Gossip Sheet # 14 - September 30, 2003
Editor: Nigel Riddel

President Betty-Lou Souter called our meeting to order today at The St. Catharines Golf & Country Club. Joining Betty Lou at the head table were:

•  Guest Speaker Introducer: Earl Alton
•  Guest Speaker: Rick Merritt, Roger Segalin, Alexis De Wolfe and Eugene Gillies
•  Sgt-at-Arms: Henry Becker
•  Member in the Spotlight: George Doty – Joined Rotary in March, 1952 - involved in local equestrian events, the Easter Seals Society and has earned a Level II in French from Brock University.
•  Guest Introducer: Dave McAdam

Guests

Dave introduced our guests including:
•  Lindsay Kearns and John Arnold, guests of Carol Stymiest
•  Alexis De Wolfe, guest of Roger Segalin

Birthdays

Jim Denham September 26 and Dutch Erling September 29. Rick Evans led us in an acceptable version of Happy Birthday.

Announcements

The FACS Niagara Foundation's Fall Gala will be held this year with a new look, a new format and a new date, November 5. This year's seated and plated event will include complimentary wine and beer tasting, live and silent auctions and will be held at the White Oaks Conference Resort and Spa. Cocktails will be served from 6:00 pm; dinner will be at 7:30 and the cost is $90.00 per person. For tickets, call one of the committee members as follows:

Betty Lou received a letter of thanks from Howard Lackie for the Club making him a Paul Harris Fellow. Howard mentioned in his letter how proud he is to be a Rotarian.

Betty Lou reminded us that last week she announced that our club would be donating $1,000 to Haiti for their disaster relief. She announced that we will be sending another $1,000 to Granada's disaster relief through the Rotary Club of Port-O-Prince. Granada was hit very hard and virtually all vegetation is gone. They will be mounting a ‘fast crop' effort to grow corn and peas to feed themselves in the immediate future. Sources have estimated that it will take them 10 years to recover.

Carol Stymiest announced that her two guests today were present to solicit our support for their efforts in the CIBC Run for the Cure. She was also pointing out that the Rotary Club of Niagara Falls Sunrise is hosting their 13 th Annual Art by the Falls October 2 and 3 from 10 till 5 at the Optimist Hall Park. Admission is $3 with free parking. They will have live music by Pace and Martin Murray; live presentations by Birds of Prey and Zooz. Food vendors will be present and beer will be available. For info call 905-227-7248

Betty Lou reminded us that there are only 3 weeks to go in the auction canvass.

Eugene Gillies spoke to us about the Bill Orr Gala. The organizing committee (Eugene, Ivor Khan, Terry McDougall, Nigel Riddell and Larry Iggulden) could use some help in the transportation area for people needing rides to the event and to transfer the musical instruments to and from the event. Call one of the members of the OC to volunteer.

Happy Dollars

John Snowling began the collections with a happy dollar for the great weather the Grape & Wine Festival enjoyed.

Angus Adams was happy that his daughter was visiting from Florida while the 3 rd hurricane went through her neighborhood. In fact he was out with her while his home was being broken into! (He was happy to not have been there during the break-in.)

George Darte was happy to be honored by the South Club making him a Paul Harris Fellow to recognize the work he has done in our community. Congratulations George!

Janet Johnston was happy for the service performed by all of the host families in billeting the Youth Exchange Students during their Grape & Wine visit.

Lezlie Murch was happy to thank Betty Lou for her help last weekend and for the funny experience during the Youth Exchange dance. A pair of pants was found in the dance hall and one of the YE Students thought that if he could smell them he might be able to determine the owner.

Tom Pekar is happy to be back at the club having recently completed hiring several new staff members; not so happy to report that his hygienist is moving back to Hamilton and two of his remaining staff are pregnant!

Upon hearing that corn and pea seeds are being sent to Haiti and Granada, Foster thought we should also be sending marihuana seeds!!

Howard is still happy about his PHF.

Ken Taylor was happy to report that Norm Kreger delivered another 408 lbs of drugs bound for Haiti. Ken is also happy for the extra hours being spent by Maurice Gomme on Not Just Tourists.

Norm Kreger was happy to read off the 9 most disgusting things said by sports announcers during the recent Olympics.

Norma Medulun was delighted to have received a forgotten rebate in her mail.

Pat Rooney was happy for Howard's PHF.

George Doty was happy to relate how he and Don Shaw had recruited a redheaded dancer to strut her stuff in her skimpy red costume on Larry Ross' table during Larry's Classification Talk. Larry did not stop and did not miss a word!

Betty Lou was happy to be in the Grape & Wine Parade this year with the Rotary Youth Exchange Students. She recommends the experience.

John Crossingham was not too happy about today's roasted baby potatoes thinking that they had an uncanny resemblance to the many small round white objects he's lost around the club!! John!

50/50 Draw

Rusty Kruty drew the 9 of hearts.

The Program
Rick Merritt - Membership

Earl Alton introduced his friend of 30 years. Rick had instructed Earl to keep it short so Earl obliged by telling us that Rick has been a Rotarian since 1998 and he is our current 2 nd VP!

Rick began by telling us that August and September were Membership months. Our Club needs to constantly attract and recruit new members and that retention is just as important. Rotary International's focus is growth, retention and extension. We are a grass roots organization with the majority of our activity at the club level in our own communities. It is important for us to continue to host events that involve the whole family; events such as the TV Auction, Rib Fest, Bike Fest and the Bill Orr Gala Evening. Through exposure to these events, our family members may wish to join Rotary in the future. The diversity we achieve through our membership classification system leads to the strength our organization enjoys. At this time we do not have representatives in areas such as Farming, Greenhouses, Florists, Grape Growers, Automobile Dealers, B&B Operators, Bicycle Dealers, Police or Hospital Administration. Today we have 130 members; our target for growth this year is 5% or 137 members. Year to date, we have gained two and lost two. Last year we brought 10 new members in but lost 17. Those who leave the club usually do so during the first two years and the main reason is because they don't feel connected. Our average attendance for August was 69%. We each have a responsibility to nurture both our new members and our senior members.

Roger Segalin began his introduction of Alexis De Wolfe by relating that Len Fenig asked Roger, “What do you do with all those pictures I see you taking each week?” Alexis is the member of Media Glue's staff who maintains our website and inserts the pictures into the online Gossip Sheet each week. Our website has had 8,305 visitors YTD or 909 visits per month on average. We had a significant spike in visits during July indicating that there were a lot of visitors seeking info about the Rib Fest.

Alexis gave us a live demonstration of some of the resources available on our site such as Committees, Thought for Life, Upcoming Events (which remain after the event with photos from the event), the TV Auction, links and the Roster. One of the great things about the website is that there is always room for more information to be posted.

Eugene Gillies demonstrated how personal information can be updated, the member directory, the Events and Meetings section and how you can easily group email using the committees section.

Up To the Minute Auction Update

We now have 23 % of our combined goal in hand – get cracking folks! Jim Denham's team remains in the lead with 49% of their goal in. To date our average auction item is $137 vs. last year's overall average value of $157.

Following Jim's team in order are those of Rick Evans, Andrew Loucks, Gerry Repple and Don Shaw (Don says that he is not worried, his team are all late starters).

Next week: Margaret Corbett Jen Feasby and Youth Exchange.