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President Tom called the meeting to order today at 12:35 pm at the St. Catharines Golf & Country Club. Grace was said by Dave Stevenson, and Don Shaw gave us the perfect note to begin O Canada. Seated at the head table were
Guest Speaker: Brian St. Hilaire, Club Auditor
Guest Speaker: Sangeeta Hollo, Club Treasurer
President: Tom Arkell
Sergeant-at-Arms: Larry Ross
Rotarian in the Spotlight: Bill Cole, Assistant Treasurer
Guest Introducer: Peggy Davidson
Today's Guests were
VISITING ROTARIANS
Wendy Laslo – St. Catharines Sunrise
John Boot – Summerland BC
OTHER GUESTS
Carol Henderson - guest of Betty Lou Souter
Alexis DeWolfe – guest of Roger Segalin
Rachel Kennedy - guest of Graham Kennedy
Bill Cole was born in Saskatoon and graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1958. He joined our club in April of 1998, having been introduced by Foster Zanutto. Bill, however, was a long time Rotarian prior to joining us, having first joined Rotary in 1980 in Sydney BC. He spent his entire career in various capacities with the Upjohn Company, both in BC and in Toronto , where he was President of the Rotary Club of Agincourt in 1988-89. He is married to Grace, and has two sons, Matthew and Michael, and two daughters, Catherine and Colleen. His interests included computers, current affairs, fishing and golf. He has served on possibly every committee in Rotary, and is currently the club's assistant-treasurer, where he looks after the cash, while Sangeeta looks after the books.
Believe it or not - NONE
President Tom advised that our outbound exchange student to Brazil , Carly Gemmel, returned home just before Christmas, as the exchange was not working out.
John Burroughs, on behalf of the Historian Committee, presented past-president Rick Merritt with a bound copy of the Gossip sheet for his year as president in 2006-2007. Other copies are in our archives at Brock and at the St. Catharines Public Library.
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Past President Rick and John Burroughs |
President Rick, then, on behalf of the Foundation Committee, recognized the sustaining members from the club who were not here to receive their pins at the meeting in November. These members donated at least $100 U.S. to the Rotary Foundation in the “Every Rotarian Every Year” campaign. The numbers are too large to repeat here!
There will be a Major Grants committee meeting prior to our regular meeting at 11am next week in the golf club board room.
There will also be a Charitable Trust committee meeting at the same time, purportedly in the same place.
There will be a new members meeting after the regular meeting, on January 17th .
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Foster Zanutto with Mark Zammit |
Club Secretary Foster Zanutto, (aka Chief Returning Officer) then came forward to announce the results of the recent Club elections, which have placed the following new members on the Board as Directors for a 2-year term:
Chris Blake
Ross Burns
John Lehnen
Wendy Southall
Foster then thanked all those who stood for election and asked for a motion to destroy the ballots, which was moved and approved. Foster also announced that Liz Palmieri has been appointed Vice-President nominee, and will succeed John Potts as Club President for the 2010-2011 year. There was much cheering in response to this information. Congratulations to Liz, and to our new directors.
Betty Lou Souter then came forward to introduce our newest member, Carol Henderson. Carol was previously a member of the Niagara Falls Sunrise club for 14 years. She was very active in the club, including various events such as Auction and Ribfest. (Sam and Ross take note!) She also billeted visiting Rotarians and ensured that international students enjoyed Niagara Falls . Carol was born and educated in Oshawa , and moved to Niagara Falls in 1972. Ten years ago, she relocated to St. Catharines , and enjoys summers at her cottage on Balsam Lake . She has owned a Priority Management corporate training and consulting franchise since 1983, specializing in public, in-house training. She has also worked under special contract for the Niagara Parks Commission, and has been involved in a number of Niagara events. Attending our meetings is like coming home for Carol, as she curled at the St. Catharines Golf and Country Club for many years.. Betty Lou was promised by the Niagara Falls Sunrise Club that Carol would be a terrific member of our club. Welcome Carol.
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| President Tom, Carol Henderson, Betty Lou Souter |
Were solicited by Rachel Delaney, who told a story about a fellow who offered up his wife for dental surgery without anaesthetic...hmmm...those golfers! Rachel told everyone that we cannot begin the year unhappy!
Liz Palmieri was happy that she has 2 ½ years to learn how to be President. She was also happy to be sitting beside Peter Banwell, who introduced her to Rotary.
John Crossingham (inevitably) spoke at reasonable (!) length, firstly about the “teddy bear toss” at a recent Ice Dogs game, which caused his alter ego Sir Wordsworth, to surmise that the Canadians were actually going to start playing a “real sport”. He then advised that Sir Wordsworth's recent “Casting Call” was very successful in attracting a wide cast of characters for the St. George's day pageant, including Juergen Knofingham. He then made an interesting remark about accountants...
Peter Kudreikis was happy to have his 7th grandchild recently delivered and safe at home.
Jim Denham then raised his hand, at which point Rachel pointed out that she hoped he wasn't expecting another child! In fact, he was $3 happy, the first for having won four tickets to the Ice Dogs' Teddy Bear Toss game (his children cried after realizing that once tossed, the bears were not given back!) the second for the showing his Ridley Girls' Hockey team made in a recent tourney in Connecticut, and the third....he couldn't remember!
Bill Finley put in five sad dollars, for a story about a young girl whose hockey equipment was stolen from her front porch, as reported in The Standard. Bill visited the family and made a donation, and collected money after the meeting which he also promised to deliver.
Mike Pihura arrived at his office this morning at the Bugsy's Plaza to find that many of the businesses had had their windows smashed and some had been robbed. He was happy to report that the police and their dogs were able to apprehend the two young male perpetrators.
George Doty paid $5 to tell us that Gerry Wooll was not as austere as everyone thought, and proceeded to give some anecdotal examples.
Larry Iggulden paid a buck to give a plug to the Literacy Committee, for which he volunteered to read to school kids. He thoroughly enjoyed the experience, although he did not receive gifts!
50/50 Draw: Bob Ure had the winning ticket but drew the 5 of Clubs. The pot was $70, not bad for the first week!
Bob Lawler introduced today's speakers. When he asked Sangeeta how long she had been treasurer, she replied “Two kids ago”. In fact, Sangeeta has been treasurer since 2001.
Brian St. Hilaire presented the Financial Statements for the Year ending June 30, 2007, pointing out that he had turned down an invite to go skiing today. According to Brian, accountants are like great acrobats in that they never lose their balance...
Thanks to past president Rick Merritt and the Board, the club continues to operate in a financially secure manner with stable revenues and a comfortable surplus in the fund balances. In short, we are in good shape, and anyone who wishes a copy of the audited statements can contact Joyce.
The club basically operates with two funds: General and Charitable.
The General fund takes in the revenue from dues, Happy dollars, birthdays, etc., and covers the club's operating costs, including Joyce's salary, rent, our website, as well as our annual dues to Rotary International and our District Assessment. Net general fund revenues were up slightly over the year as a result of a larger number of members (hence dues). Net expenses were down over $7000, such that the annual transfer from the charitable fund to the general fund was down from $9000 to $6500, leaving the general fund in a small surplus position.
The Charitable Fund, which takes in revenues from our three major fundraisers plus a few donations, covers all of our local donations, plus donations to the Rotary Foundation, World Community Service and Youth Exchange. Net Charitable fund revenues for the year were $262,793, and we currently have a surplus of over $214,000 in the Charitable fund, although some of this is committed to future donations, including Hospice and the Ice Path (which is on hold pending OMB hearings).
Donations to worthy causes in the year amounted to $150,000, with major contributions to (in order of size of gift) the Niagara Peninsula Children's Centre, Hospice Niagara, St. Catharines General Hospital Foundation, Niagara College , Bethlehem Place , Not Just Tourists, and the Resource Association for Teens (RAFT).
One question from the floor concerned the fact that, although we have nearly 150 members, Birthday donations were only $862. Not only did everyone not pay up on their birthday, but someone only gave $2!
President Tom asked for a motion from the floor to approve the financial statement, which was so moved and carried. He then asked for a motion to approve McGillivray and Partners as the club's auditors for the coming year, which was also so moved and carried.
Sangeeta Hollo then presented the club's budget for the next five years, very succinctly. Basically, she expects revenues and expenses to be relatively status quo, while the plan is to significantly reduce our Charitable Fund surplus to get the funds out into the community. A motion to approve the budget was made and carried.
Rick Merritt thanked Brian and Sangeeta for their presentations, and pointed out that their stewardship of the clubs finances was appreciated. Someone made the comment that Rick, as a former banker, found the presentation riveting.
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Brian St. Hilaire, Sangeeta Hollo, President Tom |
In closing President Tom pointed out that Rick as a former banker, presided over a year where the club is in a healthy surplus position, while he himself, as a civil servant, is more used to deficits and cost overruns...
The topic for next week's meeting is
Andy Skrypniak, District 7090 Membership Director
Notice to club members:
The Rotary Club of St. Catharines Sunrise has a new meeting place effective January 8th:
Holiday Inn, St. Catharines,
2 North Service Road,
St. Catharines
It is just north of the QEW's Lake St. exit.
The Club will continue to meet Tuesdays at 7:15AM
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