The Weekly Westerner Edition 54.44 (Mar 29, 2021)

President Bill Fitzsimmons opened the meeting at 11:30 am for fellowship and officially kicked off the meeting at12 noon from Regina. 41 participants were in attendance, via Zoom. Today’s meeting was led by President-elect Marlene Doherty and Karen Blewett.

Guests included: Bob Acton, prospective member; Mary Jane Assaly; Stu Kuiack and Karen Blewett, our guest speaker.

Marie Rickard provided our inspirational moment. As we set in motion a plan to engage our club, we pause on “Inspiration”….What is it? Some quotes are as follows:

Robert Sultana: “People, who are craziest enough to change the world, usually do!"
Helen Keller: “Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
Albert Einstein: “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
Brian Tracy: “A clear vision backed by a definite plan gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.”
Winston Churchill: “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

Guest Speaker

Garfield Ganong introduced our guest speakers (pictured above), District Strategic Planning Lead, Karen Blewett, along with our own Marlene Doherty, chairman of the Strategic Planning committee. Karen is a member of Rotary for 15 years and past president of the Medicine Hat Club.

Marlene kicked off the meeting by thanking the Strategic Planning committee for all their hard work which commenced September 28, 2020. The committee comprised of Linda Anderson, Gord Cox, Don Edie, Dan Doherty, Nketti Johnson-Taylor and Rob McMahon.

Karen led us through the process to date: Engaging our Club for the Future

Process Overview	Highlights
Club Engagement in Planning	Excellent results as 12 surveys on club service, interviews, forms and written worksheets received with majority of members participating.
Planning Process and Results	To be effective, seven steps in the planning process were successfully completed: preparation, content, organizing, communicating, implementing, monitoring and lastly celebration. Planning results focused on future direction, purpose, core values, goals and priorities. From there, focus was on our vision, including R.I.’s vision and what we hope to achieve in the future.
How it fits together	Pulling it all together: Increase our impact: develop a strategy and engage with community. Expand our reach: collaborate and tell our Calgary West story. Enhance member and community engagement: build connections, using RI and District learning center and mentoring members. Increase our ability to adapt: build a culture of innovation, establish a ways and means team and establish a community plan.
Next Steps	Take all the ideas and comments made over the past six months from surveys together with discussion groups and put them together into a Strategic Plan that will take us into the next three to five years. Target date to present to the membership for approval, April 12, 2021.
	Great job, Marlene and your Strategic Planning Committee.

Les Morgan expressed the thanks of the club. We are acutely aware of the time and energy Karen has expended to help lead us and facilitate the process. Thanks for your leadership and we promise a “Boltman”, or some such, in the future!

Robyn Braley announced there will be no meeting next Monday as this is Easter Monday. A special meeting will be held Thursday, April 8^th, at 6:30 pm for “A Journey to an Organ Transplant….and beyond”. Presenters will be Maureen Bildfell, daughter of our deceased member, Clare Bildfell, and our very own Orlin and Debbie McMillan. Bring a friend and come and hear their inspiring stories. Also, wear a green shirt to honour Logan Boulet, a Humboldt Bronco, whose legacy inspires organ donations. See myhealth.alberta.ca

President Bill expressed the thanks of the club to our speakers and adjourned the meeting at 1:02 p.m.