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Susan Fisher was in the chair today. She chose to forego the anthem and the prayer, instead reading a quote from Henry David Thoreau - "Rise free from care before the dawn and seek adventure” ..............Attendance was good in spite of the projected weather. There were no visiting Rotarians and only one guest - our mini-Rotarian Mariah Inglis. Make ups were recorded from the Board and the Gold Mine committees..........Dianne had a Pin Pal story of sorts. Seems she received an email from Pam indicating that today was World Water Day and suggesting that we propose a toast to water. We did! There were no birthdays this week. Marita didn't have any luck in winning the 50-50 draw of $88. Looking for the 5 of  she drew the King of . On the Happy Dollar front, Susan F. was happy that she has begun to sell some of the leftover chili from the last Rotaract event.  She has plenty more and is asking Rotarians to purchase the rest of the containers. She also reminded members of the Rotaract curling event on Sunday at 3:30 pm at the Curling Club. Even if you don't curl, members are encouraged to support these young future Rotarians. Pizza will round out the afternoon. Let Susan know if your coming so she can order enough food.........George was happy that he left 85 degree weather so he could be here for the N'or Easter expected today. Yea! He was kidding. He also reminded members that "Frank the Weiner Dog" will be feted tonight at Thunder & Lightening................Dave was happy that Susan kicked him out to ski at Mactaquac earlier this week. He also real happy supplying Chili and pea soup to Charlie and Jean............Louise had an apprehensive dollar as she indicated that her father will be operated on next Tuesday. Both she and her sister expect to comfort their mother for the better part of the week.............Dianne was happy that she has only one more sleep with grandkids under foot. She can then reclaim her house............Marita was happy that she was going snowboarding today, but shared some concerns as the storm descends on us later today............Gayle updated us on Jean Scobie's condition. She is now home and Dr. Charlie will be looking after her. Some prepared food would really make life easier for them. Next Week's meeting is a Club Assembly and President John will chair the meeting. Susan Purdy is the greeter. An effort to get some of our Gold Mine winners to come and pick up their cheques worked and the following presentations were made: The top left picture shows our big winner this week - Emily LeBlanc receiving a cheque for $1,267 from Rotarian Dianne Oulton. In the top right picture, Andrew Wilson, representing 1st time Charity (Sackville Early Music Festival) receiving his cheque for $633.50 from Rotarian Dave McKellar. In the bottom left picture, Rotarian Sandy Harper presents a cheque for $657.50 to Susan Lafford representing Tantramar Regional High School. Bottom right sees Ryan Suter, a representative from Struts Gallery receiving a cheque for $624 from Rotarian Dave McKellar. Believe it or not, there are still 5 other winners/charities who have not picked up their cheques. In Committee Reports, George revealed that the committee is looking at attracting new members in the Corporate and Associate member classifications. He also announced another Honorary member, but the individual has not been advised as of today. This scribe believes this should be done before the name is released via this bulletin...........Susan announced that the Marshview breakfast program is going very well. In President's time, John believes that some members need to be recognized from time-to-time. Today he recognized past Chairs of the Fundraising Committees - Josh, Gayle, Wayne and Jamie. As Jamie is stepping down, John is asking for a volunteer for next year. Bill had the honor of introducing his friend, Elizabeth Wells who came to MTA years ago to teach music. Elizabeth was here today to talk about Time Management for Everyone. As a segway into the heart of her presentation, Elizabeth presented her background over the past 15 years. She finished her doctorate after being hired and received early tenure and full professor classifications. She won countless National and International awards, while heading up the music department for 5 years. She is now Dean of Arts which is another load of committee and administrative work. Outside of MTA, she sat on numerous volunteer Boards, been ordained in the Anglican church, is a certified First Aid and First Responder as well as a certified clinical practicing hypnotist. In her spare time she has been featured on Radio and in print media.  In her personal life, she works out 1 - 2 hours per day, sleeps 9 hours per night, does her own cooking and is very happy with her life. SO- How does she do it?????You must first of all, ask yourself what are you trying to Achieve. In essence, determine that what you are doing at any given moment is exactly what you should be doing. No distractions, no guilt, just relaxed, focussed "flow". In your personal life ask yourself this question - what thing (that you are not doing now) that - if you did it consistently and well - would make the most significant improvement in your personal life? If the answer is "I have no Time" well.!.........One needs to understand, in order to move a project forward, you need to take discrete specific actions. In order to insure that all the actions proceed to fruition, one needs to manage your energy levels as well as your time. Elizabeth introduced us to the Pomodoro Technique which suggests you work on a project uninterrupted, for 25 minutes, then take a 5 minute break. Repeat, every "four Pomodoros", take a 30 minute break. Scientifically this refreshes you and gets you back to 100%, better that doing a 90 minute block and then taking a break. Also augmenting this technique is something Elizabeth calls her "Sabbatical" System. It follows that for every 6 minutes of work, take 1 minute off (done hourly). For every 6 hours of work, take 1 intentional hour off. For every 6 days of work, take 1 day off. For every 6 weeks of work, take a weekend mini-getaway and for every 6 months of work, take a real vacation and go somewhere. Her closing thought was this: Whether you are happy or miserable, it takes the same amount of work. What you focus on is what you will manifest in your life.  Elizabeth was thanked by Dianne and was presented with a certificate, a Rotary pen and a book which will be donated to a local library in her name.The meeting concluded with the 4-way test. |
