South Mouth December 5, 2011

Rotary Club of St. Catharines South

AGENDA - Dec 5, 2011

12:15 p.m. Call to Order: President – Sheila Bristo

1. National Anthem: Jim Hooper

2. Toast to the Queen & Canada: John Teibert

3. Invocation: Jean Holbert-Leighton

4. Lunch (reconvene at 12:30)

5. Introduction of Guests and Visiting Rotarians Ron Kozub:

We had two guests visiting us today, both of them are prospective members, Dave Martineau from Bullet Media and Collin Sines from White Oaks Magazine, welcome!

6. Sergeant-at-Arms John Di’Ambrosio,

John made a cheerful collection of happy dollars after first fining Keith Shaver who allegedly made John embarrass himself earlier in the meeting. A total of 9 happy people fed the bird today. Reasons for the happy dollars ranged from the people who attended Sheila’s party over the weekend expressing their gratitude and enjoyment of the party to Cathy discovering why only young people have children. Jim Hooper and Jason Pollock spoke for most people in being relieved that Movember is FINALLY over. Jim’s dollar however turned slightly unhappy because as luck would have it he was recognized for a number of reasons in November (including PHF) so all those pictures now have his stache on them.

7. Announcements: 

Late presentation of a Paul Harris Fellow award: Due to circumstances John Teibert was not able to receive his award at the ceremony last week. Sheila appropriately took a moment to present it to John this week. Please see the link on the website for the details and reasons for this well deserved award.   

1.  Bingo – The next bingo is Saturday Dec 10, Paul M, Ian Forbes and Sheila B. have volunteered. The following bingo however is still looking for volunteers. It is scheduled for Dec, 23^rd, Derrick is leading. Please contact Sheila if you are able to help out.

2. GSE – We have been asked to sponsor a GSE applicant which is a $250 commitment. The GSE team is asking for your help in bringing in more applications. The deadline is Jan 7^th, and the interview process begins in January as well.  

3. Christmas Party - Mark your calendars for Dec 19^th as it is our clubs annual Christmas party. Spouses and partners, children and grandchildren are all welcome.

4. Regular Board Meeting - will be held on Dec 14^th, as CSS, it will be the last for this year.

8. Birthdays:  None this week

9. 50/50 Draw: $2/ticket - Find one of two Jokers. Collin Sines won the ticket draw but unfortunately chose …. a 9 of clubs

10. Early Leavers: none

11. Introduction of Guest Speaker – Keith Shaver led our meeting today taking us into our third discussion regarding our Strategic Plan. Today’s topic was “How do we increase our clubs profile in the community”.

Keith put forward 3 questions that each table discussed independently. Below are the questions as well as a general snapshot of the following discussions.

Where are we now? In general Rotary is believed to be visible but as a specific club our identity is getting lumped in with the other four clubs.

Where should we be? We generally agree that it is important for us to have our own identity. There are a number ways that we could identify ourselves but the preferred venue would be to identify ourselves not by signature fundraisers but by a signature cause.

How do we get there? Various options for raising our profile within the community were put forth, some of which included selecting causes that make it easier to engage the public, honing a name for our club that identifies us specifically, better and more use of editorial spaces in local newspapers, social media and strategic use of our tent and banner

Keeping in mind that this is only a snapshot of the discussions, Keith Shaver will put together a report on his findings that will specify all the conclusions of our meeting today.  

13. Attendance Report Ron Kozub: 2 guests and 19 members present, 14 make ups for a total of over 100% attendance.

14. Next meeting – Dec 12^th is out next meeting, Bjorn Christensen, Director of Environmental Health for the Region of Niagara, is scheduled to be our speaker. He oversees public health programming that includes environmental health hazard investigation, food safety, West Nile Virus contingency response program and water quality.

15. Rotary Minute or Inspiring Quote

Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it.

By Marva Colins