Minutes of Aug. 25, 2014 meeting

Meeting chaired by President-elect Dr. Abara and pod leader Rick Sulker

Announcements
Paul V. thanked members and spouses who helped out at the Taste of the Hill festival this past Sunday. He was proud of our efforts and many positive contacts were made.

Congrats to Jason and his wife who have welcomed a baby boy  “Benjamin”(9lb 2 on) into their home.

Dr. A thanked the pod leaders again for doing a great job!

Introduction

Paul V. introduced our guest speaker for the evening David Obadia. David is our membership leader and he is going into his second year in this position. We are looking forward to advances in Club membership.

Membership- David Obadia
 He leads a committee on membership that is made up of Ted, Dave T., Gord, Paul and himself. They are always looking for ways to enhance the Club’s membership. August is membership month.

Rotary International has set a membership drive as a priority and will recognize members with a special Rotary pin for every member that he/she introduces to the Club. This initiative was launched in Jan. of 2014.

Initiatives that our Club has started are Membership Nights, new process of membership, satellite Club and personal contact with absent members.

The new process of membership was put in place because of the past lengthy time frame .
Now it is streamlined so that a new member , if a good fit, can be a member in 2-3 weeks.

The Satellite Club has a different form and cost to meet the needs of these members. David will be interviewing them soon and many will become new Club members.They will be urged to participate with the Club.

An incentive plan has been suggested so that the member who brings in the most new members will be given 2 free tickets to our Christmas Party. Paul has initiated a mentorship program to keep new members engaged as well.

We have 36 members at this point and have met our goal of a 10% gain for the year.
Because of three new guests  this evening David outlined many of the years events and activities.
David also mentioned that in the past our Club has donated large sums of money to the local hospital. As an example, four rooms have the Rotary crest for being funded by our Club in the local hospital.

Cost of membership for the year is:
$175 to Rotary International
$20/ Week for meals
$25 per quarter for Rotary Foundation.

Gord thanked David on behalf of the Club for his presentation. Gord mentioned wearing his Rotary jacket on a holiday in the UK that lead to a Rotary contact. As a member of a large organization we have a lot of power to change the world for better.

50/50 winner- Richard