Rotary ponders a strategic plan

opportunity for the club to be engaged in a strategic plan,” said Mike Sidoryk, who chaired the meeting.

“Let’s put this on paper and see where we all want to go.” out a list of presidents’ projects and the dollar amounts over the past 20 years or so. all day on social media selling tickets and organizing events.

Any Lloyd Rotary club strategy will likely hinge on its two major ongoing fundraisers— Lobsterfest and Dream Vacations, with tickets selling well for both.

Kevin Komrey stood up to say at one time the club had 100 members and sold 400 tickets for the feast.

“Anytime we want to involve the public, it’s a big undertaking,” she explained.

“One thing we do less of than we used to is laugh, in terms of socializing,” said Acton, who noted the Christmas party for members was fun stuff.

It was time for members of the Rotary Club of Lloydminster to revisit the many activities the charity does throughout the year and ponder the future.

With no scheduled guest speaker at this week’s Monday meet - ing, the floor was open to talk about everything Rotary does locally and internationally as well as bounce ideas around.

The opportunity was well timed, knowing Rotarian Wendy Plandowski is creating a club policy while suggesting a strategic plan, too.

“I think it’s a great

Treasurer Pat Skinner informed members Lobsterfest will go ahead on May 6 and typically raises about $40,000 for local and international projects.

Proceeds from the sale of Dream Vacation tickets to be drawn at Lobsterfest directs about $20,000 a year to a project chosen by the current president and includes six $2,000 projects selected by each director.

Skinner also read

“Our club is about half of that now and we’re still doing all that, so I think Rotarians should have a pat on the back. We’re working twice as hard as we used to,” he said.

Michelle Benning says the club needs to be cautious about trying to add too many events.

“I feel like our members do a lot and maybe that’s something we could address in an email survey and send it out,” she said.

“Events are very time intensive and we want to be cognizant that we are meeting our Rotary members’ expectations of what they want to take and receive.”

Benning says as a business person, she doesn’t want to spend

Paul Harris pitched his support for a member survey to determine what individual members have to contribute in terms of time and causes.

New member Chad Kozak says his expectation to network with other businesses as a Rotarian isn’t being met and he thinks that could deter recruiting younger members.

“I haven’t done a single piece of business from here whatsoever. That is part of the reason I am here,” he said.

Kozak suggested a “speed dating” style lunch to have three or four different conversations with someone you haven’t met before.

That got a thumbs up from Robin Acton, who is looking to re-inject some fun into the mix.

Rotarians gave Rita Rondeau-Cain the nod to pitch quarterly meetings for club discussions to the board and monthly fun “speed dating” meetings, noting the Border City club used to do this.

Meanwhile, both Rotary clubs are teaming up to send two area youths to Ottawa for Rotary’s Adventures in Citizenship program.

“I have sent out invitations to all of the schools in the region to let students know we require submissions by March 10,” said Rondeau-Cain.

Plans are also underway for Rotarians and young people from Lloydminster Community Youth Centre to build flower boxes in Rondeau-Cain’s garage.