Foundation Walk will happen this year, but in a different form. John Farrow is feeling better but heavily involved at work. The Walk is May 9th, individually in our own communities. Suggesting 5 km. Take picture of yourself and send in to District. We could walk together as a club, keeping 2m separation. We would call for pledges for our walk.
Greta: Last year donors did not receive the promised charitable donation receipts.
Ana: Contact Bonnie Black.
Ana: Board Meeting, April 16th. Lots of discussion on how to keep our club together. Very happy with attendance today and participation in food security project. Odd Fellows are fine except that they’ve lost a couple of members (not COVID-19 related).
Ana: Board positions
Nominations were presented and discussed. The Club acted as follows:
Nomination by John Gale of Murray Cotton for Service Projects Director and Elizabeth Cohoe and Board Recording Secretary. Seconded by Rick Fiedorec. Approved by show of hands (unanimous)
Nomination by John Gale of Heather Kembel for Secretary responsible for Rotary International records (Record-keeping Secretary). Seconded Bill Egnatoff. Approved (unanimous).
John Gale: Still need President-Elect position to fill. Will take some time to find someone. Everybody is now busy in the club.
Ana: Time for thoughts on the week, thoughts on guest speakers; several groups have offered talks, including Literacy Project in Guatemala. District has a huge list of speakers. Also, we have not had classification talks for a long time: Heather Nogrady, Jackie Blakney; Anita Mercier. Don’t have to use presentation slides. We can also have mini-classification talks, since people’s lives have changed.
Heather N: would rather do at regular club meeting. Internet connection is a bit unstable.
Jackie: Will do online. (Was late because her account was hacked. Had to reset all her security levels!) Would love to hear about what others are doing. I’m part of a group of 100 and we do 2 or 3 minutes each.
Robert: Teased Sean about sitting in my old office. Funeral directors are front-line workers. Would like to ask Sean about accessibility to PPE. From now on, all deaths are to be treated as if they are from COVID-19. That has changed things for funeral directors. To my knowledge there have been no deaths in Kingston (of COVID-19).
Someone asked: Who is still working? Several reported. We compiled a list that included John Richards, John Farrow, Jackie Blakney, Robert Reid, Heather Kembel (12 in office at home, using VPN, getting projects ready), Ron Pols, Rick Frasso (close to normal, only one layoff).
Jackie: Still working. It's very interesting. Double the work, due to COVID-19 complications of being very careful. Extra declarations, sanitizer, etc. I’m doing the only showing of properties. Most things can be done virtually. Being very careful. Most showings are of houses that are occupied, and some are cases of families that need to leave the city. For showing, clients are asked to have all doors and cupboards open. We sanitize handles before and after. Sales are much weaker than normal. Some agents are doing nothing. Lots of people will be leaving real estate.
Greg Mumford: When things are lifted, the virus will still be around, so we’ll probably continue same way of working as now
Rick Frasso: business email can be redirected, online, to home at no cost from Canada Post
Ana: right after this meeting, India Friendship Exchange group will meet.
Ana ended the meeting with our recitation of the Four-way Test (as Elizabeth Cohoe did at every meeting during her presidency).