District Governor's Visit

Posted by Gordon Brown 
on Jul 17, 2013
 

ImageRotateller for July 17, 2013

 

Attendance: 19 including 5 guests (as below)

President Rocco opened the meeting

Anthem: Dhanni Ramdeen

Grace: Gordon Brown

Guests: District Governor Valerie Wafer, her husband Mark Wafer, Assistant District Governor Raffy Chouljian, Jack Page from Jamaica and ‘member to be’ Arthur Retnakaran.

Announcements:

·       David Seemungal read a thank you card from Operation Eyesight, thanking us for supporting them.

·       Charles reminded everyone to respond to the invitation to the Annual Lifetime Achievement Award BBQ for Al McDougall on August 16th.

  • District Governor Valarie awarded President Rocco a ‘First Class Button’ for meeting R.I.’s President challenge for all the club presidents to donate to the Rotary Foundation.

·       Kevin Manuel reminded us that a while ago he suggested we collect one gift a week for the TV Auction – he also reminded us that next week he is Sergeant-At-Arms!!

Marbelous Draw: Charles conducted the draw, DG Valarie drew the winning ticket which Al Meredith claimed, but he was unable to find the mutant marble – he was given $5 as a consolation.

Sergeant-At-Arms Basil asked for donations from anyone who did not know the answer to two Rotary questions (i) the name of this year’s R.I. President Ron Burton’s wife – the answer being Jetta and (ii) Where is the International Convention being held in 2014 – the answer being Sydney Australia.  

Happy Bucks: Peter Masson is pleased his boat is back in the water. Gerd’s mother told him that she is pleased that ladies are now allowed in her Rotary Club! Madhavi is pleased all her studies are done and that she will be able attend meetings more regularly. 

 

Our speaker today was District Governor Valarie Wafer. She was introduced by Assistant District Governor Raffy. He told us that DG Valarie was President of the Whitby Club in 2008/09 and has held many other positions in the District since then. She joined Rotary in 2005 and with her husband has participated in many Rotary projects abroad. Together with her husband she owns seven Tim Horton’s franchises around Scarborough.

DG Valarie reminded us of the theme ‘Engage Rotary, Change Lives’. When we are recruiting new members we should let them know all the benefits of joining Rotary – among them being friendships, business development, travelling the world for Rotary projects and perhaps the most important one – the opportunity to serve – this how we (Rotary) can change peoples lives.  The District is putting more of an emphasis on social media and technology to try and attract younger professionals. To help us with this, a new position at the District has been made - Liz Greenland is the chair of ‘Young Professionals Engagement’.  Valarie encouraged us to make more use of social media and to ask Liz if we need help with this.

The audio recording of her speech can be accessed through the following link:   

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zvk53725xeorb8s/DG%20Valarie%20Wafer.mp3

Rocco thanked Valarie for presentation and there being no further business closed the meeting.

 
 
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