Published by admin on 15 Jul 2008
WCS Meeting Minutes– May 31, 2008
Minutes, Notes, and Appendices
1. Call to order by Chair Bette Miller at 9:33 am.
2. Welcome to the meeting….approximately 36 attendees. Introduction of Margery Pasko, the new Secretary..
Attendance list circulated with changes or updates to be added, and an email list circulated with attendees requested to write in their names next to respective email addresses or add yourself.
3. Attendance: Bette Miller, Bruce Higgs, Katie Burke, Kailea MacGillivray, Glen MacGillivray, Bill Gray, Zully Hermani, Bob French, Dorothy Poole, Bengt Ohman, Doug Rowlands, Clive Talbot, George K. Grande, Cletus Peters, Arnold Lawrence, Dian Hutton, George Worobey, Suan Cross, Linda McGuinn, Rene-Paul Forier, Barbara Collette, Beverley Taylor, Lee Cassidy, Salwa Kassab, Edmond Lanthier, Peter Bashaw, Marla Gilliland, Faye Porter, Linda Bradley, Tuncer Astarlioglu, Jennie Forster, Bruce O’Callaghan, Julian Bayley, Wayne Spalding, Jamie Johnstone, Margery Pasko
4. Chairperson’s Remarks
Housekeeping
Bette Miller commented on this being her last meeting as committee chairperson and on what her chairpersonship of the WCS Committee has meant to her. She has enjoyed especially: the great learning experience; the contacts and the friendships here and abroad; the challenges of helping with matching grants - the small ($500) and large projects (the largest a 3-H micro-credit project at ½ million dollars in So. America), the partnering with local clubs and other districts, and the partnering with other NGO’s such as Ryan’s Wells (she assumed the roll of water coordinator for Zone 22 East). The District is very active and has accomplished a great deal of good in the world. She will continue in offering assistance. She encouraged the Rotarians to join, take part, and work with the Rotary Groups which are a wonderful net work depending on what your interests are – whether water, micro-credit, literacy, all aspects of health, etc. She encouraged those involved with projects to work on improving the outcome by making the effort to get out to the project and to meet and visit with your partners: get involved with the projects. The projects turn out much better with the active involvement of the participating clubs.
Bette welcomed Bruce Higgs as becoming the new chairperson on July1st and asked for the same cooperation and support as she enjoyed.
Minutes – called for any corrections or additions for the Mar. 22, 2008 meeting minutes. …..No changes
Agenda – called for any desired additions to the agenda for this meeting. ….None
Reports
a) District Governor – Edmond Lanthier
DG Edmond thanked Bette for her leadership, dedication and years of service to the WCS Committee and all the work she has done on the matching grants and in many other areas for many, many years. He thanked her for her offer of assistance in the future. He was grateful for her having accepted the Chairperson under Peter Bashaw and wished her well in the future.
b) District Governor – Peter Bashaw
Thanked Edmund and Bette for their leadership this past year and looks forward to Bruce Higgs and he working to go forward. He will forward on to Bruce requests to help for the WCS Committee. Also, he requested that District clubs send him pictures of club projects – both here and overseas.
c) District Governor Nominee - Arnold Lawrence
Arnold added his thanks for all the great work this committee has done. He commented on his attendance at the Uniendo America Project Fair and was impressed with the high regard held for our district. He hoped more Rotarians would travel to such fairs to see the positive effect we are having.
d) The Foundation Committee – Clive Talbot
• Polio Plus Partners Appeal – All clubs were encouraged to contribute $100 per club to this appeal. So far 40 clubs have responded to that request. Un-finalized total is around $13,000 for the Foundation. He thanked those clubs which gave to the PDG, but 25 clubs in the district didn’t send in a donation. It’s not too late. The donations must be made out to The Rotary Foundation for Polio Plus Partners and sent to the correct address: Clive Talbot, 16 Woodford Way, Ottawa, ON., K2J 4C4
• Foundation – Annual Program Donations and Grants – The tally as of Mar. 31st on the donations to the Foundation through the Annual Program, which is used for the District’s matching grants, $120,000+ and by May 19th was up to $136,000+. This seems to be a little better than last year, but remember we are trying to get clubs to donate the equivalent of $100 per every Rotarian member every year. With 2100 members in the district, we should be looking at $200,000 odd dollars. All committee members were asked to remind their clubs to get such monies in by June 30th, and that whatever the total is on June 30th will be what’s available to the district as District Designated Funds (DDF) 3 years down the line. This is urgent.
o District Simplified Grants – for this year – Clive’s worries over clubs failing to meet the reporting requirements on projects causing next year’s funds to be held up or lost for the year are lessening. The one project from two years ago has been sorted out, and he expects that last year and this year projects will all be fully reported to enable the release of this year’s funds sometime in July. There will be $12,600 available for next year’s grants.
o There may be as much as $30,000 of unexpended grant money from last year that may roll forward into this year for new grants. Reasons for the problems include inertia, inexperience, and failure to do proper reporting.
• Ambassadorial Scholarships – We have 3 excellent candidates this year under consideration, and we even have an applicant for the World Peace Scholarship – all are excellent candidates. There are only 60 World Peace Scholarships award for the world: it’s very competitive.
• Matching Grants – We currently have 16 matching grants in our district, but only one’s reporting is outstanding. Any failures in reporting or unpaid dues can result in disqualification for future grants. Sometimes it is the partner club overseas which has failed to meet reporting requirements. Grants from this past year have $30,000 in unexpended funds out of $50,000. Some clubs which have chosen to abandon the matching grant process (because of the complications). This can mean the district may loose money it would have sent in to the Foundation.
o It is proposed to set a 3 month limit for clubs to start work on funded projects, the committee reserves the right to pull the money and to give it to another project in hopes of getting the money used in the year it is allocated. Four meeting are already scheduled for reviews of all matching grant funded projects to ride herd on timely use of allocated money.
o Applications that are not in by Mar 31st of the year, in an acceptable form, will not be reconsidered by TRF until the time around July 15th of the new Rotary year: get it in timely and correctly.
Discussion:
• The intent is to make sure clubs take the initiative to get the involvement of the other club timely so that all documents are properly signed, and that the other club members are responding to emails and are committed and involved in the project as it is often a person from a third party club which has no stake in the matching grant process.
• Failure to report and/or the report not being acceptable in volunteer service grants is an important problem Rotary International’s tax exempt status is dependent upon meeting the audit requirement of 12 months reporting. Clubs here need to take the initiative to make sure offshore clubs meet their reporting requirements. It helps if the offshore club has made a significant contribution to the project. It also often helps if the responsibility for reporting rests with the D7040 club.
• Signatures can be a problem and must be for the current year. Digitally inserted signatures are a challenge for some. Faxed or scanned signatures are acceptable to TRF. TRF places great importance on receiving all of the signatures; if necessary, they will accept a number of pieces of paper or scans in order to accomplish this.
e) Canadian Rotary Collaboration for International Development (CRCID) - Bruce O’Callaghan
• This is another route for Rotary Clubs to get matching grant money for programs and projects. Currently we are in the second year of a CIDA contract for projects, which will end in April next year. Almost 3 million dollars was given by CIDA to Rotary in Canada, and, though Rotary has spent a good portion of that, we are a little behind on the spending of it. It has to be spent by April and on a few months later. To avoid the problems of our not being ready at the beginning of our current contract, we are asking clubs to prepare now the project requests that would continue current projects so that the paperwork will be turned in by October of this year for inclusion in the CIDA contract which would start next April. There are projects possibilities related to health, education, and water, and a new interest in adding micro-credit to other projects. The CIDA program will match all your club funds, district funds, and foundation funds. The process is difficult because Rotary assessments have to be done prior to October in those 3 respective areas so that the finalized paperwork can be turned into CIDA in October for projects which will start in April. They have opened the door to having more things in the proposed projects which also opens the door to more funding. We are not nearly as restricted as we were. The geographic focus requirement is no longer in place, though there are still some countries where CIDA will not fund projects. Smaller projects may be incorporated in larger projects; some large projects have been up to ½ million dollars. There are new submissions for larger programs being turned in to CIDA on a continuous basis for consideration.
• Comments from the floor:
Mr. Steve Ricard President of the Rotary Micro-credit Action Committee for the world has asked PDG Bob French to look for people to sit on a Canadian committee to look for ways to incorporate micro-credit in all the programs funded though CRCID. Bob asked for people interested to give him their names, and he will pass them on. He expressed an interest in participating himself.
Question on choice of country limitations –Ans. The previous limit of 9 countries was for our first contract. Once the new contract is issued, a new limit on countries will be in place during the new contract. The guidelines are posted on the CRCID web site. The Canadian government has determined that some countries don’t require aid, i.e. Russia: there are still some limitations. http://www.igloo.org/canadianrotarycommittee
Question on the project to control malaria in Tanzania – Ans. The project is closed. It was worth approximately $600,000 and was initiated in a new manner ‘top down.’ No club initiated it, but money was collected and CIDA matched it. Initiatives to pursue it came from the top, and the project will be watch with interest. The program hasn’t started yet, but they are looking to buy materials needed. Bruce is willing to help interested clubs connect with the right people to look at pursuing this type of project. For clarification: grants given to programs by CRCID are split into matching grants put forward by clubs which must also be approved by TRF as a humanitarian grant.
Question Raised on the Canadian Counsel for International Cooperation – Bruce is on the Board and can address questions on programs, measures of success, etc. The addition of the business orientation of Rotarians has been welcomed.
http://www.ccic.ca/ is their web site.
f) Rotary Action Groups – Faye Porter, Coordinator for ‘Health and Hunger’
June 14th is World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) – Do you know your type? Rotary is a supporter of WBDD Webb site www.blood.ca At this site, with your postal code, you can find donor location near you. She will be happy to supply a little article for club newsletters on a project in Malawi on ‘Malaria Net’ and other topics in the future. Email: feporter@persona.ca
• Health and Hunger - Resource Guide – Has many links for Rotary and UN activities in the health and hunger fields. A printable copy of the guide is available at: http://www.rotary3060.net/pdf/Health_Hunger_Brochure_07-08.pdf. It is a two page document in PDF
g) ShelterBox – Bill Gray
• Bill gave an update on ShelterBox: so far 2150 ShelterBoxes have gone to China (actually 700 of those started in China, manufactured in Shanghai), 1694 have gone to Myanmar (Burma) – ShelterBox folks were the first people to be given permission to go there on May 7th; so far 200 boxes each have gone to Bolivia, Afghanistan, Zambia, 170 boxes to Mozambique. Year-to-date over 5000 ShelterBoxes have been distributed helping approximately 50,000 people which represents between $5-6 million of Rotary donations: that’s a big deal. Clearly ShelterBox is serving a need. Bill encouraged clubs to continue their efforts and to expand them to help build up the inventories. Bill made special mention of Tom Henderson’s persistence and courage – one person and one club initiated a program that has raised $60,000,000 in 7 years.
• ShelterBox founder Tom Henderson
will be coming to Kingston, Ontario – the only event in Eastern Canada this year - and the goal is to raise $50,000 at that event Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 in Kingston, ON; more. All the clubs in the District will be invited to come and will be encouraged to bring a check or pledge. For information contact Bruce Higgs or Bill Gray. It should be an evening of fun, fellowship, updates, and the fun of meeting the $50,000 goal for the evening.
• Bill did a power point presentation to show what one can expect to see on ShelterBox web sites: http://www.shelterbox.org/ For latest news
http://www.shelterbox.ca/
http://www.shelterboxusa.org/
• Bette and Bill encouraged clubs to use a ShelterBox to display at events. Cost $1,000 US, $1,200 CA
h) Myanmar/Burma – Julian Bayley
• In recognition of the problems of getting help into Myanmar, a club in Deep River has a Burmese member who as found an alternative way to get help into Myanmar. Monetary donations can go directly to the people in Myanmar through the Burma Cyclone Relief Committee being set up in Toronto in association with the Buddhist Community. A list of contacts is included with the minutes.
• E-mail: kjb2@magma.ca
Snail mail:
RR#1,
Deep River ON K0J 1P0
Phone: 613-584-3959
j) Rotary Volunteers
Bette queried whether there had been any Rotary Volunteers out making visits. No responses. Bette mentioned that a woman from British Columbia had written expressing an interested in doing humanitarian work with in the next year (she has relatives in Quebec, and is an employment counselor), and if anyone is interested in getting in touch with her, Bette has the information.
k) Project Fair in Costa Rica 2008 & Uniendo America 2009
Bette Miller –Last January 11 Rotary members from Dist. 4070 were in El Salvador. There was quite a bit of discussion that, not unlike the kind of activities undertaken by Interactors and Rotaractors, Rotary members might be interested in doing some of the same sort of activities in conjunction with Uniendo America. So, in consultation with Ligia Corridor – formally from Ogdensburg and now is in Florida, we’ve made some inquiries of Rotarians in El Salvador about doing something of this sort. They were quite interested in this possibility and saw some real potential to do painting, conducting of medical clinics, finishing a house, etc. as Interactors do in depressed or deprived areas of the country. The time would be during a window from Jan. 15th to Feb.1st, 2008 Uniendo America Project Fair is in Belize Jan 28th to Jan.31st.
Bette has been in touch with Paul Giroux of Emerald Travel, Petawawa, and he has loosely blocked 20 seats via TACA at a rate of just over $1140 with a non-stop flight out of Toronto to El Salvador. Bette wrote up the arrangements and has copies available to send around. See Attachment II for an example of the itinerary.
l) Rotaract – Kailea MacGillivray
This will be the 3rd year were have been running Rotaract trips to El Salvador. This year 20 Rotaractors lead by Queen’s Rotaractors: traveled down the first 2 weeks of May. They do a number of projects similar to what Interact does. Their big project this year was constructing a kitchen in an orphanage, and also attended a 5 district, 3- day conference of Rotaract and Interact. There were 4 Rotaractors – 2 from Queens & 2 from Ottawa – who stayed on for the full month May to live and work in an orphanage in Taltrawfaw, San Salvador where they are teaching English. It seems to have gone well and may be continued in the future. Because the Rotaract Clubs have saturated their district for donations, they may be expanding their requests to more Rotary Clubs in the district, and Katie gave a heads-up on the possible receipt of a plea – any assistance would be gratefully appreciated.
• Edmund Lanthier, DG added a star to the report: the Ottawa Rotaract Club associated with Ottawa and Carleton Universities provided some seed money for a major grant in Mar. of this year for a project in India to provide multi-faceted services to women in a village outside of a major city. The Ottawa Club provided most of the money. Katie added that the Club has several East Indian women – Rotaractors with their mothers – who contributed food to a fundraiser because they wanted to help a project in India.
• Question from the floor on who is leading the El Salvador mission. Bette indicated that the Rotary Club of San Salvador Cuscatlan, El Salvador in conjunction with Ligia and Bette herself.
m) GSE – Katie Burke
There was an exchange team with Sweden on March 27th through to April 25th. The team included team leader David Mackellar and team members - representing the following vocations: librarian, border security officer, and lawyer - visited District 2380 which is in the center of Sweden. They had, on average, 8 host families; made over 20 presentations, and they attended the District Conference. They had 5 vocational days which were very well organized. There were at least 2 articles in local Swedish newspapers. They found particularly touching a farewell evening with all of their host families to be with them for a final super.
• The next exchange is to France (Burgundy and Champagne); the call is out for a team leader, the deadline is June 20th; and the call for the team members will go out just before the deadline for team leader.
n) In response to a call for any other issues or ideas to be shared:
• A discussion of a play ground for children of all abilities which opened 3 weeks ago in Ottawa (a joint venture of Ottawa Clubs). The idea was brought home from a GSE trip to Australia. Brochures were available from the start of the initiative 3 years ago for anyone interested.
• A discussion of the frequency of GSE teams moving – sometimes every night – has a resolution been found? There was a discussion of the problem, and the issue is still on the list of things to address.
o) Project Opportunities and Possibilities – Linda Bradley
The paperwork has been done by the receiving clubs & the
projects are ready to go if a partnering club with seed money can be found. Below are 2 of the ready, matching grant requests related to hosting GSE teams and the Uniendo conference where sponsoring clubs with about $3,000 seed money plus matching Rotary Foundation and district matching funds (DDF) are needed:
• 1st project is in Uruguay. This first one is for refurbishing a regional hospital kitchen including replacing equipment.
• 2nd one is in Argentina – This one, working with a teachers association, is for a cultural center which includes a library and developing a technology center (computers).
• These and more are available from Linda and Bette that are spin-offs GSE, Uniendo America, etc.
• There was an invitation to make ‘baby blankets’ for giving out at a maternity/midwife clinic in San Salvador – made from old cotton sheets (one sheet gives 7 such blankets.) The mothers have nothing in which to wrap their babies when they leave the clinic. Whatever is available will go down in Sept. The contact person is Tuncer Astarlioglu, phone: 613-687-6760, email: nimren@nrtco.net .
p) Lighting Africa Competition – Glen MacGillivray
Glen, a finalist, reported on the outcome of the competition conducted by the World Bank. He and some other Rotarians had been in a partnership to develop a concept for this competition. At a 3 day conference in Africa there were 400 people who were committed to getting lighting into Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa most people, if they have light, it’s powered by candles or kerosene. Sixteen groups were winners: each receiving $200,000. Glen didn’t win, but Rotary Clubs have encouraged him to keep on, and he intends to do so. Any financial help will be welcome.
While there he visited some of the following locations:
• Kumasi & Kumasi East – The Sisters can not afford the gas for the provided SUV (and it’s too ostentatious.)
• Ntinanko – The children visited at St. Joseph’s School need books: both curriculum and reading books in English.
• St. John’s Health Clinic needs financial help to complete a well project to be powered by a solar pump.
• The day-care clinic needs toys and a solar powered computer.
• The 3 tractors at the Palm Oil Cooperative, paid for from here, are broken, possibly due to being run without oil in the gear case. It is possible to make as much as 5,000 barrels of bio-diesel per acre out of palm oil. Glen said nothing in the world produces such a high ratio of oil.
• Kumasi West – A micro-credit project is in the works for a lighting project. They are looking to incorporate, to put together a board of directors, and to develop measures of progress in meeting needs. They are looking for donors to get them started. Glen estimates it would take $2.5 billion to provide needed lighting, but if grown as local businesses, $30 million and 10 years could also accomplish meeting needs. They envision a limited issue of stock/ownership units of 1,000 at a cost of $1,000 each. Each share gives a voting right. Dividends would be put back into growth.
• Links: www.glenenergy.ca www.lightingafrica.org
q) Report by Bill Gray on new project
An unexpected approval of a project due to a rollover of unused money, but the sponsoring club didn’t have the money set aside at the time. Everyone kicked into gear: the Kingston, Gananoque, North Renfrew, and Pembroke Rotary Clubs put together the monetary package, and the Nairobi Club got the project plans finalized and improved upon for a slum school in Nairobi. Bill felt it was an example of the power of Rotary to get things done.
Another example occurred while Bill was in India. He made the acquaintance of couple of Rotarians from Nipigon, ON who ended up, after a 3 minute conversation, helping with a lacking of $250 for a $10,000 project (including matching funds) for books to be used in the education of doctors and engineers in a school library. Bill recommends using one’s time when out-and-about to talk up Rotary.
r) project chance Africa (projectchanceafrica)
– Suan Cross –Suan gave a presentation on a school for 310 children in the Mathere slum of Nairobi, Kenya. It’s the only school resource for 300,000 people living in Mathere, which is in the southern end of Nairobi, and it doubles as a community center helping mothers and AIDS orphans. The children come for food, and while waiting for food, are taught by some dedicated teachers on a primary level ($5 had given enough food for a child for a month, but food prices have doubled.) If there is not enough money to pay the teachers, they continue teaching for food Children are tested for AIDS, and there are a lot of TB, malaria and sight problems. The school has been paying rent, but the landlord wants to sell the land: both the school building and the empty play lot adjoining the school currently used as a play area by the school children. A clinic, which tests the children, will relocate to the school if the school owns the land. The clinic will pay rent, which will give the school a reliable source of some money. The school has very few books and is run by one man who stayed when the start-up missionaries left (it’s a very dangerous neighborhood – UN representatives don’t get out of their car on visits.) The school has one running tap and two latrines. The 12 room school needs replacement as well.
The Nairobi Rotary Club has agreed to partner with them, but help is needed by the Board of Directors of Loving Concern Education Centre to buy the building and land to maintain the school. The landlord is insisting on selling the land, but is giving the school first dibs. Each piece of land costs $42,000 for a total of $84,000. The landlord is willing to forgo 2-3 yrs. of back rent for that purchase price. This school serves the poorest of the poor. Any and all help would be very welcome as the school is in difficult straits over the land and the increased cost of food. See Attachment III.
Suan Cross: phone 819-459-8615; email: chesters@sympatico.ca .
s) Ryan’s Wells – Bruce O’Callaghan
Bruce is a member of the board of Ryan’s Well Foundation. It may be possible to do a project around water resources if the clubs and the paperwork are in place and you can send in an application. Recently a junior school in Grenville, Quebec teamed up with the Hawkesbury Rotary Club and raised $6,000 for Ryan’s Wells. He encourages consideration of involving Interact or Rotaract students, or classes in local schools, or other creative avenues to encourage support for this kind of service.
Future Meeting Dates – Bruce Higgs – Bruce put forward the following dates: Sept. 6th, 2008, Oct. 11th, Dec. 6th, Mar. 21st, 2008, & May 30th. Discussion ensued over the lateness of Labor Day on Sept. 8th. There was a vote on Aug. 30th verses Sept. 6th. Sept. 6th won. Bruce reminded everyone that all Rotarians are welcome to the WCS meetings.
There was discussion over where to have meetings. Some made a recommendation to occasionally have meets in the western area of the district. Bette pointed out that other committees piggy-back the WCS meeting, and there are costs to be considered. Cornwall is very inexpensive.
Bruce O’Callaghan made a motion to accept the meeting dates proposed by Bruce Higgs, seconded by Rene-Paul Forier. Motion carried.
Diane Hutton made a motion that meetings continue at the current location for the new Rotary year, because the dates have been approved, and that upon receipt of the minutes, committee members could make recommendations for changes after this coming year. (The presumption being committee members will have had an opportunity to check if their respective clubs wish to host a meeting and have a specific location in mind.) It was seconded by Rene-Paul Forier. The motion carried.
Motion of Adjournment – made and moved