Meeting of February 25, 2014 - Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan

Photos and reporting by Joan Firkins. 

Rum Donations are rolling in to support the New Orleans Dinner. Pictured here with their donations are:
David Philip, David Maxwell, David Westler, and David Sills (No, you don't have to be called David to Donate!)

Standing in for President Pete was Acting President Brian Lamb. Brian opened the meeting with words of wisdom from the Pres. and in deference to Governor Pete and Kristine being in attendance, we heartily sang both O Canada and The Star Spangled Banner.

After Sandy Currie gave a short Grace, guests were shown to the front of the line to start the lunch buffet with everyone else following suit.

Mike Hodges did an exemplary job of introducing the Visiting Rotarians and Guests:

   Governor Pete Taylor and Kristine - Tacoma 8

   Jill Leslie - today's Speaker from CW4WA (Canadian Women 4 Women in Afghanistan)

   Ryan Gisler - guest of Janna Malo

Eugen (Big Stick) Bannerman took to the lectern in his final week as Sergeant at Arms and levied various fines relating to Rotary in general: Everyone coughed up loonies for various reasons: Switzerland Rotary remains predominantly male which prompted Ron Cooley to ask "Who does all the work then?" (The women in our club should have paid you for that Ron!); and as an aside, Jessica brought to our attention that women in Switzerland only became eligible to vote in 1972!  Eugen hosted the 4 David's in our club at his table today; he also called out Jessica and Wyn for being late (that really is a Big Stick - they were there weren't they?)  

Happy and Sad dollars: Janna received a Young Business Entrepreneur award which was noted in the newspaper; Brian Lamb celebrated 39 years in Rotary; many noted they were sad the Olympics were over and Vicky noted the stunning view of Mt. Baker this morning on her way to Rotary. Tom Lidkea told a cute joke which bears repeating (which doesn't happen very often!) - Three sisters were with their father and he was telling them what properties he was going to leave them upon his demise. To the first one he said "You will receive all the houses and buildings in the village on Oak Bay Avenue; to the second daughter he said "You will receive the houses all along Rockland Avenue" and to the third he said "You will get the all houses in the Uplands".  A friend who overheard the conversation came up to the girls afterwards and said he didn't realize their father was so well off and owning so many properties. To which the daughters replied "Oh he doesn't own them, he's giving us his paper routes!"

Announcements:  Joan Peggs read a letter from Steve Sharlow (son of former member Bill Sharlow) indicating he is moving to Victoria and would like to join our club.  Governor Pete got up to say a few words, starting with Hockey Schmockey in reference to the US/Canada hockey game - no further comment. Pete and Kristine are now doing some second visits because he cares what goes on and wants to show their support. He recognized all that is going on in our club right along with our accomplishments. In a lighter vein, Governor Pete referenced our infamous Toronto Mayor Rob Ford by saying being the Mayor of Toronto really wasn't what it is "cracked" up to be!

Governor Pete (on right), along with club Foundation Chair, Neil Rawnsley (left), presented multiple Paul Harris pins to Jack Petrie, Anne Sims, Will Carter and Wolf Schopper - well done to each of you and thank-you!

Our speaker, Jill Leslie, was ably introduced by Jack Petrie. Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan is a non-profit founded in 1996 with 13 volunteer chapters across Canada. The group organizes ongoing education and fundraising activities for women in Afghanistan with the goal of the programs in Afghanistan to advance education for Afghan women and their families and to educate Canadians about human rights in Afghanistan.

  Facts of note:

    - 17% literacy rate for women in Afghanistan

    - 1 in 5 women are literate

    - one of the poorest countries in the world

    - not enough calories consumed daily for a healthy life

    - 48% of the population is under the age of 15

    - less than 25% of adults have been to school

    - 6% of girls are married before the age of 15

    - many edicts for women: example - no white socks and no noisy shoes

   - many edicts for everyone: example - beards must be 10 cm long; music is illegal; TV is banned; curfew nightly

  Major problems are insecurity, corruption and lack of jobs - most of which has occurred since the emergence of the Taliban in 1990.

  There have been improvements since 2001 in health, education and literacy and since 2002, women are now back in the public eye, they are allowed political participation, they are integrated into the business and workforce and with improved health care there is a reduced mortality rate.

    [Bulletin reporters note:  It was interesting that the speaker did not mention the fact that in 2009 Rotary Districts and clubs across Canada, including our own, started raising money to build a school in Afghanistan with the help of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). In short, a 20 classroom school in Jalalabad, accommodating 4000 students, at the cost of in excess of $250,000, was opened on September 26, 2010. Go Canada!]

    Ron Beyer thanked the speaker for her insightful information and we all rose to sing The Queen!

Program for February 18, 2014 - Operation Superhero

Change In Pace                    

President Peter welcomed Mary Canty back from her sojourn in Guatemala and suggested she begin the meeting with a brief chat on how the experience made her proud to be a Rotarian. She had a great experience visiting with John Snively and his crew of Rotarians who are there performing needed dental work for the local inhabitants in the villages along the shore of Lake Atitlan.

It must be a first for this Club - there were no visiting Rotarians or other guests, although the President suggested that a premature introduction of the guest speaker was in order. Grace was provided by Sabrina Coraini.

Eugen (Big Stick) Bannerman

The S-at-A continued his theme of member education on the history of the Oak Bay Rotary Club. Fines were liberally assigned for those who did not know that:

• October is the 40^th anniversary of the Club.
• The cost of lunch in 1974 was $3.00 compared to $21.00 today
•  Women were invited to join RI beginning in 1987
•  The first woman joined the Oak Bay Club in 1992

More money was raised from those who were not aware what Brian and Wynn had in common – both are Rotarians, both are rowers, and both insist on wearing the old style white plastic name badges.

One of the David’s was fined for his advance payment of $2.00 to gain immunity from today’s fines. And, finally, Pablo suggested all those members who ate their taco lunch with a knife and fork pay a penalty. The S-at-A agreed as it was apparent that this group was in the majority.

Two Happy / Sad dollars were paid by Jack Petrie who observed that a Rotary wheel could be fashioned if the two facing half-filled tables were joined together. (Personally I think he got off far too lightly with only a two dollar fine for this wry observation.)

Announcements

Center For The Performing Arts – Jessica is selling raffle tickets for this fundraiser - $20 a ticket or three for $50 and a chance to win  a cruise.

New Orleans Dinner  –  Brian advises that there are only six tickets remaining for this major event on May 11.

Youth Committee Appointments – Tom Croft announced that Michaela Bab was selected to attend the Adventures in Citizenship meeting in Ottawa and that Julia Marshall and Ruby Tang would be attending this year’s RYLA meeting in Tacoma.

Unscripted Moments

Jack Petrie presented a slide show featuring various members in a series of candid poses over the past six months. The inset captions gave an added humorous dimension to the pictures. Jack used his usual flair and reasonably good taste to portray us in much gentler situations than that shown by the hidden camera in the old television program.

Operation Superhero

Anne-Lise coordinates philanthropic funding at UVIC to support the efforts of CanAssist, a program designed to help everybody reach their full potential. Her slide presentation “Operation Superhero” included many examples of people who have benefited from using amazing CanAssist innovations from 1) ‘Move like a Cheetah’ featuring Karen who functions with two tubes; 2) ‘Think like a Computer’ with Jordan utilizing CanPlan Apps to organize his day; 3) ‘And Even Levitate’ with Barber Bob using a mechanical hoist to serve his customers; and 4) ‘Here Comes Marion’ utilizing a Skype program in her battle with dementia.

Another UVIC program is TeamWork designed to connect disabled youth to meaningful work. There are four Avenues of Support – to improve independence and quality of life, to help youth find employment, to encourage skill-building and to boost self-confidence.

Brian Lamb thanked Anne-Lise for her presentation and remarked on his 15 year friendship with the Loomer family. Her father and brother are fellow rowers. He remarked that UVIC, once perceived as a remote island, is doing something practical for the community – Who Would Have Thought !!!!

(Here we see Brian thanking Anne-Lise for meeting with the Club today and thanking Mary Canty for owning the podium at the start of the meeting.)

Rotary Club of Oak Bay Bulletin February 11, 2014 - Amarok Society (Gem Munro)

Reporter Tom Croft. Photos by Bob Schelle

     President Peter Opened the meeting right on time at 12:15 and reminded us that this month in Rotary is “Rotary Awareness Month”.  He shared correspondence from Jacqueline in Guatemala and John in Rwanda and a slide show from John and Linda Edgell in Mexico.

     Jim Force provided a stirring rendition of “O ’Canada” in which the members joined the DuFour-Lapointe sisters singing as they received their Gold and Silver medals in Sochi for placing first and second in the Slopestyle Skiing event.

     Lynne Murray provided the Grace and lunch was a Chinese-style buffet - very delicious as usual.

     Jessica Van der Veen introduced our two visitors, Stuart Adam, a Rotarian from Saskatoon, and Gem Munroe, our guest speaker and a Rotarian as well.

     Jim reminded us of our duties to raise money for our Club over the next few months with the Mardi Gras Madness dinner and fundraiser, Canadian Flag program and Car Raffle with the Victoria Club.  There is about $50,000 to be raised so remember to do your part to generate the funding for our Club’s projects.

     Guest speaker, Gem Munro (left), was introduced by Wolf Schopper. Gem spoke to us today about the relationship between the Amarok Society and Rotary.  Amarok Society was founded with one family at its centre: Dr. Tanyss Munro, Gem Munro and their four children. The Society teaches extremely poor, uneducated mothers in the world’s worst slums to become neighbourhood teachers.  View this video for more information.

     Gem: We teach these women how to read and write in their own language; we teach them English (necessary in South Asia for economic advancement), and teach them math. We also teach them life skills such as health, nutrition, child care and conflict resolution. And we teach them to think, something they’ve never before been encouraged or taught to do. The mothers, many of whom have never before even held a pencil, attend school every day for 2 hours. Teachers recruited from poor neighbourhoods and trained by AS, use accelerated learning methods (using songs, drama, games). Neighbourhood premises are used as schools.  The mothers are then trained to become teachers of their own and their neighbours’ children, developing some of the learning materials themselves for use with the children. The small schools, when not being used for mothers’ classes, are used by the women to discuss issues of importance, as determined by them, and as a place for cottage-industry enterprises to increase family income. Working from the centre of the family out, using our own accelerated learning methods, is a highly effective – and cost-effective – approach. Mothers come to understand and value education. They learn how to create a positive learning environment for children, and they come to make better decisions in many areas for their families. Mothers report that they can now make better sense of their world and have become more highly valued within their own homes and in their community as they disprove old, backward attitudes about the limitations and suitable role of women.

     The improvements in the women’s abilities and circumstance dramatically improve every aspect of slum life overall. As a result of a hastily prepared meeting of Canadian and Bangladeshi Rotarians held in a cafeteria at the Montreal International Rotary Conference in the spring of 2010, a new partnership was been created. With the assistance of Rotary District 7070, Literacy Chair, Joan Hayward, Zone Coordinators Roger Hayward (for Canada) and Safina Rahman (for Bangladesh), and Rotary International Literacy Coordinator Richard Hattwick, an Agreement in Principle was made between the Rotary Club of Belleville, Ontario, Canada and the the Rotary Club of Midtown Dhaka, Bangladesh with Amarok Society for the purpose of supporting specific initiatives in the poorest slums of Dhaka.

Read more here on the Amarok blog: http://amaroksociety.org/wordpress/

Gem was thanked by David Westler (above) and received a Rotary Four Way Test coffee mug as a thank-you for speaking today. 

We closed with the Queen.

Fireside at the PF and Tuesday 4, 2014 meeting - World Children's Summit on Peace and Nature.

Reported by Dallas Chapple

Neil Madsen introduced the guests: Alex McFadden from Calgary West Rotary and Sherry Moir, Jim Force's guest.

Our old Rotary flags were sold off by Bob Schelle. Wolf bought the Rotary flag for $30 and Gordon Quigley, who will be our newest member in a couple of weeks, bought the remaining 3 for $60.

David Philip commented on his own health, as he had been in hospital, but is looking very well now! He also promoted organ donation.

Brian announced that 140 tickets have sold already for our New Orleans dinner fundraiser: only 60 tickets left! Hurry if you don't have yours! May 10th--don't forget!

The Celebrations Master, Eugen Bannerman, extracted a lot of money out of the pockets of our members! He asked when our club was founded (May 13, 1974); where it originally met (Uplands Golf Course); and where did we move to and why?( To the Oak Bay Beach Hotel because Bruce Walker was a Rotarian.)

We wished Claire Helm (captured here at home with new baby and her husband Jon in a lovely photo by David Sills ) well after the birth of her son, Weston, and Joan Peggs got a gift for her from all of us. Congratulations Claire!

Birthdays: Neil Madsen, Feb. 8 and David Philip, both of whom gave generously to the club.

Jack Petrie also celebrated 10 years with our club.

Lynne Murray fell off her bike and broke a rib, Tom reported. We wish you well, Lynne!

David Philip won the draw! (those who give, get!)

Photo composite by David Sills

David Sills introduced our guest speaker: Kathleen Arnason.

Kathleen spoke on the World Children's Summit on Peace and Nature, to be held in Victoria on May 19-22, 2015.

Seven years ago she had a dream: if we want world peace we have to begin with children and personal peace.

She built a fountain and took it from school to school and interviewed 400 kids about peace. 80% of them described nature. Many children said that when they were at peace they felt safe. Kathleen has designed a summit based on 4 areas:

• 1) contemplation
• 2) music
• 3) storytelling and culture
• 4) photography and nature

The values to be taught at this summit are friendship, courage and gratitude. 200 kids from B.C. and 140 from other provinces will be able to attend the summit, which is geared to 10-14 year olds. Kathleen plans to livestream the summit to the world and to invite kids from every school in Canada. The cost will be $300 per child and she is hoping that Rotary will sponsor a child or two. If you wish to donate or sponsor, please go to www.worldchildrensummit.com

Don O'Coffey (below) thanked speaker Kathleen Arnason

January 2014 Fireside (Report by Jim Force)

The first Club Fireside of the New Year took place on Thursday, January 30^th, at The Penny Farthing. 23 folks in all attended: 19 club members, 5 of whom are new club members, and 4 guests. People started arriving at 5 pm and most stayed until 7 pm. Many had a meal along with their drinks. It was a very informal gathering in which folks sat around six tables chatting and sharing Rotary experiences. Thanks to Bob for the photos. More below!