Guest Speaker: President 2019-20 Kevin Power
 

 

 

We are reaching the end of another Rotary year.  What a year.  The end of a year is a time for us to reflect on our Club’s meetings, activities, successes and challenges this past year.  To recognize the efforts and contributions of our members and our impact on our community. There were a number of highlight meetings for me this past year. It may seem a long time ago that members were feeling hot, hot, hot in the Imperial Room up and dancing to the steel drums.  The sounds of Caribana with members and guests showing off their limbo skills on the patio at the National Club.  Enjoying the WERM’s at the National Club.  Celebrating with seniors at our Annual Senior’s Christmas luncheon.  Enjoying the entertainment and food at our Club’s Christmas luncheon.  Our special lunch meetings led by our various committees.   This year included International Services hosting a meeting in honour of Peter Naylor and his solar panel project in Ghana.  At our last in person meeting on March 6, we celebrated International Women’s Day led by the Women’s Initiative Committee with a full room at the National Club.  Our Environmental Committee hosted our Earth day luncheon with our very first virtual guest speaker.  The format of Youth Day could not be the same this year but our Youth and Children’s Committee arranged an update for us from our great Rotaract Clubs.  Once again, this year we had an impactful Indigenous People’s Day luncheon this past week.

Thank you to Bert Steenburgh and the program committee for another exemplary year of speakers.

 

We did have a busy year of activities in the club.  Highlights include the District Foundation walk in September, held in our backyard at Humber College Campus in Etobicoke, along the shores of Lake Ontario.  In October, we had a strong turnout of members at the District Conference in Muskoka.  The Veterans Forum led by Sylvia Geist and her team addressing release trauma in our vets. We held our 91^st Annual Children’s Christmas Party. A morning snowfall did not slow down our Rotary volunteers or Mayor John Tory from attending.  Don Bell and his team led a very successful partnership with the Breakfast in support of Progress Place in March.  This year, we had a number of other first-time activities, out of necessity.  Members enjoyed their “quarantinis” at virtual cocktail parties.  Some of us (me at least) starting learning how to cook at our virtual dinner club meetings.  Virtual wine club, gardening club, book club and euchre as well.  A special thank you to Pat Neuman and the Fellowship and Entertainment Committee for all of your efforts this past year, especially during Covid-19.  For helping to keep us connected.

 

This past November Vice President Prince Kumar and his team of directors led a successful Club Assembly.  The assembly was in relation to the transition of our clubs’ committee structure.  Following the assembly, several working groups were established. This included a 10-person Transition Team that met once a week, sometimes twice, from January.  There have been healthy debates and discussions on how to change our committee structure.  The meetings continued virtually during Covid-19 and progress has been made and the transition team is working to finalize the structure and a process to roll out the new committee structure once we are meeting again in person.  I do want to say a special thank you to the members of the transition committee led by Vice President Prince Kumar, President Elect John Fortney, Past President’s Jeff Dobson, Pat Neuman and Richard White, Directors Anny Sandra Hamel and Dawn-Marie King and members Sylvia Geist and Emre Yurga.