Attendance / Guests: 27, including Dean Arnal, guest of John Blimke
Announcements:
President Duane announced that there would be a brief meeting of the Board of Directors after today's meeting.
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Rotary Club of Edmonton West Society will be held on Monday, December 9th.
Due to the Petroleum Club being closed, there will be no Rotary meeting next Monday, November 11th.
A Moment of Silence was held to observe the passing of Dan Graham's father, Bill Graham.
Doug MacDougall is still at U of A Hospital, but continues to get better.
Grace Young is still at the Glenrose.
Carol Turner is now at home, getting ready for some eye surgery.
Ben Lang was recently hospitalized, but is now back home.
Fred Kraft passed the hat for donations to fund Christmas gifts for poor children in Placencia, Belize. Duane, Fred and Brian will be leaving for Placencia on November 16th, and will hand over the donations to the Placencia Club for the purchase of toys for the children. If you would like to contribute, just send an eMail to Fred indicating the amount and he will accept that as your IOU for later collection. Use the eMail service on our website to send him your IOU.
Ben announced that the District will be providing 30 Rotarian 50/50 volunteers at each of 3 upcoming Oilers Games, the first being on December 7th. This effort will raise $100,000 for flood relief for our southern Alberta neighbors, plus it will generate much publicity for Rotary. To volunteer, send an eMail to Judy@harcourt.ca
Ben also announced that there will be a Vocational Training mission to Honduras for two weeks in late April to mentor micro-finance participants. If you know of someone suitable, with a working knowledge of Spanish, please contact Marilyn Mucha at mgmucha@shaw.ca or 780-468-7199. Here is an adventure travel opportunity for someone!
Finemaster Rob Dunseith raised $37.25 for failure to wear a poppy, failure to shovel snow, and laughing at, or failing to laugh at his joke.
50/50 Draw - Fred and Bill did not match, so there will be $30.50 in the pot for the next meeting. Our most recent winners have both indicated that they would like to donate their winnings to the Polio Plus fund.
We are all reminded that November is Foundation Month, so if you haven't yet donated to the Rotary Foundation, now is a very good time to do it. This is OUR Charity!
PROGRAM - GETTING TO KNOW YOU
President Duane asked each member to sit beside someone who they don't normally sit with at our meetings and learn enough about them to be able to introduce them to the Club as if they were a new member.
This was a very interesting exercise, and of course there wasn't sufficient time available for everyone to participate in the actual introductions. The members who actually made their humourous and interesting introductions included:
Darryll White and Doug Sollows
Fred Kraft and Jerome Martin
Dan Graham and Duart Berg
Mike Ryan and Joe Lizotte
Bill Buckham and Ingrid Neitsch
Steve McEachern talked about future District Governor Laura Morie, about his passion for visiting shut-ins and about his upcoming Remembrance Day Memorial service at Scona Composite High School. He also talked about our Past President Gord King's participation in an escape from a German prison camp.
MEALS AT THE PETROLEUM CLUB
Club Service Director Ingrid has been in discussions with the new management of the Edmonton Petroleum Club for the past couple of months in regard to the cost and quality of our meals and accommodations. You have probably noticed the improvements in the quality already. At the mini Board Meeting held on November 4, 2013, a new arrangement between the Rotary Club and the Petroleum Club was agreed to. As a result of this new agreement it will be necessary to revise the per meeting charges to our members.
Effective the first meeting of 2014 and continuing at least until June 30, 2014, the per meeting charge will be $22.00 per person. Cards of 10 meal tickets will cost $220.00, effective immediately. The $22.00 includes $1.00 for your 50/50 draw ticket and the remaining $21.00 will be used to pay for our (including our guests and speakers) meals. This is pretty much a break-even proposition for both the Rotary Club and the Petroleum Club, and it is our understanding that when taken together with the free parking, we still have one of the best deals in town when comparing to the other Rotary Clubs per meeting costs.
Your support of this change would be appreciated, particularly if you could remember to bring along a twoonie or a couple of loonies to go with your twenty dollar bill!
A guy is walking along a Vancouver beach when he comes across a lamp partially burried in the sand. He picks up the lamp and gives it a rub. A genie appears and tells him he has been granted one wish.
The guy thinks for a moment and says, "I want to live forever."
"Sorry," said the genie, "I'm not allowed to grant eternal life."
"OK, then I want to die after the government balances the budget, eliminates the debt, and abolishes the senate."
