FunMaster John Richards
John's fines were all related to the Rotary Community Auction. What year? 21st. Chair? Howard Lee. Where can you find the donor letter? Registration desk. How much have we raised in the last six years? $283. Last year? $55. Donations up to now? 10. Donations in 2017? 512. How many up on Web last year by July 31? 95. How many donations in 2016? 432. Monthly meeting location? Kingston Dodge. Web address: Rotary Community Auction. Person responsible for sponsor solicitation? Murray Cotton.
Note: Let the auction committee know of any issues on the Web site with images.
Happy and Sad Bucks
President Rick: Very happy with Friendship Exchange. Special thanks to Greg Mumford for helping with Museum of Science and Technology tickets in Ottawa. A Rotaractor from British Columbia was the tour guide for Parliament Hill. Saw the Peace Tower.
Greg Mumford: Museum exhibit "Art of the Brick" was created by a lawyer. Greg also recounted the very packed pickup truck with all the visitors' luggage.
Heather invited all to a fairwell potluck for Youth Exchange student Amanda (see separate email) 6-8:30 p.m., Wednesday July 18th at the Kembel's in Yarker and to come to the airport to say goodbye to Amanda, July 20th, about 1:30 p.m.
John Gail saw Circque du Soleil in Kingston.
John Farrow. Great trip with Amanda and his kids to Niagra Falls. Did everything: under the falls, Maid of the Mist, Butterfly Conservatory, etc.
Rosemary (from South Africa): Makes personal donations to short-term exchange for students who could not otherwise afford it. Will send information so that we can contribute.
Bill Gray: delighted with international Rotarians he met at the RI Convention and who also visited Kingston. Nine Rotarians visited our city, from Pakistan, Uganda, Pennsylvania, all partners on many international projects.
Shannon told us of Grandmother Strawberries event, four ceremonies per year at season transitions (peace, sing, drum, pray, learn from teachings). see the Facebook page Katarokwi Grandmothers' Council.
Doug Townsend: First time in living memory he wasn't fined!
Friendship Exchange Guest Godfrey Went: WATER FOR SCHOOLS
Godfrey reported on his club's involvement in an international project to drill wells near schools to provide water for drinking and washing, right in the school buildings. This benefits not only the school children, but the whole community. School gardens are part of the project. Water is pumped into holding tanks and then fed by gravity. The cost is approximately $10,000 per system. See slides for photos and more details:
Water for Schools
John Gale emailed Godrey thee weeks ago indicating the desire of our club to partner. Godrey replied saying he would soon be back home!
Shannon Monk Payne received a cheque from Robert Reid, chair of our club's National Committee, in support of the Languages Nest. Shannon, whose name means "she opens the door," explained that language is the focus of identity and enables youth to participate in the economy. The Nest includes a national component, digital stories: Reclaiming Our Stories to Build Our Community.
Rotary International Convention Highlights
The
Rotary International Convention page has highlights of addresses, convention videos, and many other details of this inspiring gathering of 25,000 Rotarians from around the world. The Rotary Events app contains the full program. Many session entries in the App have links to useful resources.
Bill and Joan Egnatoff spend hours in the House of Friendship, learning of the wide spectrum of projects including literacy, nutrition, and water. One project run by Interactors was dedicated to reducing human trafficking of girls and young women in Viet Nam. Bill could see in the energetic and enthusiastic young woman who spoke to him a future RI President. The Opening Ceremonies and the plenary sessions in the Air Canada Centre filled those present with the great reach of Rotary, through partnerships with one another, governments, the World Health Organization, UNESCO, and many other social service and philanthropic organizations. The plenaries were chaired by Australian Rotaractor Brittany Arthur of the Rotary Club of Berlin International. The afternoon breakout sessions brought us face to face with the work of Rotarians, Rotary Peace Scholars, and Interactors.
John Farrow spoke of a helpful session on attracting new members. Clubs are questioning time-honored traditions in order to frame Rotary differently for today. Let us invite people to come and spend time with a dynamic group of people who are the inspiration for much-needed change in our communities. We're "flawsome" (flawed and awesome)! Along with Bill Egnatoff, John attended a session on welcoming the LGTBQ community into Rotary. The session spoke broadly to the strength that comes from diversity. It's not enough to say that we're open; we have to be that way through our actions. It's also good to be explicit in our publicity about being open. The conference was filled with references to the importance of keeping up the work on eradicating Polio. That requires surveillance. John was struck by the example of the virus being discovered in a sewer system, but high vaccination rate prevented an outbreak.
John Gale was a first-time conference attendee, but now he's committed to going next year to Hamburg! For him, even with all his work on our International Committee, the Convention really put the "International" in Rotary. Every hue and culture were represented. The speakers and the people he met were inspiring. He attended the HIP (Honouring Indigenous People) breakout session and felt that that initiative and the messages it is spreading help to expand our understanding. John also attended a Peace Scholars breakout, where a Rwandan woman who had faced horrific atrocities as a child spoke of how Rotary had helped her soar in her career and path of service. He had two meetings with Ayo Banjo, Bill Egnatoff's Rotarian friend from the Rotary Club of Lagos. Those discussions could lead to collaboration between clubs and also personally given the mutual interest in helping people with immigration.
Bill and Nancy Gray have now attended 13 international conferences, but this time Bill zoomed around on a motorized scooter! That took him to the front seats of the Air Canada Centre and got him multiple appearances on the jumbotron! The quality of speakers was very high. We heard from Princess Anne who praised Rotary for its Polio work, former First Lady Laura Bush, who spoke of her passion for developing literacy as a path to full participation in society, the director general of the World Health Organization, and Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand. Bill particularly noted the inspiring work of James Marggraff, inventor and entrepreneur, who has founded many companies that have led to the widespread use of technologies to develop literacy and thinking. Bill and Nancy very much enjoyed the fellowship with friends met over the years in Rotary in Nigeria, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Kenya, and other countries. He referred to the House of Friendship as a big marketplace. He spoke of the strong commitment of Nigerians and Rwandans in saving their personal funds carefully throughout the year so that they could continue to attend the conferences. He thanks all those who hosted the international visitors he invited to Kingston. Finally, he spoke of a session on investigating the future of Rotary. One of the panelists sits on RI's strategic planning committee. Where do want to be in 10 or 20 years? Ask the people not in the room!
Announcements
The Rotary Tour du Lac group will be in Kingston July 20th. Meet them at 6 at the Portsmouth Tavern.
President Rick said that we had had a great year in 2017-2018 and encouraged everyone to be the inspiration for the future of Rotary and our Club. Our Annual General Meeting will be in December. He encouraged other past presidents to follow his lead in serving a second term. He reminded us that we need a treasurer and that the board is working break the work into parts to make it more manageable. Adam needs a vacation! We also need someone to fill the position of Director, Communications and Public Relations, to be vacated at the end of July by Susan Zambonin, who is moving to Peterborough. The meeting July 24th will be for committees. He suggested that two committees consider holding their meetings then, open to other members.
The weekly draw was won AGAIN by President Rick.
