President Michael Conway opened the meeting at 7:05 pm.

Rob Galloway, President of the Fergus Elora Rotary Club and a former member of the Rotary Club of Oakville, was welcomed to the meeting.

President Michael proposed a toast to the Queen and Canada.

He then announced that Sundeep Khosla has been approved for membership.

The club welcomed Sundeep, our newest member, to the club.

George Vincent gave the invocation.

District Governor Rudy Habesch announced the District Conference will be held May 28 in Kitchener.

He provided some details of the program and encouraged everyone to attend.

Given that Rudy is a member of our club we are hoping for a good turnout of our members at the conference.

Gary Comerford announced that the Speaker Series virtual event is APRIL 5. The topic of responsible development during a time of rapidly increased population coupled with a housing shortage should be of great interest. He encouraged members to sign up and communicate the information to all our connections and encourage them to register for this free event. Donations will be happily received.

Gary thanked all our sponsors and those members who obtained them.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

Mike Henry handled Happy Bucks and Fines and said he was happy to be going to BC. Other members were happy about upcoming trips planned: Rudy to Pennsylvania, Ralf to Europe.

Gary was happy that Frank Morewood and Richard Roberts had agreed to join the RCO Foundation Board of the club.

Rod Craig is happy that he will soon be a Canadian citizen after eleven years here.

Mahendra was happy to have had lunch with a former member Larry Chester.

Mike fined us substantially on our knowledge or lack thereof on the vernal equinox! And for not registering for the Speaker Series yet!

The days are not getting longer; the daylight hours are getting longer.

Ralf made a presentation on RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award now the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy).

We need a candidate in the next ten days for this virtual event May 13-15.

Candidates are usually university students who will have completed their exams by then.

Please tell Ralf if you know a student who might be interested in attending RYLA this year

Rod Craig introduced our speaker Alonso Campoi who is a travel agent in Brazil.

He is a member of ITHF (International Travel Host and Fellowship). This program gives tours for Rotarians.

The next tour is November 5-19.

Alonso gave us an outline of this tour which begins with the first night hosted by Rotarians. Points of interest include Iguazu Falls, the rainforest and Amazon River, and three nights in Rio.

Alonso has been doing this tour for 20 years which accommodates 40-60 people each time. This year he has capped the tour at 30 participants and 22 have signed up so far. The deadline for signing up is March 31.

In 2023 the tour will go to Peru and Machu Pichu.

Stuart Lam thanked Alonso for his informative and interesting talk.

President Michael announced the next meeting for April 11 which will have the Oakville Community Foundation on the program.

He again encouraged members to sign up for the Speakers Series event on April 5 and to get the word out to friends and Rotarians.

The meeting ended with a toast to Friends and Rotarians around the World.