Bulletin - July 17, 2012

NEW MEMBERS!

Peter Sou (left) sponsored John Playfair and Jim Force (right) sponsored Emma Dixon-Will for induction into the club. Welcome to both new members!

Jim  Force received the Rotarian of the Year plaque from President Joan (below); Perry will arrange to place the plaque in the Recreation Centre display window (if he can find the key). Well done Jim!

Tricia received a key ring for all her continuing work on our website, our newsletter, our photographs and just about anything else techie in our Club!

Soren (below on mike, with Corey, Tom and Joan) presented 2 pennants to our Club made by children at the Bowker Creek Celebration/Initiative which was held June 9th.

Anne Sims introduced visiting Rotarian Visiting Rotarian, Bill Randall, from Seville Pensacola, Florida (Consultant) and Guests: John Pollard (CHEK TV—guest of club); John Playfair (Peter Sou); Emma Dixon-Will (Jim Force); Betty Pitt (Victoria Pitt); and Soren Henrich (Corey).

David Westler read a letter from the Malawi Girl’s School (Atsikana Pa Ulendo or APU) thanking club members for our contribution of $3500 last year. David also announced that the Rwanda project’s grant had been approved.

Perry announced that his Pennies to Heaven campaign had collected $465 so far. Phase 2 will involve a jar at the reception of members' businesses asking for donations.

It was nice to welcome back David Philip and see him in robust health!

Don’t forget the Bowker Creek Brush-up on August 12th!

Tom Croft was the Sgt. extracting money from many members and congratulating several for their years of service:
Will Carter:  15 years
Barry Mutter: 6
Joan Peggs: 5
Wolf Schopper: 4
Ted Chambers: 9

John Pollard, President of CHEK Media Group, was our guest speaker. He told us that in November 2008 the Canwest boss, Leonard Asper, called him and asked, “Can you run the place?” As the new GM John’s first job was to lay off 17 of his friends. In February, 2009, the announcement came out that Canwest was closing the station. That year the station lost $16,000,000. John sent Leonard a Seven Point Plan and had the CRTC apply pressure to allow the employees to buy the station. Each employee came up with $15,000 and they bought the station. They had a $14.5 million payroll per year. Their income at that time was $50,000 in sales revenue and their expenses in their first month were $400,000. Their first year of programming consisted mainly of news and older movies which they got from MGM. They have a unionized environment but they are all owners. They were thrilled to get Tony Parsons who commuted to Vancouver every day, initially, to do the 6 p.m. news on CBC and the 10 p.m. news on CHEK. CHEK now has a studio at the CBC office in Vancouver and Tony stays in Vancouver Monday to Friday.

Soon CBC Radio will be moving into the CHEK building which will add to their bottom line. CHEK has turned itself into a profitable station that Victoria can be proud of! For more information, there's an interesting article on John Pollard and CHEK's success here.

Mary Canty (left) thanked the speaker.

Reporter: Dallas Chapple