ews bulletin - rotaryclubofguelph.com · president ian rob gordon — guest speaker tom funk —...

Upcoming meetings Jan 28: Youth Committee

Paul Dredge Feb 4: A. Summerlee &

Gavin Armstrong, Univer-sity of Guelph

Feb 11: Lynn Kergan, Red Cross

Feb 18: Classification Talk Paul Demarco

Rotary International President: Ray Klinginsmith

Kirksville, Missouri, USA District 7080 DG: Bernd Dinnert,

Mississauga

A Weekly Report on the Activities of the Rotary Club of Guelph – Jan 21, 2011

THE ROTARY CLUB OF GUELPH

District 7080 Club 4645

Charter Feb 23, 1920

The Rotary Club of GuelphBox 511, Guelph, ON N1H 6K9

www.rotaryclubofguelph.com

President: Ian SmithTreasurer: Trevor Lee

Secretary: Kerry Johnson 519-821-3863

news BUlletin

Upcoming events Tue Feb 1: Rotary After

Hours. See ad page 3 Wed Feb 16: Fred Black

Curling Bonspiel

Program — Continued on Page 2

introdUction

President Ian began the meeting by welcoming Rotarians and guests and by mentioning a potluck supper and meeting at Harcourt Church the pre-vious evening. The meeting discussed our Club’s international projects and what the future holds under new procedures coming from Rotary International in 2013.Hal Jackson was praised by President Ian as this week’s “Unsung Hero”. Hal currently lives in Ilderton which is currently the skating capital of Canada. Since Ilderton is on the “other” side of London, Hal is the Un-sung Hero for traveling so far every Friday, even in snowy conditions, and keeping a great attendance record.

new rotarian - michelle richardson

President Ian introduced Michelle Richardson as the Club’s newest Rotarian. Michelle is the Director of Business Development at MTE Global Tox and is a senior regula-tory specialist in the Product Test-ing and Registration department. Michelle received an Honours B.Sc. in Biomedical Toxicology from the University of Guelph and an MBA from Wilfred Lau-rier University. An avid lifelong learner, she recently completed her Teacher/Trainer of Adults certifi-cate at Conestoga College.Michelle began her professional life in the pharmaceutical industry. At the Johnson & Johnson family of companies, she was an analyti-cal chemist and progressed to man-age many projects and initiatives

within the Consumer and Professional Relations department at McNeil Consumer Healthcare in Guelph. She joined MTE GlobalTox, a global engineering and toxicological consulting company, in 2006.Michelle and her husband Scott lead an interesting lifestyle with Scott

For more, see page 2

Proud Papa Charlie Whittaker attaches Rotary pin then fights a smile as he stands

with the newest Rotarian and daughter Michelle Richardson.

the rotary clUB of gUelph news BUlletin - JanUary 21st, 2011 page 2

attendance

presentAttendance and Make ups

submitted this week will be reported in next week’s Bulletin

gUestsNo official greeter was present, so Bob

Housser introduced guestsMichelle Richardson — Charlie Whit-

takerMargaret Whittaker — Charlie WhittakerScott Richardson — Charlie Whittaker

head taBleBill Stevens — Electoral committee,

Rural/urban committeeBernard Vanderkamp — Africa/Asia,

International Service, Rural/urbanPresident Ian

Rob Gordon — Guest SpeakerTom Funk — Membership committee,

Membership Secretary

Program — Continued from Page 1

50/50 draw: Bernie Kiely

Birthdays

January 23 ............... Bob ButellaJanuary 24 ............... Steve Irvine

Officials January 21Editor: John VieiraGreeter: Gasper RussoGuest Registrar: Bob Butella

Officials January 28Editor: Diane SprattGreeter: Trevor ReidGuest Registrar: Djurjica Halgasev

roster change

Sue Ricketts — Email change

[email protected]

Upcoming eventscontinued from page 1

Fri Feb 18: Invite a Prospect to the Club meeting. See Tom Funk

Tue Mar 1: Rotary After Hours. See ad page 3

Tue Apr 5: Rotary After Hours. See ad page 3

Tue May 3: Rotary After Hours. See ad page 3

May 21-25, 2011: RI Confer-ence, New Orleans

anniversaries

January 22 ...... Harris Steele (50)January 23 .........David Ralph (7)January 23 .Fred Ramprashad (2)January 25 .....Jim Anderson (20)January 25 .John Somerville (51)

Program — Continued on Page 3

commuting home on weekends from his workplace at McNeil Consumer Healthcare just outside of Philadelphia. They have three daughters, one in her second year studying biomedical sciences at the University of Guelph, one in grade 12 and the youngest in grade 9. Of course, her father is long serving Rotarian Charlie Whittaker. Both her father and her mother, Mar-garet, are recipients of Paul Harris Fellowships. Scott’s grandfather Eric Highstead was a founding member of the Drayton Rotary Club.

memBership and gUest speaker introdUction

Tom Funk introduced the guest speaker, but first he took a moment to talk about membership. Everyone knows that membership is declining a a slow but steady rate. “It is not that we have a lot of resignations,” he said, “it’s because we are not proposing enough new members.” Prospective members have to be shown the benefits of Rotary, and bringing them to a meeting so they see the Club in action is a great way to do that. Therefore, the Club has scheduled another Invite a Prospect meeting on Feb 18th. The prospect gets to have lunch free, courtesy of the membership committee. (ed. so there is such as thing as a free lunch.) Tom also reminded everyone of his “tie a string” presentation from an earlier meeting. He then followed up with a series of increasingly groan-inducing puns before saying that “when you propose a new member, there are no strings attached.” Finally, he reminded Rotarians to “get our ‘ask’ in gear and recruit 10 new members this year.”Tom then gave a brief biography of Rob Gordon’s long academic career and mentioned the great work Rob is doing on the International Committee.

loas approved

Luisa Del Rosario........January 6, 2011 to June 30, 2011Terry McDonnell..........Decem-ber 30, 2010 to April 3, 2011MJ van Boxmeer...........January 1, 2011 to April 30, 2011.


Program Continued on Page 4

ROTARY AFTER HOURS5:30 pm, first Tues of each month:

Feb 1st, Mar 1st, Apr 5th, May 3rd, June 7thonly $10 includes gratuity - two drinks (house wine

or beer on tap) plus appetizer

Location: Borealis Grille3188 Gordon St. S. (Just south of Arkell Rd)

Partners & Prospective Rotarians welcome!(Anyone wishing to have dinner is welcome to at additional cost)

Tickets at the door. Just show up!….and really get to know your fellow Rotarians!

Program — Continued from Page 2 roB gordon — University administration

early years and edUcation

Rob was born in Hanover, Ontario but his parents were origi-nally from Cape Breton so he grew up in the Maritimes. Cole Harbour was his childhood home, but today it is well known for being the home of Sidney Crosby. After high school Rob enrolled in the agricultural engineering program at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, which is one of eight agricultural schools in Canada, with OAC being both the largest and the best, he remarked. To complete his degree in agricultural engineering, Rob transferred to MacDonald College at McGill University. There he connected with a lifetime mentor and completed his masters degree in agricultural engineering. His thesis work was on the evaluation of emissions from agricultural systems. It continues to be a very important area of his research and is especially relevant today. Rob started his PhD in 1991 at the University of Guelph, in the land resource science department where he got to meet several Rotarians, including former presi-dent Eric Beauchamp. Post secondary education provides the opportunity to make long lasting relationships and he continues to learn everyday.ns min of ag then academia

In 1988 Rob became an extension specialist with the Nova Scotia Ministry of Agriculture, specializing in climate change issues. Within the ministry Rob went on to lead environmental

Rob Gordon delivers his classification talk.


annoUncements

President IanPresident Ian offered a quick synopsis of the most recent Board meeting. The Club’s financial posi-tion up to December was reviewed and everything is going according to plan. The Board also re-ceived a quick update on the police checks policy, received a report from the Fireside Committee, and approved a policy on reimbursing the Presi-dent or designate on expenses incurred outside the Club. There was also an update on the status of the Shelterbox/Disaster aid program. The Board approved leaves of absence for Luisa Del Rosario, MJ VanBoxmeer and Terry McDonnell. Finally, the annual report of the Rotary Foundation is now available on the RI website and President Ian has a hard copy available.


happy Bills

$ Peggy CurryPeggy thanked everyone who helped the Lit-eracy Committee to supply dictionaries for every Grade 3 student in Guelph. She made reference to a poster at the front door that was designed by students from one of the schools, as their way of saying Thank You to the Club.

$ Sharon RiceSharon contributed a happy buck on behalf of the Elora Festival Singers whose latest CD was nominated for a Grammy award.

$$$ sergeant at arms

An unusually subdued Sergeant at Arms com-mented that he was very proud of his table because they were presumably so intimidated by the pos-sibility of a fine that they “kept throwing money” at him. He then challenged every other table to match the $15 he collected. He was also kind enough to ignore Randy Seager’s photographic appearance in what he described as “Frank Vale-riote’s latest advertisement.”

programs, and helped build a strong committee on environmental farm planning. Finally in 1998 he returned to where he started his career by becoming associate professor in the engineering department at NSAC. He became head of the department in 2000 where he helped connect academics with industry, and in 2003 became first Canada Research Chair at NSAC, specializing in agricultural resource management. There are about 2,000 research chairs across Canada, and Rob was fortunate to be the first ever at NSAC. In 2005 he became Dean of Research at NSAC, and helped it become the most research-intensive univer-sity in Atlantic Canada.BeecOne of Rob’s proudest accomplishments was his role in establishing the Bio-Environmental Engineering Centre (BEEC). BEEC is a facility jointly operated with Dalhousie University and it includes a state of the art facility conducting research around environmental sustainability. Over $7 million in external funds was committed to build the facility. The BEEC responds to challenges around air wand water quality, guide-lines for producer best practices and stewardship. But most important is the grad student mentoring and training. “It is the best part of working in an academic environment,” he stated. At the University of Guelph, Rob continues to highlight the leadership training of students and its importance to our society.oacIn 2008, Rob became the sixth dean of OAC, a col-lege with over 130 years of history. There are many challenges in supporting food, agriculture, rural com-munities and the environment. As the largest agricul-ture school in Canada, OAC still offers the diploma program at three college campuses and boasts of over 30,000 exceptional alumni world wide, and quite a few of them are Rotarians.In the future OAC will continue to grow, with a unique role in supporting agriculture and the food industries.

Program Continued on Page 5



Recently the College received the largest ever single gift of $3 million from Loblaws towards research in sustainable food production.family

Rob’s spouse is Serena Randall and she works at the Grand Valley Institution for Women. His daughters are 18 and 16. Emily is an active runner will be running track at McGill next year while their younger daughter plays field hockey in high school. Both girls played in the Pictou County teenage pipe and drum band. Rob also shares a Rotary connection with his father in law, who lives in Dalhousie, New Brunswick, and has been a Rotarian for about 10 years. keep fit

Beyond work and family Rob is committed to running and staying fit, for both physical fitness and to keep his mind clear and focused.diaBetes

He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2002, lives with it everyday (with the help of 5 needles a day) and has been spending time becoming involved in public education about the disease. His involvement with the Canadian Diabetes Association to find a cure has also highlighted the importance that OAC plays in support-ing research into food and health and wellness issues.

toronto maple leafs

Rob couldn’t end without saying that he has a lifelong commitment to the Toronto Maple Leafs. (ed. Why??) One of the benefits of being back in Ontario is the ability to go to home games once in a while. So far he has gone to eight games, and the team has compiled a perfect record; they have zero wins and eight losses. If they reach the 0-10 mark, Rob wants the team to compensate him to NOT attend any games. He still vaguely remembers 1967, and like all other deluded Leaf fans, hopes there will be another Stanley Cup soon. rotary

Rob closed by thanking the audience and by saying that he hopes to play a more active role in the Club in the near future.

thank yoU — Bill stevens

Bill Stevens thanked Rob and stated that he is forever grateful for OAC for not asking him to return his de-gree. “As we know, Guelph is the hub of agrifood” he said, and being the Dean of OAC is a significant role in that hub. He thanked Rob for sharing OAC’s plans and history, and in addition thanked him for finding time for Rotary in his busy professional and personal life.

close of meeting

President Ian closed the meeting by announcing that next week he will be in Vegas to “hear 1,600 barber shoppers do their thing.” Tim Mau will step in as host.

Universal Truths• I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap

when I was.• I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind

of tired. • Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after

Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collec-tion...again.

• I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

• “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this - ever.

• I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

• Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collec-tion...again.

• I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

• I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What did you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

• I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

ews bulletin - rotaryclubofguelph.com · president ian rob gordon — guest speaker tom funk —...

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