Doug Geddie

President Rick called our meeting to order today at 12:30 pm at The St. Catharines Golf & Country Club. He started the meeting off with a moment of silence for George X Walker, Past President of our Club.

Those who joined President at the head table included:

• Guest Speaker Introducer: Chris Blake
• Guest Speaker: Benedict Campbell
• Guest Performer: Bekki Kugler (our youth Exchange In-student)
• Sgt-at-Arms: Bill Cole
• Guest Introducer: Doug Geddie

Introduction of Guests: Doug Geddie

Our guest list was long for the Christmas meeting and included:

• Rotarian Ellis Katsof from Burlington Rotary
• Jacquie Herman-Wing from St. Catharines Sunrise
• Irma Iggulden, guest of Larry
• Carol Merritt, guest of President Rick
• Cindy Dunne, Guest of John Bird,
• Bob Marshall, Guest of John Bird,
• Joe Kushner, Guest of John Bird,
• Adam Griffiths, guest of Kelly Buckley,
• Liana Caracci, Guest of Roger Segalin,
• Brigitte MacDonald, guest of Ross,
• Merilee Burroughs, guest of John,
• Sheila Gillies, guest of Eugene,
• Dave Sherlock, Guest of Phil Porter,
• Dalton Clark, guest of Jaquelyn Bradshaw,
• Colleen and Maggie and Kara Haflidson, guests of Chris Blake
• Sara and Adrian, guests of Liz Palmieri and
• James Pihura, guest of Mike Pihura

Birthdays:

Brian St. Hilaire, Larry Iggulden and Nigel Riddell

• Dec 17: Larry Iggulden
• Dec 18: Jane Rufrano
• Dec 20: Nigel Riddell
• Dec 31: Brian St. Hilaire

Grace: Bill Cole

O Canada: Don Shaw

Toast to the Queen and Canada: by President Rick

Ten Day Notice

The Board of Directors in its December 19, 2006 meeting has approved a change to our Club’s By-laws. The Board resolution is as follows,

“ MOVED BY JOHN POTTS AND JOHN CROSSINGHAM THAT EACH COMMITTEE BE ALLOWED UP TO AND INCLUDING $5,000 BEFORE REQUIRING CLUB APPROVAL. Carried.”

The By-law being modified is Article 1X – Finances – Section 5 which reads.

“ No resolution to commit this Club to spend up to and including $5,000 any one item or project shall be undertaken without seeking the approval of the membership at large. Notice of any such resolution shall have appeared in the Club bulletin at least ten days before the meeting at which the resolution is to be presented. Approval of such resolution by a two-thirds majority of those present at the meeting is required.”

Bill Cole

President Rick read a letter of thanks from Betty Lou Souter on behalf of Community Care for our Club’s gift of $3,000 at last week’s meeting and to the Rotarians who have donated support for Community Care this year.

Bill Cole announced that Rachel Delaney, Margaret Jarrell and John Travers were all successful in their bids for unsold TV Auction items. In addition, David Germaine and Stephen Race were lucky draw winners from the TV Auction.

The RC of Hamilton is privileged to have PDG P.V. Purushothaman of Salem, India as its guest speaker at noon on January 25 in the Art Gallery of Hamilton.  Those who know him call him 'Puru'.  He is a remarkable Rotarian and literally lives what is truly sound investment in international service.  Therefore, he was chosen by District 5170 -- the San Francisco Bay area--to visit for 2-3 days to speak about actual experiences on this subject.  This was so valuable that subsequently he was invited to District 9450 and District 9630 in Australia for the same purpose.

  He has been Chairman of the National PolioPlus Committee of India, responsible for all of the necessary arrangements to immunize 160 million children in one single day.  There is much more about this remarkable man.  He has been selected for a key role at the International Assembly in San Diego and will be coming  to stay with a close friend of many years (PDG John Frid) in Burlington en route to San Diego.

  Space is limited so those who are planning to come to this special presentation must register with the Club Secretary, Tammy Martin tammymartinmail@gmail.com.  

  If you come you will certainly get a very contemporary focus on the real needs of the developing world and the fully credible and profitable ways of dealing with these very important needs. jfrid@worldchat.com

Happy Dollars

Santa Claus

Collected today by Santa Claus!

Today’s Happy dollar collection was dedicated to Community Care.

Santa read a moving version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas but the story was about Santa visiting the home of a Canadian soldier.

Some of the people who were happy included: Bill Campbell, Rachel Delaney, Dr. Ken Taylor, Norm Kreger (who delivered 40 hearing aids and a load of books to the Montego Bay Rotary Club), Kelly Buckley (Happy to have her blushing son Adam with her today), Jim Denham, Jaquelyn Bradshaw, Gregory Bodough-Darte, Janet Johnston (Had a Merry Christmas letter from James Foot, our out YE student in Finland) and Chris Bangham. Chris read portions of an e-letter from his friend in Zimbabwe who was comparing the state of things in his country today with the way they were in 1997: economy 50% male life expectancy from 60 to 34 years; female expectancy from 60 to 36 years; and, today only 8% of the population is employed in paying jobs.

Chris Blake

Other happy included: Angus Adams (who thanked Chris for the warm-up), Oraine De Rosa, Pat Rooney (our best wishes to Watson), Rick Evans (oldest son in Brazil), and John Crossingham. John continues in historical mode; Mussolini translated literally means “little jackass”. John says we should give Mussolini points for being an honest politician! Under his repressive regime, the cathedral of Trieste’s ceiling was repaired and dated Year 14.

The rest of the happy people included Gini Rigby who is happy that Tim has a job; Chief Wendy Southall (please drive safely during the holiday season); Larry Iggulden (who remembered that no matter how bad a day you were having, George X Walker was sure that his was worse); John Nitsopoulos (handed Betty Lou $800 from his employees Christmas Party); and, Betty Lou who wished everyone a Merry Christmas.

50/50 Draw: John Snowling had the winning ticket for the $1,045.50 pot; but, alas, he could not draw the Queen of spades.

Program

Chris introduced Bekki Kugler, our Youth Exchange in-student.

Bekki Kugler

Bekki Kugler

Bekki Played three pieces on her violin:

• “Lo How a Rose ere blooming”
• a piece written by J.S. Bach, and
• “Silent Night”.

At Bekki’s request, the Rotarians joined her by singing Silent Night.

Ben Campbell

Chris then introduced Ben Campbell. Ben has been acting for 30 years and has been a member of the Shaw ensemble for the past 5 years. He was born in Stratford, Ontario and studied in England. Ben’s principle flaw is believing that he can break 70 on the golf course!

Ben read Frederick Forsyth’s, “The Shepherd” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shepherd).

Speaker Thanked by: President Rick

Ben Campbell and Rick Merritt

Rick Merritt and Bekki Kugler