Books the Rotary Club of London South collected and were donated by the London Public Library were unloaded and headed for the Kingdom of Eswatini ( formally Swaziland) along with sleeping mats,  Two containers were purchased by the Rotary Club of Grand Bend and will be converted to school rooms when they arrive at their destination.  The containers are packed with school room equipment, wheelchairs,  our books and sleeping mats and other materials needed in Eswatini.

 

Club members stamped the Four Way Test and club name in 1,00+ Dictionaries in preparation for distribution to Grade Three students in London Schools.  Last year London clubs distributed over 5,800 dictionaries to children in the Thames Valley area.

Melinda Grant shared her experiences in working in Guatemala with remote indigenous people  Her personal situation led Melinda and her daughter to service in Guatemala.  One of the projects involved improving living conditions by adding clay reinforced floors to homes, reducing insect infestation and improving sanitation.  Other projects included improving local diets by setting up raised gardens for vegetables, proving water for a local school, and cisterns for water.

Chris Ryan, CFO of London International Airport brought us up to date with the planning at the Airport and recent developments.  London is fortunate to have an airport with strong infrastructure.  The runway is long enough to handle heavy aircraft and is a hub for Southern Ontario.  Toronto's Pearson is limited in its capacity and limited by the layout of runways.   LIA has planned to take more that one million passengers in 2020.  The addition of the low cost carrier Swoop expands the number of Canadian and international cities served by London.  The Airport adds $50 Million in taxes, 1400 Jobs and $137 Million in GDP to our local economy for each one million passengers served.  The impact will only increase in the future.  The addition of a new flight school at Fanshawe will also be an advantage to the Airlines industry.

A great time was had by all at the Welcome and Birthday party for our Exchange student Duda Dercy.  Special thanks to Anette for hosting the party and arranging for all the goodies.

Carolyn Martyn - Owner and health and wellness coach from Shine, talked to us about health and wellness from the inside out.  She emphasized the importance of proper nutrition on the brain including the relationship of fat and sugar to proper brain health. Other important factors in wellness include exercise (cardio 3-4 times a week) and the proper amount of sleep.

Alex Purdom gave us some insight to his family and his profession.  Besides being a Golf player at a high level, Alex showed some high level work he has done on the CN  Tower walk, including leaning backwards over the city of Toronto.  He has a long family history with Western and is a member of a fraternity his grandfather helped establish in the 1940's.

On a professional level Alex described the long run performance of various investment strategies and results of fund managers. Despite the relatively indifferent performance of fund manages, individual investors perform even worse due to their short term focus and trying to time the market and loss aversion attitudes.  His firm endeavours to make an impact on their client's,   whether it is investing for retirement or helping to finance a child's education. Alex provided detailed review of market performance and long range perspective. Their approach is understanding a client's goals, making a plan, acting on the plan, and monitoring progress.

The July 5th meeting had a packed agenda.  District Governor Tony Sheard's official visit to the club coinsided with our club change over meeting.  We were hououred to have the DG swear in President Joanne and the board of directors and avenue of service chairs for the new Rotary year.  Past President Bill started the meeting as his last official act and he thanked the club for supporting him in a successful year which saw our membership grow and our fundraising increase.

 

DG Tony explained his goals for increased membership, expanded promotion of the things we do, support for the Foundation, success through integrity, inclusiveness, diversity and "DOGOODERY".  He challenged us to participate in his Rotary Glasses photo promotion.

Our offsite meeting at Museum London was a success.  We met for breakfast in the cafe follow by a guided tour of some of the exhibits and "back room" collection. The tour was lead by Brian Meehan the Executive Director  of the museum.  We saw the finished construction that was underway at our last visit.

 

The art collection incorporates local paintings and renderings starting in 1839 with watercolours by garrison officers stationed at what is now Victoria park to current art work from local artists.  The collection also includes group of seven paintings, Paul Peel works, and many important donated items.  The tour took in some of the permanent displays and special exhibitions.

 

We saw the vaults where art is stored to protect it from heat and humidity.  

We visited the vast collection of historical items the museum houses to keep London's history alive. 

 

A great off site meeting and tour.

 

 

Recently packed kits are being sent to Senegal with the aid of a District Grant from our club and packed by these volunteers.

Jay Lawrence and Nicole Kamiki described the importance of basketball their lives and their experience in growing up in South Africa under apartheid.  Jay outlined the development of the YFC basketball program from a "place to hang out" to a more competitive level of sport.  The program grew and changed from a casual pickup games to an organized competitive league in the Compass league.  He emphasized coaching as a mentoring and connection process that will help young men be better men, husbands, fathers and individuals.  The basketball program has taken young men from the Glen Carin and other economically disadvantaged areas and allowed them to develop travel and have new experiences.

 

Nicole described her experience growing up in South Africa at the end of apartheid, going to school in a "white" school sponsored by Germany, and playing basketball at a high level- including the national team.  She was scouted by an American coach and given a scholarship to a university in Tennessee where she completed her undergraduate education.   She wanted to do graduate level studies and she searched out Canadian universities that would provide scholarship opportunities and found an opportunity a Western.  Nicole completed her Ph.D and is a researcher at Western.  Her husband plays basketball with Jay and discussed the Compass basketball program with him.  They are developing a program for young women to play in a league and hopes to provide the same character development the young men have seen.

Four Members of our club attended the District Learning Assembly/PETS held in Sarnia and broadcast to Owen Sound.  President Bill, Vice President Joanne, Kathleen Murphy, Joan Fisher and Jim Thomas attended on behalf of our club.  We heard and up date from DG Jim on progress this Rotary year.  We have turned around the decline in membership and added a significant number of new members and chartered a Passport Club.  As a welcome to the Passport Club, President Bill and Vice President Joanne presented a cheque from our club to provide registration to the Foundation Seminar for the Passport Club.   

 

 

 

DGE Tony reviewed initiatives by RI in environmental issues and the new RI and District strategic plan.  The plans provide for continuity of efforts and sustainability of direction. Emphasis was placed on growing membership, increasing Foundation contributions, expanded reach by clubs and increased public image.  All of these initiatives are linked for DGE Tony's year, DGN David's year and DGNN Erin's year.  DGE Tony pointed out that the Council on Legislation is meeting currently and will require review of by-laws

 

Breakout sessions were provided for membership development, Youth Services, Rotaraction, Service Project Sustainability, and Social Media image management.