September 25 meeting

Scribe – Heather Aked (filling in for an absent Bill Burns - Bill you're in trouble!)

Following O Canada our Greeter Wendy Townsend said Grace and we proceeded to fill our plates with food, to sit down and enjoy a salmon lunch.

Peter Johannknecht introduced our guests: Rotaract Student Natasha Kardos (left), guest of Joan Peggs and soon-to-be Oak Bay Rotarian, Marco Fernandes, guest of Claire Helm.

President Joan invited Natasha to speak to the Club about her experience with Rotary. Natasha told us about her time in the Comox Valley Interact Club, and her experience at RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Assembly), which helped her make the decision to go into Education at UVic where she joined Rotaract. She recently participated with the Rotaracters in the Raise a Reader fundraiser.  She enjoys being involved in the community.  Natasha also told us about the fundraiser that the Rotaract students are hosting: a run on Sunday October 28^th at UVic at 10 a.m. – similar to our December Merrython. Proceeds will go to  www.Water.org. Please think about attending. She concluded her presentation stating that Rotary has enabled her to enhance her leadership skills, develop a sense of community, build stewardship for the community we live in, and lastly consider being a future Rotarian.  There are about 30 to 40 Rotaracters at UVic.

Announcements

Jim Force reminded us about Club in a Pub at the Penny Farthing at 5 p.m. on Thursday the 27^th. He also recognized the Raise-a-Reader team: Ron C, Tom C, Tricia and September. More than $900 was raised by our team that morning. Tom C. added another $2 to the pot - a donation he collected at the office. Six members from other clubs participated. Over $40,000 was raised on Vancouver Island this year. A major sponsor was Peninsula Co-op. Jim stressed how much fun it was to be out there ‘hawking’ newspapers. Over $360 was collected in donations from Club members. And for all his hard work and for collecting the most individual donations, Jim was awarded a $100 gift certificate to Peninsula Coop – which he in turn is donating to Polio Plus. Thanks to all for coming out.  September has uploaded a video and photos toour Facebook page.

Celebrations Master Ron Cooley was called upon to dish out fines – his last week!  Ron fined Tricia for managing to stop 2 cyclists and sell them newspapers. [Incidentally, Tricia, who was busy counting money, didn’t know about this fine, so will ante up when she gets back week after next!]  Rod, Tom C., and Heather where fined for arriving late. John Playfair was fined for not wearing his new member red ribbon – John claimed that it was his wife’s fault. [That should have brought about another fine!] Jessica was guilty of a ringing phone two weeks ago. (On the side I heard Jessica say that she wasn’t even here two weeks ago…but she paid anyway). Anyone who didn’t donate to Raise a Reader was fined. Ron was amazed at the number of people he encountered who can’t communicate civilly at 7AM. Anyone who fell into that category was up for a buck. If you hadn’t read the bulletin the week before last and therefore had failed to respond to Mary re her birthday, you owed a buck. 

Wendy Heather (and Tricia) singin' and servin' the blues

Happy and sad $$s : $40 for 40 years for Tom and Jill and a birthday $ for Ron B. Happy $ from Joan to Heather for filling in as bulletin editor and a sad $ from Joan as her knee injury is actually a “shredded” meniscus. [Have you seen Heather's knee!] Batya had a happy  $2:  $1 as she’s off  to Israel to see her family and a $1 for her trip to Japan on a Buddhist retreat. Dallas paid a $1 to tell us she had received an e-mail from Joan Firkins who had just gotten off cruise ship in the Mekong Delta and was getting onto an ox cart! Jack paid a happy buck saying that he’s September’s mentor but in actual fact with all that September’s done for our Club since joining, she is now his mentor. Heather put in a happy $10 with a thanks to Tricia and Wendy for helping her with the candy floss sales at MacAulay Elementary last Thursday when $315 was raised. [Tricia still has blue blobs on her floors.] Wendy paid up for selling and buying a house in the same week and for something else that this writer missed (something about ducks – but I have no idea really). A happy $ came from Jacqueline – who says it is great to be back from Nelson.  $20 came from Peter J. happy that he now has dual citizenship – he is now officially Canadian!  [CONGRATULATIONS, PETER] And last, but not least John J. paid $2 for the plant sale that went really well - $950 was raised, which will support 7 grandmothers’ houses.  Wolf won the draw, but not the white marble.

John Jordan introduced the Speaker: Jim Laing, of our club. Jim (at right) gave us all a good run-down on his life. He started at a young age with a career in sports casting, dividing his time between a family business and radio broadcasting. But first he had to clear up a rumour that he had fallen out of a broadcasting box during a game, as well as one about him being the pacesetter for the prairie race champion, Tav McPherson. Jim’s story goes a bit like this:  The famous hockey broadcaster, Foster Hewitt, played a role in his career. Jim had listened to him for years, and 45 years later he found himself compared to Foster in a book – he was flattered to be remembered, let alone compared to Foster Hewitt. He began his ‘career’ in the family business at an early age – sorting coke bottles; following that he went back to school. His first real job was working at the Weyburn radio station and then the Estevan station a couple of years later.  Jim’s broadcasting career began after a comment he made to his father about the play-by-play being called on the local radio station. His father asked him if he could do better! So Jim’s career as a sports broadcaster began at the Estevan radio station – with a staff of one - broadcasting the play by play for the Estevan Bruins (a team that had an affiliation with the Boston Bruins).  In September 1966, Jim got the call to broadcast the play-by-play for the Boston Bruins - the year that 18-year-old Bobby Orr signed with the Bruins. Jim had the privilege of watching him play every game, recalling the game on December 14^th in Toronto when Bobby got the hip check that he never came back from. The Bruins went from first to last, never recovering - having rested their hopes on one player. Toronto went on to win the Stanley Cup – and  have never done so since. The following season the Bruins signed Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield - the worst trade in NHL history for the Chicago Black Hawks, and the best ever for Boston, as they went on to win the Stanley cup 2 years after the trade. Jim went back to Weyburn into the family business  and modernized and expanded the Coca Cola plant, building the largest Coke business in Canada which they then sold to Coca Cola in Atlanta. 

Jim’s closing comments centred on the NHL today and the dangers associated with it. NBC recently signed a $1 billion deal to televise hockey games – their target audience  being young males – it’s going to continue to be a roller derby out there. He added some precious bits about his personal life, most of which he probably doesn't want plastered over the Internet! But you can see pictures of Jim at a slightly younger age, and a few other gems here on our club's FaceBook photo stream. He was thanked for his presentation by Wolf Schopper.

At left, David and George enjoy some of Jim's memorabilia from his hockey-announcer days.

Meeting of September 18, 2012

Rotarians helped raise 40-something thousand dollars on Wednesday morning's Raise-A-Reader campaign. From our club: September Smith, Jim Force (organizer extraordinaire), Tom Croft, Tricia Timmermans, and somewhere else at the time, but responsible for selling dozens of papers, Ron Cooley. A good time was had by all! Thanks to the Times Colonist, Serious Coffee and the Strathcona Hotel for making it a fun morning. And a bonus: Tom, Tricia and Ron all won hockey tickets. 

     Meeting reporter: Corey Burger.

Visiting Rotarians included Rotaracter, Samantha Lloyd (hosted by Leslie); there were four guests, the speaker Kate Phoenix, Sheena Hanbury, Blair Hagkull (hosted by Peter Sou), and Marco Fernandez (hosted by Claire). Don O’Coffey thanked Corey, Peter Lawrie and John Jordan for coming out and BBQ-ing for ALS. ALS raised almost $1,000 from the food donations.

    Jim Force mentioned the Raise-a-Reader newspaper sales tomorrow morning with 8 Rotarians currently signed up. Rotaracter Samantha (on left) said that her team of 8 Rotaracters would beat the Rotarians any day.

   John Jordan mentioned his plant sale from 10-2 at his house in support of his Rwanda project this coming Saturday. 

   Wynn Taylor was also looking for volunteers for some popcorn popping for Monterey Recreation Centre on the 28^th from 5:30-8:30pm.

     

Our fines master, Ron Cooley, was very skillful in extracting money from the club members this week: he fined the retired people for the audacity of doing their chores during the week when the poor working stiffs had to wait until the weekend. Jessica Van der Veen was fined for checking her phone too much, and anybody who had done a Reply All on an email had to pay up. Line-jumpers were also penalized. Lorna looked far too relaxed and Jim Laing spent his time spreading rumours instead of greeting. Both were made poorer by these infractions. Ron Beyer was the sole anniversary this week, celebrating his Rotary anniversary. In the happy department, far-too-relaxed Lorna was happy to be travelling but sad to be leaving. Heather was happy that she found her key so that she and fellow Rotarian, Barry Mutter, were not late for the meeting. Lori was happy it was her daughter’s 18^th but sad that her daughter was in Montreal, so she didn’t get to celebrate it with her. David Philip was happy that he didn’t have to break a $5 dollar bill, adding one to his hefty $4 fine. Mary was happy that she had a cousin visiting from England and Leslie was happy to have found a recipe for crockpot yogurt given the amount of yogurt her family consumed. Jim Force also found US Civil War diaries from a relative, something he had known about for over 40 years, but had not seen until now. He also drew the winning ticket.

The new Beach House (formerly McMorran's) Restaurant

SPEAKER: Kate Phoenix, The Beach House Restaurant.
Jim Force introduce the speaker, Beach House (formerly McMorrans Restaurant) owner, Kate Pheonix, former Roger’s Chocolates Director of Marketing and current owner of Sam’s Deli and the The Soda Shoppe on Government Street. Kate opened by saying that you should never open a restaurant with $50 in your pocket, then asked the crowd if any had been to McMorran’s or the Beach House. At least some of the club members had been to both. The Beach House, which has now been open for six weeks, is such a strong community icon that “everybody has something to say,” Kate explained. Kate has a background in fixing houses, opening restaurants and factories, and more, so she thought this would be just another property to fix. She said the reaction of the community to McMorran’s, which opened in 1919, was strong. She has decorated the walls of the restaurant with pictures from the Saanich Archives to foster the connection. At the time McMorran's first opened, Cordova Bay was a resort community that people would take the train too, which Kate found amusing when we are talking about LRT in 2012. The McMorran family owned all of what is now Sunnymead, Broadmead, and Cordova Bay; they logged it, then sold it off for residential development. By the 1960s, they opened the mall near the restaurant. There are now four McMorran brothers left, all in their 80’s, who have been through the restaurant and seem to disagree about which piece of furniture was used for what when McMorran’s was also a shop. Kate also found it funny that she runs the only soda fountain in Western Canada given that McMorran’s also had a soda fountain at one time.

Part of the new Beach House interior

McMorran’s was famous for its maple-sprung dance floor, installed after the Second World War; Dallas Chapple’s father, renowned Big Band and Swing orchestra leader, Dal Richards, was once heard there. Many elderly ladies blush furiously when they remember their stories about meeting their now husbands at McMorran’s, getting married on the beach, and having their anniversary at the restaurant. Kate was sad to report she had no parking attendant, something she says she hears about several times a day; people remember Mr. McMorran in his vest helping them park. In 2009, McMorran’s closed and the family chased away many developers wanting the prime waterfront real estate. Saanich bought a portion for McMorran Park. The building itself was falling down, a fact emphasized when the roof was removed - the main beams were found to be cracked. Those beams now enjoy a new life as furniture. The restaurant was also not only on a residential-zoned lot, it also went over into two neighbour’s properties and the public sidewalk. Kate showed a full list of the number of engineers involved in rebuilding. Even she was unaware there was such a thing as a Balcony Engineer, nor that this personage would cost $5,000. Other construction oddities included the fence that had been made into a wall. Reconstruction took a full year, running from July 3, 2011 to July 3, 2012. Kate said that she will remember these dates for a long time, as they are her and her father’s birthdays. The new restaurant has been attracting a lot of events such as weddings. Without any advertising, they have 90 weddings booked for next year. Kate is building in special menus for Sunday brunch; she hopes to have the downstairs bistro open next month; it will be built to feel like a cruise-ship lounge. The last part of the restaurant, the café for takeout, should also be open soon.

Jim Laing led off the questions by asking about the negative reviews of the Beach House on places like Urban Spoon. Kate replied that she didn’t worry about it too much, but that she wished people would raise the issue at the time, rather than going home and writing up a bad review. Peter Sou asked about seating capacity ... about 200, with about 250 dinners and 200 lunches served each day. A question was asked if she would do it again. The answer was an emphatic "YES". She said that she didn’t have much debt, so her carrying capacity wasn’t that bad and that she expects to pay it off in three years. Her chef, formerly of The Penny Farthing and The Irish Times, is an Island Chefs Collaborative member.

There are two kitchens, one above that was a viewing kitchen and a smaller kitchen below. She spends $7,000 a month on cleaning the restaurant every night. Total staff numbers approximately 75, many of whom are locals and students.

The restaurant is right on the beach.

David Sills asked about the back deck and the giant metal fish.Kate replied that this was a local metal artist, Fantasy Metal Crafting, and that the artist was installing some fish on the roof today, with fish tails to look like they are swimming out to sea. Blair asked about future projects. Kate would love to see something done with the derelict building in North Jubilee near the intersection of Fort and Richmond. - perhaps a Bed and Breakfast above a café. Marco asked about how she solved the parking problem, and Kate replied that it wasn’t solved and she is hoping that it will solve itself. She also said that she hopes to purchase adjacent land and expand the parking lot. Corey Burger, who worked with Kate during Roger’s acquisition of Sam’s Deli, thanked Kate for coming and speaking about her experiences opening the restaurant and said that he was glad it was kept in local hands.

The Queen played us off.

Meeting Report: September 11, 2012

On the 11th anniversary of something horrific in New York City, President Joan inspired us with something inspirational, a Vimeo of an Australian Rotary Student Exchange Pioneer. His actions and the those of others who followed, help to make the world a little closer and more peaceful. Watch Yoko Sekimoto recall her “fabulous experience” with Youth Exchange in 1962, when she became the first Japanese student to participate in Rotary Youth Exchange. In 2012-13, Rotarians in Japan are celebrating 50 years of exchanges around the world.

Wendy gave the Invocation. Tom caressed the ivories. The buffet table afforded us another horn of plenty. We are so fortunate. But...not with today's proposed speaker. She didn't appear. Claire introduced Hugh Roberton, Assistant District Governor (on right, with his predecessor ADG, Tav Macpherson) and our lone guest, Julia Phillips, a Rotaract Student at UVIC who is taking her Political Science Degree. Then Claire really was let off the hook as she had no speaker to introduce. So...time to improvise which resulted in September presenting our club Facebook Page with the able assistance of David Westler, manning the computer.

Before that, Ron Cooley elegantly panhandled as the Fines Master, for reluctant donations from guilty parties like Mark Bedford who beamed with pride over the Grand Slam US Open winner, Andy Murray (seems Mark still has British Pride. Andy Murray is Scottish). Then Mark turned on his fellow clubmate, Tav, and reported that he had been talking during other announcements, causing Tav a loss of coin...and face. Thereupon Tav, trying to get back in our good graces, suggested a fine to Perry for looking so good, and Perry was moved to sashay out as if in his own Paris Fashion Show to display his finery, claiming an intent to 'raise the bar' haberdashery-wise. He did look good on the runway. See below if you don't believe it! Back to Mark. We sang him Happy Birthday, then applauded Tom Lidkea for 43 years of marriage (or should that be his wife Margaret deserving that applause?). Joan Firkins had Happy bucks as she and Donna are off to Vietnam and further. Heather won the 50/50 but no big prize marble.

Heather also brought us up to date on the preparations underway for our club Merrython to be held Sunday, December 3rd. Volunteers needed.

Jim Force outlined our participation in Raise a Reader on September 19th. Volunteers are needed.

David Sills reminded us to double-check our information on the next printed Member Contact Info sheet which he is assembling. Don O'Coffey asked for volunteers and participants for the ALS walk this Sunday. Lori McLeod reminded us as 'New Generations' Director of our needed financial support to sponsor students.

Lisbon here we go! We watched a short promo video on the next International Rotary Convention to be held in Lisbon, Portugal June 23rd-26th, 2013. View it HERE if you missed it.

The challenge is still with us. Joan Firkins (below left with Dallas) announced that many of the staff of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are in Evanston now, helping to recharge the End Polio Now campaign as there is a looming shortfall of required funds. We've come a long way. Please visit the site to add your name to the list of Rotarians urging the UN (and governments around the world) to fund the final push needed to finally eradicate polio. The signatures will be presented to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as a show of solidarity and support at a special polio event during the UN General Assembly in New York during the week of September 18. Please sign up now here. And for more information, here's the web site for End Polio Now:  http://www.endpolio.org/.

Okay Mark, back to Britain. We sang a song to your Elizabeth girl over there in Buckingham Palace. Ding went the bell and we're all off out to the sunshine. Feels like Fall is coming on, there's a little chill in the air...but it's always warm and hospitable in our Rotary meeting.

Jack

Just an extra note from your webmaster. Our Mary is turning 90 (incredible!!). See below the invitation to her "Birthday Party" that she has asked me to distribute to all Oak Bay Rotarians. If you cannot read the phone number and email they are: canty-at-telus.net and 598 3462:

September 4 meeting - Speaker John Jordan

Reporter: Corey Burger. Photos by John Edgell.

First, our guests. Sadly there were no visiting Rotarians, but we did have Heather Aked’s son Alexander with us, and Rotaractor Maria Morrison (guest of Joan Firkins). Our many other guests included Michael Corrigan, guest of Peter Sou, Marco Fernandes, and Donna Chow, both guests of Barry Mutter, as well as Emmanuel Ortega, guest of Pablo Diemecke, and Michell Le Sage, guest of Lori McLoed.

Mary Canty reported that there we no health problems.  Joan Firkins (left with president Joan) announced that over many glasses of wine, the Tuscany organizing committee is going to have another kick at the can this coming April 27, 2013. We made $21,000 last year. There is a need for good auction items.

Perry invited Lori McLeod to the PR meeting, and, as an aside, invited the rest of the club and the members of the committee as well. Joan Peggs invited the club to go past the window that Perry and Jim have been working on diligently.

The money then flew thick and fast as Ron Cooley fined many people for not having a guest, not wearing a pin, failing to ride on a ferry, failing to sign in, and arriving late. The club largely failed to correctly identify a 4,000-year-old Egyptian grain, which was sorghum. Ron also reported that this day marked one year of membership for the Westlers, Batya and David. 

David Phillip (seen left with Dallas Chapple - both looking great!) was very happy Michael Corrigan was here, just as he was many years ago when he saved David’s life and let him continue to be the bane of his wife’s life. John Edgell was very happy he escaped on vacation again. He pre-emptively fined himself for this misdemeanour. Also in the not-yet-fined-for-travelling category included Jessica van der Veen, who returned from the south of France. Lorna Curtis found time in her retired life to clean her garage and found many Rotary items. Apparently the Oak Bay Club won a prize in 2009-10 for donations.  Lastly, Alexander (below, with Mom Heather and Leslie) was happy to have seen tennis in New York. No further mention was made of trips to the French Open. Lori drew the black marble.  

George Pritchard introduced our speaker, John Jordan, who provided an interesting report on the Rwanda project the Club has supported in the past and this year as well.  It was Rwanda’s determination to rise from the ashes of a horrible war to successfully create the most peaceful society in Sub-Saharan Africa that drew him there.  John read portions of Rotary President Tanaka’s letter to members that spoke of his country’s similar path and the power for good that he sees arising from Rotary’s dedication to “peace through Service.” John related that even among the poorest in Rwanda, our beneficiaries find capacity for service and giving back.

Overview of the project listed 150 widows’ houses rehabilitated, 44 students supported in boarding school, 30 beekeeping families built new hives and had their first harvest. The Rotary stove project distributed a phenomenal 3,000 stoves and 2 self-sustaining production centers, employing 12 people full time.  Our students worked about 2,000 hrs producing 300 stoves, planting 900 trees, and doing hundreds of services for widows.  Interact students from Oak Bay and Port Townsend matched their work with about $2,000 allowing them to buy 40 pigs to raise for school and family needs.

John spoke of how Rwandans work hard to compound the investment we make in them, preserving some of the resources even in the face of so many basic needs.  Putting the labor involved in delivering 3,000 stoves in context, John said it involved hauling 22kg of mud at least a kilometer up from the river for each stove and then, after drying it for 2 weeks, carrying it 2 to 4 km into the hills to install: that’s 726 tons carried an average of 3km, earning $2 – 2.50/day.  A job is valued for the opportunity created by regular income and the pride in delivering a stove that will change a family’s life.

The overarching value of the project is seen in the increased status of widows and orphan students and their capacity to sustain themselves, the example of community service integrated with successful business, and the deepening experience of our team in complex project management.

Good questions brought out further interesting facts:

Other government and NGO stove projects with budgets 10 times higher delivered less than half the stoves because they came as the educated elite in SUV’s not wanting to walk dusty roads.

Following questions, John explained that of the 9.5 million Rwandans, 1-2% are Muslim.  350,000 reside in John’s “home” District. Only 2% of Rwandans complete University. The stove costs $5 and brings about the same health and economic benefit as quitting a 2 pack a day smoking habit. The stove technology comes from the Aprovecho Research Center in Oregon where our Club has sponsored John to attend a workshop the last 2 summers.

Mary Canty (above) thanked John on behalf of all attendees and herself as a grandmother.