Past President Mike Bandler (visibly showing his pride in the photo below) introduced Andrew. In 2009 he was happy to introduce Andrew to Rotary. Andrew has been on the Rotary Board of Director for 6 years and that provided a good opportunity to be involved in the club. Andrew has also served on the Board for the Chamber and Albert College and is a member of Men’s Sales and Ad. Mike was happy to announce Andrew as the 99th President of the Club and 9th second generation member of the Club.
Andrew showed his enthusiasm by first saying that we are surrounded by a great membership. We have a thriving satellite club, we have a fabulous Board or Directors, we are part of a respected world wide community. It is a true honour to be selected as the 99th President of this Club. Our Club is steeped in history, it continues to be deep in talent, and it is rich with success and generosity in giving back to our local and global communities in which we serve.
Andrew is very excited to be embarking on a new Rotary year as our president. He can say this with confidence because we have a fabulous club, a fabulous satellite club, and both are filled with fantastic people. He also feels great about the year ahead because of the strength and engagement of our new Board of Directors who he would like to thank and recognize. New to the Board this year are Rotarians Randy Coker - co-chair of RLK, Karen Baker - chair of the Spelling Bee, Cory MacKay - co-chair of Kids Against Hunger, Jeanette Minaker - Fellowship Chair, and Collin Myers - Satellite Club Liaison. Returning to the Board are Drew Brown- Chair of Public Relations and Club Communication, and Adam Zegouras - Legal Council. Our Club Officers for the 99th year are President Elect - Doug Peterson, Vice President Tim McKinney, Past President Tracy Bray, Treasurer Darrell Smith, and last but arguably should have gone first on this list for stepping up is our new Secretary Brenda Snider.
On the topic of new Secretary, Andrew thought we would be remiss if we didn’t take this opportunity to recognize newly retired Secretary Doug Peterson for his hard work and dedication as our Secretary for the past two years. Under Doug’s leadership we have made great improvements. Our board election process is smoother and more effective at identifying interested candidates from the membership which is critical to having an effective board, our member application and vetting process will provide a more seamless transition of new members into our club, and our automated dues invoicing method through Club Runner will reduce work for our bookkeeper and produce readily updated reports on who has and has not paid their dues. On that note, we are heading into a new Rotary year with almost zero outstanding dues. Doug has put in countless hours into his role as our secretary, the vast majority of which we didn’t see, and for this Andrew would like to award him with the very deserving Rotary Warrior pin.
Andrew also thanked two people who were instrumental in getting him involved in Rotary. First, his dad and past President Mike Bandler. Mike introduced Andrew to Rotary at a young age by bringing him to lunch on PA days and signing him up to participate in the Music Festival at the age of 11. In 2009 when he joined the Club as an adult, his was his sponsor and unofficial Rotary mentor. To this day they still arrive to and leave from most meetings together. He would also like to thank his official mentor when he started out in Rotary - Ken Wheeler. Under the mentorship program, Ken quickly took Andrew under his wing and introduced him to tenured members and committee chairs. Because of his experience as a young Rotarian, he fully appreciates the benefits of the mentor program. Today, thanks to Bill MacKay and his team of past Presidents consisting of Karen Baker, Joanne Wheeler, and Ken Wheeler, our mentorship program is back up and running, and in this 99th year, he would like to see it further strengthen.
Our club has a lot of positive momentum. We have new and tenured members stepping up into leadership roles and taking on additional responsibilities, we continue to attract fantastic new members from our community who are coming with talent, motivation and energy. We have some exciting new projects and fundraising ideas that are in the early stages but that he thinks have great potential for both satellite club and the main club to work together on. We are also planning fellowship events that will bring both clubs together so that we can continue to grow and know one another. For the benefit of those who were not at Tracy’s President night, Andrew announced that we will be bringing back the Rotary Warrior award to recognize members of this club who go beyond the call of duty to serve our club. He believes recognition for our warriors out there is so important, since their extra hard work sometimes goes unnoticed. We will also be creating a new award, the New Rotarian award. The purpose of this addition is to recognize and thank new members within the past three years who have become active contributors and hopefully encourage all new Rotarians to become engaged and productively involved in our clubs service and fellowship. Andrew is really excited in what lies ahead for our club and to continue building on the momentum that Tracy created.
As our club continues to evolve, the board will work toward the goal of maintaining a level of integration between the clubs, so we can take advantage of the synergies that are naturally created by our unique structure. We are the envy of other clubs, and he knows this first hand from speaking with other President elects across Canada and the U.S. at the International Conference in Toronto. We have a very bright future and he is extremely honoured to take the torch and guide our club into its 99th years as a Chartered member of the Global community.
Andrew was thanked by Ken Wheeler who shared the same pride as Mike Bandler in seeing Andrew take on the President leadership role of our Club. The Club is in good hands!