We were very pleased today to have the following members of the current District Governor Team attend our meeting:
As well, we were pleased to have the following Past District Governors in attendance:
Today was our annual Turnover meeting which began with President Louise reviewing the year. She began with a look back at the goals for this year:
Board of Directors - 12 Meetings
Committees meet monthly, make decisions and provide a board report. The Board of Directors review the reports and vote on major items and budget changes. Financials will be reviewed quarterly.
Membership - 0 +/-
Zero-member growth projected for 20-21 with a focus on retention and growing our corporate and friends and family database. Outstanding speakers, social events and volunteering opportunities are key.
Fundraising – $60,000
Continuing with our existing major fundraisers: Car Draw, In Vino, Online Auction. New Catch the Ace & Online Car Draw will be a focus this year.
Financial Planning - $0+
Stable cash flow and a positive Profit and Loss. Maintaining spend in 20-21 to support 21-22 during Covid-19 times. Monthly credit card billing, meal credit subsidy review and donation policies with a focus on club member understanding of how RCK and KRCCF raise and spend funds.
Re Areas of Focus - 7
Peace & Conflict Resolution – Disease prevention & treatment – Water & sanitation – Maternal and child health – Basic education & literacy – Economic & community development – The Environment
She then highlighted our success in working on these goals:
MEETINGS
- 24 Speakers
- 8 Committee Presentations
- 12 Events & Socials
- 12 Board Meetings
MEMBERSHIP
- 11 new members
- 3 Resignations
- 1 new Honorary
- 12 Rotarians of the Month
- 115 Friends of Rotary
- 5 Club Marketing Initiatives
FUNDRAISING
- $3.5K Rotary Lager/Golf North
- $2K Food Bank Donations
- $22K Online Auction
- $0K Car Draw
- Online Opportunity
- 5 Club Catch The Ace
FINANCIAL PLANNING
- Revised Budget Format
- Covid19 (-$4.3K)
- Project spend $6K
- KidsAbility $35K
(RI) AREAS OF FOCUS
- 100th Anniversary 2022
- 5 Club Peace Park
- 5 Club Environment
- 9 new PHF + EREY
- RAWEF 9 new students for total of 84
- New Indigenous Peoples
- RI Citation
She also highlighted some of the areas form our clubs status report in ClubRunner, including
- An improved ratio of female to male members
- A lowering in the average age of the club members
- An improving mix of years of service for members with both an increase in newer members while retaining experience, long serving members.
The twelve Rotarians of the Month were also acknowledged:
- Howard Pell – July
- Hubert Singh – August
- Lew Ford – September
- Martin Jones – October
- Neil Swayze – November
- Ray Tailor – December
- Bill Proctor – January
- Ross Newkirk – February
- Darren Sweeney – March
- Paul Rostrup – April
- Dave Chatson – May
- Jim Brown - June
More details can be found in the full report she has sent to all members.
We then moved into the official Turnover of the club presidency from Louise to Adrian. This was recorded and shown to the members.
It can been viewed here
As part of the Turnover Outgoing President Louise made a few comments:
We are here today in front of the KidsAbility Centre in Waterloo to celebrate the start of a new Rotary year. As well, we are here to recognize the long-standing relationship between our club and KidsAbility.
Today we begin our 100-year celebration of Rotary in KW. Our club was chartered in 1922. The very first project undertaken by the members that year was to help support children with physical challenges. This led to the construction of the Rotary Children's Centre in 1957, renamed as KidsAbility in 2003. I am pleased to say that our relationship continues on to this day.
As we end the 2020-2021 Rotary year and I conclude my presidency as the 99th President of Kitchener Rotary, I want to reflect on the dedication of our members who do the good work of Rotary in our community.
My RI theme is Rotary Opens Opportunities and during a year of pandemic proportions we found ourselves opening many different opportunities that we had never imagined.
We converted all our meetings from in-person to Zoom and yet even with many a “you are on mute” we mastered a new way of joining together. This also allowed us to hear so many great speakers who enlightened us with captivating on-screen presentations.
We reviewed our almost century long car draw fundraiser and were able to find a viable online solution that will serve us for years to come – what an opportunity!
We shared in the celebration of 12 Rotarians of the month and each of them gave so much to Rotary. The virtual world did not stop these amazing individuals. We connected with over 200 friends of rotary each week and 10 of those joined our ranks. Welcome all, your world is now full of endless opportunities for you to serve above self!
These opportunities don’t just happen we create them and we certainly created many this year! Kitchener Rotary is a group of vibrant and highly-visible community leaders supporting our community and the work of Rotary internationally. Kitchener Rotary isn’t just a club to join but rather an invitation to endless opportunities and I’m so proud to have led such a great group of individuals and friends this rotary year and I’m looking forward to celebrating our 100th anniversary in the next!
One of the first tasks for newly installed President Adrian was to install the Board of Directors for the year. These, along with the committee chairs are as follows:
The Board of Directors
- President: Adrian DeCoo
- President Elect: Rohit Kumar
- Past President: Louise Gardiner: Director, Program, Speakers and Indigenous Peoples Relations
- Secretary: Bill Proctor, Director, 100th Anniversary and Member and Meeting Support
- Treasurer: Ray Taylor, Director, Financial Services
- David Chatson Director, Fundraising
- Hubert Singh Director Membership
- Paul Rostrup Director, Member Communications, PR, Social media
- Tom Mennill Director, Children and Youth Services
- Cheryl Ewing Director, Community/International Grants
- Howard Pell Director, Direct Community Support
- Ernie Ginsler Director, Peace and Environment
- Jim Brown Director at large
Committee Chairs
- Car Draw David Chatson
- Online Auction Neil Swayze
- Catch the Ace Paul Rostrup
- Partnerships - GolfNorth Darren Sweeney
- In Vino Cam Yule and Hubert Singh
- Direct Community Support Martin Jones and Bryn Jones
- Membership Hubert Singh
- Member and Meeting Services Bill Proctor and Neil Swayze
- Program Speakers and Social Louise Gardiner
- Member Communication, PR, Social Media Paul Rostrup
- Children and Youth Services Ed Fowler and Richard Brucheder
- Community and International Grants Cheryl Ewing
- Environment Peter Gray
- Indigenous People Relations Lew Ford
- Peace Building Ernie Ginsler
- 100th Anniversary Bill Proctor
President Kitchener Rotary Club Charitable Foundation: Ross Newkirk
President Adrian then provided some thoughts as we begin our 100th Year.
Thank you Louise for an outstanding year in a very difficult and challenging time. Your steady and passionate leadership has been instrumental in our significant achievements and growth and club vitality. A personal thank you for being a very generous mentor and coach. You have been a great role model and have immensely helped me in my preparation for this next year.
So today we begin the celebration of 100 years of Rotary in Kitchener Waterloo.
I do believe in continuity. We all know that Rotary is a pretty unusual organization. I don't know of many organisations that changes its entire leadership structure every year. However, it obviously works. In this Rotary Club we all rely on each other to succeed. It is probably true that everyone who joins Rotary has the intention of working hard and contributing to that continued success. I believe that a leader's role is to create an environment that allows people to succeed continuously.
As Louise has pointed out in this past year we worked very hard at ensuring that this continuity is evidenced in our new strategic plan.
The strategic plan acts like an umbrella and allows each successive leader to understand what's gone before and what our intentions are for the future
As I look at all of you in in attendance here today, I am humbled to be able to take on this role as president in this very unique 100th anniversary year. A lot of you that are here today are also my role models. I have seen close up how hard you work, and how dedicated and passionate all of you are. From district governors, past presidents, committee chairs, board members and especially my fellow Rotarians I have learned how much we can accomplish when we work together.
As I've said this 100th anniversary is a unique and special year. I have given a lot of thought about what might be our theme for this year. And it should reflect our rich past and the challenges for the future. So, I thought the theme this year will be OUR LEGACY, OUR PROMISE.
We all know that where we are today in Rotary, we stand on the shoulders of so many Rotary founders and community builders. In this year we will celebrate that legacy, the legacy of our service to this community and the world.
Have you ever wondered if our founders ever thought that Rotary in Kitchener-Waterloo would actually last this long? And what would they think of Rotary today. How would they feel about what we have collectively accomplished? How have we lived up to their promise?
I have always understood that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior in a similar circumstance. That should stand us in good stead. Our founders and past Rotarians have added much to this community and the world.
I don't think that COVID, or changing community demographics, or age, or background, changes anything about what Rotary will be in the future. The success of Rotary will still be based on our individual and collective desire to help others and to build a better and healthy community locally and worldwide.
I have also understood that team or group performance is driven by individual pursuit of excellence, that is, the individual desire to succeed. Like any team sport or group activity what we achieve collectively is done through our individual passion and determination to be the best.
One of our best examples is the evolution of KidsAbility as we know it today. I would like to think that one Rotarian, 64 years ago, started that dream by saying Can you imagine . . . Can you imagine what it would be like for families and children if they didn't have to travel to Toronto or Hamilton for child therapy and that we could provide an even better service right here in Kitchener Waterloo? It takes only one person to sow that seed and to dream big but it takes a lot of us to make that dream a reality.
If I were to ask you what is your individual, personal Legacy. What might you say?
It seems that legacy might be described as having three components:
The first one is relationships. And what I mean by that is how we relate to family, friends, business and social acquaintances, people we meet in everyday life. How are we regarded by those around us. That image lives on after us.
The second component is intellectual or professional or craft pursuit. Things that we enjoy and that we are very good at. Perhaps you've written a book, or you were very good at woodworking or you built a very successful business or you're an excellent photographer or you are a great teacher that changed lives. That too lives beyond us.
The third component is Service, Service to others, what we give back to the community and to the world. I can think of no better organization than Rotary that gives us the opportunity to live that value and to ensure that we have helped changed lives for the better.
The theme for Rotary International this year was introduced at the recent virtual world convention is very much in keeping with what we all believe, that is Serve to change lives.
Shekar Metha has challenged all of Rotary with two thoughts:
Do more….that is think big be more visible have greater impact,
And the second is……… Grow more. We have a robust membership growth plan to help make that happen.
So equally important in this 100th year is our promise. Our promise that Rotary will succeed and remain relevant. Our promise that we will continue to support the needs of this community, our promise that we will ensure Rotary reflects the face of this community, our promise that we will continue to serve to change lives.
So as president of the Rotary Club of Kitchener in this 100th year my promise to you is that I will be a good listener, I will help to the best of my abilities, I will try to help us imagine how we could continue to Serve to Change Lives.
