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The Centennial Joint Meeting of seven local Rotary Clubs was organized by the Rotary Club of St. Catharines Lakeshore, and chaired by their President, Mary Lou Decou.
Michelle Guitane led us in the Star Spangled Banner and we toasted the Office of the President of the United States, followed by Oh Canada and a toast to the Queen and the people of Canada.
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The St. Catharines Boys |
The head table was introduced by President Mary Lou - guest speaker, Michael Sifton; Willy Heidbuechel to introduce our speaker; Dan Toppari, President of the South Club; Nadia LePere, President-Elect of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Club; Tammy Morden of the St. Catharines AM Club; Betty-Lou Souter, President of the St. Catharines Rotary Club; Craig Foster, President of the Fonthill Rotary Club; and Ken White, President of the Lewiston/Niagara-on-the-Lake Club.
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The Head Table |
The Niagara-on-the-Lake/Lewiston Rotary Club presents their Shaw Festival Garden Party featuring Gypsy, on Saturday, April 30. Tickets are $70 each and can be ordered by calling Teresa at 905.356.3500.
The St. Catharines South Club announces their Annual Diamond Gala (black tie optional) on May 7 at Club Roma. Tickets are $75 and call be ordered by calling June Manning at 905.684.7681.
The Rotary Club of Niagara-on-the-Lake announces their annual Bike Trek, held this year on Saturday, June 11. For further information and a registration form, visit their site at www.rotary-niagara.com
Special Guests - District Governor Charlotte Herlong sent her regrets, but was ably represented by DG Elect, Art Wing. We also had in attendance DG nominee-nominee for 2007/8, Bob Leek from the Hamilton Club.
50/50 - Ken White won an undisclosed amount.
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Jim Cunningham and Michael Sifton |
Joint meeting with other clubs at Quality Hotel and Convention Centre
Willy Heidbuechel came to the podium to introduce Michael Sifton. He told us of the Sifton tradition in publishing culminating in the July 31, 2001 purchase of Hollinger publications to form the Osprey Group. Michael sits, not surprisingly, on many boards. He is a graduate of Queen's University and he and his wife have three children.
Michael began by acknowledging his colleagues from the Osprey family from the Review, Tribune, and Standard, and the Osprey Magazine division.
Michael said he doesn't know of another industry that has so much tradition, but is facing so much change. Average age of the company's dailies is 130 years, but they are introducing new products and features every week.
Michael said that Osprey prefers to focus on small and mid-size communities across Ontario; he has no interest in publishing a newspaper in Toronto. They are also a major distributor of insert materials distributing 580 million pieces last year. They are also newly into the magazine market with many new products covering life-style, city and cottage life, business, and student magazines. They have also published several new internet sites, both paid and free, offering specialty internet products like Osprey Classifieds, Osprey Wheels, and Osprey Careers.
In all, Michael stated that Osprey touches 1 million households every week.
Why so many products? Because the diversity of the Region means they need a diversity of products. For all of us collectively to be successful, we have to champion all the communities of the Region.
Osprey employs 537 people. Michael says their news team is as good as any in the country with 80 award-winning reporters. They are located in 21 different communities. They donate $1 million of space per year to community events and their staff is involved in many community activities.
Michael stated that their role is to serve as a unifying force in our communities. He sees their products as a meeting place for our communities, and a forum for lively debate. He wants champions heralded and charlatans exposed. He sees their products as a place for businesses to grow their traffic.
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Claris West Hobbs |
He said that they will continue to embark on major editorial initiatives to boost community concerns. He pointed to their eight part series on health care, their series of the state of downtown St. Catharines, on local council and local representation, on the Great Lakes in crisis, and more recently their series on health and wellness issues.
Over the past years Osprey has launched many new products. He said that there are many more to come, to remain the definitive news source for Niagara.
In a Q+A, Dave Butler asked about the recent laggard stock performance, and Michael gave a forthright explanation.
Claris West Hobbs thanked Michael on behalf of the Rotary clubs.
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Mary Lou Decou, Michael Sifton and Will Heidbuechel
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Apr 14 Classification Talk
Apr 21 Dr. David Atkinson
Apr 28 Celebration of Indian Culture and presentation on Polio Immunization (Howard Lackie)
May 5th Classification Talk - Norma Medulun
The Niagara Region Public Leaders Summit will be held May 2, 2005 at Regional Niagara Headquarters, 8 am to 3:30 pm. To learn more, contact Peter Papp at 905 688-7496. Also go to www.thechangingpoint.com/2005/Niagara_intro.htm
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