January 15, 2013 Meeting

Meeting of January 15, 2013, reported by September Smith; photos by David Sills

Guests:

Sabrina Corraini,  guest of Barry Mutter

Kate Carpenter, guest of Lorna Curtis,

Speaker:  Curtis Grad, Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, seen above with reporter September Smith, and President, Joan Peggs.

President’s comment of the day:

President Joan reminded us, that in addition to all the projects in the community that we have recently contributed to – the King George Terrace outlook; Back Porch; the Carnarvon Waterpark, and most recently the bicycle racks, a look into our past shows just how wide our support of the community has been. Referencing a wealth of archive material that David Sills has harvested from his research into old club minutes, she cited other contributions such as $3,000 to Oak Bay Volunteer Services; $8,400 to Hospice; $6,000 to Garry Oak Sea Scouts; $2,000 to Queen Alexandra Hospital; $3,000 to Oak Bay for the RYOK telephone system; $5,000 to Habitat for Humanity; $3,500 towards a van for the Geriatric Centre; $8,000 to George Pearkes playground; and more.

In thanks and recognition, David was awarded a lanyard.

Health of the Club:

Mary Canty reported that she has a card for Donna Chow to congratulate her on the birth of her baby on New Years day that was signed by attending members.

Announcements:

Lorna Curtis spoke about the Tuscan Dinner at the Monterey Center to be held Saturday, April 27^th. The $45 tickets are available. The committee is working on some new fundraising events.  So far, through the Tuscan Dinner event, $16,000 has been raised for the Teen Area of the NLC.  Lorna reminded us that it is down to us, the club members, to sell the tickets and to find items for the Live Auction.

Heather Aked reminded us to sign up for the 5^th Tuesday luncheon at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel; cost per person is $20. Heather also told us that, as of now, a binder of Preferred Practices will be available at meetings at the sign-in table for anyone who needs to refer to it.

Perry Bamji wrapped up the Pennies from Heaven campaign, announcing that, as of this morning, we had collected 108,300 pennies, exceeding our goal of $1,000. With all the available matching, this will allow the purchase of over 10,000 polio vaccines! 

Fines Master:

Neil Rawnsley was in ‘fine’ form today, most notably leveling a penalty of a dollar on Heather Aked for transmissions of “Serious Misinformation Emails”. Perry Bamji and Ann Sims were rewarded with a fine for their excellent job on the Penny campaign. 

Perry recognized Jim Forces’ Penny raising efforts (over $200 in pennies!) with a happy dollar.

Speaker:

Corey Burger introduced our guest speaker, Curtis Grad of the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, who gave an interesting talk entitled “Past, Present and Future of the Victoria Harbour Authority”, giving lots of interesting facts and figures about landmarks here in Victoria that are all such a huge part of the city’s identity – Ogden Point, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Steamship Terminal and more.  Click for an online version of Curtis’ presentation deck. It takes about 5 – 10 seconds to load.

Mary Canty thanked Curtis for his very interesting presentation, presenting him with a Rotary bookmark.

Renate closed out the meeting with a “Rotary Minute” on how we can keep Rotary relevant to younger members – she suggested maybe technology and social networking was something that may keep us relevant.

Money counters, Ron and Anne!