My head is filled with thoughts of our Rotary “Dig It” Dinner/Dance this coming Saturday evening. I know there’s still a lot of work to do, but the committee under Bill’s leadership is pulling it all together to ensure it is a great event that is fun for everyone.

 

My thoughts are so focussed on next week that I’ve had difficulty deciding what to write about today. So, rather than burden you with some half-baked musings, I went looking for inspiration and found a selection of quotes from people worth listening to – all in keeping with the spirit of Rotary.

 

There were 28 members and one guest, Mary Camp, to attend our meeting to discuss topics from our Members’ Satisfaction Survey:

• Breakfast options
• Meeting facilities & protocol
• More fellowship
• A major cause to support

Breakfast options:

The latest improvements were using a chafing dish to keep the breakfast sandwiches warm and members appreciated that. The future options were:

• Stay with Tims as we now serve.
• Tims plus yogurt, fruit or other baked goods, like the brownies Christine brought in this morning.
• Hire a caterer.
  • Full breakfast at $15/wk
  • Breakfast sandwich, fruit & yogurt $10/wk
  • Continental breakfast $7/wk

A caterer has been found but she is only available 3 days/month. to cover the 4th or 5th Tuesday, the options would be:

• Joe the baker has offered to do one day a month.
• Christine said that Metro has a clearance item that could fill in.
• Use Tims as we do now.

After considerable discussion, the caterer option was not considered further and the voting on the other two options were:

• Stay with Tims as we now serve. 9 votes
• Tims plus yogurt, fruit or other baked goods. 15 votes

Those who do not eat breakfast did not vote. These results are given to the Breakfast Committee to work it out.

Meeting facilities & protocol:

We have a budget of $2,000 to improve our meeting facilities. We have bought a microphone and speaker and are looking for a bargain to buy a computer. Peter, as a member of the Legion, is looking into getting faster internet.

Lyn reported that our District 7070 advises all clubs to modernize their opening ceremony to attract new members, or not dissuade potential members from joining. She is in the process of consulting other clubs to see what they are doing. Some clubs do none of our openings, Picton does none but has an invocation. Roger reported that Cobourg eliminated all but reinstated a prayer at the urging of two of it members who are clergy. It was noted that we say “grace” before the meal, not a “prayer”. Ken said not everyone practises a religion so  he felt is was not appropriate to engage in a practise that was not meaningful to everyone. Lyn said she would be attending a Presidents meeting September 20 and she would see what other clubs have done. In the interests of making some move on this issue, Yvonne moved, Ken seconded, that we stop toasting the King and Canada. Carried.

More fellowship:

Norm and Roger are the members of the Fellowship Committee. They announced a potluck event at Shawn & Julie Ellis’ newly constructed house and STR at 598 Swamp College Road on Thursday, September 28, starting at 3 pm.

Lyn suggested a way to socialize with our members is to change your seat location and talk to someone different each week. She also passed out a paper on which each member is to write a personal fact that others might not know. We ran out of time so this activity will be continued next week.

Major Cause to Support:

Lyn asked for suggestions and received the following:

• Trudy asked about the beach mat to which Lyn said it was already in the budget.
• Bill Mitchell suggested beautifying the town. He was speaking to someone who had some good ideas. He suggested to them that they writeup their ideas and come and present them to the Club. It was observed that this activity was not one of the Rotary areas of focus.
• John Inwood suggested more support for kids’ sports, although it was maybe not a major expenditure. Norm replied that there will be some support for this in the budget.
• David Smith said that to support our wellness campaign, we should build a swimming pool alongside the Lehigh Arena. David MacKinnon said a program with PEFAC would make sense.
• Christine said a gym or a doctors’ building would be valuable.
• Liz said the housing crisis could be addressed initially by setting up a land trust on which to build. Ken said the County’s housing department is taking the lead in addressing housing.
• Lyn said support for a new foodbank home might have been a project but they turned down Clarkes.

Other Business:

Lois Brown has been accepted into membership. (She was not present today, but Howard told Barry after the meeting that he expected her to be in attendance next week).

Trudy & Phyo offered to serve wine and beer at the tastings before the dinner/dance. Ken offered that Luanne and he would man the admission desk.

Martha had her 50:50 ticket drawn and Chris, on her behalf, did not draw the ace of spades.

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