January 29 at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel

 Reported by Lynne Murray

As it was the fifth Tuesday of the month, the meeting was held in the David Foster Theatre at the beautiful Oak Bay Beach Hotel. Brian Lamb was the cashier and Ron Beyer the seller of the 50/50 tickets. Members and guests bought more than the usual 3 for $2.00 tickets as we were down to one marble, so today there was definitely going to be a big winner. Tom Lidkea led us in a rousing version of O Canada. Eugen Bannerman, who has just returned from a leave of absence, recited the invocation. The meeting, being a social event rather than a full meeting, started with announcements. A Member at each table introduced the visitors. Rotarians and guests joining  us today were:

• Jarrod Clarkson from Edmonton Strathcona, 
• Geoff and Leanne Stokes from the Saanich Club 
• Peter Norman from the Rotary Club of Victoria. 
• Jean Lawrie accompanied Peter, 
• Kathleen Schelle was with husband, Bob 
• Tara Douglas was a guest of Joan Peggs
• Michelle LeSage from the OBBH was with Lori McLeod
• Carla Ode was a guest of Lynne. 

Jim Force reminded us that on Thursday, January 31st, the Club in the Pub will be held at the Penny Farthing at 5:00 pm.

President Joan told us of the passing of our former Member, Cedric Marsh. She then read a short story about him written by David Sills. For more information on Cedric, please read David's account written when Cedric joined the club here. 

Batya had information about the Tuscan Dinner on April 27th. Rod Sim is attempting to have the businesses on Oak Bay Avenue donate prizes for the auctions.

Neil Rawnsley then proceeded to draw the 50/50 winning ticket for $180.00. The lucky winner was Peter Norman, one of the visiting Rotarians. He proceeded to donate $50.00 of his winnings back to our Club Foundation. He told us in all his years at his Victoria Club he has never won their 50/50!

Once all the business had been taken care of we took to the buffet, one table at a time. We were superbly treated to 2 salads, roasted potatoes, mixed veggies, quinoa crusted chicken, and a robust tomato soup. Dessert was a variety of cakes and squares.

The meeting adjourned precisely at 1:30.

NOTE: Please keep in mind that in the near future we will be voting on whether or not we will return to the OBBH to hold our weekly meetings.

January 22, 2013 Bulletin

Reported by Tom Croft; Photos by David Sills

Opening:

President Joan opened meeting at 12:15 - right on time. We were treated to a humorous Rotary awareness video provided by Joan Firkins. Tom Lidkea led us in O Canada - what a change from the a cappella version we have been tolerating of late. Grace was provided by Ron Cooley.

Visitors and Guests:
Lorna Curtis introduced the visiting Rotarians and Guests: 

• John Samsom, Rotarian
• Brian Price, Speaker 
• Sabrina Corraini, Guest 
• Moira Hall and Anna Young of the Oak Bay High School Interact Club

Health of the Club:

Mary Canty reported that David Philip is back in hospital and Donna Chow is home after the birth of her child.

Paul Harris

Neil Rawnsley presented Lorna Curtis with her Paul Harris recognition

Announcements:

·      Jack Petrie: there will be a Fireside at Jack's house on March 13 - details to follow.

·      Laurie McLeod introduced a process to determine whether the Club meetings will continue to be held at the Rec Centre or relocate back to the Oak Bay Beach Hotel

·      Brian Lamb reminded that there is a sign-up sheet circulating for lunch at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel on January 29

·      Leslie Rogers-Warnock provided a summary of the Merrython Fun Run: $3,200 was raised. She offered big thanks for all the support

·      Notice was given of a Membership Proposal for Sabrina Corrainia; membership has been accepted by the Board. Her bio follows:

I have been in the financial services business since 2002, beginning on the banking side while I completed my bachelor's degree in English Literature at the University of Victoria, and then transitioning to wealth management after my graduation in 2006. I have since earned my Canadian Investment Manager designation through the Canadian Securities Institute in 2010. 

I work with individuals and business owners to identify their financial goals and then develop a personalised plan to ensure those goals are achieved. I believe in a comprehensive approach to wealth management, focussing not only on your investments but also on your insurance (life, disability, critical illness), tax-planning, and estate-planning needs.

Though originally from Red Deer, Alberta, I have spent most of my life here in Victoria, BC. Outside of the office I am active in community sports such as fastball and curling. I also love to travel and have seen much of Europe and North America. I am a classically trained pianist, and I enjoy sitting down to play from time to time. 

Moira and Anna presented a cheque for $2,000 on behalf of the Interact Club for the Rwanda Sustainable Households project and the Malawi Girls’ School.

Fines' Master Neil Rawnsley: Wynne paid for being last in; Ron Beyer was late again; Lorna Curtis was late to do her Greeter duty; Ron Cooley made an RRSP gaff during Grace.

Club Anniversaries: 11 years for Anne Sims, and it was David Maxwell's anniversary too;
Holidays: Anne Sims, Joan Firkins, Leslie Rogers-Warnock.

Birthdays: Jack Petrie, David Westler.

Neil was also fined - for finding the Fines Master kit.

Happy Sad $: Leslie is happy to go on holidays, but sad for David's mini - you can’t see it!

Joan Peggs: can run, but why? Renate is off to Kenya; Joan Firkins is off to Rotary training in San Francisco, and is happy to announce the new Rotary slogan for 2013/2014: Engage Rotary; Change Lives; Jessica Van Der Veen and Tom Lidkea are sad not to be in Maui; Lorna is going away to down under; Jim is sad for the closure of the Caddie Bay bookstore.

Ron Cooley: “Similarities between the Leafs and Whiskey?”  “They are both good till they hit the ice”.

 The Draw, Lori wins $19 - one marble left.

GUEST SPEAKER:

Brian Lamb introduced the speaker, Brian Price (above with President Joan), the coxswain for the Canadian Men's Eight rowing team; he as 16 medals to his credit including Gold in Beijing and Silver in London. 

Five months ago Brian was in London for the final race of the men’s eights. There were over 30,000 fans waiting to cheer for Britain. Brian was most nervous and asked himself why he was making a comeback after winning gold in Beijing?  He realized he was facing a great divide in his life: win another medal and he would then have a future as a motivational speaker;  come fourth and at least he has his family in Victoria to come back to.  Imagine - three times to the Olympics and only 45 minutes to go before the start!  In the pre-race speech, the coach said nobody cares if you don’t medal, push yourself further, imagine what is possible; there will be fight all the way to the end. Never stop fighting!

Brian leads us through the race.  The warmup is just as important as the start.  He starts with the four bow rowers taking 10 sharp strokes; the stern then knows everyone in the bow is ready. Then 10 more sharp strokes from the 4 stern rows, this sets the rhythm. All 8 rowers are ready to go.

The buildup to a 15-minute race is unbelievable; make sure that the last 25 strokes before the start are smooth. Review the countdown to make sure you are set and ready. Stay on focus; everyone is very nervous for the right reasons. What does Brian do? Well he doesn’t beat on a drum nor sing “Row-Row-Row” your boat. He tells the crew what to do: keep the boat straight, execute the race plan, and motivate the crew.

Brian looks down the course. There is the roll call, and then they go. They get into the race right away at 50 strokes a minute. At 45 seconds, the lactic acid cuts in, drive through it, then saw wood for 1,000 meters; at 750 meters it really hurts; at 1,500 meters Brian asked the crew what medal do you want, they flick the on switch on; at 250 meters out there are just 24 strokes to go: 7, 7, 10.  The crew finishes in second for an Olympic Silver medal.  He said as they crossed the line “Better be proud of that”!  He then played a two-minute video of the race.

Brian felt that this medal was a family medal. The expressive smiles on faces of the crew indicated that they all had achieved a dream.  Everyone in the room felt the exhaustion of winning that medal!

Jim Force thanked the speaker and noted that the presentation was a metaphor for “Service Above Self”.  We all felt exhilarated by the win!

Joan and Perry

The meeting was closed with Tom Lidkea on the piano leading us in God Save the Queen.

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!

Meeting of January 9, 2013

Meeting of January 9, 2013

Reported by Dallas Chapple

Guests:

Visiting Rotarian and Speaker: Dennis Sutton (Harbourside)

Stephanie Shulman (Rotaract Club of Victoria), guest of Vicky Pitt.                                             

David King, guest of Don O’Coffey

Peter Pollen,  guest of Peter Sou

Health of the Club:

Mary Canty reported that Donna Chow had a little girl (Aila) and her picture was circulated (very cute!) Hans is waiting for surgery and was missed at the meeting.

Announcements:

Pablo donated $50 to the club from the proceeds of his concert.

Perry said that we have one more week for the Pennies from Heaven campaign. If we reach $1000, CIDA and the Bill Gates Foundation will increase it to $6000 which will buy 10,000 vaccines!

Fines Master:

Neil Rawnsley extracted money from almost everyone. He fined people for having their Xmas decorations still up, for not wearing Rotary pins and for many questions from the Rotary magazine to which we didn’t know the answers. We sang Happy Birthday to Lynne (Jan. 6), Perry (Jan. 1) and Joan F. (Jan. 10). Happy Birthday to you!

Speaker:

Mark Bedford introduced our guest speaker, Dennis Sutton from the Harbourside Club, who is the Secretary of District 5020 and who gave us an overview of how the District works. To wit:

A District is created by the Board of Rotary International, which designates the clubs to form the District. Our District, 5020, is registered as a non-profit organization both in WA and in B.C. There are 88 clubs in our District: 54 in the U.S. and 34 in Canada. Ours is the largest district in North America and the 10^th largest in the world. There are 16 areas with their own District Governors (the DG is the only officer of RI in the District.) Under the DG are several groups: the Continuity Group, the District Council and District committees.  To be a District Governor one has to:  

• be an ex-president with at least 7 years experience, 
• selected by nomination committees, 
• have 2.5 years of training, 
• visit each club in the district at least one time, 
• be responsible for youth programs, 
• attend RI meetings and international conventions.

What does the District do for the clubs and zone meetings? 

• PE training, 
• provide liability insurance, 
• training, 
• District Conferences, 
• Foundation—local fund/allocation, 
• New Generations, 
• Youth Exchange, 
• CRCID (Canadian Rotary and CIDA), 
• Friendship Exchange. 

Fifty percent of funds to the Foundation come back to the District. The District provides assistance with: 

• membership, 
• PR, 
• friendship exchanges, 
• grant applications, 
• literacy 
• and visioning.

Dennis was thanked for his very useful presentation by Tom Croft.