July 31st 2011 marks the 10th Anniversary for the Rotary Club of Guelph South.  To celebrate, Club members, spouses, partners, friends and representatives of other local Rotary Clubs and District 7080 enjoyed a "Nine 'n Dine" event at Springfield Golf & Country Club. 

The event was organized by Past Presidents Margaret Nixon and Neil Mahnke, and Neil MC'd.  

 

 
 
 
MC Neil Mahnke
 
 
President Frank provided the "Coles Notes" version of the history of the Rotary Club of Guelph South.....here's the text of his report below:
 
History of the Rotary club of Guelph South
 
In the year 2000 there were 3 Rotary clubs in Guelph.   Ralph Marziano was the Area District Governor for this area and because of the growth of the Trillium Club he suggested to the District that they form another breakfast club in Guelph….so the next year they made him the chair of club extension committee.
 
Early in 2001 he approached the members of his Club (Guelph-Trillium) and he received a consensus from the Club that they sponsor a new Club to cover the south end of Guelph and the Aberfoyle/Puslinch area. From the Guelph-Trillium Club he recruited Ken Boyd and Nancy Woods and Peter Moore. He then approached the other clubs in Guelph and recruited Doug Gamsby and  Joe Valeriote from Rotary Club of Guelph, and Martin VanDam from the Rotary Club of Guelph-Wellington.  This group formed the steering committee for what was then called “The Provisional Club of Aberfoyle-Puslinch”.
 
The first potential member Ralph spoke to was Bruce Everitt,  Bruce was working for The Royal Bank as a commercial account manager. Bruce had been trying to get into a Rotary club however all the other clubs were full of bankers.  Bruce went through his Rolodex and came up with clients he had been dealing with in the south end of Guelph. Together with the rest of the steering committee they approached a number of potential members.
 
First meeting was held on May 3 2001 in this very room (Pines Room at Springfield Golf & Country Club).  Present were all members of the steering committee plus District Governor Barry Howie, District Governor-Elect Paul Truex,  Past District Governor Fred Black, and Rotarians Martin VanDam, and Bill Smith.  Also there were 10 potential members including Bruce Everitt, Lora Gatto,  Bryan Holub, Barbara Leslie, and myself (Frank Oudesluys).
 
Ralph chaired the meeting informed us about the meetings, held once a week with guest speakers.
We learned about:
The Rotary Motto “Service Above Self”,
The Four Way Test
Is it the Truth?
Is it Fair to all concerned?
Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
 
The Object of Rotary
-To encourage and foster the ideal of service,
-high ethical standards,
-the advancement of international understanding goodwill and peace
 
The next week May 10th  we had the same group of Rotarians and District folks showed up with some of the potential members and Bill Hammond.  Our Guest Speaker was long time Rotarian Dave Kennedy.  He spoke to us about Classifications, and the different types of Membership.  We heard about The Rotary Foundation.  They handed out pamphlets and booklets, gave us the web site where we could find out more. We walked away with ours heads full of words like, Active member, Honorary member, The Annual Program Fund, Humanitarian Grants.
 
The next week our speaker was Dr Jim Thompson. He spoke on World Community Service and in particular his project working with orphans living on the streets of Nepal, Pakistan and India called “Streetkeepers”.  Shortly after that DGE Paul Truex spoke to us about some of his experiences with Rotary, about his experience with the Youth Exchange Program.  About a memorable occasion when a Japanese student who was staying with Jean and himself, on the last day of her stay she came downstairs for breakfast in full traditional Japanese dress.
We heard from DG Barry Howie and his experiences in Rotary. How in Rotary we do not encourage promoting your business during Rotary events however his accountant was a Rotarian, his lawyer was a Rotarian, his financial planner was a Rotarian.   We heard about Rotary’s Polio Plus initiative to eradicate the Polio virus from the world.
 
And over the next few meetings potential members came and went. Of the members that are still with us Dianne Paron, Celia Clark, Neil Mahnke, Peter Clark, Margaret Nixon, Ann Caine.
 
At some time during these weeks we changed the name to The Rotary Club of Wellington South.
 
We held our first Board meeting on July 24th at Ramar Contracting’s Board Room. Notes of the meeting show that we had 16 application forms signed.  The meeting focused on filling positions on the Board.  Bill Hammond was absent for the meeting so we voted him in as our first President. This practice has gone a long way to improve attendance at Board and Committee meetings.  It should be noted that in the meeting notes it shows that Dianne Paron was voted in as Secretary. A position she has held for 10 years.  Bryan Holub was slotted in for the President-Elect position. Shortly after this meeting he informed us that he would need to drop out of the club because he was moving to Sudbury. At the next meeting Margaret was walking into the meeting and mentioned to Nancy Woods that she would like to get on the Board. Bruce and Ralph were walking in behind her and either overheard or just coincidence but they approached her and asked if she would like to be on the Board. Ralph then asked if she would like to be the President-Elect. So Margaret became President the following year.
 
Then on Friday August 10th we all caught a bus at the community center in Aberfoyle and traveled to the Sheraton Four Seasons in Toronto for the Presidential Conference and there in front of a huge crowd of Rotarians along with 6 other clubs we were officially chartered by RI President Dave King.
 
We would now like to take this time to thank and recognize those that were instrumental in forming the Rotary Club of Guelph South:
Our sponsor Club Guelph-Trillium
Barrie Howie
Paul Truex
Joe Valeriote
And last but not least our mentor Ralph Marziano