Our guests included visiting Rotarian Bruce Timms (St. Catharines Lakeshore); Scian Lewis, guest of Karen Mazier; and, Ginnie Gordon, guest of John Potts.

Birthdays:

September 24 – Ted Usick
September 25 – Chris Blake
September 26 – Jim Denham
September 28 – Bill Williams
September 29 – Dutch Erling

Announcements:

Rick Merritt spoke on behalf of the Rotary International District 7090 Foundation Dinner. YOU ARE INVITED!!! We wish to invite you to share in the festivities of the 2007 District 7090 Foundation Dinner, which is being held on the evening of Friday November, 9 th , 2007 at Americana Conference Resort and Spa, 8444 Lundy's Lane, Niagara Falls, Ontario, CANADA (minutes from the centre of Niagara Falls). We are thrilled to welcome as our Guest Speaker, Dr. Bob Scott, Dr. Robert S. Scott Trustee Chair, The Rotary Foundation 2007-2008, and Chair of the International Polio Plus Committee. Currently serving as Chair in two of the top three positions in Rotary, our speaker will bring insight into The Rotary Foundation, and help us understand how we as Rotarians can help to “do good in the world.” The September issue of the Rotarian magazine featured this stellar Rotarian, and it is indeed an honor for our District to enjoy the presence of his company for our Foundation evening. This unique opportunity is not to be missed, so we do hope that you are not disappointed, and we encourage everyone to complete your reservations NOW! We anticipate a large turnout of Rotarians and guests, including District Governor Robert (Bob) Leek, the District Leadership team along with all our many special Past District Governors. The evening promises to be a special Rotary night for your book of memories. It will be our pleasure to enjoy the company of each of you, with your partners and fellow club members on this special evening of Fellowship @ 6:00 p.m. followed by Dinner 7:00 p.m. Please join us! The direct link to the PDF flyer, reservation form and directions is:

http://www.rotary7090.org/pdfs/FoundationDinner2007.pdf

There will be a Children's Committee meeting at 5:00 pm Monday October 1, 2007 at Sullivan Mahoney's offices at 40 Queen Street .

Norma Medulun brought us up to date on the auction canvass. We have $31,000 against our goal of $175,000 in hand. We need another 849 items to go. 32 members have brought items in to date with Gerry Repple leading the way as top canvasser and Team Buckley's Mixture the top team. Norma has leads for those having a hard time getting their canvass off the starting line or those finished who want to do more. If you have not picked up your kit yet, better get it and get at it. The canvass wraps up October 11 and contrary to past practice, they mean it this time.

Chris Blake announced that his Youth Leadership Committee is looking for college or university students 2 nd year and up to populate a team for “Adventures in Mountains” February 28 to March 3, 2008. Against a backdrop rich in history, commerce and spirit, the focus of AIM is to examine relationships, which contribute to preserving, developing and sustaining our environment, economy and quality of community life. This adventure will take place in Canmore Alberta in the Rocky Mountains . The Committee hopes to complete interviews and the selection process by December 15.

50/50 Draw:

Bob Thomson was lucky but not lucky enough; he drew the King of Clubs.

Happy Dollars:

John Burroughs was happy to say he and Merilee have been married 37 years.

Chris Blake was $91 happy! $55 for his age; $25 for his years of marriage; and, $11 for 11 pounds lost since January. He is happy to be going to France for 3 weeks where he hopes to gain them all back. He also reported that his father advised that he not marry until age 30 (which he did) and to marry for money; Chris married for love and has been delirious ever since!

Pat Rooney was happy that John Potts took her to Hamilton and back for treatment.

George Irving told a sad dollar story involving his friend in Bracebridge, Larry Miller. It seems that Larry owns a car dealership there and had 200 cars stolen from his dealership over a recent weekend!

Rob Reid was happy to report that Dutch Erling is comfortable at home and recovering.

Cindy Mewhinney is thrilled to be in Niagara for the Wine Festival and reminded us that the Great Grape Stomp is coming up at Harbour Estates Winery this weekend. Proceeds to United Way.

John Potts was happy to present President Tom with a Club Banner for Norway .

Bruce Timms was happy to be doing a makeup at the primo Rotary Club of Niagara and to announce that his daughter is an Out-student in Denmark.

John Crossingham was happy to tell us that he will be celebrating his birthday in Portugal cycling for 3 weeks beginning next week.

Bill Williams was happy to report that wife Irene was given a clean bill of health by the Juravinski Cancer Centre.

President Tom was happy to offer Bruce Timms the position of wearing the Brock University mascot costume in the Grape Parade and that the costume's headpiece would fit him just fine!

Program:

John Potts began by saying a little about membership. He pointed out that Wilf Wilkerson's motto, “Sharing the magic of Rotary” could and in fact does mean introducing new members to Rotary. As an expression of the power of Rotary he asked us to reflect on the international work already done by Chris and Anne Bangham in Africa and by Ray Bukovec in sponsoring new clubs in former iron curtain countries. Today he asked us to be thinking of when we became a Rotarian as opposed to a member of a Rotary Club. With that, he introduced Bob Gosselin.

Bob recalled that he first joined Rotary in 1984 in Chatham . A TD Bank Manager introduced him. He has been a member of 5 Rotary Clubs in total transferring back to St. Catharines in 1996. Bob became a Rotarian when he led an Ambassadorial Exchange to Egypt . He reminded us that Rotary is in over 200 countries now and has over 1,200,000 members!

John Potts asked President tom to present certificate of merit thanking the 10 members who had introduced new members to our Club this year.

Next, Rick Merritt reminded us that we have to work at keeping our members once recruited. He believes that each of us takes on responsibility to the prospective member when we consider the introduction a new member. These responsibilities include:

A brief history of our Club
How our Club and RI are organized
Descriptions of our committees, projects, fund raising activities
Our attendance obligation
That we have great program speakers
That if you are only here for lunch, you won't be here for long
That there is a light obligation for donations
That there is a low financial burden

Thanks to the Speaker:

Doug Foss, a member for 3 weeks now, thanked our speakers. He remarked that he thinks it is an honour to be a part of our Club and enjoyed hearing the members of his table recount when they became Rotarians.

President Tom thanked our speakers and presented them with a dictionary that is being donated in their names to a local elementary school.

Next Week:

DG Bob Leek

Other Announcements:

• The 9th annual FACS Fall Gala is being held at White Oaks on Friday October 12th. For more info, or to book tickets, call 905 937-7731 ext 3304

• Niagara Suicide Prevention Coalition, Community Solutions Conference, Four Points Sheraton, Schmon Parkway, Thorold, ON. Evening of November 6 and all day November 7, 2007.

Rotary Theme
2007-2008