April 16 meeting at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel

Reported by Vicky Pitt

With only the ghost of a piano in the room, even though Tom Lidkea was present, the national anthem was sung a cappella. Leslie Cobus and Alexa from Oak Bay Recreation made an announcement about Oak Bay Eco Week which is from April 29th to May 4th. While Tom nipped out of the room to get the visitor’s list, Mary reported on the health of the club. No one is sick that she knows of. (Yeah!).

Tom introduced our one and only visitor, Cameron Ross, who was a guest of John Edgell.

Neil Rawnsley continued with the presentations from last week. Heather Aked received both her Paul Harris +5 and her Paul Harris +6 (which as Neil pointed out do not equal a Paul Harris +11) and Vicky Pitt received her Paul Harris +8.

Dallas informed the group that that she has someone from Bowen Island who is interested in doing a house swap. Please contact Dallas directly.

Lorna reminded everyone to sign up if they are not already signed up on the volunteer list for the Tuscan dinner. There are 8 spots left, so if you have not signed up yet please do so now. Lorna also reminded everyone that all the silent auction items need to be delivered to Leslie Cobus at Monterey Center by no later than 4 PM on Tuesday April 23 [that’s next week!].

Wynne Taylor made an announcement about  “Camas Day”, when invasive species will be removed  from Uplands Park. Meet at the parking lot on Sunday, May 5 from 12:30 to 3 PM if you can help. Click on the link for loads more information.

Jim Laing (to everyone’s great amusement), announced that he was very excited and aroused about the Canada Flag project. [Link to Registration information]. Everyone has now received the flag brochure and we are looking for club members to rent or find renters for the flags. There are 500 flags that we would like to find subscribers for over the next 3 years for the three holidays each year starting with Victoria Day in May. Many hands make light work so please help out, and who knows,  maybe you can get excited and aroused too!

Please remember to bring money for the April 30 meeting (at OddFellows Hall) to next week's meeting at the Rec Centre.

Fines Master, Jim Force, with the able assistance of Rod and Tav collected fines from everyone for such things as: anyone sitting down before the start of the meeting (tsk!); Heather, Tom, David, and  Batya for not signing in; Pete’s table - anyone who did not notice that Peter was wearing a fake Rotary name tag; Rod and Claire for being late; anyone who has not yet signed up as a volunteer or provided a silent auction item for the Tuscan Dinner. Several fines were levied for lack of knowledge (during Rotary magazine month): Perry’s and Bob's tables for not knowing how many awards the magazine received in November (the answer was 10); Lynn’s table for not knowing that the March 12 edition received a gold medal from Folio Magazine for best cover; Wendy’s table for not knowing that Scott Dudley, an amazing Rotarian, has a Rotary wheel tattooed above his heart. [Editor's note - there's a certain Victoria Rotarian who has a gigantic one on his calf - and we're not talking about his pet calf.] 

Birthdays:  Phil on the 7^th, Leslie on the 9^th, Claire on the 10^th, TAV on the 11^th, Hans on the 14^th, Ted Chambers on the 18^th. Anniversaries: Mark and Joe 5 years. Club anniversaries: Claire one year on the 17^th; John Jordan 2 years on the 20^th.

Happy and sad dollars: Joan Peggs reported that a she sent a letter to CHEK TV which resulted in part in a comment to gently convey to her that several people deleted her email because it was addressed to “Dear Sirs”; Joan has apologized for this and noted that it was a case of the era in which she was educated.  Renata - immediately after receiving her Paul Harris, she came down with acute labyrinthitis [that’s an inner ear virus apparently] but it turned out it was not related to her new pin.

Rod - his daughter has now been accepted to Concordia University for her PhD and because she was born in Québec, she has the cheapest tuition in North America.

Lorna - because Pres. Joan did such an amazing job as the chair of the DLTA and also because she keeps finding more items for the auction [there’s leadership in action!]

Tav - in accordance with an old tradition of the club,  he provided a cheque for $67 to the foundation because he is now - guess how old?

The winning ticket was number 981 held by Bill Burns. But he didn’t get the white marble so that’s another $14 in the pot.

Tav then introduced Jim Force (what?  didn’t he just do the fines' master’s job?). Jim was born in Seattle and has dual citizenship. He is married to Colleen, has 4 kids and 6 grandchildren. He has a PhD in Education from Calgary and he is dedicated to education. In the early 1970s he taught elementary school. He has taught all levels including Leadership at Royal Roads University. He is passionate about literacy; he is the co-chair of our flag program; he is a board member, and an all-around great contributor to the club. He’s also a past Rotarian of Year. He is a gentleman and a scholar.

After that great introduction, Jim spoke about Literacy Roundtable and introduced the Royal Oak Club’s new video called “Teachings from the Half Boy”. This video is in the form of a DVD based around the ancient story of the half boy blended with interviews of several leaders in the aboriginal community, including the Honourable Stephen Pointe, talking about the importance of culture to individuals, and of how knowledge of culture affects literacy and the ability of individuals to move forward successfully in education and in life.

Jim then thanked us for allowing him to go over time so that the video could be shown in full. Unfortunately there was no time for questions. The meeting ended with “God Save the Queen”.

As no photos have come forward, here's one provided by Vicky which was taken at the Lieutenant Governor's House during the making of the video "Teachings from the Half Boy: A Cultural Homecoming". [Editor's note: this link will take you to a 2.5 minute sampling of the video.]