Vol. 100 No. 49
Philip Webber, President
Franco Gallo, Secretary
Next meeting: Tuesday June 26, 2018
Grace Shyng, Acting Executive Director, Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (WIDHH) "Plans for the new WIDHH Centre of Excellence"
Grace Shyng started at WIDHH as a staff audiologist in 1994 and became the head of audiology in 1999. She holds a Master of Science in Audiology from UBC and is a Clinical Assistant Professor with the UBC School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, Faculty of Medicine. Grace participates in many professional committees including a national certification exam committee for Audiologists. She is also a proud recipient of the Noelle Lamb Award for Excellence in Clinical Education from UBC. Grace recently spearheaded the creation of an innovative clinical research division ot WIDHH in partnership with UBC and Worksafe BC. Her professional areas of interests include amplification, aural rehabilitation and aging.
Upcoming meeting: Tuesday July 3, 2018 Transition to the Club's New Leadership Goodbye and Hello - passing of the torch & plan for 2018-19
President Phil Webber will be saying goodbye to his role and will be passing the torch to the 2018-19 President, Brian Street.
Upcoming meeting: Tuesday July 10, 2018 Robert Spector The Nordstrom Way
Robert Spector is co-founder of the RSi consultancy, bestselling author, international speaker, educator and advisor to organizations. He is also the author of Amazon.com: Get Big Fast and The Mom & Pop Store. Robert’s presentation, The Nordstrom Way, sets the stage for creating, encouraging, and maintaining a superior customer experience built on a non-negotiable set of core cultural values.
Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary International once said, "Perhaps dreaming is not so bad if one dreams good dreams and makes them come true."
That is what Rotarians are working to do in relation to the dream, the goal for eradication of Polio to which we are this close.
In Rotary, we make dreams a reality through extraordinary projects and activities, here at home and around the world. These projects would not be possible without the generous support of Rotarians and friends of The Rotary Foundation.
The Rotary Foundation, the found of Rotary International, recognizes those individuals who contribute, or have had contributed on her or his behalf, the aggregate amount of USD$1,000 to the Annual Fund, to the PolioPlus campaign, or for approved Foundation grants. That recognition takes the form of acknowledging that such an individual is a Paul Harris Fellow.
Additionally, the Rotary Club of Vancouver, through contributions to the Rotary Foundation, has a longstanding tradition of acknowledging each year, up to four persons, who may or may not be members of Rotary, who have demonstrated exemplary "Service Above Self" by his or her contributions to our community or to the stature and success of our Club. It falls to the current President of our Club to make the decision on who should be so recognized.
While a great privilege, it is no easy task. The Rotary Club of Vancouver constantly receives so many outstanding contributions from so many members in our Club, and this year is no exception. Nevertheless, today we wish to honour one member who, year in and year out, has contributed to the success and well-being of our Club and in particular, to the success of its humanitarian service projects.
That member, within the past year, has performed incredible Services Above Self for all of us including, but hardly exhaustive:
He has used his accounting expertise to help shepherd the club, and to assist goal setting for three of our four humanitarian service committees, namely community service, youth services, and international service;
He has supported our youth fundraisers year after year by putting up experience prizes for the auction or by supporting other aspects of the fundraiser, such as with complimentary hotel accommodation related to performers recruited for it;
In addition to being a participant in our annual Rotary Ski Weekend, he has added a new tradition to the Ski Weekend, by making all the arrangements for the Barefoot Bistro dinner at the Listel Hotel in Whistler -- an evening which has become a staple of the Ski Weekend over the last few years;
As a director of the Club, he has, during this Rotary year, hosted not one, but two of our Board meetings at the Listel Hotel in Vancouver -- a special treat and recommended for the gourmets among you;
As a member of the International Service Committee, he attended in Japan in March of this year as part of our Club's contingent in relation to the renewal of our Sister Club Agreement with the Rotary Club of Tokyo Setagaya South, a mutually supportive relationship which began in 2005 when Jack Zaleski was President of our Club.
I am sure you will all have guessed by now that our newest Paul Harris Fellow Plus 1 is Kaz Kadono, your Club Treasurer and a Director.
In addition to welcoming Kaz to accept his one sapphire pin, we wish to welcome and say thank you to his wife, Natsuyo, who I [President, Phil Webber] am sure has supported Kaz in all that he does, including through Rotary and through our Club, as a Rotarian, who is Making A Difference.
Congratulations Kaz and a heartfelt thank you from us all.
Transfer of the Home of the District Governor Banner
from RCoV to RC Sunshine Coast Sechelt
Thank you Don Evans and Deb Sankey for your service to Rotary and the communities with which our Club is involved, indeed with which all Rotary Clubs, Rotaract Clubs and Interact Clubs in District 5040 are involved! All members of the Rotary Club of Vancouver are very proud to have had you, as one of our own, serve our District so ably.
For the information of members, immediately after installation of the incoming District Governor Team of District Governor Darcy Long and her husband, Doug on Saturday, June 16, 2018, we delivered the "Home of the District Governor Banner" to President-Elect Cam Reid of the Rotary Club of Sunshine Coast, Sechelt.
As President of the Rotary Club of Vancouver, Phil Webber, asked District Governor Don Evans to assist him with surrendering custody of the "Home of the District Governor Banner" to the Rotary Club of Sunshine Coast, Sechelt.
Phil acknowledged at the hand-over that the Rotary Club of Vancouver, until June 16th, had the honour of actual custody of the "Home of the District Governor Banner" for the then past 350 days. He also emphasized that the Rotary Club of Vancouver intended to enjoy spiritual custody of it for the remaining 15 days before July 1, 2018 when DG Darcy Long will officially take over from DG Don Evans.
At the hand-over, Phil also acknowledged that the Rotary Club of Vancouver had the honour of custody of the banner, thanks to District Governor Don Evans and, especially to the tireless effort of the DG Team of Don and Deb, who have inspired the Rotary Club of Vancouver and all Rotary Clubs, Rotaract Clubs and Interact Clubs in District 5040, as their Rotarians, district-wide, have "Made of Difference", a positive difference, in society, here and abroad -- for the better.
May DG Darcy likewise inspire her team, her club's officers and members, and the officers and members of Rotary Clubs, Rotaract Clubs and Interact Clubs District-wide.
May all of us and our brothers and sisters in Rotary, as Rotarians, inspire each other -- the member of our clubs and their families!
Inspire the members of the communities we serve!
Inspire the beneficiaries of the humanitarian and other services we provide!
Note: Franz Gehriger will be changing his membership from an individual membership to a corporate membership
Due notice having been given, the following corporation, and its individuals, has been declared elected as members of the club.
Swissreal Investments:
Franz Gehriger (current member)
Nadia Gehriger
Jeremy Towning
Real Estate: Management & Development
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Last Meeting June 19 , 2018
President Phil Webber chaired the meeting and gave the invocation.
Kayo Otake accompanied us on the piano for the singing of O Canada.
Jim Evans, Sergeant-at-Arms Elect, introduced visitors and guests.
Chair's announcements:
Kaz Kadono was presented with a Paul Harris Fellow +1 Award in acknowledgement of exemplary service. See info above for more detail.
Thank you DG Don Evans: On the weekend, DG Don Evans & Deb Sankey, John & Jane Bathurst, and I [Phil Webber] visited Gibsons to attend the installation of the new DG team, Darcy Long and her husband, Doug Long, and in my case to officially hand over physical custody of the "Home of the District Governor Banner".
This week our International Service Committee will host a dinner reception for 5 visitors from the RC of Tokyo Setagaya South who are stopping by on their way to the RI Convention in Toronto.
Bike-a-thon - slightly less than 3 weeks to go. Looking forward to meeting the corporate challenge teams.
Secretary's, Franco Gallo, announcements:
reminders of upcoming events/meetings (see above);
birthdays:John Hoyle Jun12, Ian Storrs Jun15
member anniversaries:Franco Gallo3 years, Keith Phillips 3 years, Phil Webber 19 years, Tremayne Perry 54 years
wedding anniversaries: John & Cindy Hayto 33 years Jun15
Special announcements; presentations, and members' moments:
Victoir Wu ("Victor") was inducted as our newest member. Victoir's classification is International Business Consulting.
DG Don Evans thanked everyone for their continual support. District 5040 is currently leading in growth with 1545 members as of today, June 19th. The District recently chartered 2 new clubs: Rotary Club of Lillooet with 22 members, and The Dragon Rotary Club of Greater Vancouver.
Brian Street introduced Falisha Ali, RYLA North attendee. Alisha gave us an overview of the RYLA she attended in Prince George. She recommends that everyone, when they have the opportunity, should attend a RYLA event. The sharing of experiences and networking is wonderful, the speakers are varied and great. The sessions were in the format of round tables which allowed for open discussions on the various topics introduced. A very valuable experience all around.
Program:
Fred West introduced the speaker, Dr. Peter Ross, VP Research Ocean Wise, University of Victoria and the Vancouver Aquarium.
Dr. Ross is a toxicologist and marine pollution expert. He explained that plastic is a unique pollutant made up of 10s of 1000s of different polymers.
It is his, and our, duty to understand where the plastics are coming from and what harm they can do. They are found virtually everywhere on the globe now.
Ocean Wise leads the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup initiative. Not only have over 700,000 volunteers cleaned more than 1.2 million kgs of trash since 1994, but this initiative opens dialogue. It works to increase awareness across the country as to the severity of the problem.
The plastics in our waters can cause acute distress for lots of species. Babies who are ingesting more plastics than valuable nutrients; over 300 sea lions have plastic around their necks and are trying very hard to survive nonetheless. Aquarium employees are working to capture these sea lions one at a time to free them of the plastic -- a very difficult task.
Microbeads, used in personal cleaning products such as skin cleaners & toothpastes, are on their way out having been recognized as a very problematic issue for the environment. However small fibres are a huge problem. They are found everywhere: e.g., out in the middle of the Strait and down at a depth of 4 metres. What are these fibres? Where are they coming from? 80% of them are found close to shore, 20% out in deeper waters, a true mystery.
Creatures at the bottom of the food chain are mistaking these tiny plastic particles as food and are gobbling them up. This, of course, has implications right through to the top of the food chain.
There is currently an experiment taking place washing synthetic fabrics in a washing machine test centre. Ocean Wise & the Vancouver Aquarium have partnered with MEC, Patagonia, REI and Arcteryx to complete the experiments. This is the first time in Dr. Ross's 30 plus year career in the field, where industry has been so proactive in looking for solutions to the horrible problem. They want answers as soon as possible so they can embark on solutions, such as choosing fabrics that do not have such a negative impact on our environment. Kudos to them all!
The experiment is looking at 110 different types of fabrics and is just finishing its last runs. We hope there are some definitive results that will help solve the mystery.
Next up is looking at the wastewater treatment plant in Metro Vancouver as part of the solution. We need to know what particles go through the wastewater treatment plants so that possible filters can be developed and implemented to further protect our waters.
As a final note, it is interesting to know that approximately $120 billion is thrown away with single-use plastics every year. Now there's a place for potential investment...
Meeting adjourned with a toast to protecting our environment.
