WEEK BY WEEK, YEAR BY YEAR
We are a club, we elect officers, we meet every week at noon on Thursdays, we keep minutes, have a treasurer, have a foundation with a charitable number, have RIOTS, our monthly newsletter; all that important club stuff. From the reports of our past presidents, every six or seven years we pause, catch our breath and spend a lot of time and effort reviewing how we are doing. Are our programs meeting our goals? Are we following the club’s constitution and bylaws and practices? It is a way to renew our commitment and engagement with our community and the world. The district has come up with a name for this process, Visioning. We always thought we were just getting our act together.
We’ve held our lunch meeting in various venues over the years. Starting at Hearthside we have met at the Holiday Inn (When it was at the northeast corner of Trafalgar and the QEW), The Oakville Club, The Town Restaurant on Speers, Otello’s and now at Le Dome Banquet Hall on the North Service Road. In Ashok Kochhar’s year as president (2006-07) we moved our venue three times.
In all the changes, from the beginning to the end, Rotary is not about places and things, it it’s about a group of people genuinely concerned about service and making life better for others. It is about working together and enjoying each other’s company.
When all else fails we can always tease John Kubacki about his full head of hair and his singing; and we can rely on Ray Jackson’s quick comebacks and Bent Fink-Jensen’s pearls of wisdom. Comments about Captain Dave Meyer’s boats, Jeff Parker’s warm Alberta charm and Denyse Tyndall’s crush on Elvis… well we’re not likely to run out of the laughter that has enriched our fellowship all these Thursdays at noon. |
We are serious in our work and equally determined that our luncheon meetings should be a relief, a break from the pressures of our working days. We laughed as Linda Devitt presented the annual Male Chauvinist awards; at George Stern’s priceless Elvis impersonations; Bill Dodd and Bob Mitchell acting out a Bob and Ray routine from radio in the fifties; Jay Lockwood in drag walking confidently in high heels; Ken Coulter dressed up as a Russian babushka, beard and all, with Jim Wilson translating his words into English; the visits of Santa and his elves giving their reports on whether we all have been naughty or nice; there are the Prophesies and Woes of the Prophet Nairator; and, of course, we never found out what Jennifer Loker did that caused so many members to pay out Happy Bucks! We don’t want to forget Bill Koopman’s birthday when Verna Andrews mimicked Marilyn Monroe’s breathless “Happy Birthday Mr. President”; and Bob Ruton’s painfully slow paced comments and announcements.
Below is a photo of Bob Ruton.
With all the years, all the boards, all the contributions made by our members, writing our history is like walking through a field of landmines. I am sure there are stories untold, unsung heroes and many incidents and events overlooked. There is an old saying “When all is said and done, more is said than done.” With Rotary we reverse that adage: ”more is done than said.”
To be continued…