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Pres Heidi opened another addition of 'It's all about US' programs - She kicked of with a speed writing test for the bulletin editor - spouting off numerous dates and facts about Rotary just to see how many I could write down..... so here we go... A History of RI Conventions: 1905 - Rotary Started 1910 - Chicago - first official convention of multiple clubs - 60 people attended 1912 - Rotary goes International, expanding to Winnipeg, Canada 1914 - Hamilton Club suggested 'Peace' as a focus for Rotary 1917 - Atlanta Georgia, RI Pres Arch C Klumph - Founder of the Rotary Foundation 1921 - Edinburgh, Scotland 1931 - Vienna Austria - and our first commemorative stamp was produced 1945 - Chicago - total 141 people, as many travel restrictions in 1945.... 1978 - Tokyo Japan - with Clem Renouf, started the Health, Hunger, Humanity Grants, which are now the Rotary Global Grants. 1980 - Chicago - Albert Sabin spoke - the developer of the oral polio vaccine 1988 - Philadelphia Pennsylvania - Polio Plus was started; initial was to hit $120 Million by the end of the convention - we ended it with $247 MILLION unbelievable.... 2021 - Taipei, Taiwan... but it will be virtual, just as Hawaii was last year :( 2022 - Houston, Texas 2023 - Melbourne, Australia 2024 - Singapore, Singapore 2025 - Calgary, Canada Past President Larry Brokenshire then took the reins, speaking about his year as President - first in 1996/97, and then again in 2002/03. - in '96, he attended the RI convention in Calgary, Alberta.... which he had been to many times with work... so.... not an exciting location, but it was Larry's first introduction to the massive scope of Rotary around the world. There was some reminiscing about fundraisers and fun times had by all... - in 2002, he lead the Rotary GSE team to Shung Shung Buck Dow Province of Korea (I didn't look up the spelling........). Larry spoke of the fantastic experience he had; planting commemorative trees in each country. The biggest 'difference' was going to a fancy restaurant, walking by a dog that was on display (alive and happy....) only to enter the restaurant and have that very dog on the menu. Larry had the chicken... I hope the meeting was as interesting to new members as it was fun for me; half of us were reminiscing - I loved it :) Thanks President Heidi!! Next week - we'll here from Flip U! It's an initiative in Kitchener that is flipping leadership on it's head - they have put a tonne of effort in to their presentation, so hopefully we'll have a great turn out. Check out their website here. |
