The Rotary Club Of Festival City

President:  Dianne Yundt

Minutes of the meeting of May 21, 2013

Club email:  festivalcityrotary@gmail.com

Club website: www.festivalcityrotary.ca

Guests: From the Stratford Rotary Club we welcomed Bob Martin, Harry Brightwell and Rena Orr. Amanda Hansford is the president of Rotaract, Shane Pegg and Dan Heitbohmer represented the Accelerator Centre.

Door Prize: Linda Jones donated the prize won by Carolyn Dingman.

Dinner of the Month Draw: Dinner for 4 at Rundles was won by Anna Sherwin.

Announcements:

1.     House of Blessing: Donations will be accepted at next week`s meeting.

  1. Rotary Social Evenings: The first one will be at the Rivers home on May 28. It will be a “Wine and Cheese” evening. Bring your favourite cheese with a short description of the cheese type.
  2. Rotaract Banquet: It is confirmed that the banquet is Wednesday May 29 at the Arden Park. Tickets are $40. It is hoped that all members of Festival City Rotary will be able to attend. Rotaract is a joint venture of Festival City and Stratford Rotary Clubs. Tyler Canal has tickets for the event beginning at 6 PM.

4.     Area 3 Meeting: The meeting chaired by Stan Malcolm is May 30 in Mitchell at 7 PM.

  1. Rotary Dues: The membership has received invoices for the 2013-2014 Rotary year. Please make cheques payable to the Rotary Club of Festival City Stratford. Cheques can be post-dated to July 2. Give cheques to treasurer Etienne Leushuis.
  2. Coffee: El Salvador coffee beans or ground coffee in 1lb bags is available from Randy Matthews for $15 each.
  3. District Assembly: Takes place June 7-9 in Sarnia. Anyone attending and wishes to travel with President Dianne should speak to her.

Guest Speaker: Brian Rivers introduced Shane Pegg from the University of Waterloo`s Accelerator Centre. The centre is designed to assist startup companies in the hi-tech industry. Under one roof it provides mentoring, marketing, communications, and financial advice to young entrepreneurs who have an idea which they want to develop into a business. The Accelerator Centre began in 2006 just off the campus at U of W. Since then it has helped 108 startup companies to prosper. In the Waterloo area over 1000 jobs were created contributing $90 million to the local economy. The Stratford branch of the centre opened at 6 Wellington Street on February 4 in partnership with the City of Stratford. Seven companies are currently using the services provided by the local centre. Anyone, or a group, who has a passion for an idea they want to develop into a business can take advantage of the service in a safe, reliable and trusted environment which calls on the expertise of many mentors. Some of the mentors are CEO`s of multibillion dollar companies which started from nothing and grew into large companies. After paying a fee the startup receives coaching for several years. Since over 85% of startups fail in five years it is the plan of the centre to provide a foundation for success.

Dan Heitbohmer is one of the clients of the centre who is growing his business buildcircle.com which is software that helps contractors communicate with their sub-trades to prepare requests for proposals.  To learn more about Dan`s business and links to other startups at the accelerator centre visit www.acceloratorcentre.com/stratfordap

Shane and Dan were thanked by John McNeil.