Meeting of August 28

Guests were Steven Wong (guest of Jim Force) seen standing above, and Donna Chow (guest of Barry Mutter). Guest speaker was Martin Lecler, GM of the Fairmont Empress Hotel.

General Business:
The application for Membership to the Oak Bay Club was received by Donna Chow. Donna (nee Carrigan) was a member previously and her bio has been emailed to all members. Her membership has been accepted by the Board.
As per our bylaws: If no written objection to the proposal, stating reasons, is received by the board from any member (other than honorary) of the club within seven (7) days following publication of information about the prospective member, that person, upon payment of the admission fee (if not honorary membership), as prescribed in these bylaws, shall be considered to be elected to membership. If any such objection has been filed with the board, it shall vote on this matter at its next meeting. If approved despite the objection, the proposed member, upon payment of the admission fee  if not honorary membership), shall be considered to be elected to membership.

Wolf Schopper presented a banner he had received from the Nelson, BC Rotary club. Emma Dixon-Will (left with president Joan) finally received her name tag, and Mary Canty advised that there were no health issues with club members.

Barry Mutter announced that Donna Chow (his guest today) would be rejoining the club. Lori McLeod asked again for members to sponsor students to come for lunches under the New Generations programme.

Joan Firkins took on the duties of the Celebrations Master this week, successfully extracting funds from the membership. She noted that Dallas Chapple had numerous inaccuracies in the previous weeks’ bulletin and fined her accordingly. Lori McLeod was fined for grandchild “one-upmanship” with Bill Burns. She also had the tenacity to fine our guest speaker, Martin Lecler, for not recognizing her from a meeting six weeks earlier.

Several members had Happy Dollars: Jim Force had 2 Happy dollars, one for the upcoming Club in a Pub on Thursday, and one for a new 11 week old cairn terrier that he and Colleen just got, and for the fact the puppy slept through the night!

Jim Laing won the 50/50 draw and collected $11.

Jim Laing then proceeded to introduce the guest speaker, Martin Lecler (right), the General Manager of the Fairmont Empress Hotel since 2008. He offered a most entertaining presentation, and highlighted various insights to the great hotel overlooking the inner harbour:

• “Friends of the Empress” has over 12,000 members, and membership provides for discounts throughout the hotel, including food and beverages.
• The Empress is in the process of a $40 million renovation, including the conversion of the old Kipling’s Restaurant to be a second ballroom. The Empress Dining Room will also be “repurposed” for higher volume use.
• The “Artist in Residence” programme was created in 2009, allowing the artist free-run of the hotel for inspiration for painting. 

Lastly, Martin discussed his leaving the position of GM of the Empress to start his new position as GM for the new Fairmont Hotel being built in Nanjing, China, on Sunday. The new hotel is located in a 50 storey building, and includes a 2,000,000 square foot conference centre (compared to Victoria’s conference centre of 75,000 square feet!)

Tav Macpherson thanked Martin for his presentation, and with no other business for the good of Rotary, the membership stood to sing God Save the Queen, and the meeting was adjourned.

REPORTED BY RON BEYER. PHOTOS BY JOHN EDGELL with his new SONY RX100.