President Louise began the meeting by announcing her Rotarian of the Month for September – Lew and Inge Ford.  They are receiving the Rotary Star for all of the work in training our members and other Rotarians on the workings of ZOOM.  She also reminded members that recordings of the Training Sessions done by Lew and Inge, as well as some reference materials are available on our club website under Member Documents.

 

The RI Theme for the month of September is Basic Education and Literacy and President Louise reminded members that the program for our September 28 meeting is an update on our Rotary African Women Education Fund.

 

The following email has been received from Ernie Ginsler, chair of our Peace Committee:

Our guests today included Jordan Nara and Mike Morrice, potential new members of the club as well as our guest speaker, Wayne Kuhn – Distinguished Toast Master, Toastmasters International.

Karin Voisin, Rotary Club of Kitchener Westmount

Elena Spinal, Rotary Club of Moscow International

Howard Pell was happy to announce that the 2021 version of the Leejay Levine Memorial Calendar is now available.  Leejay was the grandson of former member Marty Levine who died tragically during a routine dental procedure.  Each year his mother, Shirley, creates a calendar using Leejay’s own art work and the proceeds from the sale of the calendars go to a different charity.  This year they will be going to The Therapy Dogs of St. John’s Ambulance.  The calendars sell for $10 and you can contact Howard if interested.

 

Paul Rostrup, is happy for two special events this week – his wife’s birthday on September 14 and their anniversary on September 19 (actually he is really happy that both events are close together so her can easily remember them!).  Paul is also very pleased and relieved that our Five-Club Catch The Ace Fundraising has officially begun. See more under Club Announcements.

 

Many of us will remember former member Brent Dekoning and Martin Jones was pleased to hear from him recently.  Brent contacted Martin to let him know that he is now a member of the Rotary Club of Drayton and that he is pleased to see that we are continuing to support the Nutrition For Learning program even in its new format.

 

Adrian DeCoo was happy to let members know that our very own Hubert Singh became the Brookfield Golf Club’s Senior Champion this past weekend for the second year in a row.  Also, the women’s champion was Rose Kocher, wife of Darren Sweeney, congratulations to both!

Our Catch The Ace fundraiser is now under way!  All members are asked to spread the word and to get friends, relatives, colleagues, former boy or girl friends, anyone and everyone aware of the chance to win big while supporting our local hospitals and KidsAbility.  The URL for the site is catchtheaceKW.ca.

 

An added bonus to the work the five clubs have done in creating the Catch The Ace Lottery is a new Internet landing page for all five clubs with links to each of the cubs – be sure to check out rotaryofkw.ca.

 

This week is Smile Cookies week at Tim Hortons with $1 from each cookie sold going to KidsAbility and Nutrition For learning.  So treat yourself and support these worthy causes.

 

Club Members who have been involved with our Nutrition For Learning program at Forest Hill Public School in the past will have received an email from Martin Jones explaining the new centralized procedure due to the impact of COVID-19.  Basically we will be meeting on Wednesday morning at the Schwaben Club on King Street in Kitchener.  The centre will open at 8:00 a.m. but volunteers can arrive later but are asked to commit to at least one hour prior to the end of the morning session at 12:00 noon.  If interested in joining in the fun please contact Martin.

 

Neil Swayze reminded members that our Online Auction fundraiser is now underway.  In recognition of the impact of COVID-19 we are keeping our goal for this year the same as last year’s result – i.e. a net profit of $18,000.  Once again though, to achieve this we need all members to be active and to bring in at least $500 in product.  A support package will be sent to all members within the week and updates and reminders will be provided at weekly meetings.

Our guest speaker today was Wayne Kuhn, a long standing member of the Toastmasters International who now has the designation of Distinguished Toastmaster.  Wayne is a local restate agent and a member of the Black Walnut Toastmasters Club that meets at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday mornings.

 

Wayne began by reminding us that Rotary and Toastmasters have formed a partnership with the aim of working together to provide members with more opportunities for personal and professional growth.  Through this alliance members can find new ways to make connections and contribute to our communities.

 

Toastmasters began as a series of speaking clubs organized by Ralph C. Smedley during his time working for the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) in Bloomington, Illinois.  As director of education at the YMCA, Smedley saw a need for men in the community to learn who to speak, conduct meetings, plan programs and work on committees, and he wanted to help them.  The first meeting was held at the YMCA building on October 22, 1924.

 

Wayne sees three main components of Toastmasters – Education, Relationships and Recharging

 

The following elements comprises the Education Component:

 

At the weekly meetings there are Table Topics requiring Impromptu speeches, and presentations of five to seven minutes.  There are also competitions at the club, area, division, district and regional levels.

 

The Relationships aspects include:

 

Through the Toastmasters program individuals are able to recharge themselves through:

 

More information and the meeting locations for other clubs can be found at www.toastmasters86.org.