Meeting of June 4, 2014
Past President Nonie Buski chaired the meeting today, filling in for Linda who was away visiting her new grandchild.
Julius was greeter, said grace, and served as scribe. Jaima led us in O Canada.
We had one guest today - Janet Lywood.
Julius tried leading us in the welcome song but started at too high a pitch and quickly found himself out of range. Thankfully, most of the club members were able to see it through
It was our pleasure to induct our newest member today - Dr. Arif Alibhai. Arif (pronounced Ah-REEF - emphasis on the second syllable) was sponsored by Zaheer. PDG Julius conducted the induction after which all club members came up to personally welcome Arif into the Best Darn Rotary Club in the Whole Wide World. Arif's classification is Public Health. In welcoming Arif into our club, Nonie reminded all members of the need to continue seeking out prospective members for the club.
Julius presented today's Rotary Minute - speaking to how Rotary in many way resembles a religion - and vice versa.
Rob won the draw but his luck ran out at that stage.
Terry Kirkland reminded members that our meeting will be held at Brightview School next week. The food will be delivered to the school by 10:45. Terry needs 2 or 3 volunteers to join him at the school at 11:15 to set up the Bar-B-Que , condiments, drinks etc. The first class will be ready for lunch at 11:40. Volunteers should arrive between 11:30 and 11:40. The lunch component including clean-up lasts until about 1:00 PM. The activities and the opportunity to immerse yourself in a load of fun carries on for about another hour.
Finemaster Rob Speers collected Happy Bucks today. Members related much happiness.
Tim is off to Halifax.
Frank and Shirley Bell have just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary! Congratulations!
Jess has 2 horse-loving daughters off to the Preakness.
Gill is off to the coast for sailing and Chris is on the rebound.
Terry spent time with his 2 year old granddaughter. Always nice to send them home.
Jamia was looking forward to breakfast on Sunday with Zaheer and Salma at the World Partners Walk.
Derek was celebrating his fourth great-grandchild.
Mike looked very snazzy today - dressed up for a photo op? wedding? or some other important engagement.
Brian was happy to have their daughter visiting them for a while.
And such was today's joy at Mayfield.
Our speaker, Rob Speers, was ably and briefly introduced by Frank Bell, since this was Rob's classification talk. Rob advised us that he was in full audio visual mode - he was the audio and his photos on powerpoint were the visual.
Rob was born in Edmonton on Sept 27, 1957 and adopted at 4 months of age, on Robbie Burns Day. He has a passion for sports and in grade 9 played football with the JP Lions as an outside linebacker. He attended Stratford Junior High School and then Jasper Place Composite High School for 4 years, where he played football, basketball and volleyball. Rob continued playing basketball until about two years ago.
After high school, Rob attended NAIT, taking business, but hated accounting, which probably explains why his job today involves selling accounting software!
His business career has included employment with QCTV, Ed Tel, Gray Beverages, Sony of Canada, Maxell, Matrix Video and presently with Wi-Band.
Rob has a share in the Green Bay Packers [but that's another story] and loves to cook and golf. We were also interested to learn that he plays the guitar, and has four of these in his collection. He is married to Anne.
Once again, hearing from our own members is often one of the best programs we have, and today was no exception. It's great to have you in our club, Rob!
Jess thanked Rob for his presentation.
There being the required sufficient time, master story teller Harvey Emas regaled us with a couple of good ones.
We closed the meeting with the 4 Way Test and a toast to Rotary.
REMEMBER - The meeting next week is at Brightview.