Sunrise bulletin for the week of March 5, 2014

It was a cold and rainy morning in Vancouver, not at all like the sunny and warm beaches of Bali, making some of us wish we were there and not here. Chances are Sonya Orr is somewhere sunny, as usual, but Cam Scott is in Alaska. In March. What was he thinking?

Meanwhile, the Rotary meeting came to order on Wednesday morning, with 17 members who braved the weather plus Luisa Godoy, our Exchange Student. She told us about the Rock 'n' Roll party she enjoyed over the weekend with some other young people. I spoke with the Principal of her school this week and he said she's doing very well at King George. 

Rotary moment

John Haley described an international service project in which a Gravenhurst, Ontario, club provided 1,231 sturdy bikes for kids in Cambodia to use to get to school. Interesting project.

Business meeting

President Ann-Shirley Goodell led a discussion of some items from yesterday's board meeting. The board is considering ways to strengthen the role of committees, possibly by implementing a project management process, as suggested by Milie Taing. This should create a smoother system for committees to obtain board approval for projects and other activities. Lawrence Bicknell proposed a system of regular (monthly?) updates on progress so the board can follow-up as needed.

Sheila Anderson reports that the Projects Committee will develop a revised fundraising plan to benefit the Colombian schools project. 

Milie has been discussing the possibility of an Interact Club for King George students. One of the school counselors is interested in being the internal coordinator at the school and she thinks there are several students who would want to join. If so, our club may sponsor some of them to attend our District Conference in Squamish in May, so they can learn more about Rotary and Interact. The next step is for Milie to review the Rotary literature on the subject to determine whether and how our club might want to proceed. She will seek board approval before committing the club to this venture. Milie's looking for a few members to help her on this, so let her know if you're interested.

Next week

Ann-Shirley advised that next week we will host 4 visitors from Colombia and their interpreters plus District Governor Garry Shearer and AG Tom Smith. Our speaker will be the president of the foundation that operates the two schools for refugee children in Bucaramanga. 

And that's it for now. See you next Wednesday (unless I can find a way to return to the land of sunny beaches).

Rob