Guests:
Emily Bjelis who is our outgoing exchange student. She is going to "somewhere" in New Zealand.
Sergeant-at-arms:
Don Popple cruised around the room attempting to embarrass whomever he could. He lengthened the wheelchair ramp debate and assessed a fine to Jim Henwood. He fined Steve Roberts for losing some wheel lug nuts. We might get some car tickets handed in from odd names in Montreal, courtesy of Dereck Knowles. And neighbour Peter Forgrave handed in his weekly contribution. You live to close to Don to miss the fines Peter!
Birthdays:
Peter Forgrave received a map and compass to help him navigate around the county when he delivers newspapers. Curry Bishop mentioned that Max Strang is turning 89. Happy birthday fellows!
Dare to Ski:
Apparently a few people did dare to ski and raised approximately $8500.00 for Community Services. Maureen and then Nancy got up to thank the members for their pledges and donations.
Cyber Club:
Our board decided that if a member were to get a "cyber" makeup, then they would not be eligible for a meal credit. Ted Brandon explained that you do learn about Rotary and that you cannot simply earn your attendance solely this way. Luke Schell quipped that upon entering the "submit" button, you may find yourself married to someone in Venezuela or somewhere! President Jim mentioned that attendance at a board meeting is a makeup as well.
Car Draw:
Brian Menton gave us his rendition of a Dave Bishop inspirational pitch on ticket sales.
Club Assembly:
Incoming president Steve Roberts moderated a well-participated discussion about various issues facing the club. Here is the Readers Digest condensed version:
Jim Henwood went over our finances. Incoming president Steve was glad that there was money left over for his term and that expenses seem to be on budget.
Incoming president Steve invited any club members to join him on a PETS trip to North Bay on April 10-12
Hugh Nichol reported on the 60/60 survey. In case you forgot, the goal is to have 60 members by our 60th anniversary, which is in 2004. Hugh had previously handed out surveys to our members and reported on the barriers to membership as well as the benefits of membership. On the barrier side, cost and the pressure to attend were foremost. Four members indicated that there was a perception of an "old boys" club. On the positive side, the majority of respondents enjoyed "giving back to the community", some mentioned the fellowship and a few reported that they liked to be part of an organization that has a large international scope.
At any rate, in order to encourage the increased membership, Ted and Hugh have proposed an information session for prospective members. They handed around a suggested list of 140 names and members were asked to write down their name next to someone that they felt they could approach. A date for this session would be in 30-45 days or so.
It was suggested by Curry Bishop that the seniors curling membership list would be a good place to start to look for members. The discussion then went full circle and went back to costs. Brian Menton explained how some other clubs operated in order to reduce the costs to their respective members. The issues of pre-paying for your meals was once again discussed and the absence of an official greeter was noticed. One suggestion was to move to a two-tier system, some pre-paying (of which about half of our club does now, quarterly payments or pay-at the door if you wish.
Speaking of meal costs, we have a $700.00 credit for the meal that we skipped at Halloween. Members agreed to put this towards the Polio Plus program. The $600.00 that we saved by switching insurance carriers will be dealt with as necessary.
To re-cap our costs, dues are $180.00 per year and the meals are $720.00. There are 44 meals so if you do the math; we pay $16.36 per meal, which covers tax and gratuity. Because of non-makeups, we can subsidize the real cost to arrive at this figure.
Drew Carey informed us that our next exchange student will be coming from Japan. Her name is Yuka Horie (sounds Japanese doesn’t it?). She was born in 1986 and Drew is looking for host families. Rotary International now requires a background check on host families.
The next topic was about a possible alternate meeting location for next year +. Curry is investigating a location and another proposal was distributed around the tables. Please think about this concept and let your board member or executive know your feelings.
Our meeting next week is on Wednesday- not Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!! It is that time again where we host the Jack Robertson memorial bonspiel. For those that are dinner –only guests, please arrive at the usual dinnertime.
The week after that, Tracy McMullen and Ray Selbie are on the hook for our speaker
Here is our exchange student Miki with the Leafs !