Rotary Club of Sackville Bulletin January 21, 2016

 

                                                                                                                                                               The Chairperson today was Club Prez Dianne, who admitted to being from Chatham NB (now Miramichi) and that Former District Governor Pat Perry, who is also from Miramichi is, well......from the wrong side of the tracks (Newcastle), or is the river.  I'm sure this friendly rivalry will go on for some time.  Dianne admitted that she has given her Bio many times before and decided to proceed with the meeting.

 

 

 

 

 

In the Happy Dollars segment, John was happy that he finally got to meet his next door neighbours........

      

  George was happy that he has only 7 more sleeps before he takes off for Florida for 2 months.......Sandy returned to the meeting today and was happy to be there..........visiting Rotarian Pat was happy that she was able to hold an Exec meeting on the phone and it was over in only 39 minutes.  This could be a world record..........Ove was happy and excite to be going to paradise - Hawaii...........Dianne was happy the she was runner-up in the B section of a curling bonspiel in Rexton recently.

 

The duty roster for next week is:

 

The only committee report was from the Youth Services Committee.  Sue recap the evening that the Rotaract committee held recently where they donated funds to Jeff Schnurr of Forests International.  She also reported that multi-time speaker John Fourgere, a teacher at TRHS, is assisting with the process of finding a representative to send to the Adventures in Citizenship trip to Ottawa this year.

 

Committees meeting next week are: Foundation after this meeting; Fundraising next Monday at 6 pm at Mary's house and Club Administration next Tuesday at 7 pm at John's house.  In President's time, Dianne reminded the Directors she wanted a short meeting after this one.

 

 

  Joyce introduced our two speakers - Ruth Coates and John Read who were there to talk about Open Doors - GED and Adult Learning.  

 

 

 

 

   

 Stats prove that health improves when literacy is improved, not just reading and writing, but financial and computer skills.  More than half of the adults in New Brunswick between the ages of  16-65 do not have the level of literacy and essential skills to successfully function in today's society.  The New Brunswick Adult Literacy Strategy has developed a program of 12 regional committees that oversee the delivery of adult literacy classes.  The Provincial government provides funds for  teacher's salaries and supplies only, not other expenses like rental space or other supplemental requirements.  Serving our area is the  South eastern Regional Adult Learning Board, of which Ruth Coates is the Manager.

Since 2008. the program has graduated 472 GED graduates.  Classes are located at 7 locations in SE New Brunswick and have flexible hours for part-time and full-time classes.  There is no charge for any of the classes and class size typically averages 8 students.  Learning is self paced.  Locally, Cynthia Adams has been the teacher for over 20 years, graduating locally, 28 GED grads since 2008.

    Dianne thanked John and Ruth by presented them each with rare Rotary pens and donating a book to a local library in their name.

The 4-way test ended the meeting.