The Rotary Club Of Festival City

President:  Dianne Yundt

Minutes of the meeting of August 7, 2012

Club email:  festivalcityrotary@gmail.com

Club web blog: www.festivalcityrotary.blogspot.com

ClubRunner site: www.festivalcityrotary.ca

Guests:  Geza Wordofa is from Stratford Rotary. Charlotte Coats is an outbound student to Norway. Calum Balmain-Matthews is an outbound student to France. Tony Gallagher is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Rotary Club and Shelley Fracalossi is from the Plattsburgh N.Y. Rotary Club.

Draw Prize: Bob Shannon donated the prize won by John McNeil.

Announcements:

  1. Bingo: The next bingo is Friday August 17 starting at 5 PM. The bingo is the “Wizard of Oz” edition. This is in recognition of the premier of the movie on this date in 1939. Volunteers are required. Sign up for the August 17 bingo on ClubRunner or contact Jack West. Wicked witches and flying monkeys need not apply.
  2. Dinner of the Month Tickets: Tickets for the 2013 draws are available for sale. Get your tickets from Tyler Canal.  The price is the same as this year. $20 each or 6 for $100.
  3. Stratford Summer Music: Between Aug 14 and 19 the Culture Kids with steel pan drums from St Xavier’s Private Catholic School in Trinidad will be in Stratford.  Five families are required to host groups of 3-4 children with a chaperone.  Children are aged 7-11 and can sleep together to minimize bed requirements.  If you can billet a group please contact Lana Mau, Administrative Assistant at SSM at 519-271-2101 or email her at lmau@stratfordsummermusic.ca.  For more information about the school visit their website at www.stxavierstt.com
  4. Rotary Banners: Shelley Fracalossi presented the club with a banner from the Plattsburgh New York Rotary Club.  Carol Rock gave several club banners to Calum Balmain-Matthews to present to clubs he visits during his year in France.

 

Guest Speaker: Deb Stacey-Rivers, chair of the membership committee, gave a presentation on how to attract potential new members to the club. Some Rotarians related how they came to join the club and why they remain. Reasons often involve being asked or seeking out the club with the intention of becoming a part of the Stratford community to which they had just moved. Deb wants the club to grow by 6 to 8 members over the next year. If each member invited someone to a meeting then from a membership of 34 people perhaps we could reach our objective.  Deb asked each person to put the name of a potential member on a recipe card found on the tables. Potential new members could be work colleagues, community leaders, neighbours, and people from the business and professional fields in Stratford.  A pamphlet with information about the club is being revamped. Possibly giving out “Be My Guest” business cards which the noon club uses could serve as an invitation to a meeting. If you invite someone then expect to pay for their breakfast at their first meeting. Perhaps some of the weekly speakers could be invited to join Rotary.

Kent Chisholm talked about the upcoming Pancake Breakfast at the Dragon Boat races. After introducing the idea and having a show of hands it was decided that the sale of coffee, water and possibly juices would continue until 5 PM to increase our earnings. We will be preparing the coffee ourselves this year using 4 coffee makers. There will be more electrical outlets available which should overcome the electrical shortages of the past years. The Mitchell Rotary Club will be supplying the equipment to make pancakes. Pancake sales will end at noon. A large contingent of volunteers from our club will be needed in shifts to make this annual event a success. More information will be forthcoming over the next several weeks.