President Bruce revved us up and started the meeting. He welcomed Hermann and Nevine back and told us that Ryan Rowland’s wife just had a second daughter, Nyla Marie, who was born at 6 lbs. 12 ounces. He also told us that Case Bastmeyer’s wife Chris is undergoing chemo.

Program:

President Bruce Pettit – Inaugural Address

President Bruce began his inaugural speech by thanking the Past President and all of the members of last year’s Board and thanked those directors who are stepping down for this year, Robert Tang, Lina Demirjian and Victor Shastri. He then introduced us to the chairs and directors for this Rotary year.
Bruce mentioned the recent Rotary Convention in Montreal and he referenced the last speech of new R.I. President Roy Klinginsmith who is from Missouri. Placing a hat upon his head and saying that Rotary isn’t about funny hats (who knew. ed)…Foregoing cowboy music (cue cheers from Chris Musselman), he told us that President Klinginsmith’s thoughts are that success in Rotary is about applying cowboy logic… Rotary needs to be BIGGER, BETTER and BOLDER. That means that we need to take pride in our work, talk less but say more, do what has to be done, and recognize that some things are just not for sale.

Bruce reminded us that we have made some great strides. We have a working succession plan, which he hopes to expand to include the secretary and treasurer roles, and that we are establishing a public relations chair to try to build our public awareness. He also believes that PR will make it easier for us to attract new members, instill pride in the club and help us to fundraise. He wants to focus our attention on the RI Foundation and re-establish the Vision committee for community activities and embrace the opportunities that our donation to the Habitat for Humanity project on Kingston Road will offer us for sweat equity.

For membership, he wants us to do it again! We went from about 41 members at the beginning of last year, to 50 by year’s end and he wants our Club to add another 9 or ten members this year.

We are poised to be more profitable in our fundraising this year. We won’t have to worry about municipal strikes and we can and are actively promoting our Ribfest, so we should be able to increase our revenue. That combined with our efforts to control costs this year should help us to have a healthy bottom line on funding.

He concluded by saying that in order to bring change, members must help and get involved.

Attendance

Was 28, with one guest, Ann Matthee from the Probus Club, who came with Norm Rhora.

Open Membership Classification

There was no classification this week

Announcements

Ribfest posters are available! Get them out to your locations! The recent parades were successful and we gave out between 5,000 and 6,000 flyers for Ribfest.

Someone pointed out that Donna was in SNAP and that the Ribfest schedule is listed there. Donna was joined by Millie….between two MP’s from some party or another.

The Bluff’s Monitor has an article on Ribfest and on our donation to Habitat for Humanity.

Please remember that we need bags and contents for the Ribfest entertainers!

Woods/Cunningham Wheel

Ishrani got her first chance at a spin but unfortunately she hasn’t got the knack yet and got a 10 of hearts!

Sergeant-at-Arms – Gerard Baribeau

Please note the capitalization of our new S.A.A.’ name……Millie swept in like a lion…fining poor past SAA Gerard to start with (something about a foot fetish?) and then extracting dollars from Jimmy Foster for some upholstery work that Gus helped him with. Then she descended upon Kim and fined her for tardiness and tried to fine your humble scribe for some aspect of attire (what’s wrong with the Pink Panther???). She found that Anne Ellis=Taylor was well tailored (for a fine), and then accepted Bob Johnston’s poser about why he was wearing his particularly shaded shirt (Go Holland). (Sorry Bob….some things were just not meant to be…ed)

Fines continued for Ishrani for no pin (tsk tsk….they’ll get you every time Ishrani!) Ditto for Geoff Dean and Buddy… then accepted a HB from Geoff Dean for his mom’s 92 birthday, and another for Josie winning the first runner up in her reunion last weekend……beauty and brains contest we hear!

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.

Celebrations

Audrey – Notes from the Cottage

Audrey would like anyone who has photos from Mike Murton’s year as president to provide her with copies for the president’s album.

Make sure you keep a copy of the duty roster and if you can not make it on the day you are assigned to please let Audrey know well in advance who you have arranged to take your place.

Audrey can be reached at the cottage by email at the address listed in the Bluffer.

Upcoming Meetings -to update your information, e-mail Gary at garymac@clarkehenning.com

Duty Roster