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DG's August 2003 Newsletter

AUGUST IS MEMBERSHIP MONTH – Message from DG Mike

Wherever I visit, the importance of membership in our Family of Rotary - keeping those we have and bringing in the new – is very much on the minds of the club presidents and their boards of directors.

On November 1^st in High River, we are going to tie Membership and The Rotary Foundation together with a concurrent Membership and Foundation seminar led by Mark Starratt and Garth Toombs.

Here is a great Rotary tale from 1910 and maybe a lesson for us today. The secretary of the Seattle club travelled to Portland and convinced six business men to organize a club. The Seattle Rotarians telegraphed they were coming in a special train for the first informational meeting and that including wives there would be 184 of them. The six Portlanders "nearly dropped dead". They recovered sufficiently to hastily organize a banquet and other entertainment, including a brass band to meet the party at the station and march them through the streets to the hotel. With this publicity the club could have had 150 members, but followed the principle of being selective they admitted only the "best" 76 business men in Portland into their club.

DG Mike has been has been on the road to club meetings or events ahead of the August 25^th start to the Official Visits. It began on July 1, enjoying the Rotary Canada Day Parade with the Kananaskis club. July 3 brought an opportunity to attend the regular meeting of the High River club. The second week of July had DG Mike making an informal visit to the Cochrane club, and also gave him a chance to see the Calgary club members in action, as they worked at one of their famous BBQs. Week 3 came, and so did visits to the Airdrie club and also Calgary East (becoming instant guest speaker). Week 4 saw the DG in Nanton, for a meeting with the district conference committee, making a visit to the Calgary North club, and working with his own club at the Saskatchewan Communities Reunion and Gopher Drop.

August began with a bang! DG Mike took part in the two day multi-club ascent of Mt Davidson. Week 2 provided the opportunities of a BBQ with the Raymond club Executive and spouses, and a ride in an antique horse-drawn carriage, as part of the Cardston club’s Annual Rotary Parade. Week 3 and the DG was able to visit the Fish Creek club and also the district’s newest club – the Rotary Club of Calgary Millennium, followed by Calgary Olympic. These informal drop-ins have been notable for expressions of goodwill towards the office of the DG, the need for Rotary information and the concerns about membership numbers.

The First Ascent of Mt. Davidson August 2, 2003

Talk about Lend a Hand. 25 Rotarians, family members and friends lent a hand to each other for a first ascent of a Canadian Rocky Mountain, Mt. Davidson, named in 1935 in honor of James Wheeler Davidson, Canada’s internationally best known Rotarian.

Davidson joined the Calgary Rotary Club in 1914. He gave the keynote address when the Red Deer Rotary Club was chartered in 1923. One of the Red Deer club’s 2005 Centennial projects is to uncover Davidson’s life and his impact on Calgarians, Albertans, Canadians and Rotarians. The project reached its first peak with a successful helicopter assisted assault on Mt. Davidson, led by Dr. Robert Lampard and including 15 Rotarians from five clubs in District 5360.

Mt. Davidson (2,909 m or 9,540 feet) is located 9 km north of the Devil’s Head, or 15 km north of Lake Minnewanka. One of the highest peaks on the eastern slopes, Mt. Davidson can be seen from south of Calgary to Red Deer.

The Mountain was named at the joint request of the Rotary Club of Calgary and the Alberta Motor Assoc. It recognized Davidson as a Rotarian and a road pioneer who promoted the first good roads emanating from the Calgary hub to as far away as Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1926 Davidson made the motion to form the Alberta Motor Assoc. The Canadian Geographic Names Board approved the joint request but did not add Mt. Davidson to the 1935 map until the oversight was discovered in November 2002 and corrected. A route to the Summit was found in June 2003 and climbing plans made.

At noon the highest Rotary Club Meeting in North America was chaired by PDG Chuck Masur, M.D. on behalf of President Glen LaBuc of the Red Deer Rotary Club. The Summit Program included building a Cairn, burying a Davidson memorial capsule, starting a logbook, gracefully listening to Dr John Canniff, answering Davidson skill testing questions from Dick McDonnel, receiving Summit hats from Garth Olson, singing O Canada, reading congratulatory telegrams from around the world, making satellite telephone calls to the world (including Past RI President Royce Abbey in Australia and Past AMA CEO/Board member George MacDonald); sprinkling the Cairn with flowers as a show of love and respect, and toasting the Davidson Cairn with champagne by Davidson’s Grandson, Don Abramson and two Great-Grandsons, Drew and Shane. Don Abramson was determined to be the first to the Summit despite a severe hip fracture 4 months prior – and he made it – first!

Paul Harris described James Wheeler Davidson as "World Citizen" in his 1933 memorial tribute. The legendary story of the Calgary Rotarian, who chartered a record 32 Clubs from Banff to Bangkok and from Athens to Auckland and completed the circumnavigation of Rotary from Europe to Japan, now has a new peak to it.

Submitted by Robert Lampard, M.D., Rotary club of Red Deer

SERVICE ABOVE SELF AWARD

Congratulations go to Clayton Carroll of Calgary South for receiving a 2002-2003 year Service Above Self Award from the Rotary International Board of Directors. The award is to recognize Clayton’s contributions to our organization and promotion of the Object of Rotary.

Our Rotary family has lost a second Past District Governor this calendar year. PDG Bob Dawson died July 25^th. For 48 years he was a member of the Calgary South club and was club President 1971-1972. He served us well as Governor during the 1979-1980 Rotary year. Bob was Mr Tree Planter, overseeing the planting of more than 600 trees in Calgary parks. We will miss his wit, business acumen and Rotary wisdom. Our condolences go to Bob Dawson’s family, his wife Gynell, and daughter Cathy Proulx and Rene Proulx (both members and past club presidents of the Calgary Fish Creek club).

Rotary clubs are grouped into 529 districts for administrative purposes and are led by a district governor. In turn districts are grouped into 34 Zones for the purpose of choosing members of the nominating committee for president and for board directors of Rotary International. Our District 5360 is one of the 23 districts in Zone 22, which covers the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, all of Canada and the northern tier of the United States, Alaska and Asian Russia. The current RI director from Zone 22 is John Eberhard of the Rotary club of London, Ontario.

Zone 22 holds an annual Zone Institute for past, present, and future governors. Last year it was hosted by District 5360 in Calgary and this September will be in District 7810 at Moncton, New Brunswick. The Institute provides up to date information on Rotary programs and a forum for new ideas to improve and strengthen our organization. Other groupings of Rotary, such as GETS – Governors-Elect Training Seminar – are arranged around the Institute. In all it becomes an important annual assemblage of some 300 Rotarians.

DG Mike will provide a report from the Institute in the September newsletter and there will be a report on the Presidential Celebration held earlier in Vancouver.

November 1^st in High River – please make a note of this date set for our district Membership and Foundation seminar.

Total clubs reporting : 27

* No report received

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