Rotary Club of London-eCOG-March 10, 2025 (Mar. 10, 2025)

Welcome to 2025 and the new location. Our meetings will continue to be on the second and fourth Monday of the month at the same time. We will meet at the Western Fairgrounds in the GROVE MEETING ROOM #1. The new meeting costs $25.00 per person and will be a self-serve light buffet. The meeting room will be open from 11:30 AM for fellowship, and the buffet will also be available. So, please plan on arriving no later than 11:45 AM so you have time to serve yourself and find a table. Our business meeting will start at noon. We will endeavor to end the meeting by 1:00 PM. As usual, we were hoping you could register for this meeting. The Registration Link will close at NOON March 7th so we can advise The Western Fair regarding numbers. Please register as soon as possible but be sure to register before noon Friday. If you are registering yourself or any guests. Please make sure you pay for the lunch, as the Club will get charged for the meal by The Grove regardless of your attendance. After registering, please arrange to e-transfer your payment to The Rotary Club of London at sronson55@gmail.com. Also, be sure to put who you are paying for in your memo section on the e-transfer so that Sandy Ronson can track payments.

Our speaker on Monday will be Thai Truong. Thai Truong was appointed London Chief of Police on June 1, 2023. He joins the London Police Service from York Regional Police with more than two decades of policing experience, working in all four branches of York Regional Police: Support, Investigations, Administrative, and Operations. He has extensive investigative and specialized expertise in leading various units including organized crime and drug enforcement, human trafficking, intimate partner violence, homicide, internet child exploitation and special victims’ units. Chief Truong holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a Sociology Major from the University of Windsor. He has certificates from York University Schulich School of Business and the U of T Rotman School of Management. Chief Truong is the only police leader in Canada who has been qualified and recognized by both the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice as an expert in the areas of drug trafficking, human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls.

--YOUTH EXCHANGE CONFERENCE--

Over the weekend our YE District participated in the 'Great Expectations' Tri-District Outbound & Inbound Training Conference held at Pearce Williams Summer Camp and Retreat Facility in Fingal. The conference included several seminars and group discussions designed to prepare our outbound candidates for their exchange experience. On Saturday Inbound students volunteered at 'Helping Hands, St. Thomas'. The students engaged in fun activities including a talent show Saturday night. Sunday festivities included parents of the outbound students. The parents learned about Rotary Youth Exchange policies and procedures as they pertain to their child's exchange experience. Several Rotarians from clubs throughout the District helped in various capacities during the conference.

--SAVE THE DATE FOR INTERNATIONAL DAY OF GIVING--

The Western Rotaractors are making plans for the day of giving. They are planning to hold the event on March 8 2025. More details will come as the organizing team develops the program.

--YOUTH EXCHANGE LETTTER--

Bonjour de France! Wow! I know February is a short month, but it went fast! I had some issues but luckily, they are resolved now, and I was able to have a great month. I had a great time with my friends at school and with Rotary, French is getting easier and I'm overall still having an amazing time. With bad news first, I did have to change my last host family. I have had some issues with them before and have put in a lot of effort trying to build a good relationship. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to work. My host family had complained about me to the district chair. Apparently, they didn’t think I was making an effort to interact with them. I found that my efforts were not welcome making me keep more to myself. My district wanted to know what was going on, and decided the situation was complicated. I wrote an email with all the details, and as a result, I was told to change families that week. While this was crazy, I am much less stressed now. My Rotary club isn't very active here and that can be difficult, but they came through for me when it was necessary. The good news is, over the vacation I was able to go to the movies with one of my friends. We talked a lot, and I was so happy I was able to speak French and understand everything! I know I have been here for six months, but it still amazes me how fast it all goes and how much I have accomplished. I know my French isn't perfect (honestly a week ago I forgot the word for eyebrows so I called them eye mustaches) but I'm truly having a great time even if I can't be perfect. Having many kids in the Rotary District has been great, they plan lots of events for us to do together; this month we went bowling and on a bus tour of Lille. Having the big group is great, it reminds me I'm not the only one that has these troubles with host families or just in general. We are all different but can agree on a lot and now share the same experience. It's awesome! Ups and downs are normal; I'm not worried. I'm going to continue to do everything I can and keep on learning because it's only getting better. No matter what, I have many people here that support me, and I am making the most out of this year. Georgie Street

Weekly Coffee Klatch

Weekly ZOOM “Coffee Klatch” each Thursday from 10:30 to 11:30 am. Bring your own coffee of course.