IN THIS BULLETIN...
We will hear from Marva and Noma on their experience at this year's Rotary International Convention. The meeting, last Friday, August 9th, began with Birthday and Anniversary announcements from our President, Brian Martin.
Chelsey Mathieu celebrated her birthday on August 8th; Louisa Del Rosario celebrated her 26th anniversary as a Rotarian, Crista Renner 5 years, Terrie Jarvis 9 years, "a guy named Brian Martin" 9 years, and Tom Funk 44 years. That's a total of 93 years of Rotary service. Congratulations everyone!
Matt Webster introduced our guest, Sarah Gazzola, the daughter of Gisella Gazzola. She was welcomed by the club.
Club announcements were then made. Anne Mackay made an announcement about the Duck Race that the Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium is hosting.
Matt made two quick announcements. The first was about the Lobsterfest committee. He discussed Lobsterfest postcards with QR codes that were on each table. The QR codes lead to the ticket website. The postcards are a reminder to invite friends, family, neighbours, and colleagues to Lobsterfest.
The second announcement was a request to have people train on the electronic pay machine, so when Helmuth, Matt and Brian aren't at meetings, someone can operate the system. If you're interested please reach out to Matt about it.
Faz had a happy buck about his wife's birthday. He said, "I thank the universe to turn the way it did so I could meet her, and I hope it lasts till the last minute."
Aidan made an announcement about the start of the Lobsterfest committee's wine collection. If you have wine at home, please bring it to the next meeting for our wagon-of-wine!
Aidan also had a happy buck. He and his girlfriend are traveling to Ireland this Tuesday for a week long trip to Dublin and Galway.
Rick "continued the theme" and made another announcement about Lobsterfest. He will be hosting a ticket ripping party at his house to prepare 50/50 tickets for Lobsterfest. If you're interested shoot an email over to Rick!
After lunch, Marva began her and Noma's presentation. Marva explained that she went on the trip to Singapore in President Martin's place as he was unable to attend. She briefly discussed how her and her cousin (her travelling partner) went on the trip together, how they stopped in a small village in Indonesia, and finished their trip in Sydney Australia. She then provided an overview of what her and Noma would discuss, and then she called up Noma.
Noma started her portion of the presentation with a game. Each table had to answer 6 questions correctly around Rotary International.
1. Where is the RI Convention in 2026?
2. Who is Mario Cesar Martins de Camargo?
3. Spell the name of the current RI President.
4. Where and what year is RI and UN Peace Summit?
5. In what country is the most recent RI Project of Scale located?
6. Name any 5 RI Fellowships.
President Martin's table had the most amount of correct answers.
Following this game, Noma discussed how club's internationally are facing issues of new memberships and membership retention, but what's interesting is that the clubs in non-Western countries are growing (e.g., India 102.7%, Taiwan 127.7%, South Korea 35.5%, Philippines 52.1%, etc.) while countries in the West are declining (e.g., Portugal -10.6%, France -18.4%, United States -29.4%, Canada -33.6%).
Noma said that this can be partially explained by the growing population and middle-class in non-Western countries and the declining population and aging of the Baby Boomers in the West.
Noma then discussed a story she heard at the convention. The purposed of the story was to highlight how the world needs Rotary, so we must find innovative ways to start growing our clubs in Canada.
The story reads, "
There are fun moments at the convention as you have just
seen. There are also moments that would bring you to tears and remind you why you became a Rotarian. I want to share one of the many stories, that was told by a guest speaker and a Rotarian from Uganda.
"He came from a family of 5, parents and two older sisters. He described his family as the poor of the poorest in the village at the time. Despite the poverty he and his sisters experienced, they did well in school. Time came for him to go to high school. In Uganda parents are responsible for all the fees.
The family had to make a difficult decision on who stays in school longer. The family decided that it would be him. He completed his high school with top marks. The family had no means for him to continue. Local Rotary clubs came to the rescue, they were able to find a full scholarship for him to go to Makerere University in Uganda, completed his BSc in Chemistry, again Rotarians in US came to the rescue for him to enter Washington State to do MSc, followed by a PHD in the Netherlands. He went on to form a very successful non-profit Pharmaceutical company in Uganda, manufacturing Malaria and Antiretrovirals medications, in memory of his two sisters, who both died from AIDS. All the profits go to the Research and Development of new drugs for Malaria and HIV."
Without Rotary, Noma emphasized, this person would not have had the life that he has had.
Marva then discussed a presentation that she attended about companion clubs. The Rotarian that gave the presentation was from a club in the US that went from 150 members to 47. He was trying to find innovative solutions to increase the club's membership. One of the issues he found was the requirement to have members attend club meetings. Their club, like ours, meets on Fridays at noon. He explained that for certain professions, such as teachers, this time just doesn't work. So his club implemented something that they call a companion club, where people can join the club and contribute to their events and committees without having to attend club meetings if it doesn't work for their schedule.
The benefit of this is that people that want to join Rotary, but can't make the meeting times are still able to be members, while members that can make the meeting times are still able to attend them. In one year, the club that this Rotarian was from, after implementing this policy, brought in 100 new club members.
Noma concluded the presentation by saying, "We know the world needs Rotary more than ever!!! Conflict, millions of refugees on the move because of conflicts, disasters due environmental changes, fighting to alleviate poverty, homelessness on the rise, etc. Is our club in a position to respond to the above challenges effectively?
"We have just discussed what we can do to attract and retain members, and thank you for your contribution of ideas. As entrusted to lead an Outreach committee, your ideas will become valuable. For a moment, let us reflect on the type of club we would like to become, a club that wants to go down? Escalator video (down) Or a club that is ready to go up (Escalator photo, Up)
I strongly prefer one that is going UP!!!"
Brian Martin thanked Noma and Marva for their presentation. As there was no further business for the good of Rotary, the meeting was concluded.
Notes taken by Otter.ai, edited by Aidan Harris.
Editors Note: I will be away in Ireland until Tuesday the 20th. Please expect the next bulletin on Wednesday the 21st instead of Monday the 19th.
YinR,
Aidan
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