Date: February 22, 2023 – By Barry Smith

 

Attendance: 10 (including 2 guests: Past District Governor Jim Louttit of the Toronto Sunrise Rotary Club and his guest, Mominul Haque of Rotary Club of Kyiv Centre in Ukraine.

 

President Courtney chaired the meeting and read the land acknowledgement

 

Anthem was led by Peter Masson

 

Toast to the King, Canada, and Rotary

 

President Courtney first called on our Treasurer, to report on the financial health of the club and our club's foundation. Dhanni stated that we were in good shape financially. Our combined cash balance is $372,020, which is partially invested in GIC's. The source of the funds is varied, but in the first 7 months of this Rotary year, we received a total of $109,416 in donations from corporations and individuals as well as our portion of gate receipts from the Scarborough Rotary Ribfest. Of that amount $92,700 came from organizations, mostly Park Property Management and its connections. Donation receipts will be issued next week. Dhanni also indicated that a Global Grant Application is being submitted by the International Services Committee, and payment of grant funds from R.I. of US$13,650 is expected in March. Danny Cassidy's furnace auction also raised $5,000 which is ear-marked for the same Ukrainian Refuge project in Poland. Finally, Dhanni expressed concern that once we are able to establish a new fund-raising initiative, we should start to release more funds, perhaps $50-75 K to partner in a major project in our local community.

Director Rocco Colangelo was next called upon to report on the Club Service Committee.

Rocco detailed the functions performed by the Club Service Committee, including running club meetings through the POD system in conjunction with the Community and International Committees, organizing a monthly social function, which is ably looked after by Gordon Brown, coordinating speakers through Speaker Coordinator Alan Meredith, and acknowledging the sick and bereaved through Frank Allison. President Courtney added that Rocco had understated the committee's achievements and thanked the committee for making arrangements for our new meeting location at Floga Restaurant.

Director Arthur Retnakaran was not present, but assigned reporting duties for the Community Services Group to Peter Masson.

Peter reported that 19 organizations in Scarborough were supported to the tune of almost $40,000, after they had been carefully vetted. Mittens and toques were also distributed to 28 Scarborough schools prior to the onset of winter. Peter is gearing up for the annual Paul Harris Scholarship Awards and the committee will soon be reviewing the student applications. Also, a high school student has been selected to attend Adventures in Citizenship conducted by the Rotary Club of Ottawa.

Our President then called on V.P. Avrum to report on the newly minted Resource Committee in the absence of Director Danny. This committee consists of President Courtney, Danny Cassidy, Gord Brown, Suresh and Avrum himself. The committee will be focusing on increasing membership and putting together a fundraising initiative. A membership initiative that they are considering is to approach the business associations in the area and invite some of their members to speak to our club as a way to introduce these local business executives to Rotary, encourage them to apply for membership and/or financially support our Rotary club. The committee is considering a major fundraising initiative which would involve purchasing grocery gift cards at a discount and selling them at face value so as to generate income from the discounted rate. This new committee is already impressively addressing the current membership and fundraising weaknesses in our club.

 Barry Smith

Finally, Director Barry Smith was called upon to report on the status of the International Services Committee.

Barry explained that the committee takes a two pronged approach: firstly by spending $6,400 of its $16,400 annual budget on well vetted projects that have been supported for many years, such as Operation Eyesight, Sleeping Children Around the World, Adopt-a-Village in Laos, and Shelterbox, and secondly by using its $5,000 Disaster Relief Contingency Fund and $5,000 New Project Funds in a careful, but dynamic, fashion. Firstly, it addition to the Shelterbox purchased early this year, and in light of the massive and urgent need resulting from the Turkey/Syria earthquake, two additional Shelterboxes were quickly approved and funded from the Disaster Relief Fund. With respect to the Feminine Hygiene Project (MPP) that the committee had been researching and promoting for a couple of years, since it proved to be non-sustainable and lacking proper oversight, funds allocated from last year's budget were spent and topped up, so that $2,000 could be sent to fund a similar project to produce reusable menstrual pads in Laos, with oversight provided by Rotarian Steve Rutledge. Ekal Canada also received $500 to fund a school for a remote Indian community for a year with oversight provided by our very own member, Suresh, who visited the community being funded. Finally, a Global Grant, spearheaded by our club, is being submitted to R.I. for matching funds to purchase a $40,000 van, required to transport Ukrainian Refugees to a new Refuge Education Centre in Poland. Danny Cassidy worked tirelessly in coordinating this project with Polish Rotary Clubs by attending weekly Zoom meetings for months.

 

This concluded the Directors' Reports that were well received by those present.

- President Courtney announced that there will be no Directors' Meeting for February. The next Directors'

Meeting will be the last Monday of March.

- Our Guest P.D.G. Jim Louttit made us aware of a global grant project that his Rotary Club is working on in Nigeria. Jim was asked to forward his proposal to our International Services Director.

Frank levied no fines but made a donation himself for having to run off to beat the on-coming snowstorm.

A few other Happy Bucks were collected.

 

President Courtney then terminated the meeting.