2008-2009 McGill Rotaract Year

Hi Everyone!

I hope that everyone's summers were fantastic and relaxing! Welcome back (or just welcome!) to everyone, veterans or rookies alike! As I am sure you have noticed, due to come technical difficulties (or lack of access to our old website) we have come up with a new idea - this blog! Using this technology we can do live sign-ups, even if you cant make meetings, post meeting minutes, make comments if we ask for opinions, or just make a smart-ass comments on my likely spelling errors.

We have quite the year planned for the club, its going to be very buzy. We came up with "Equal Opportunity" as a theme for the year. I thought that I would give everyone a little update as to our plans, meeting dates and locations, events, and volunteering opportunities that the exec has planned. As per normal we love suggestions, ideas, and any comments, but here are the tentative plans:

Volunteering:

• The third Saturday of every month we will volunteer at the Montclair Senior's residence at 1:30-3:30
• About every three to four weeks we will volunteer at the Old Brewery Mission homeless shelter. We meet at 3:45 at the roddick gates or 4:30 at the mission. Dates for this semester are listed at the end of the post.
  
• Mentoring at Tyndale Community Centre: the Dare-to-Dream Program (Year long committment).
  

Events:

• fundraising competition in march
• volunteering day in january
• barbeque in september
• UN speaker on microcredit (October 3rd)
• Halloween volunteering at shriners hospital and 'trick or eat'
• cocktail party/concert in November

Meetings dates for semester 1:
• Sept. 12th- Meeting from 6- 7:30 in B-30

• Sept 18th- Meeting from 6- 7:30 in B-30 (1st meeting after activities night)

• October 2nd- Meeting from 6- 7:30 in 403

• October 16th- Meeting from 6- 7:30 in 403

• October 30th- Meeting from 6- 7:30 in 403

• November 13th- meeting from 6- 7:30 in 302

• Nov. 27- Meeting from 6- 7:30 in B-30

• Dec 4th- Meeting from 6- 7:30 in B-30

OBM dates for first semester:

• Saturday, September 13
• Sunday, October 5
• Saturday, October 25
• Saturday, November 15
• Sunday, December 7
  

We hope to see everyone out this year for some serious fun and to do some serious helping!

2008-2009 Executive

The Westmount Rotary Auction and Garage Sale

Below are some pictures from the annual Westmount Rotary auction and garage sale held at the Westmount Arena. The Westmount Rotary members have been preparing for this event year-round by collecting items that people donated. During the 2-3 weeks prior to the actual event, Rachel Kyle and I (Man-Yi Yau) went with them on their collection rounds. Then, during the week prior to the event, I also helped out as they needed lots of volunteers to help unpack, sort, price, and arrange the many, many items that they had collected. It was hard work, but definitely worth it as I learned a lot about things people used to use but don’t anymore, and as I met quite a few really interesting and nice people! I was also present at the auction on Friday, June 6, and helped showcase the items. Finally, the day of the garage sale, which was on Saturday, June 7, Rachel worked in the toys section while I worked in the linens section.

McGill Rotaract Exec 2008/2009

President - Rachel Kyle

Hey all, my name is Rachel and I'm in my last year studying biology and english cultural studies. I am excited for this year, we have an amazing executive who has quite the involved year planned for you! From barbeques to concerts, from social events to volunteering at a seniors home and at the old brewery mission, this year's theme of "Equal Opportunity" is shaping up to be one of the busiest of my 4 years involved with McGill Rotaract. Getting to know me I am an energetic, self-professed biology nerd who loves to sing, dance, play the bassoon, study genetics, volunteer, and hang out with friends. Please feel free to email me with suggestions, comments, ideas, or just to say hi!


VP - Erica McBurney

'Allo! I'm Erica, originally from Nova Scotia, and am in my 4th year of study at McGill in Music Performance! I've been involved with McGill Rotaract for the past three years or so and have enjoyed (and will continue to enjoy) all the great work we do as a club! When possible I enjoy hiking, running, strolling, sauntering and food (among other things)!



Secretary - Chelsea Brower





Hey
I am a U2 Microbiology student who is from New Jersey. I like to read and play tennis.




Treasurer - Jin Choi

My name is Jin Choi and I'm coming back as Treasurer$$$In my third year, I'll be studying physiology with a mix of social studies of medicine and kinesiology. I got to know Rotaract from my Interact years during high school, and I'm proud to be part of Rotary to this day. Surely, this won't be my last year with Rotaract :PI love soccer, snowboarding, and badminton. I hope Rotaract 2008/09 will be lots of fun! (and lots of hours counting money for my part)






Communications and Publications - Pamela Lee and Heather Anderson

Hi


My name is Pamela, and this is my second year with the McGill Rotaract club! I'm entering my second year (U1) at McGill, and I'll be majoring in Kinesiology. I spent half of my first year at the Macdonald Campus in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, and transfered downtown for the winter semester - where I found out about Rotaract. I'm looking forward to a year that will be jam-packed with volunteer and fundraising events! In my spare time, I enjoy running, rock climbing, reading the newspaper - lol, and I'm always up for trying something new!



Volunteering and Fundraising - Nicolette Neumann




Hi all! My name is Nicolette Neumann and I am a U2 biology major. I am originally from Connecticut, and have had exposure to the Rotary most of my life because of my grandfather’s involvement in our local club. I joined Rotaract during my first year at McGill and am very excited about being VP Volunteering and Fundraising this year. I love how there are so many great and diverse opportunities to get out and give back to both the community and international organizations through Rotaract, and I am looking forward to working with next year’s exec to continue these great projects!



Membership and Social - Man-Yi Yau


Hi! I am originally from Hong Kong, but I lived in Syria and Lebanon for most of my life. Some of the things that I like to do are reading, travelling, and volunteering. This is my second year (U1) at McGill University. I joined the McGill Rotaract Club in winter 2008, during the second semester of my first year. I have enjoyed being part of this group, and I hope that I will be able to get more people to join us, get involved with the various activities and events we organize, have fun, and feel more at ease with each other this year. I really like that this year’s overarching theme is “Equal Opportunity,” and I also hope that we will be able to accomplish more as a group and to make a bigger difference in people’s lives. Finally, I’d like to wish everybody a really good year!

Professional Development and Rotary Liasion - Sean Yaphe & Audrey Wong

Hi Everyone! I am from Montreal and have been involved with Rotary since high school when I joined the INTERACT Club (the only one on the island of Montreal!!). Ever since then, Rotary has been a huge part of my life. It's such an awesome organization! I am in U1 majoring in Biochemistry. Aside from school and Rotaract, I've played piano since I was 5 and compete in swimming competitions. I love to travel as well! This year with Rotaract is going to be amazing! We have so many great events and opportunities for the year.

Hi there! I'm Co-VP Professional Development and Rotary Liaison with Sean (above). I was born and raised in Vancouver, BC. I first found out about Rotaract through my local Interact Club that I was president of in my graduating year. I came to McGill to pursue an undergraduate business degree and am currently in U2 with the intent of doing a Major in Marketing, as well as a Minor in Politics, Law & Society. My ultimate goal is to go into law school to pursue either corporate or criminal law (a broad spectrum indeed!). I've enjoyed my time so far in Rotaract and am glad that I could help out even more this year. The school year 2008/2009 has a lot of promise and lots more to come. Cheers!

Montreal-West Lobsterfest

Hey Everyone!

Just thought that I would share, a group of us went to help out at Montreal-west's annual Lobsterfest this past saturday, and had a swell bar, ate TONS of lobster and time. WE served
Rotaracter from New Zealand food, sold tickets, worked the had a few drinks with the rotarians. good times were had by all. We were also joined by a visitor, Tim Hickey, a who was spending the weekend in Montreal before continuing a journey through several Rotary conferences worldwide.

I attached some pictures for everyone's amusement, Stan and I were lucky enough to be crowned with Rotary International TRucker hats, which were quite the hit.