Meeting Recording
A recording of Today’s Meeting can be found at this
link.
President's Comments
President Louise was unable to attend today’s meeting due to a death in the family, Past President Paul ran the meeting in her absence. He noted that today we are pleased to be hosting the second joint meeting between our club and the Rotary Club Moscow International (RCMI). After our initial joint meeting in January, it was proposed that we conduct a meeting to focus on the work of our clubs.
President Patrik from RCMI was unable to attend today's meeting due to business engagements. In his absence Thomas Bihrer greeted the group on behalf of RCMI and was pleased that we are continuing with this second joint meeting.
It is with sadness that we inform you of the passing of Judith Nelson, wife of former club member Rod Nelson. Her obituary can be found at this
link.
Visiting Rotarians
DG Mike Lawrie, RC of Cambridge
Ildus Yanyshev, District Governor D2223
DGN Sandhya Maini, RC of Burlington
DGND Brenda Halloran, RC of Waterloo
PDG Gayle Knepper, District 5010, USA
Serguei Simonov RC of Saint Petersburg White Nights, Russia
Thomas Bihrer, President, RC of Moscow International
Erik Stenfeld, RC of Moscow International
Randel Eastman, RC of Moscow International
Boris Borisou, RC of Oscow International
Elena Shpinel, RC of Moscow International
Jennifer Laughton, Edmonton Rotary, Guest Speaker
Guests
Linda Newton, Past Member of RC of Nepean-Kanata (Jennifer’s Mom)
Betty Bax, Grand River Hospital Foundation, guest of President Louise and proposed new Corporate Member
Ailton Santana, guest of President Louise
Club Announcements
Members are reminded that Howard Pell is looking for Rotary photos for our 100th anniversary book. If you have any photos from your time in Rotary, please forward them to
hlpell@ppsi.net
President-Elect Adrian DeCoo has sent out the Committee Selection document for next year’s Club Committees and is asking all members to complete the form and send it back to by this Friday, April 16.
DG Mike Lawrie provided reminders of three upcoming events:
- Rotary Foundation Virtual Gala - May 12th with Past RI President Barry Rassin and Rotary International Director, Valarie Wafer.
- District 7080 Conference - May 29th
- District 7080 Changeover and Awards Meeting - June 23rd.
Catch the Ace
The Jackpot is now over $20,000 and the next draw will be on Thursday April 15th. Tickets are available at
www.catchtheacekw.ca
Program Highlights
Our program today was a joint meeting with the Rotary Club of Moscow International with each club illustrating some of their projects and the work they do through videos. To start, though, we had a special presentation from Jennifer Laughton, who was an exchange student to Russia in 2007, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Nepean-Kanata. Jennifer was introduced by Elena Shpinel, a member of the RC of Moscow International and a frequent visitor to our club.
Jennifer is a member of the Rotary Club of Edmonton-Whyte Ave. and is a PhD student at the University of Alberta. Her specialization is physical anthropology (human skeletons) and her research area is the Lake Baikal region of Siberia, Russia. This is appropriate as Jennifer was a Rotary long-term youth exchange student to Krasnoyarsk, Siberia in 2007, during which she gained a fluency in Russian and travelled Siberia extensively - including around Lake Baikal. In the past she has worked for archaeology companies in Ontario and as a physical anthropology assistant at the Canadian Museum of History. She is a past is a member of D7040 Youth Exchange Committee and is the current secretary the Canada-Russia Inter-Country Committee. In her spare time she dances with her cats, reads, and bakes.
Jennifer spoke about how influential her experience as a Rotary exchange student was in her career path and the opportunities she had to develop it. Her learning to speak Russian, her time in Siberia and the networks she developed all played a critical role in her being where she is today as a PHD student.
After Jennifer, videos were shown (with some unfortunate technical glitches) from each club; We showed videos of KidsAbility, our House of Friendship Yard Work and the Cleanup of the Dom Cardillo Trail. The Moscow club showed videos of work they do with the Detski Dom school for children that are both deaf and blind and RestartU a project working with children with physical disabilities, describing the specialised equipment they help to provide for the students. All of the videos can viewed at the recording of the meeting noted at the top of the e-Newsletter.
Once again it illustrated how our clubs are so similar in our charity work.
Closing Remarks & Reminders
Past President Paul and Thomas Bihrer thanked all the guests and presenters and expressed wishes to continue this dialog between our two clubs.
