Upcoming Programs or Speakers

  March        9           CHAP - Linda Lucas                            April    6    No Meeting  Roses Workday tomorrow
  March      16           Shelter Boxes - Keith Koke                  April    7    Roses Workday
  March      23           L.H.I.N. - Gary Switzer                        April  13    Revisit Visioning Process - Jim Nash
  March      30           Club Assembly                                     April  20    Rotary Giving's - Dave McGuire
                                                                                              April  27    Classification - John Schinkel

NOTE:  The regular May 4th, Tuesday meeting at Smitty's is rescheduled to May 5th, Wednesday in order to host the inbound GSE Team from Japan.  All eight Canadian Clubs in the Sector of District 6380 are joining for this joint presentation so we will have an opportunity for networking.     Cocktails at 6:00pm and Dinner at 7:00pm
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Good morning from President Blake!
 

Cora & Elliott Vince, Carrie Hopper of the Early Years Centre, Suzanne Warrener, Linda Kitzul, Ruth Howell, Gord Campbell, John Burgess, Jen Thompson & Liam of Babies & Books & Heather Sarson

 
 
 

 Cora pulled Greg Kett’s ticket who was lucky for $8. The pot’s about $102!

 Happy Bucks:

Ivan’s just back from 3 ½ wks to somewhere that was supposed to be warm…..He offers his congrats to the Pounders & paid his Pledge for Polio

John L is heading off for skiing at Mt Tremblant for 10 days

Harry is happy for the excitement created around Sunday’s game

 Anniversaries and Birthdays:   

Happy Birthday to Suzanne!

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our 10th annual Roses for Rotary kick-off!

 

In ten years:

   -  We have gone from selling 126 dozen roses to over 1400 dozen
   -  We have gone from inserting each rose into a water pick TO packaging the orders in boxes with ice packs TO the bouquets we package now
    - We have supported pediatrics at the Health Alliance, Chatham-Kent Physician Recruitment, the Every Life Counts Campaign and the Babies and Books Belong Together Program.
    - We have raised over $90,000 dollars!!

This morning I would like to welcome Carrie Hopper, of the Chatham-Kent Early Years Centre, and new mother Jen Thomas and son Liam, representing our Babies and Books Belong Together program!

So, let me explain our 2010 Campaign, especially for the benefit of our new members. Every sunrise member will have received a package today including:

Order forms and master form for photocopying    Tally sheets    And a list of buyers from last year

Roses are easy to sell. By now, the quality of our roses is well-known. The recipients of our monies, particularly when connected to youth and education, are well supported. And they’re only $20 a dozen!
We have 2 varieties again this year: Red or the Sunrise mix of yellows, reds and oranges.

The month of March will be spent selling. Go to your colleagues, your spouse’s colleagues, family, friends, your banker, your hairdresser…..you’d be surprised how easy it is to get on a roll. With fresh ideas from the new members of our committee, and the public support for this program, we have raised our target this year to 1600 dozen!! Work day has become quite efficient for all of us, so let’s really focus on sales to have our most successful year yet!

At every meeting until March 30th, we will be accepting your orders to date. Please help us to predict numbers by handing in whatever you’ve got at each meeting.

One change this year is that we will be missing the help of Beth Walters as our order coordinator. As you all know, Beth is still recovering from her fall, and her hand tires easily from computer work. So my mom, Linda, with the help of Suzanne, will be coordinating all Roses sales.

The meeting on April 6th will be cancelled and, instead, we will meet around 7 in the morning of Wednesday, April 7th at the Portuguese Hall on Grand Ave. This is where we will package and ship out all of our orders. Similar to last year there will be a wet, foam soaking station and a second station where we will finish off the bouquet look and include rotary information.

We will first prepare the 100 dozen order for Union Gas and then move on to members orders. Throughout the morning, members will pack up their orders and head out for their deliveries. All members will deliver to their own buyers, unless other arrangements have been made. Like always, lunch will be provided all of our helpers for work day.

Five key points to help Work Day run smoothly:

1). PUSH THE PICK-UP OPTION: The fewer roses we have to deliver, the more time we can spend packaging, the more sales we can go after!
2). COMMIT YOUR MORNING: We hope that all members will be able to block off at least the morning that day to be able to help with deliveries.
3). LIST YOUR DELIVERY LOCATIONS: Please indicate where you are delivering on your order forms so that we can set up regional deliveries.
4). COLLECT ALL MONEY BEFOREHAND: Please collect all money prior to delivery day so that our drivers do not have to collect any on their routes.
5). NO LATE CHANGES: The work day front desk is always a busy place. Helpers there keep track of every single rose that leaves the building and every dollar that has been paid. We ask that all members make sure they have finalized their orders at least two days before the Work day. The spreadsheet set-up is complex, and all orders have been entered and included in delivery lists, expense charts and total sales. Please help them to keep track of our campaign by confirming your orders in advance of our delivery day.

So let’s brainstorm about our friends and contacts….who might you know in a bank, a factory, a call centre? We have order forms and posters available….you can use these or we can alter them, whatever you need. We have fax forms, email messages, intro letters, etc, that we send to businesses of all kinds…..so if you have an idea, we can help you with it.

Our Roses campaign can be a lot of fun, a chance to call a friend we haven’t touched base with in awhile, a chance to get out and visit other offices around town or a chance to deliver some roses to someone who doesn’t expect it. That’s one of my favourite parts – every year I have an order dropped off to my neighbour. She is a really sweet lady who lives alone, and getting some fresh roses just makes her day.

Lets see if we can set our standards high this year, and meet our own goal of 1600 dozen sold!!

So, in kick-off tradition, we have some roses to auction off and get us in the mood for the campaign! If I could ask our very own president and part-time auctioneer Blake Vince to please….start the auction! 

Thank you to our Lucky auction bidders  –  Laurie, Mark, Harry, Michele, John S, Matt, Bill, Ivan & John L.

 Roses Committee members  –  Terra,  Nicole, Heather, Bonny, Suzanne,
Linda K & Sheila    

As you walk down the fairway of life, you must take time to smell the Roses,
for you only get to pay one round.

                                                                                                                                   Ben Hogan

As all members are aware, BINGO's are one of our best fund raisers and we need members to help out. The fellowship is a wonderful added bonus.  Please do your part to help by volunteering yourself during one or more of the following time frames.

MARCH       30   - (Tuesday)        7:00 and 9:30pm   -   Steve Pickard, Bill Dielman
APRIL          14    - (Wednesday)  7:00pm                   -   Bonny Pigeon, Greg Kett, Ashley White, Nicole Gignac
MAY             19   - (Monday)        6:00pm                   -   
JUNE            16   - (Sunday)          6:00pm                   -   Linda Goldsmith

You need to be there one hour and fifteen minutes before the start time. Remember you are awarded 3 make-ups for a regular bingo and one midnight bingo equals 5 make-ups.

             Contact our Bingo Coordinator, Jackie Bray  at 354-0356 or email   jacalyn.bray@rbc.com