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Highlights of the October 5 Zoom Meeting President Jean welcomed everyone to the meeting: She reminded us that the Avenues of service are the stepping stones of Rotary service. She continued by explaining the 5th Avenue of Youth Service, formerly called New Generations. Youth Service exists to empower youth through involvement in service in the community and around the world. Involvement fosters world peace and understanding. This 5th Service is chaired by Rotarian Michele Polinuk and assisted by Rotarian Trish Goosen. Rotarian David Thorne introduced the evening’s speaker, Inspector John Duff of the Selkirk RCMP Detachment. President Jean also reported: Jean has received the Liquor and Lotteries Commission licence to hold a fundraising Raffle for bottles of wine. The tickets will soon be printed and dropped off with members to begin selling. The City of Selkirk, the R.M. of St. Clements and the R.M. of St. Andrews have each signed the proclamation supporting World Polio Day on October 24.
Gailmarie, a former teacher, has been involved with Rotary since 1988. Besides the role of our new District Governor, Gailmarie is the Director for Public Relations and one of chairs for the 2021 District Conference Committee. Besides Rotary, Gailmarie is a museum professional and for the last 15 years serves as both the Curator and Cultural Coordinator for the City of Melfort, Saskatchewan. Gailmarie is also a board member for Affinity Credit Union. Speaker Inspector John Duff of the Selkirk RCMP Detachment |  | | RCMP |
Program Topic: An update on RCMP policing in Selkirk (Posted by Ruth Konzelman) Introduction: David Thorne introduced this evening’s guest speaker, Inspector John Duff of the Selkirk RCMP Detachment. Born in Cape Breton, Inspector Duff has a BSc. from Acadia University and joined the RCMP in 1990. He was stationed in Manitoba for most of his RCMP career, attained the rank of Inspector in 2008. After retiring from the RCMP he was with the City of Selkirk for a brief time before he rejoining the RCMP in Feb.2020. Inspector Duff started out by saying that March 2020 brought with it a new challenge for the RCMP that being how to adjust to COVID -19 from a policing perspective. Next, he addressed why Selkirk was listed by Maclean’s magazine as one of the most violent cities in Canada with a population of over 10,000. people. Basically, it has to do with the survey statistics. The city of Selkirk with just over the 10,500 people is lumped into a category with cities of much larger populations like Edmonton and Ottawa. With a greater population then the incidence of reported crime goes down. Even another 1,000 residents would place Selkirk in a much more desirable position on the list. The area served by the Selkirk detachment currently has 46 officers and 16 support staff. Overall the level of support the officers receive from the community is high. This past year the officers responded to 13, 500 complaints which averages out to 40-50 complaints per day. Of these calls 448 were under the Mental Health Act with 100 calls into the Mental Health Centre and 175 in the City of Selkirk. Anytime there is a cut or decrease in Social Services the police get called. Shared Health refers anyone asking for a wellbeing check to the police. John says the RCMP need body cameras. In the summer Selkirk is hub which sees a transient population and a lot of traffic on the highways. To combat the excessive speed over the summer 4 member teams issued 455 tickets and warnings. During a summer of COVID, property crimes in Selkirk were down because more citizens were at home. Assaults were basically the same but illegal drug use has gone up. The RCMP requires new bicycles to get them on patrol around Selkirk. New innovations in the works will be online reporting of less severe crime where the data entry will be done by support staff. Selkirk will be a test site for this initiative, identifying high risk areas in the community and programming them into a GPS. Future goals require a collaborative approach with government and involving an early intervention with families. Greater emphasis on the START and RESTART programs currently operating. Questions from the floor: 1.What are we lacking in Selkirk? A homeless shelter close to resources would be good for the transient population. The soup kitchen provides a lot of needed support to the community. RAM- rapid action to addictions medication and the Harm Reduction Program need to be more connected with each other. They are not as effective as they should be. Any activities for young people outside of school hours is a good thing, otherwise they find negative behaviors to fill the time. An all access recreation centre could benefit the community. 2. John was thanked by Michele for the cooperation the school division has received from the RCMP for support in lockdowns, and program support. A further question was asked about gang activity in Selkirk. The reply was that Selkirk has a Demon’s Club House which is an affiliation of the Hell’s Angels Also, a lot is going on in the virtual world and threats online exist in the community. 3.A question was asked about looking at the statistics for the whole area. (St. Clements, St Andrews, East St Paul, West St Paul, Grand Marais and City of Selkirk). One half the concentration of crime is in the City of Selkirk and utilizes 18 of 52 resources. Ruth thanked John for his update on RCMP policing in Selkirk and area. And more… NOW Five schools should be ready to begin the NOW program on November 6. We are shopping locally, due to the high numbers of Covid cases in Winnipeg. So far the number of students involved is smaller but will likely grow as the year progresses. NOW stands for Nutrition On Weekends. Archiving We have sorted all of the materials collected from Gordon Howard, Rotarian John Wilson and the TD Bank. Rotarians Bill Bodman and Al Curtis are bringing in boxes they had squirreled away at their homes. Please check your files and contact President Jean or Rotarian Sharon Moolchan if you have materials to donate. A big thank you to our newest Rotarian, Trish Goosen, for volunteering to store the archives. Fundraising Draw Rotarian Brian’s suggestion for the Wine Draw is “Viva La Vino.” 
Lobster Pick Up Dinner The Board is revisiting holding a takeout Lobster Dinner in the spring. Several local groups have tried this idea and have been very successful. Rotarian Lee Hanson has suggested we utilize the kitchen facilities at the Gordon Howard Centre to hold this event. Club discussion will be needed at our October 26 meeting.
Rotary Learning Opportunities President Jean Oliver and Rotarians Elaine Elliott and Marcia Bilkoski participated in a Rotary webinar and returned with new information about connecting with members, attracting and retaining members, fundraising in this Covid time and Honouring Indigenous Peoples (HIP). Their feedback initiated brainstorming about possible projects partnering with local and northern indigenous groups. Rotarian Rhonda Grochowski will be contacting the Pastor of the Aboriginal Redemption Church to get information about their Christmas Shoebox program. Rotarian Elaine Elliott is approaching the Director of the Friendship Centre to discuss local project ideas centred around collection and distribution of warm, winter clothing and books. Lesli has also been in contact with a nurse at a northern reserve who has also expressed a need for warm winter clothing for children and elders. These ideas will be brought to the membership for discussion at our next meeting. Don’t Miss Out Due to Covid our Sargent at Arms will declare the Poker Hand winner at the October 26 Zoom meeting. You can have you cards to show Rotarian Rhonda at the meeting or email her to report your hand before the meeting. Meeting Fundraiser A discussion took place at the Board level regarding our regular meeting fees of $23.00 that we are not collecting while we are holding Zoom meetings. We still have obligations that have to be met to Rotary International and District 5550. It was suggested that members who wish to contribute a nominal fee of $5.00 per Zoom meeting would help our finances. Money may be sent by etransfer or by cheque to Treasurer Lesli. Announcement: Social Media Rotarians David Thorne and Michele Polinuk have been working on our social media presence. Check out our Facebook page at Rotary Club of Selkirk Manitoba and Instagram 
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