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President George got us underway this fine sunny August morning with the introduction of visitors and guests. Michael Conroy, a Past President of the Rotary Club of Agincourt Ontario, CFO, Brian Perry, Senior Active of the Nite Club and Paul Manning, a local herbal foods merchant were introduced. Paul, who has been a visitor at a several recent meetings will be inducted as a new member next week.
Our Treasurer, Lawrence, is still collecting dues. If yours are not paid please see Lawrence right away.
There will be an Executive Meeting Tuesday August 14 at the Re/Max office at 7pm. The excutive will finalize plans to be presented at our Club Assembly August 21.
Diana Dundas presented the conclusions of her committee to the membership on our fundraising efforts. The fundraising committee proposes that we limit our fundraising efforts to two per year, one being a flower sale and the other a garage sale. The thought is that beyond two such events, we just spend too much time working.
Our speaker this morning was none other than our own Past (Charter) President and current Membership Chair, Ian Lindsay. Ian shared his own thoughts about Rotary Membership, gathered through many years (he didn't say how many) years of membership in the two local clubs. His view is that membership should not just be a project from time to time but an ongoing effort. RI's Global Quest for membership is a worthy project, Ian suggests, but in addition we need to keep Rotary in mind in our day to day activities. Many people think they are not eligible to join Rotary. Let them know, invite them, propose them and once they are here nuture them as Rotarians.
With Jeff G's help Ian made his pitch come alive with a variation on the rock's in a jar show. He produced a large jar which we all agreed was full of large rocks. He then handed Jeff a bag of sand and Jeff patiently spooned sand into the jar through most of Ian's speech. Wasn't full afterall? After thanking Jeff, Ian again extracted agreement from us that the jar was full. Not so: Ian then opened a large can of beer and poured it into the jar. The rocks, Ian says, are Rotarians, the most important part. The sand is RI and the services they provide to help us make it work. The beer? Well, there is always room for fun in Rotary.
President George receives a montly newsletter called Rotary World which is a wealth of information about what is going on in Rotary. In the July issue there are items about:
- New Services on the RI web site allowing online registration for RI events and letting club secretaries update RI records online.
-RI President Richard King's theme "Mankind Is Our Business"
- Council on Legislation changes which reduce membership to two categories, Active and Honorary. Senior Active and Additional Active are abolished. Up to 10% of a club may hold the same classification. Clubs are now precluded from restricting membership on the basis of gender. There is also a pilot project to start up new forms of clubs such as online clubs.
Rotary World is available online where you will find many good sources of Rotary Information.