Program:

President Mike Murton – End of Term Summary

Once everyone finished applauding, and sat down, President Mike started his comments by saying “Yes, it is over”, referring to his term as President, which ends 30 June. Although he is a “retread” President, Mike said he was satisfied with the results of his year. It was tumultuous, but good, and he loved it! Please forgive him if he does not name everyone who did a great job during his year.

The challenges included starting off with a drop of 12 members for various reasons, but the Club does have Good Bones as a basic structure. The Membership Group set itself a daunting task of getting 12 new members, in spite of the Rotary International goal of only 1 new member per Club. With the induction of Ishrani on President’s Night, we have enrolled 10 new members this year, and Mike thanked the members of the group for a job well done.

Last Year’s Ribfest could have been catastrophic, due to the city workers strike and garbage situation. But the Ribfest committee decided to go ahead, which turned out to be the right decision. Due to the uncertainly, our Ribfest numbers were down, but members and volunteers and the Scottish kids all worked like Trojans, and are to be congratulated. Mike loved working at Ribfest, but did get tired of pouring beer.

Springfest raised community awareness for us, and raised money, because of a lot of work by that group.

The International Group got projects finished in spite of R I cutting off matching grants. Shirley did a monumental job of getting other Clubs involved in a project, so kudos to her.
Community Group held the 30th Camp Enterprise, which seemed to be the best ever. Mike mentioned Jimmy Foster as a long time supporter of Camp Enterprise, and that the many things he does for the Club are appreciated. At Christmas, we “adopted” 12 families, and everyone involved came away with a new perspective on the value of that project.

Elections this year meant that we were able to have Club Presidents lined up 3 years ahead, which is wonderful. Club Service, under Audrey’s direction, gave us some great programs, which is important to give people a reason to come to our meetings.

The vision Project that was started 2 years ago, under Don Hall, led to 5 major projects being submitted. The Habitat for Humanity project we chose will result in new homes for 29 families, and we will be able to volunteer time and effort to help build these homes. Since that involved a donation of $150,000.00, we should be able to do another major project next year.

Our visibility in the community was raised this year with ads and articles in the Bluffs Monitor. In the coming year, Mike and Geoff Dean will be heading the Public Relations Group, who will continue to promote the Club.

Our Polio Plus donation would normally have been $5,000.00, but Mike personally pushed to make it $10,000.00 because we are so close to eradicating polio. (Ed. Note – at R I Convention, we were told there are only 4 countries with any polio present, and 3 of the 5 types of wild polio virus strains have been wiped out. When a new outbreak occurred in Tajikistan 2 months ago, Rotary was able to mobilize a campaign within 48 hours to stop the spread of the disease.)

We responded to the Haiti disaster with Shelter Boxes right away, so that 100 people would have shelter and other necessities.

President Mike gave heartfelt thanks to everyone. He said he feels we built up the Club this year, with strong finances, and stronger members. Mike said he feels we are the best Club in the District, due to the efforts of all of our members, and thanked us again for allowing him to be President this year. Mike closed by saying that he is confident of our future as a Club, and is pleased to have firmly established our Dress Code.

Bruce then presented Mike with a gift – but not the normal Past President’s Pin, as he already has one of those. Instead he gave Mike a watch with the Rotary Wheel emblem on the face, and also the mug and trophy to keep for a year. His new shield is already on the trophy base.

Attendance

There were 24 Rotarians present, but no guests.

Open Membership Classification

There was no classification this week

Announcements

Chris announced that the first meeting of the new Community Group would be on Wednesday 14 July at her agency, at 6:00 P.M. / In addition to members already contacted, any new or interested members are welcome, but please advise Chris that you will be attending.

Bruce advised that Ribfest ads and Sponsors and orders for Banners need to be completed this week.

On July 01, there are 2 Parades in which we will participate, so we can hand out Ribfest flyers. First, Highland Creek at 11:00 A.M., and then the City Parade at 5:00 P.M. In between, he will host participants at his home for a barbeque lunch, so please let him know if you are attending.

Don announced a Full Meeting of the Ribfest Committee on 12 July at 630PM, at Scarborough Golf Club.

Audrey announced that she is working on a date for the first meeting of Club Service/Bluffer/Media Group.

Mike then called Ishrani to the front, to present her with her red, temporary badge, and advised that she has to attend 3 Group Meetings and a Board Meeting to get her permanent blue name badge.

Woods/Cunningham Wheel

Vic spun it, to land on Donna’s number. Donna then got an Ace of Hearts, to win half of the $675.00 Jackpot!!

Sergeant-at-Arms – Gerard Baribeau

Gerard was sad that his would be his last chance to pick on Don Hall, and then paid for receiving the Paul Harris Award from the Club.

Audrey gave $5.00 for: Dave’s Birthday / Club Anniversary of 21 years / 50 years in her home / she’s heading to an island on Thursday (eat your heart out Geoff), and she was glad to have Mike as President again. Maybe a 2 year term would be good?

Kim paid as being glad Audrey is not setting the housing industry standard of staying so long in one home, and then had Audrey and Judy stand up. They were sitting either side of Kim, and were dressed in exactly the same pantsuit – which they bought together.

Don paid for his Club Anniversary of 47 years – yes, we do have members younger than that.

Donna paid because she was happy.

Jim was happy that Geoff had run WCCI Interact Club so well, and that now Gerard had taken over and was doing just as good a job. Jim attended their Bowling Day, and was pleased to be surrounded by young people.

Vic paid because he arrived late. Norm and Karen paid because they were not wearing their Rotary pins.

Millie also had no pin, but was happy her granddaughters got straight A’s and were on the Honour List.

Jack was happy to be here.

Anne celebrated her Club Anniversary, but without a pin.

Gene also had no pin, and was pleased to be a Grandfather.

Chris paid on behalf of Kim, who had written and passed her exams, so she is now a Real Estate Broker.

Geoff paid because his special friend Reba has had successful knee surgery, and also because his granddaughter is attending a camp in Brazil, on the same program he did in 1953.

Bruce was sorry to see Mike finish his term (Wonder why?)

Ishrani was happy that when she fell out of a tree, she only bruised her ego – we did not hear why she was up a tree in the first place.

Gerard said as his final act as S of A, he could not fine the President for being late, but thought a contribution might be good.

Paul Harris Fellow Presentation

Ron introduced Muriel Burtenshaw who has volunteered for the Canadian Cancer Society for the past 52 years and has also volunteered for the Heart & Stroke for the past 30 years. During her younger years, Muriel was able to canvass 15-22 streets in a month but can’t promise that for next year!

Habitat for Humanity Presentation

President Mike handed over the $150,000 Visionary cheque for the 4572 Kingston Road Project to Neil Hetherington, CEO at Habitat for Humanity Toronto. The development will provide 29 simple, decent, and affordable town homes for families living in substandard housing in Toronto. Neil was grateful for our involvement and looked forward to spending time together at the build site.

Celebrations

From the Humour Library of Geoff Dean

Coffee (n.) - the person upon whim one coughs.
Flabbergasted (adj.) - appalled over how much weight you have gained.
Abdicate (v.) - to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach
Lymph (v.) - to walk with a lisp
Willy-nilly (adj.) - impotent
1000 aches = 1 megahurtz
Basic unit of laryngitis: 1 hoarsepower
Shortest distance between two jokes: A straight line
2000 mockingbirds: two kilomockingbirds
Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don't have film.
What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

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