Our Club’s Annual Hockey Pool was held on May 12th, about 1 month later than normal as the NHL’s regular season was still winding down.
The competition for each of the 16 playoffs bound teams was fierce at times and included both individuals and creative consortia.
Ironically, as we move into June, may of the teams favoured in May (Pittsburgh, Washington, Toronto, Florida and Edmonton) are now working on their golf games.
Our Annual Hockey Pool Where Bragging Rights are the Only Real Prize
Whereas we know there is one Canadian team in the semifinal, it will be up to the Hockey Gods (and whoever has the best goalkeeper) as to whether Montreal will make it to the Cup final.
At the other end of the spectrum, several teams that generated little interest in May, either have a spot in the Cup semifinal (Montreal will play Tampa Bay) or were at least still in the hunt (New York, Boston and Colorado).
Lawrence is looking good in the final 4 with the Habs!
The Girls are counting on a Vegas razzle dazzle finish....
But Vic's stealth acquisition of the Islanders from the bargain basement could be the sleeper team to watch.
Stay tuned for more updates, including the Gumby prize contenders and the member(s) who will sip from the championship cup.
Business 2020-2021 - It's a Wrap!
Our last official business meeting of the 2020-2021 Rotary year was held on May 5. A representative of each of our Club Committees provided updates to our members. Some of the highlights included: financially, we’re in the black; we’re in discussions with several prospective new members; our strategic plan actions are a work in progress; Covid restrictions (the “circuit breaker”) continue to keep us Zooming and limit our fellowship and social activities; the preliminary fundraising results from our Hoopathon of April 24th are very gooddespite the impact of the pandemic restrictions on our fundraising and event abilities; we will be starting to discuss how to grow our Club’s Foundation in the next Rotary year with a view to clarifying its objectives and how we meet them; and our Youth Committee continues to be very busy with the King George and Strathcona Interactors, the UBC Rotaractors and lots of ideas for new projects in the new Rotary year.
Hip, Hip Hooray!
We welcomed John Clarke as a new member to our club and to the Rotary Family in May.
Learning About Rotary Youth Exchange
Gina Rawson, District Youth Exchange (YEX) Chair, gave us an update on YEX in the context of the Covid pandemic. The YEX program began in Denmark following WWI and today involves 75 countries and 8,000 students per year. Students were returned home in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic and the physical YEX program suspension is expected to last until June 2022. In the interim YEX has been working towards Virtual Exchanges, including a pilot that will be set to go in October 2021 based on the following:
4 to 6 students participating as inbounds and outbounds
Cultural exchange will take place virtually
Program will include meetings; socials; museum, country and city tours; and will be designed using survey feedback from participants
Will be structured with curriculum and mentors
Will create opportunities to participate for clubs and students.
So many questions were generated by Gina’s presentation that she will be returning on June 9th for a full Q&A session. Thanks Gina for guiding through the current challenges and future possibilities of this important Rotary program. See you again soon!
A Peace Conversation Warm Up
On May 26th, with the help of a team of Rotarian facilitators who have been completing the Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBBI) Peace Conversation Facilitation program, our Club members and several guests had a peace conversation regarding the topic: “How can we grow our Club Foundation and increase its impact?” Sample questions for consideration included:
What we do to increase the donations/fundraising to grow funds in the Sunrise Foundation?
How can we increase the scope of donors to the Sunrise Foundation?
What other scholarships should be funded from the Sunrise Foundation?
What else beyond scholarships should be funded from the Sunrise Foundation?
How should we balance Foundation Giving and Community Support?
Following an introduction from "master facilitator" John Anderson, we separated into four breakout sessions with four participants and a facilitator. Conversations generally focused on the current and future potential objectives of the Club Foundation and what we can we do to grow the Foundation.
Due to time constraints we agreed to have the “recorder” from each session prepare a written summary of each group’s discussion so that those notes can be curated for subsequent discussions around the Foundation in the 2021/2022 Rotary year.
