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Chair: Gordon Brown Toast to the Queen, Canada & Rotary: President Gordon Anthem: (none today) Attending: Gordon, Mike, Arthur, Dhanni, Dave, Gerd, Peter, Danny, Rocco, Basil, Alan, & Barry Guests: Dorothy introduced by Basil as the lady who keeps him healthy & fit as well as a member and Past President of the Markham Sunrise club. Gertrude Tumusime Uwitware ( known as Trudy) was introduced by Peter Masson. Trudy is originally from Uganda and came to Canada in 2017 where she has worked as a TV News reporter and a communications professional. Her objective here in Canada is to integrate into the Canadian media but currently works for an immigrant TV and Web Series called “New Canadians” as well as a freelance content creator. Trudy is a former Interactor and Rotaractor and knows the basics of “Service above self” and has a commitment to serve the community and the world by becoming a full time member of Rotary. Gerd noted that it was very fitting that Trudy worked in an immigrant TV and radio because of the twelve people in our meeting today only four were born in Canada!  Announcements: Arthur announced that a Group 2/3 meeting will be arranged for this afternoon via ZOOM.  Sergeant at Arms: ( Arthur Retnakaran replacing Jim Boyko) called for “happy buck stories” Gerd was happy that he and his Dorothy stayed in Tobermory for five days and completed their 6th return trip to the top of the Bruce Peninsula. During the 5 days they were in Tobermory they completed 90 kms to complete this last stage. The Bruce Trail is 900 km long. (Thus they have accumulated a total of 5,400 kms walking the “Bruce” over the years. So he is happy to donate $1 for each 10 kms of the walk i.e. $180 for this latest round trip. Arthur was very happy to accept that donation to the cause. Gerd indicated that he and Dorothy so enjoy this trek that they plan on doing it again soon. Basil said that he and Dorothy have a special place in their hearts for Tobermory with their grandchildren living there. So he was happy to match Gerd’s $180 donation and applauded their feat as it takes them 4 hours to drive to the tip of the Bruce Peninsula where Tobermory is located. “Well Done!” Dhanni Ramdeen reported that she is very very happy to have been able to sleep last night after they finally got their air conditioner going again which had been out of service for four of the hottest days we have had this summer. She finally called the recently retired Danny Cassidy to see if he could investigate the problem. The miracle occurred when the Mersey technician arrived on Tuesday the 7th to do the repair instead of the 15th which had been scheduled as a maintenance. The Tech had the appropriate parts to make the repairs thanks to Danny’s diagnosis. Rocco finally arrived saying he had been stuck in the traffic ??? but he wasn’t out on the golf course. But Peter reported that he and Joan finished nine holes at Spring Creek near Claremont and it was a very hot course even though the game was not so hot! Barry reported that he is “expanding their bubble” by having their eldest grandchild Sacha and their son will come from Ottawa to visit with Barry and Glennys for two weeks at the end of the month. And he is happy to pass the baton to Gordon and now all the pressure of being president is on Gordon’s shoulders. Danny Cassidy is happy to be going to see their two granddaughters in Ottawa but was unhappy with the prior arrangement where they had to drive to Ottawa and back on the same day just to see the kids. Dave Hardy asked about Trudy’s possible help in putting together media releases for the club. She said that currently she doesn’t have the network that would be needed to get that together but in the fullness of time she would like to do that and David indicated that would be helpful for the club. Arthur reported that Gerd, David Seemungal and he visited Malvern Presbyterian Church this morning for a photo-op to present a cheque to the church where they were serving meals to a lot of people and the presentation was made to Barbara, their minister, with a little speech on behalf of Rotary and Park Property Management which made the donation possible. Arthur delivered his joke of the day. There were two numerical cats. The English one was named One two three. The French one was named Une duex trois. Thy were very competitive and so they decided to race across lake Ontario. One two three went first and was able to cross the lake. Then it was the turn for Une duex trois. But he wasn’t able to make the crossing because after trois came quatre and finally cinq! ...in the lake and we didn’t know that Alan’s French was up to “cinq” Dhanni reported some more good news that a Rotarian has made an anonymous donation of $1,055 to cover the cost of three hockey tickets that were purchased in the 2019 auction but which games were cancelled because of COVID-19 lock down. She also said that as yet she has not asked the buyer whether he might be prepared to donate that sum to the club. (A tax receipt could be some compensation)  . President Gordon presented us with his vision for the club’s future in 2020/2021 (the club’s 59th year) serving Scarborough and the world beyond. “Thank you all for attending today. I wish of course that his could have been live rather than virtual. First of all, I want to sincerely thank Barry for his leadership last year and in particular guiding us through the last few months with Covid – 19. I hope, as I am sure we all do, that we won’t still be meeting virtually this time next year. I miss the one-on-one chats and the discussions at the table we have at lunch times. Hopefully when we are able to meet it will still be at the Baton Rouge – we don’t want to have to search for a new location. Apart from our lunch meetings we have not been able to have the Fireside or Charter Party and I doubt very much there will be a Christmas Party – maybe a virtual one somehow. I want to thank the Group Directors for their leadership and the other members of the board for assisting with the direction of the club and indeed to all other members as well. Our Board is much the same this year, except Peter is taking over from Kathleen as Secretary and Danny is now President Elect. As the saying goes, I have some ‘big boots to fill’ being President after Barry. As most of you know my pet peeve about Rotary in general is that “we are very good at not letting people know what we do”. A lot of people know the name “Rotary” but unless they actually know someone in Rotary they don’t have any idea what we do. As everyone learns more about Rotary and the work that we do, the more astonished they are. What a difference we are making both locally and worldwide. We are a well-kept secret – but shouldn’t be. “Our goals for this year are of course to retain, as much as possible, our current members and add some new members. We have two members to be added – Dr. Beauty who has been accepted by the club and is waiting for her current club to release her before we can add her. Also Emmanuel who has made an application to us and is waiting to be approved. Every year the incoming President has to set specific goals to try and obtain the Presidential Citation. I will give updates on these goals as the year progresses. “As you are aware, we are going ahead with the Auction the first weekend in December, whether it will be totally virtual or some kind of hybrid still, of course, hasn’t been determined. That said we should still endeavour to get items for the Auction. It is doubtful we will be able to get any sports tickets and restaurant gift cards may be difficult too, so we will have to get more creative. We will not of course have any revenue from helping at the ribfest either. Because of this our fundraising this year will probably be lower than previous years, unless we can find something in addition. I know clubs have been doing ‘bottle drives’. “I encourage all our members to support their respective group directors as much as possible and engage in our projects. Dhanni told us that last year we helped 35 local organizations. Our help is probably needed now more than any time in recent history. Let’s carry on doing the fantastic work we do and maybe by this time next year we won’t be so much of a secret!! “ Thank you again for being here today. Does anyone have questions or suggestions? Gordon closed the meeting shortly afterward. Please see the recording of the meeting at this link: Password: 6C$18$j1
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