ROTARY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION - JUNE 10 – JUNE 14
WHO WILL BE THERE? - Each year thousands of members of Rotary clubs from around the world meet at our Rotary International Convention in June. They come from large clubs, small clubs, large cities and far-flung villages. These will be members attending their first week to those that have been members for decades, all are welcome and all will find lots to keep themselves in engaged. Certainly there are lots of Club President-elects and Club Presidents participating in this coming together of Rotarians as they carry out their Club leadership role. Oh, did I mention these members will come from around the world? They speak a different language (translations into 26 languages), their clothing may be different and their ethnicity will make for kaleidoscope showing Rotary’s diversity. Guaranteed, every one of these members will share one thing – a passion for Rotary. Attending a Rotary Convention is life-changing!
WHY SHOULD I BE THERE? We are celebrating a huge Rotary event this year! Our Rotary Foundation Centennial, you cannot get much better than that! The Rotary Foundation first endowed amount came as a result of the 1917 RI Convention in Atlanta, GA; RI President Arch Klumph was given some left over; he asked the RI Board to start a foundation to do ‘Doing Good in the World’ using this $26.50. From this humble beginning, and because of our member’s dedication to the premise – today the Rotary Foundation has more than $1B endowed. This year, we come together to continue doing our ‘Doing Good in the World.
WHAT HAPPENS AT A RI CONVENTION? Many attendees at RI Conventions experience a Rotary epiphany, truly having a moment of insight seeing the breadth and depth of Rotary tentacles and are and what understand our role in this mosaic called Rotary. My Rotary epiphany was while at the Birmingham Convention Jane Goodall spoke about the difference a bar of soap can make in the life of person in the villages of many developing countries. It was instantaneous and very memorable.
WHAT MIGHT I SEE AND LEARN? I am telling you the opening ceremonies are worth the price of admission! Rotary at is best! It will be fabulous as we celebrate our Rotary Foundation Centennial; there’ll be lots of pomp and pageantry along with terrific showmanship in the surprises. The keynote speakers are right on target with our theme, Rotary Serving Humanity. I wonder how they will demonstrate our culture during this ceremony. Don’t miss the closing ceremony, I bet there will be maple leaves and Mounties trooped out in all the crimson red and flat brimmed hats. Guess where the next RI Convention will be held?
How about spending some time in the House of Friendship? You can spend lots of time there. Lots to learn about what Rotary does in many areas of the world. Or you can shop for lots of unique Rotary wear and also there will be booths that are all about Atlanta. I assure you will enjoy the House of Friendship.
ARE THERE BREAK OUT SESSIONS? You bet! A wide variety some to be expected and some eye opening.
OH MY, THE TRAFFIC! Relax, RI has its own transportation system that will bring you to and from. I am always amazed how they can move 10,000s people in a calm, efficient method. But, they do.
IS IT TOO LATE TO REGISTER? No. HOW DO I REGISTER? It is easy. Go to http://RIConvention.org. You need to register for MyRotary it will take you through the process when you click on Registration, it just walks you through step by step. Yes, you will need your credit card. You can click on Accommodation/Hotels.
Bill and I look forward to meeting you in Atlanta!
Guess who has the best ideas for recruiting new members and retaining the ones we have? The Rotarians in our clubs, that’s who. Most of our colleagues have some good ideas about how we can attract and retain members; and some folks have great ideas! So, how do we tap into these great ideas? How can we learn from those clubs that have tried something that works?
Let’s gather around the virtual campfire and swap stories. Each month (except July and August) we’ll have a one-hour online Zoom membership forum. It’s free and you don’t have to travel anywhere to attend.
I will send an invitation to the Membership Chair of each club. If you’d like to join the discussion, just send me an email (kevin@d7090.org) and I’ll put you on the invitation list. You can share your ideas or just listen for some pearls of wisdom and ideas that are so crazy they just might work!
Recently, a Skill Set Survey was sent by DG Marlee to all clubs for collection of information that will become vital to our district leaders in the event of a man-made or natural disaster. Each member of every club should decide whether to identify skills that they can contribute if needed. These lists will be updated annually. Please work within your club and send your completed survey sheets to your AG (Assistant Governor). Each club should also designate 2-3 members to become disaster preparedness leaders and take charge of this list for their club going forward. Service Above self will take on a whole new meaning if this Skill Set Survey is needed. Please commit now to BE ON THE LIST.
Rotary Club of Caledonia has two new members - Pay Milroy and Jean-Michel Patten. Pam is pictured in photo on the left shaking the hand of president, Marilyn Robertson (left), and Jean-Michel is in picture on right with (left to right) Jean-Michel, president Marilyn Robertson and AG Marty Schurr. Congratulations to Jean-Michel, who is stepping up to serve as president-elect.
The Batavia Rotary Club hosted its first meat raffle April 7th. Over 300 people turned out, bringing their own “tailgate-style fare”, and could participate in the chance to win packages of meat, from hamburger to bacon and steaks to shrimp. Raffle tickets could only be bought with single dollar bills and some tickets had more than one chance to win, with each prize often being available to more than one winner. Door prizes and side raffles added to the fun, boisterous and financially successful event!
On Tuesday, April 11th, the Rotary Club of Buffalo Sunrise had much to celebrate at their meeting as District Governor Marlee Diehl was on-hand to induct our newest member, Jamie Perry into the club. Jamie, even before being officially inducted, has been actively involved in our service projects, fundraisers, and has even been busy finding and scheduling speakers for our weekly meetings. Welcome aboard, Jamie!
Pictured right to left - DG Marlee is welcoming Jamie into Rotary with a special note of appreciation for her pre-induction Rotary work.
The Lewiston-Niagara-on-the-Lake Rotary Club (L/NOTL) recently presented Lewiston Council on the Arts (LCA) with a generous check in support of a new event, 'International Music in the Peace Garden'. The two-day event will coincide with the Harvest Festival on September 23 and 24 with performances scheduled from 12:00 - 4:00PM each day in the Peace Garden. Eight bands will present the music of different cultures including Italian, Polish, Latin American, Scottish, African American, and Japanese.
The L/NOTL Rotary has been a friend and supporter of LCA programs for many years. In addition they made a significant contribution to the construction of the Peace Garden when the LCA first began to develop the project years ago. "It's fitting that the beautiful space that our local Rotary helped us to create, is now the site for programs they continue to support," said Eva Nicklas of the LCA.
Pictured (left to right) are Louise Maggard, Ron Danielewicz, John Hopkins, club president, John Shaver, Eva Nicklas, Dr. Tom Gerbasi, John Cich and Anne Hopkins.
In March, the Rotary E-Club of Southern Ontario – Western New York (SOWNY) welcomed its newest member: John Papadakis, who is a paralegal and former East York Councillor from Toronto.
As Commander-in-Chief and Senior Training Instructor of Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Canada and as Executive Director of Community Emergency Preparedness Association (CEPA), John adds emergency and disaster relief expertise to both the E-Club of SOWNY and District 7090. CEPA works with communities across Canada to train and deploy CERT teams.
On April 12th, Rotary E-Club of Southern Ontario – Western New York (SOWNY) member Howard Weinstein successfully represented his social enterprise Solar Ear at the global Best Minds Challenge’s semi-final event jointly hosted by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Greater Boston Area.
A panel of expert judges ranked the top 3 finalists based on presentations by 10 nominees on the basis of societal impact, commercial scalability, uniqueness, technical quality and the quality of their presentation. The 3 finalists chosen are:
Cellulike (Tanzania) a pay as you go model for micro-grid solar power distribution systems;
Inquimae (Argentina) a sustainable energy storage project from renewable energy sources (solar and wind) for remote electrification; and
Solar Ear (Brazil), focusing on solar powered hearing aids for the most impoverished communities across the globe.
The Welshpool, Wales and Norfolk Sunrise Rotary Clubs are celebrating 20 years of uniquely developed exchanges with youth.
The 2017 travel contingent included (pictured left to right) Meg Miller, Sam Smyth, Maddie Burnett, Erica Wilhelmus, Grace Abbey, Julia Samborski, Zack Peck, District 1180 Governor Molly Youd (Wrexham Yale), Rudi Atkinson (chaperone and Norfolk Sunrise Rotarian), Elaine Thomas (chaperone), Welshpool Rotary President Mike Pepper.
Rotary Club of St. Catharines welcomes its newest corporate member, Niagara Academy of Tennis. Pictured from left to right are Lezlie Murch, club president, Ana Delgado, Managing Director, Niagara Academy of Tennis, Vicky Rudachuk club president elect, Doug Carter, Director, Niagara Academy of Tennis.
The Rotary Club of Olean is proud to welcome Joe Higgins as its newest Rotarian. He is the eighth, yes 8th, Rotarian inducted this Rotary year on April 4 at the noon meeting at the Bartlett Country Club.
What is the club's secret? Active, engaged members ASKing others routinely to visit club meetings. The club's claim is that it also keeps its web site up to date and uses social media. Olean Rotarians predict that its signature project in the City of Olean, the on-site carving of the 8-foot Silent Policeman monument that begins in the summer of 2017, will bring even more attention to the club and, likely, more members who want to live the SERVICE ABOVE SELF motto.
A big THANK-YOU to all the Lincoln Rotarians that came out and supported the Rotary Foundation Night with The Ice Dogs. 200 local Rotarians from around Niagara participated in a very fun and informative night. An excerpt from organizer Ric Radowsky, "Absolutely stellar job by everyone last night... As a newer Rotarian, it was awesome to be able to meet all the other participating Rotary clubs and listen to words of advice and encouragement. It was great to see all of you out on the ice, in solidarity, showing our local communities who Rotary is. I hope that you all had a good time, and hope that we can do this again with the Ice Dogs and other events. Together, we can make an impact! Isn’t it amazing what we can do when we work together? Let’s do this again sometime soon... Did I say thank you? LOL!"
Pictured (from left) are Sue Foster, president elect, Sarah Bradshaw, Jennifer Turner, president.
The Rotary Club of Lincoln held their 20th Anniversary celebration at the Twenty Valley Golf and Country Club, where they shared stories of all their hard work over the years and gave special thanks to those in the community who support them.
The club gave a special thanks to former MPP Tim Hudak, who was the keynote speaker for the evening as well as the club's newest Paul Harris Fellow. “I do believe you are the pre-eminent service group in all of Niagara,” said Hudak, the club's 34th PHF recipient, who remembered getting to judge the chicken wing contest at the annual Wingfest that the club held along with a number of other events. “Thank you for your incredible dedication to the community."
As part of the opening remarks, Marlee Diehl, Governor for District 7090 congratulated the group on their accomplishments. “I didn’t know until tonight that the club built a band shell,” (Rotary band shell at Charles Daley Park) she said. “I am in awe of you…don’t ever stop thinking of yourselves as mighty.”
The Rotary Club of Hamburg held its 14th Annual Breakfast With the Bunny pancake breakfast with great fanfare on April 8. Sold out prior to the event, a number of walk-ins were admitted as supplies, thankfully, held out. The club sends congratulations to Co-chairs Cindy Taylor and Amanda Black and the event committee on a job well done.
The EarlyAct Club – 3rd, 4th, 5th grade students at the Huth Road Elementary School (one of two EarlyAct clubs sponsored by Grand Island Rotary) showed a wonderful start toward interest in community service by collecting snacks for pediatric patients at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. The students were particularly happy with the mound of snack bags collected from school families, and at the end of March delivered them to the pediatric floor of the Cancer Institute – hoping those bags brightened the day of kids fighting cancer. To encourage them, Grand Island Rotary purchased distinctive tee shirts for the EarlyAct clubbers.
The Rotary Club of Niagara Falls Sunrise is proud to announce that James Maina (pictured third from the left) has been chosen as its Youth Exchange student. James will be leaving for France later this summer.
A flags raising ceremony, organised by all St. Catharines Rotary clubs, was held at St. Catharines City Hall on March 16th. The Rotary flag was raised in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Rotary Foundation. The second flag raised was to salute Rotary for its past and continued efforts to eradicate polio worldwide.
President Sandi Chard was on hand to speak of the background and current mission of the Foundation. District Governor Marlee was in attendance along with other St. Catharines’ club presidents and members as well as city officials.
Recently, the Rotary Club of St. Catharines Lakeshore inducted Beth Fleeton. Beth comes to the club with a rich Rotary history as the club’s very first outbound exchange student over 30 years ago. Beth shared with the club how the exchange program changed her life. She is now a sales rep for Universal Studios, traveling the world from her home base in Niagara. Beth is jump starting her newest phase of the Rotarian experience well having just recently completed RLI (Rotary Leadership Institute), part 1.
Pictured, left to right, Beth is being pinned by Sandi Chard, President.
The Rotary Club of Brantford Sunrise held its annual Fish Fry fundraiser on April 1. You can see by the smile on the face of President Justin Bester as he is filling his plate with perch that a good time was had by all. Great food, great community event, and a great fundraiser!
Rotary Club of Caledonia has two new members - Pay Milroy and Jean-Michel Patten. Pam is pictured in photo on the left shaking the hand of president, Marilyn Robertson (left), and Jean-Michel is in picture on right with (left to right) Jean-Michel, president 
Marilyn Robertson and AG Marty Schurr. Congratulations to Jean-Michel, who is stepping up to serve as president-elect.
The Batavia Rotary Club hosted its first meat raffle April 7th. Over 300 people turned out, bringing their own “tailgate-style fare”, and could participate in the chance to win packages of meat, from hamburger to bacon and steaks to shrimp. Raffle tickets could only be bought with single dollar bills and some tickets had more than one chance to win, with each prize often being available to more than one winner. Door prizes and side raffles added to the fun, boisterous and financially successful event!
Rotary Club of St. Catharines welcomes its newest corporate member, Niagara Academy of Tennis. Pictured from left to right are Lezlie Murch, club president, Ana Delgado, Managing Director, Niagara Academy of Tennis, Vicky Rudachuk club president elect, Doug Carter, Director, Niagara Academy of Tennis.
The Rotary Club of Hamburg held its 14th Annual Breakfast With the Bunny pancake breakfast with great fanfare on April 8. Sold out prior to the event, a number of walk-ins were admitted as supplies, thankfully, held out. The club sends congratulations to Co-chairs Cindy Taylor and Amanda Black and the event committee on a job well done. 
start toward interest in community service by collecting snacks for pediatric patients at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. The students were particularly happy with the mound of snack bags collected from school families, and at the end of March delivered them to the pediatric floor of the Cancer Institute – hoping those bags brightened the day of kids fighting cancer. To encourage them, Grand Island Rotary purchased distinctive tee shirts for the EarlyAct clubbers.
