Next weeks meeting will be a Club Assembly meeting at which we will hear a progress report
from each of the committees as well as some plans for the rest of the year.
The January 18th meeting will be held at the Registry Theater. Parking will be at the Crown Plaza
as usual followed by a short walk to the Theater. More information will follow.
Members were reminded of the February 8th meeting where we are expected to invite our
significant others including spouse and/or children.
Plans are already underway for our next District Conference which will take place in Niagara
Falls on October 14, 15 and 16th. In case you were not aware, Bill Proctor will be the District
Governor and it is hoped that our club will provide extra support by working on the conference
committee and/or attending the event. It is likely to be a very enjoyable Rotary District event.
President Karen called the first regular meeting of 2016 to order with a Bell Ringer recognition.
Karen extended commendations to all who helped at First Night, the New Years evening
celebration at City Hall. She indicated that it was an excellent opportunity to provide a service
in and to our community. She also recognized Cheryl Ewing for providing leadership for the
initiative. Cheryl is currently on her way to Nogales, Mexico.
President Karen introduced our speaker and fellow club member, Ernie Ginsler. She pointed out
that Ernie is a man of vision who is an academic with a practical slant. Ernie spoke to us about
Rotary and Peace, Waterloo Region and Peace.
The Rotary Foundation has six areas of Focus:
Promoting Peace
Fighting Disease
Providing Clean Water
Saving Mothers and Children
Supporting Education
Growing the Economy
In keeping with the first Focus, Rotary has a Peace Centre Program. There are currently six
Centres, each with 10 students. The Centres are located in Australia, USA, Thailand, Sweden,
England and Japan.
The programs are funded by earnings from the Capital Fund.
There is a strong desire and effort by a number of local groups, institutions and individuals to
have University of Waterloo selected as the seventh Rotary Peace Centre. There is a cost of
$75,000 per student. The program includes an academic program and a requirement of one
year working at peace initiatives in a third world country. It is felt that a person interested in
furthering peace efforts in a country must know the culture from the experience of living in the
country.
One of the more significant steps forward has been the establishing of a Virtual Peace Centre
Cluster which includes most of the organizations and individuals in our community who are
currently working at developing peace programs
In checking the Club Car Draw database, this year's winner, Grace Burnett, has been buying Car Draw tickets since 1996 (at least), the year the database was established. Nice to see a long time supporter win.
A letter has been sent to Grace to advise her of the win.
Monday's guests included, visiting Rotarian, Lynn Jones of the London North club, John Dunnington, guest of Wayne Boehler and our exchange student, Clara Mogno. Welcome All!
You can check Club Runner for Directory information including Committee information.
All member ID numbers for Rotary International are now listed with your data on Club Runner. This is the number you will need if you are registering for an RI event or contacting RI about your account. From the Home page go to Admin under Membership Manager choose Membership List, current members are listed. If you do not know your password, there is a site for you to click and enter your email address where your password will be forwarded.
Contact information for the new members is available in the Membership List on the Clubrunner site.
