A sunny St Patricks Day! There was no Guinness in sight but a good meeting nonetheless. Pres Marieze introduced several guests including Knowles McGill (Rotary Sioux Lookout), Carole Byrd (guest speaker), Heather (Rotarian from Grande Prairie), Richard (the Times) and the very note able Gregor Read from St Catherine's who has been with us all winter, becoming a good friend attending many meetings and volunteering at most of our Coyote beer garden events. Safe travels Greg and look forward to seeing you back home in the fall. 

Mike and Gisele are our newest members and both present.

Pres Marieze shared 2 upcoming events. April 9th is Osoyoos 15th Annual Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon and Judy volunteered to coordinate that for the Club and May 27-29th is the visit to Osoyoos of the 5 member Vocational Training Team from Australia and Brian volunteered to coordinate their visit so will be looking for help with visits to local agricultural sites as their focus is farming. 

Marieze introduced our guest speaker Carole Bird. Carole is a recent Osoyoos resident having retired from a 27 year career with the RCMP, most recently in Ottawa as Inspector in Charge for the NCMPUR which of course is the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains. Everyone knows that one? A very confident and enjoyable speaker and presentation. Carole shared information new to us about Missing Persons (MP) and Missing Children (MC) with the distinction being MP's are adults, persons over 18 years of age. People over 18 can go 'missing' if they choose to as their choice but children cannot. There are on average 21 thousand MPs per year and 41 thousand MCs per year reported. Of the MCs, 43% are 14 or 15 year olds. 

NCMPUR is not an investigative agency but more a national repository for data and support for the regional policing authorities. They share best practices, train the local police and provide a database for Canadian, and International, investigations. The direction is for them to standardize the approach to MPs, understand root causes, create a National DNA database and understand the roles of NGO's such as Amber Alert EU, Missing Children of Canada (of which Carole is a Director) and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. 

Of special interest was the potential add to the Amber Alert which is the Silver Alert which should be of interest to our Club and especially to Ron Leigh....where is he?  Everyone appreciated the presentation. 

Under upcoming events to think about are the Pancake Breakfast on March 26th and our exchange student Camille needing hosting and activities for herself and sister April 10 to 23. 

David won the 50/50 (again!) claiming that the proceeds are going to his ongoing charity of supplies to Mexican children....bring pictures!

A board meeting broke out following the regular meeting....stay tuned for the minutes!

Yay spring!