Introduction:
How do you start a Rotary Club? We all know that Rotary International founding President Paul Harris simply invited several friends in different professions to lunch back in Chicago in 1905. From those humble beginnings there emerged a world-wide organization that boasts 1,180,550 Rotarians in 29,626 clubs in 163 countries around the world. That’s very impressive and the record of what those Rotarians have been able to do for their communities and for the world community is even more impressive.
The Rotary Club of Guelph was founded in 1920 and I became a member in the fall of 1980. I had been a member of the Rotary Club of St. Catharines since 1970. In late 1990 and early 1991, a committee was formed to begin the preliminary work to establish a third Rotary club in Guelph. Fred Black was the chair of this committee and I volunteered to join the committee because, from the outset, it was determined that the new club would be a breakfast club. Many of the new clubs being formed throughout the world were breakfast clubs and that seemed to be a reasonable assumption for the third Guelph club. A second Guelph club, the Guelph-Wellington Rotary Club was founded by the Guelph club in 1986.
The committee began its work in the early months of 1991 with the development of a list of potential members. Committee members from both Rotary Clubs submitted names of those who we felt would be potential Rotarians. A list of 30 potential members was drawn up and invitations were extended to the first provisional meeting which was held at George Michals Restaurant on Woodlawn Road. At 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday March 27th, with an attendance of 49 people, of which 20 were Rotarians in other clubs and the rest were potential Rotarians. The first program was chaired by Fred Black who introduced the head table including Martyn Dabner, District Governor, a member of the Rotary Club of Burlington, Charlie Whittaker, President of the Rotary Club of Guelph and Dick Chapman, President of the Rotary Club of Guelph-Wellington. Fred Black was the speaker, who outlined the nature and scope of Rotary and issued an invitation to everyone to join the new provisional club. At this first meeting, Jack Tacoma volunteered to be Interim Treasurer. Frank McGowan volunteered to be Interim Secretary and I volunteered to be Interim Sergeant-At-Arms. Both Jack and I had indicated our intention to join the new club. It was also announced that a second meeting would be held on April 3rd at the College Inn on Gordon Street and a third meeting would be held on April 10th at the Carden Place Hotel on Carden Street in downtown Guelph. It was eventually decided that the Carden Place Hotel was the best location and as a result, the Trillium Club continued to meet at this location for a number of years. A main reason for that decision was the difficulty and confusion that resulted at the first two locations, who were not able to cope with the numbers that turned out each Wednesday morning.
The second meeting attracted 25 potential members and 12 Rotarians who attended to support the new club which was simply described as “Provisional Rotary Club #3 (Guelph)”. At the second meeting, Ian Muir, of the Guelph Wellington Club, spoke about the Rotary Foundation, indicating that Rotary has four avenues of service; Club Service, Vocational Service, Community Service and International Service. The Rotary Foundation falls under the area of International Service and includes scholarships (a year of study abroad), Group Study Exchange (6-8 young adult business persons spend 6-7 weeks abroad), Health, Hunger and Humanity projects abroad (called the 3H program), Special Grants Programs (joint projects with clubs in underprivileged countries), and Polio Plus, a mega project to rid the world of Polio and 5 other communicable diseases. The Rotary Foundation receives its funds from Rotarians around the world through a variety of fund raising projects, such as direct donations, fines, happy bucks, birthday donations and presidents walks. The International Avenue of service also includes the Youth Exchange Program (high school age group).
The third meeting of the new fledgling Rotary Club was held at the site of our home base for many years, the Carden Place Hotel, with Jim Ashman, Charter President of the Guelph Wellington Club as guest speaker. It was announced that our Rotary Club could be officially recognized by Rotary International when we had 25 committed Charter members.
In early May, after meeting regularly since the end of March, a Board of Directors was selected including: Peter Moore, President, Joanne McAuley, Vice-President, Jack Tacoma, Cam Skipper, Ralph Marziano and Ron Blackie. In addition, the board appointed Diane Kennedy Squires, Secretary, Ask Kapur, Treasurer and Jim MacKenzie, Sergeant-at-Arms. Fred Black turned the operation of the new club over to the new board.
The first task was to select a name for the club. The following suggestions were made: Rotary Club of Guelph-Speed River, Priory, Trillium, Royal City, Sunrise, Sun-up, Breakfast, and A.M. Those members who had signed up to become charter members were given the privilege of voting on the name and the name of Guelph-Trillium was the winner.
The new board met regularly to conduct the business of the new club. Committees were developed to carry on our club business which would cover the four avenues of service. The most active committees in the early months were the Program Committee and the Bulletin Committee. We also needed new members to be proposed and it was decided that we would try to make our club membership 50% males and 50% females. That has not always been possible, but we try to keep an even balance. There were 35 original members who signed up to be charter members, but by the time our Charter Night arrived, we only had 29 members. That was more than the required 25 members. Over the first 10 years, the club had grown to 54 members. There were many who felt that we should never go over 50 members, so that the club remains small enough for everyone to know one another.
Throughout the summer months, the club continued to grow and to attract interesting and challenging speakers. Many of the most interesting speakers were our own members. Early in one’s Rotary career, each new member is expected to give a “Classification Talk” in which he or she addresses the club members and informs them about his or her profession. This is one of the rare times when one may talk about his or her business without being fined. It is a custom of Rotary that one may not mention one’s business publicly, unless that business is promoting a charitable event.
During the fall of 1991, much of our time and effort went into organizing our Charter Night. Each new club is expected to organize a Charter Night, an occasion when officials from the District and other Rotary Clubs can gather to congratulate the new club and its members and celebrate the presentation of the charter. Joanne McAuley and Cindy Robinson headed the committee planning the Charter Night activities. It was held on Friday October 18th, 1991 at the Carden Place Hotel. Guests were welcomed by President Peter Moore and June Moore, and Vice-President, Joanne McAuley and David McAuley. The guest speaker was Wilf Wilkinson, a Past District Governor of District 7080, who has become a Director of Rotary International. In addition, we heard greeting from political representatives and Rotary officials, including the Presidents of the Guelph and Guelph-Wellington Clubs. Many other clubs in the District sent representatives as well as gifts. These were acknowledged by President Peter Moore following the introductions of the charter members.
Projects:
In addition to the regular committees relating to the ongoing conduct of our meetings, bulletin, program, club service and community service, a very active committee was the International Service Committee, comprising Brent Vickery, Ralph Marziano and new member Chas Povey. It was Chas who got the club involved in International Service. He arranged for Jim Thompson to address the club on January 15th, 1992. Jim was involved in trying to raise money for an orphanage in Nepal, one of the world’s poorest countries. Jim and his wife Donna had adopted three daughters from Nepal and shared the interesting story of how they came to become involved with the orphanage. As a result of Jim’s compelling story, the club agreed to support the building of a new facility to house the 40 children who were now residents of the original farm community run by Sita and Balmukunda Pakhrel. Ever since, the International aspect of Rotary has been high on the agenda of the Trillium Club. Jim Thompson joined the club in March and has continued his interest in Nepal. The club introduced the Jim Thompson Scholarship in 1992, a trust fund which provides a scholarship for a Nepalese student, Bharat Bisenklea, who is studying at St. Xavier’s School. Jim changed jobs, moving from a consultant in the Human Relations field to become the Director of the International Work of the Jesuit Order, a job that is in keeping with his intense interest in the International scope of Rotary. Jim has been honoured for his involvement by being awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship by the Guelph-Trillium Club in 1996 and the Guelph Club in 1997. In addition, Jim was honoured by International President James Lacey with the highest Rotary award that can be given. Jim received this award in 1998.
In the fifteen years that Jim has been a member of the Guelph-Trillium Club, he has inspired many with his unselfish dedication to International causes.
The Guelph-Trillium Rotary Club has also been involved in another International project which involved high school students, the Student Exchange Program. Linda Mentzoni from Finland was our first exchange student, who came to Guelph in 1991 and there have been others since. The club usually hosts a student every second year and sends a student to another country every second year. This is one of the most worthwhile projects of Rotary International.
The club decided to honour the time and effort put into the organizing of the new Rotary Club by Fred Black by naming the Fred Black Scholarship, an amount of money given each year to a high school student deemed worthy of living up to the ideals of Rotary. Each year Fred returns to present the winning student with “his” scholarship.
As the first anniversary of the Guelph-Trillium Rotary Club drew near, it was decided to have a club social at the College Inn, with spouses invited on March 25th, 1992. Linda Mentzoni, our exchange student, was the speaker. Members gathered with many memories of the first year and a huge vote of thanks was extended by President Peter to all who contributed to make the club such a vital force in Guelph and in Rotary as well as in the lives of its members.
I close my comments with a personal note. I left the club in 1993 when I began to work in Hamilton and was invited to join the Hamilton Rotary Club. When I concluded my position as Executive Officer of the Diocese of Niagara, and looked forward to retirement, I wondered which Rotary Club I would join in Guelph. This decision was very easy, as there was really no question that I wanted to become involved with the Club that had chosen me as their Charter President and had done so much over the years to live out the ideals of Rotary.
One of the tremendous challenges of Rotary today, is the need to maintain membership and to make membership challenging to all who join. I am particularly proud of the Trillium Club for the challenging programs that have been undertaken through the years and the efforts that have been undertaken to maintain membership. Let us keep up the good work.
