Bulletin - August 19, 2015

President Cosmo led us with 0 Canada

Invocation by Dan Rippin

Guest tonight was Erin Fraser from the Sidney RCMP detachment.

 

1. Cosmo received a thank you note from Natasha Cleverley, thanking the Club for having her is a guest at last week’s meeting.  Natasha is interested in joining our Club, but cannot commit for the next six months.

 

2. Cosmo also received an email from Dan Mercer, advising us that the Car Raffle raised $118,000, and inviting Club members to a “Thank-You meal” on August 27^th.  Dan needs to know by August 21^st if anyone is interested in attending.  Cosmo will contact Dan to find out the location for this event, better enabling Club members to determine their interest in attending.

 

3. Maria described her current strategies to increase membership, in her role as Marketing Director.  Maria has three main strategies at present.

(1) BRING IN GUESTS WHO ENTERED THE CANADA DAY DRAW: All members present agreed it was a good strategy to have these individuals attend one of the weekly meetings as a guest.  They would get the “dinner prize” advertised for the draw, and get exposure to the possibilities of membership in the Club.

(2)  CREATE SIGN FOR DISPLAY AT EVENTS:  The sign quote for two 4 x 3 feet signs is $303.98 plus tax.  Members present approved this purchase, with the expense to be paid by proceeds from the fall fair.  The sign will fit the stand already in place for Bingo’s.  Members present also assisted Maria to generate a list of community support initiatives to put on the sign that have been undertaken by the Club in the last few years.

(3)  NEWSPAPER AD:  Maria would like to place an ad in the Peninsula News, and have personal profile stories published in this paper that describe individual Rotary experiences.  The cost per ad is $300, and the request is to place ads on a quarterly basis, making a total of three ads for the year at a total cost of $900; Maria anticipates personal profile stories would be free. In response to the request to approve this money, Members want to wait until the Budget review meeting before making a decision.  In the meantime, suggestions for Maria were to see if there is free advertising available in the community section of this paper.  

 

4. Dan R advised members that it is time to submit annual dues.  Please get your dues payment of $250 in to Dan as soon as possible, as payment is now past due.

 

5. Cosmo received a funding request from the Rock Solid Foundation, to assist this group in providing local schools with funds to offer an anti-bullying program.  The cost per school to offer this program is $500.  This group will be invited to speak at one of the weekly meetings, to enable the Club to consider this request.

 

Erin Fraser, from the Sidney detachment of the RCMP, spoke at tonight’s meeting.  The Sidney detachment has 31 officers, offering 24 hour coverage.  This includes a four-person Detective unit, and two-person unit for First Nations policing.  There have been 70 impaired driving convictions this year already.  They also receive daily calls from BC Ferries to address a variety of issues, with mental health-related challenges as a core problem related to many of the calls they receive from BC ferries and the region in general.  Overall, however, the Sidney area is probably one of the safest places to live.  There has been a rise in Break and Enters lately, but the detachment doesn’t have funding for a crime analysis that would provide more concrete information on types of crime in specific areas of this region, and comparisons to other regions across the province and the country.  

 

Donna did the honours tonight, and collected one fine and numerous happy dollars for the cause.

 

Dan R had the 50/50 ticket number, and pulled the lucky coloured marble. Congratulations!

 

Greeter/Notetaker: Barry 

Door Duty: Donna

Sergeant at Arms:  Dan

 

NEXT WEEK’S GUEST SPEAKER - Barb Alexander, first female RCMP officer, hired in 1974.

Meeting adjourned.