President Rick welcomed all and introduced the head table: Liz Palmieri, Carol Stymiest, Sergeant-at-Arms Larry Ross, Rotarian in the Spotlight Ian Ellingham and Betty-Lou Souter who introduced today's guests.

Guests: Visiting Rotarian Manny Fast, plus guests Ron Doe, Darrel Teutenberg and Heidi Wilson

Rotarian in the Spotlight: Ian Ellingham joined the club in 2006, is married to Dianna and has 3 children. He is a land economist (a classification that we're sure isn't replicated anywhere else in District 7090) and works for Cambridge Architectural Research. Both his father and his father-in-law are Rotarians.

Stuart Butler and Ian Ellingham

Birthdays: Stuart Butler and Ian Ellingham were on hand to receive their birthday rose and a song. Janet deVries missed the club's birthday greetings.

Announcements

Ian Ellingham

Ian Ellingham just returned from a conference in Egypt and while there is did a make-up at the Alexandria Egypt Rotary Club, which is very involved with international programs. He noted that the club was 50/50 men and women, which surprised him. He presented their club banner to President Rick.

Pat Rooney promoted our exchange student Becky's quest to raise funds for the school trip to the Carolinas in the spring. Orders for poinsettias and oranges must be placed today.

Foster Zanutto reminded Rotarians that the nominations for directors are now open. A list of nominees is being distributed this week and the nominations close Dec. 6 th . Please forward all nominations to Foster and the nominee must agree to be nominated. The ballots will be distributed shortly after the deadline and the results will be announced at our first meeting in January.

Pat Rooney

President Rick announced that the updated pocket roster is now available and he encouraged members to retrieve them from their mailbox.

John Snowling chair of the Membership Committee reviewed the attendance rules saying that the club is striving for 70% attendance. Our attendance currently is below that. He then presented perfect attendance pins:

• 1 year - Foster Zanutto
• 5 years - Sangeeta Hollo, Janet Johnston, Norm Kreger
• 8 years - Pat Rooney
• 10 years - Ross Macdonald, Betty-Lou Souter
• 22 years - Juergen Knof
• 26 years - Jagdish Mehta
• 27 years - George Darte
• 28 years - Henry Becker
• 50 years - Don Fraser


Foster Zanutto	Nancy Ferris-Hostick

Perfect Attendees

President Rick then presented a pin to John Snowling for 26 years of perfect attendance.

Nancy Hostick reminded everyone of the importance of signing up for at least 3 volunteer shifts. The auction is ½ hour shorter due to a reduction in the number of items secured. It now starts at 10:30am on Saturday.

Brian Stewart

Happy Dollars

Brian Stewart is happy to announce that as a result of a great vacation and much consumption of alcohol, he and his wife are having another baby. He then recounted seaman joke that included red shirts, pirates and brown pants. See Brian for the details.

Doug Geddie was so inspired by our members last week who were veteran pilots that he took Lloyd Buckley for a flight in Doug's plane.

Norm Kreger is pleased to be back and said that in January he will be juggling 4 jobs.

Judith Butler has only a few more days to go until her retirement and introduced Hospice Niagara's new Executive Director, Heidi Wilson.

George Doty was happy that he's not in the paper this week.

Liz Palmieri

Larry Iggulden was happy to be back from vacation to be able to respond to the long article that was in the paper and correct some facts about the number of children he has, his resemblance to Errol Flynn and his hair color. He then reflected on his 25 years of marriage, which he celebrated in Aruba.

John Snowling said that former exchange student Ignacio from Bolivia visited over the past week. He is hoping to attend university in Canada. John brought greetings to the club on behalf of Ignacio.

Kelly Buckley was happy to have been able to join her father on the flight with Doug.

John Nitsopolous was happy to report that renovations are underway at the Holiday Inn and if anyone is looking for used beds and chairs to see him. He just returned from vacationing in England where it was noted he bears a striking resemblance to the Duke of Devonshire.

Liz Palmieri was happy that at a board meeting earlier in the day they had celebrated the 6th anniversary of the Niagara Community Foundation. She noted that the champagne and orange juice made her even more happier.

George Parke was extremely happy to say that he managed to buy a new house and sell his old one all within a week.

50/50 DRAW

No luck this week for Margaret Jarrell drew the 4 of spades. The $750 pot is still up for grabs. It's getting close to Christmas and the number of cards in the deck is dwindling. The suspense continues...

Program

Carol Stymiest

Carol Stymiest first promoted the new marketing campaign for the Rotary TV Auction and noted that for the first time radio spots have been secured. Supplements will be available at all Royal Bank branches and Rotarians who wanted to put some at their work should see Carol next week.

Carol was born in Toronto. Her father, who was from New Brunswick, was raised by his father, which was unusual at the time. He joined the army at 16 and was one of the lucky ones from his regiment to have survived. Upon returning from the war his father passed away. Carol believes that these experiences lead to her father's commitment to build a strong family.

Carol had a wonderful childhood growing up with two sisters. Her parents were very involved in the community and active in politics, with her parents supporting different parties and thereby canceling out their votes.

Carol attended the University of Waterloo and starte in the Recreation and Leisure Program but graduated with a degree in Business and Economics. Upon graduation she worked as a management trainee for Sears and helped open the West Edmonton Mall. When she married her first husband she was out of the workforce for 10 years raising her three children and during the 12 years of marriage lived in 9 different houses across the country, due to the nature of her husbands academic work.

When her children were young she completed the Canadian Securities Course. She worked at RBC Dominion Securities in Niagara Falls for a few years before accepting a position as a financial consultant with the Royal Bank. It was during her time at Dominion Securities that she joined the Niagara Falls Rotary Club. In her current position, she works with clients on estate planning and gift planning and finds it very rewarding helping clients achieve their goals.

Her children Lindsay, Michael and Barbara were very involved with athletics growing up and all are now living away from home. Carol remarried and now spends every weekend in Ellicottville with her husband Greg, who is an American citizen.

Ross MacDonald thanked Carol for sharing her background with the club.

President Rick spoke about attending the District dinner on November 3rd where the speaker talked about the frustration that Mother Theresa felt being visited by so many around the world who wanted to see the work that she had accomplished. She told them to 'go find their own Calcutta'. Rick congratulated Ken and Denise Taylor, Bill & Anne Finley, Chris and Ann Bangham and Leslie Murch for their work overseas 'finding their own Calcutta'.

Carol Stymiest and Rick Merritt

NEXT WEEK: Prof. John Corlett, Brock University - Obesity

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