Southmouth June 16, 2008

Call to Order : Past President Matt Taylor

Anthem : Kris Akili

Toast:    Don Hetherington

Grace:  Sheila Bristo

Visitor Introduction : John D'Ambrosio welcomed Henry Becker and Ross MacDonald from the Downtown Club. He also welcomed our guest speaker John Shierlaw of Computer Trouble Shooters.

Sargeant-at-Arms :  Dan Toppari decided not to fine us today but rather to tell a joke to get us into a giving mood.  He got out alive without offending anyone but the most serious goat lover. Sheila Bristo was the first to give as she was happy to have attended  the christening of a row boat - actually an eight for the local rowing club dedicated in memory of her father in law John Schenk; John Klassen and Don Hetherington also happy about life as they know it; Bob McKay happy for the great vocational tour last week put on by Dan Toppari. Keith happy for his daughter's rowing to a medal; Guest Henry Becker from the "premier" club in town happy to welcome Ian to the "BAR" - beards at Rotary.

Announcements:

Cathy Henry let us know of the passing of Roseanne's mother, Rita Morissette. Funeral service Tuesday with details going out to all members by email. Our condolences to Roseanne and family.

Kris Akili had information placed on all tables about the Grafitti campaign here in St. Catharines. She advised us of the role played by Mainstream in the cleanup but reminded us to call the Hotline number, not Mainstream if we find a problem! Call 905 688-5601 ext. 3115 or email rcsgraffiti@stcatharines.ca

Matt Taylor reminded us of the club picnic and whereas he counted 20 attending including spouses from those present today, please go to the homepage and register online.

Matt announced the success of the Bike Trek where our club was the largest fundraiser at $1675. Half comes back to our club! We had seven riders and pictures are on the homepage under "Photo Journals".

Matt asked those who haven't filled out Governor Bob's Challenge Sheets to do so now and turn it in today.

Matt also asked again for consideration to host our incoming exchange student. A month would really help. Lataetia asked if a posting of a roster for entertaining her (the exchange student) would be posted. Matt said he would do that.

Birthdays:

Matt announced the birthdays for the whole month and then had the club seranade Jim Hooper, Jim Howes, Don Hetherington and Ian Forbes.

50/50 Draw . Someone's ticket was pulled but they lost and the pot grew.again.

Early Leavers : Several were announced and then half the group left..ouch.

Guest Speaker: Dan Toparri introduced John Shierlaw from Computer Trouble Shooters as our speaker today. He has contracted for John's services to protect the firm's computer systems from virus infections and similar calamities. John spoke on a theme of "Malware: should we be worried?"

John began by listing the various forms that malware takes on our systems such as viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware, spam, etc and how they can affect us. Some of these actually record every keystroke we make and in so doing they can steal actual account numbers or other forms of identity. In some cases these allow the hacker to actually take over our computers. The threats are very real and as our members indicated after during questions, we have experienced much of what he talked about.

John's advice was to be careful in what we open from unknown sources, be careful where we go, be sure to use an updated commercial anti virus or security program, and lastly to protect access to your wireless network. People are actually driving around the city and tapping into open unprotected networks.

His advice was to hire a professional to have your system checked out regularly if you are dependant on your computer for business or have personal information at risk. The free software like AVG is good but consider upgrading to the full commercial package for complete protection. He named most of the familiar companies such as Norton and Macafee as well as AVG and others available as freeware.

Good advice to us all and John generated many questions from those present. Thanked by Keith Shaver.