Rotaract Meeting - April 14, 2009

Attendance: Gabrielle Boulet, Darrell Winwood, Sarah Davison, Michelle Dupont, David Crouse, Mark Forman, Lisa Hansen, Dana Moody, Dale Tiedemann, Rebecca Villebrun, Kendra Wilson

Guests: Cedrick Leblanc, Matthew Hall (soon to be a full fledged member! whoot whoot!)
Guest Speaker: Lane Smith from Ovations Theatre

1. Intro of members and guests (above)

2. Guest Speaker: Lane gave us some great insight on what to expect and what happens when we volunteer at Ovations. He also let us know that we are more than welcome to place our club brochures and info as well as Duck Race info etc around the front tables and in a display case - AWESOME! A sheet was passed around outlining the rules and protocol for both the coat cheque procedure as well as bussing procedure. Above all, he stressed that this is to be a FUN time!! Yes, we are there to work and make sure things run smoothly - but the more we can engage the guests in a fun professional manner, the better - Lane mentioned the tips we earn usually reflect how exuberant the volunteers are! See Michelle if you did not get a sheet outlining duties etc. A few more key points to note: Please wear all black, definitely no open toe shoes, and no jeans! We are able to take some time to watch the show in between duties, and tell whoever you can to come on down and have a great meal and show! Thanks, Lane, for the opportunity to earn some funds for the club, and promote the club to potential new members! Lastly - we will be hosting an intermission segment, thinking perhaps a "pin the tail on the ducky" game to include participation from the audience for a chance to win theatre tickets, duck race tickets, and other various prices. Stay tuned for further ideas on this show! Please contact Michelle @ dupontm @ telus.net

3. Approval of Last Meeting Minutes: Darrell first, Dale second. Passed.

4. Approval of Meeting Agenda: Sarah first, Dana second. Passed.

5. Review of Action Items from Previous Minutes:

• April Social Night: Was a huge success! 7 people came out and scaled some walls, had a great time rock climbing at the college! Thanks to Gab and Jeff for spotting everyone, and thanks to Jose for planning. Social Night Schedule for next few months: MAY=DARRELL
(paintball?), JUNE= GAB (changeover party), JULY=DANA (bowling/golfing?). Stay tuned!

• Downtown Business Association: Darrell advises that last he spoke with Helen Rice, she had offered some "sidewalk sale" tables at the Canada Day parade to sell Duck tickets, as well as something of the same sort potentially with the Iskoteo festival. Attending meetings? Sarah attends them already, will talk to Helen next meeting and firm some more things up for the club. Stay tuned!

6. Old/Ongoing Business:

• Black Tie Bingo: Volunteers resigned up for Dale - the last sheet is MIA.... Dale is looking for about 6 volunteers for this event on Saturday, think we got about 5. Black Tie Bingo is a formal affair, movie star theme this year, so dress up dainty and come down to help out! Rotaract will be doing coat check, and perhaps helping out throughout the night with a few different draws happening, etc. The vent is expecting over 300 people, so there will be lots to do! We are allowed to wear our Rotaract name tags and some signage at coat check. Please show up between 5-5:30 on Saturday.... see you there! Any more info needed, please contact Dale @ d_tiedemann@hotmail.com. Thanks!

• Volunteer Service Lunch: If you are one of the people that is attending, you must pick up your ticket at the VSB office BEFORE the luncheon. This office is located across from Blackman's Butcher Shop (same side of the street, on upper corner near Sylvan learning, Incubus Tattoo, etc). Not sure of the hours, but assume daytime business hours to be the norm.

• Bottle Pickup: So far, no cheque from the Recycle Depot, but let's keep em coming! They issue cheques once per month only if account sits at over $50.... so we should be getting one soon! We reviewed pick up procedure (please refer to last two meetings minutes for details again on this). Sign up sheet went around - but we still need a few more people! The commitment is a one time pick up per week, pick the bottles up from the mall, label them, then drop them off at the depot. Please contact Sarah @ mymortgage@telus.net for sign up or more details/questions.

• Rotary Green-a-thon: Saturday May 2 @ 7:30am, Rotary campground (on the bypass). Please see previous meeting's minutes for details of this campaign. Overview: garbage pickup around our lovely city to make it clean and prettier! Grade 5 and 6 kids come out and do this, starting with a pancake breakfast, and ending with a barbecue...... sign up if you haven't already with Gab! She will need someone to help her visit some schools to promote this day and hand out waiver sheets to the students to participate as well. For more info, contact her @ gabannie@hotmail.com

• Duck Race: We are still looking at our May 1 launch date, to kick off in fine form with somewhat of a party at the Keg. Some issues to ponder and give Darrell some input if you can: Ticket sale venues - we need some! Currently have deals with the mall and Coop, Home Depot, Walmart, IGA, Best Buy and Superstore - let us know if there is anywhere else we can get a booth set up to give this event more exposure and sales!! Ovations is also a great opportunity we've afforded for the Duck Race - we are title sponsor for the month of May. Next Duck Race meeting to be held next Tuesday (April 21) at 6pm, eastside Esquires coffee - feel free to join the committee if you would like more info, or want to get more involved! For more info, you can also contact Darrell @ dwinwood1@mac.com

New Business:
• Rotaract District Co-Chair: Gab received email from the district yesterday afternoon that there will be a vote shortly for this position in the district. All applicants must also submit a bio for review - these will be reviewed by clubs prior to voting. An important note: you cannot vote for your own club member on this poll! We are proud to say that our very own Cheryl is the inaugural current co-chair!! Kudos to Cheryl on this - taking on a brand new role is a trying thing sometimes, and she did a great job! Deadline for nominations and bios is *gasp* Friday, April 17 - but this can be extended if need be seeing as such short notice was given to our club.

• Ovations: As discussed above. Final note: Please consider being a volunteer for this if you are NOT going to the district conference, which falls on one of the same weekends in May - the long weekend. Thanks!!

• Stompede: Pretty sure we figured out this is happening in the last week of May. Darrell was approached to think about entering a team from the Club to volunteer throughout the event. We did this last year - had many of our members help out quite a bit, and did not receive any proceeds as we thought we would in return...... The people who volunteered say it was alot of fun - just a shame we did not get any funding for the club as promised. This year, Darrell was told we could expect anywhere between a $3000-$5000 honorarium for our efforts - a really great amount of money! Sarah did bring up concern around over-committing our club members to too many events - was discussed by club. Agreed that we have stretched our membership over quite a few projects for the next few months, and what with it being summer it's been proven to be that much more difficult to get the volunteers and bodies needed for events. To date, club has Ovations, Green-a-thon, Black Tie Bingo, Bottle Pick-up, Duck Race, District Conference running over the next few months - alot of great stuff, but quite the schedule! Agreed to have Darrell get more info on this, and we will revisit in a future meeting. If not this year, let's keep in front of mind for next year? Sounds good! Stay tuned.

• Rotary Club Updates: changes to meeting times/places for two of the Rotary clubs in town to note: Sunrise Club: Tuesday April 21 @ 7am, held at the Community Village - info session. GP Club: effective Friday, April 17, meeting will be at Quality Inn (no longer GP Inn).

Membership Minute:

• Kendra and Tyler: Kendra present at meeting, reported back that her and Tyler did see eachother briefly, and chatted about a few random things.......er........ they had a good time!! Got to know a little bit more about eachother - we'll get Tyler to elaborate as well next time we see him. A good suggestion from Kendra: the members that are paired up should be supplied with some sort of contact info for eachother in order to plan their date...... wicked suggestion, Kendra! So, see as Dale and Dana are the next two to meet, I will send you guys an email with eachother's contact info following these minutes!!! Can't wait to hear about your outing! Cheryl and Spencer were the last two to pair up, hope to hear about their get together at next meeting.
Have a great week everyone, and see you at the next meeting.....or perhaps Black Tie Bingo? Ovations?? Green-a-thon?? :) Take care!

Meeting Adjourned.

Rotaract Meetting - March 24, 2009

Attendance: Gabrielle Boulet, Darrell Winwood, Miranda Leclerc, Sarah Davison, David Crouse, Kathleen Crouse, Mark Forman, Jose Magat, Dale Tiedemann.

Guest: Cedrick Leblanc

Approval of Last Meeting Minutes: Dale motion, Jose second. Passed.
Approval of Agenda: Darrell motion, David second. Passed.

Action Items:

• Open House: Had great response, potential recruits from the evening, and cheques were made up and presented. thanks to Dana again for getting the space provided and the food! A successful event all in all.

• Bottle Pick up: We reviewed the bottle pickup process, but again for those who weren't in attendance: Please sign up with Michelle or myself for weekly pickup. We have been doing pick up preferably on a Monday/Tuesday, but whatever works for you midweek. When you go into the mall food court, the bottle room is located down the hallway in between the chinese restaurant and taco time on the right hand side (this is the mall's janitorial room as well). The bottles are at the end of the room in the corner in plastic bags. We have left a red Zellers bag there containing a jiffy marker, duct tape, and the power plus account number. Please put the number on tape and attached to the front of each bag of bottles - this way, our account will be credited with the funds. You can take these bottles to either one of the depots - the one on resources is now only open Mondays and Tuesdays, and the other from Wednesdays to Saturdays. There is a drop off spot labeled "power plus" in each depot when you walk in, and you can leave the bags under this sign. So far, we do not have a volunteer for this week - any takers??? I will have a new sign up sheet ready to go at tomorrow's meeting. Thanks to Jose and Gab for last week, and Mark for the week prior. Keep it up you guys!

• Black Tie Bingo: Ah, Dale's bebe, Black tie Bingo! We need volunteers for this for working coat check. A sign up sheet was passed around last meeting, but anybody else that would like to help, please let Dale know! This event is formal, so wear your Sunday's best and come out to help, should be a very fun event. the event is April 18, please be there for 5:30pm (earlier if you can). We have been advised that we are allowed some signage at the coat check, and can keep all tips towards the club! Awesome!

• Volunteer Services breakfast luncheon: 11:30 April 22 at the GP Inn, tickets have been allocated.

Old Ongoing Business:
• Belize Scholarship Project: Gab has found out that our contributions in fact put not one, but THREE TO FOUR students through high school - quite something! We are still deciding on whether we are allocating funds for this from gaming money, or lobster fest funds ($1000 for four years).

• Shelter Box: A quick review: Shelter box is a survival kit that supplies 10 to 12 people with aid/relief though a crisis. They are $1200 CAD each. We need a spokesperson or an ambassador if you will, to go to Peace River, Grimshaw and Fairview for 12pm meetings to present this project - who can travel? Please let us know if your schedule allows, would love the help. More to come, so stay tuned.

• Duck Race: And, over to Darrell for an update: Gaming has received our application, we are just waiting on the approval from them - so the ball is rolling quickly! April 30 has been confirmed for ticket sales to commence. We still need to find and confirm locations for ticket sales - this is a 12 week campaign. Please let Darrell or a member of the Duck Race committee know if you are aware of a location we could use commencing April 30 for 12 weeks running, or even a portion of this time.

• DTBA invites: Helen Rice has extended invites to our club for the Downtown Business Association committee meetings and participation in the Canada day parade a Duck race ticket booth perhaps?..... more to come on this proposal. Also, Iskoteo festival may be somewhere we could sell tickets or participate in the events (this is an arts festival happening in June in Grande Prairie featuring many local artisans - how cool!). Again, more to come on this...

New Business:
• Social Night: April 7 wall climbing, 7pm at the college $18-$20. This event has happened, Jose you will have to fill us in on how it was! Hope it was a success

• Rotary Green-a-thon: let's clean up this city of ours! the 1st Saturday on May there will be a garbage pick up day in Grande Prairie. Kids volunteer as well from local schools, so you may be in charge of a gaggle of little ones doing their best! Gab did it last year, reported it to be very entertaining.... complete with a pancake brekkie to start, then a barbecue after. 9am-1pm approximately, May 2. Sign up sheet will be passed around again at the next meeting.

Membership Minutes:
• Kendra and Tyler coffee time.... neither were present, so we'll have to hear what they got up to and learned about eachother at next meeting...... stay tuned! Cheryl and Spencer have been paired up next for coffee time, so we'll look forward to that as well.

• There is a Swan city Poker Tournament May 7, cost is $20 to enter, with plenty of prizes..... ask Dale for the deets.... he is the poker guy....

• Another Rotaract Interest: Darrell told our club about 6 Rotaract clubs in London, Ont that are doing odd jobs in seniors centers around their community - very cool. They volunteer to do the mundane tasks that help people very much, as well as some fun stuff for the residence. The club has been featured in a few articles for their work - way to go! Also, clubs in salt Lake City are up to some goodness: they raised $51,000 for clean water projects in Cambodia, and reforestation projects in Bangkok.

Meeting Adjourned
Hope everyone had an excellent Easter, and we'll see you all really soon! Have a wonderful night.

Rotaract Meeting - March 10, 2009

7:32 p.m. start

Approval of last minutes: Motion by Kathleen, second by Jose - passed

Approval of agenda: Motion by Dale, Cheryl second - passed

Action Items

Interact charter night: Five members attend. Was a good event to support and the cupcakes were very yummy!

Community Village breakfast: Club was invited to attend - Dale, Gabrielle and Kathleen attended to represent Rotaract and our fundraising commitment. Club has donated $9,000 so far, still have $11,000 commitment outstanding.


Visiting other Rotary Clubs: Visits made to other three clubs to promote Rotaract Open House.

Drag Wars: Meetings ongoing, Rotaract has little involvement.

Open House: Dana and volunteers to set up, some members encouraged to stay behind to help clean up. If needed, Cheryl and Jose will bartend. Event starts at 6 p.m. - speeches at 7 p.m.

Duck Race - Darrell reports on Duck Race. Event is still on track, much more information to come.

Mazatlan bus trip: Bus trip leaves this Saturday at 6 a.m. - your welcome to go and see them off if you like 6 a.m. on a Saturday.

Grande Prairie Legal Guidance: Club invited to celebration/information event for legal clinic in town - March 12 at 4:30-6:30 at Maddhatters.

Black Tie Bingo: STARS event - April 18. Volunteers needed for help that night, possible fundraiser for club. Talk to Dale to sign up.

Volunteer Services Bureau lunch: Lunch to celebrate volunteers in Grande Prairie, club has five tickets for April 22 lunch, two are spoken for - talk to Gab for the rest.


Membership minute: Tyler and Kendra to report for next meeting.