PROGRAM: John Snowling - Membership Committee

Distinguished Rick Merritt

President Rick called upon Bill Williams to say grace and Don Shaw as usual started the note for the singing of O Canada.

President Rick welcomed all and introduced the head table: Foster Zanutto, John Snowling, our guest speaker, Sergeant-at-arms Jim Denham, new member Oraine De Rosa and Jane Rufrano who introduced today's guests.

Guests: Janet deVries, guest of Doug Geddie, Ted Usick, guest of Patricia Rooney, and Alexis De Wolfe, guest of Roger Segalin.

New Member in-the-spotlight – new member Oraine De Rosa was the member in the spotlight. Oraine has 2 children and enjoys biking, walking and Latin dancing. Oraine is employed with Bridgewater Leasing.

Oraine De Rosa

Birthdays: Roses today for Rick Evans, John Snowling and Steve Butz (something tells me John has been taking tango lessons).

Birthday Boys John Snowling and Rick Evans

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Larry Iggulden has scheduled a Foundation Committee meeting on September 14, after regular noon meeting.

Liz Palmieri has scheduled a Communications Committee meeting on Tuesday, September 12 at 4:30 p.m. Meeting will be in the Standard Building (3rd Floor) on Queen Street.

RI President, William "Bill" Boyd Luncheon is sold out. So if you have not already arranged for a ticket, better luck next time.

Canvass Sam Walters

Sam Walters kept us in the Rotary TV Auction mood. The team listings were circulated as was the online donor form instructions. Sam asked everyone who has not yet picked up their canvass kit to do so. Sam and his group will be accepting auction items next week. Remember the early bird draw.

Stay tuned – Sam will be back next week.

Introduction of New Member: Doug Geddie introduced Janet deVries to the Club. Janet is the Director of Development for Beacon Christian School (an independent school) on Scott Street. Janet has four children that all attend Beacon Christian School. Janet is married to William who is a chiropractor. Janet wanted to join Rotary in order to make a broader contribution to our community.

Rick Merritt, Janet deVries and Doug Geddie

HAPPY DOLLARS

Chris Bangham

Ken Taylor wanted to ask Chris if he could borrow the acronym B.A.R. Club for the new Club he is starting – Beard's At Rotary.

Patricia Rooney – exchange student, Bekki, is staying at Patricia's house and invites Rotarians to invite Bekki to any activities they believe she would enjoy. Bekki is enjoying Canada (wait until it snows) and is a hard working student. She is joining the choir and orchestra at school and will sign up for running.

Norm Kreger - $1.10 – his car was ransacked and the culprits left the only dime Norm had in his car. A thanks to jeweller Sam for his work on an extra large bracelet for a friend.

Henry Klassen - $5 – happy he is celebrating thirty-three years of marriage and happy about completing the paper work to import a car from the U.S.

Sam Walters - $1 – thanks to Patricia for bringing in a picture of his wife Marianne that was in the paper.

Rick Evans - $2 – thanks to Patricia for bringing in a picture of his wife Jane who was in the Standard. Actress Jane is starring in California Suite at the Port Mansion Theatre this weekend.

Jagdish Mehta – happy that Peter Banwell introduced the first female to Rotary (Justice Anne Bain).

John Crossingham – happy that daughter Wendy is engaged. Her soon to be grandfather-in-law is a Rotarian.

Nancy Ferris-Hostick – happy to have had a family reunion in the rolling hills of Des Moines, Iowa.

John Snowling – happy that he and Janet successfully navigated ten foot waves on their latest sailing adventure.

50/50 Draw:
No luck this week for Ron Dubciak. The pot is at Three Hundred and Ninety dollars ($390.00).

GUEST SPEAKER

Foster Zanutto

Foster Zanutto introduced John Snowling after reminiscing about his year as President and bemoaning the fact that the convention was held in Indianapolis and that he never submitted his expenses for reimbursement.

Foster also outlined the twelve-step program for bringing in new members. Individuals should have an interest in the work of Rotary and have the qualifications to be a Rotarian. Foster will have an information handout for members next week.

John Snowling has been a member of Rotary for twenty-six years, is the current Chair of the Membership Committee and will be our Club President in 2008-2009. John indicated that District Governor Dick Earne has challenged President Rick and other Club Presidents to have a net increase in their Club membership for the year of one.

John explained that August is Membership month but the Committee wanted to hold the meeting this month since member attendance is normally better in September.

John Snowling

John provided some Club stats on members joining the Club and leaving the Club over the past six years. Our Club has no problem introducing new members but retention is a problem. The stats showed on average that we introduce fifteen new Rotarians each year but lose fourteen. So far during President Rick's year, we have not lost any members. We have introduced four new members and have four individuals in the system so far this year. If we already have potentially eight new members, we still need seven more. John asked all members to give thought to potential candidates to join our Club or any Rotary Club.

John then gave special recognition to those Rotarians who have proposed new members this year – Roger Segalin, John Lehnen, Doug Geddie, Dave Butler, Rick Merritt, and Larry Iggulden.

John then had the Club recognize all Club members who have introduced a new member.

John gave an outline of the various sub-committees involved in memberships.

George Darte – Information Committee
Dave Feasby – Classification

The Information Committee will hold fireside chats for new members and Rotarian Bill Finley has graciously offered his home as the location for the chats.

John also mentioned that Vice-President Tom Arkell is Chair of the area Club's Membership Committee which deals with membership issues. John relayed that in Tom's opinion our Club is in good shape with respect to our Membership Committee and new members being introduced.

John spoke to the areas the Membership Committee is focusing on – Selection and Retention. He said we need to ensure that potential new members know what Rotary is all about and the commitment needed to be a participating member, and the need to keep new and old members engaged.

John said that we will be having a new member introduction and the presentation of prefect attendance pins in a few weeks.

President's Rick Rotary moment dealt with RI President Bill Boyd's comments in the September issue of the Rotarian wherein he stated that, for Rotary to continue to grow, we need to get the youth involved in some aspect of Rotary so they can look to Rotary in the future as an important organization to be a member of.

Harold Nash – gave a hat's off to Eugene Gillies for his work on our conference registration program.

Next Week’s Program:

Bill Green – Friends of HMCS Haida

Ten Day Notice

Stuart Butler is sponsored by Dave Butler. Stuart's classification is Financial Advisor at Scotia McLeod.

Until further notice, the Rotary Club of Fonthill will be meeting at Lookout Point Golf and Country Club on Wednesday’s at 7:15am.