Saturday 31 March 2012

Welcome to our Honorary Member, Nils Jensen - March 27, 2012

Prez Joan reminded us of the importance of Litteraccy. (?). Tom Lidkea tickled the ivories in his fine swingin' style and Lynne Murray gave the invocation; then, off like a herd of turtles, we attacked the buffet. Mid-munching we were alerted, by Phil Neroutsis, to the presence of visiting Rotarian:

Philip Winsor from Aiken, South Carolina; Walter Moore from Berry, Australia. Guests included His Worship, Nils Jensen, Mayor of Oak Bay; Christopher Bowers, our speaker, and the lovely Claire Helm (below with Barry Mutter) who is proposed for membership and will soon be buying her own lunch.


Health of the Club. Renate informed us sadly, of the passing of Jessica's Mom. It was a pleasure for us to meet her as Jessica brought her along to a meeting not too long ago. Our condolences to Jessica and her family.



Induction of an honorary member: Nils Jensen (above, with Prez Joan) was inducted, pinned, welcomed and then in his inimitable style, he responded that he liked Groucho Marx's comment that he'd never join an organization that would have him as a member. Charming man. Good to have him with us.


Announcements, lots of 'em:

Pete Lawrie: about the Interact club's Easter Egg Hunt and a request for prizes (how about a chicken? Live, of course).

Perry Bamji: who highlited the success of our matching grants including the one with Mark Bedford in India where he claims there are more cell phones in the village than there are toilets.

Jim Force: reminded us of the Club-in-a-Pub Thursday and that this is now its 3rd year. Well done Jim! He also set us off on a 2-minute break-out to discuss literacy amongst ourselves. No tables were silent!

Brian Lamb: reminded us of the looming Tuscan Dinner fundraiser and the need for wine bottle buyers (we sold 4 more!), ticket buyers (we're more than half-way sold out!) and more donations of silent and live auction items.
President Joan: brought several members up front to acknowledge their valiant efforts with our recent concert; Heather, in absentia, David Sills, Peter Lawrie, Bob Schelle and Pablo of course...key-rings all around.
The Fines' Master, Neil Rawnsley, jogged to the podium and sped thru a shortened program (due to the complexities and breadth of the earlier ceremonies and presentations). He still managed to milk several innocents of their mad money, namely Joan Peggs for forgetfulness (oh boy are WE all in trouble), Barry Mutter for being a nice guy or something, then we serenaded David Sills and Brian Lamb for getting older by a year. Anne Sims then drew the white marble which is good as she's recently given up her regular paycheques.
Our speaker was Christopher Bowers who made us all think of starting conversations differently, with open hearts. His talk was very interesting and made you want more. So instead of saying "How you doing?"...say "Have you had an adventure lately you can tell me about?"
Ron Cooley thanked our speaker.
We sang to the lady in the Palace. A good full meeting indeed.
Jack

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