Vol. 101 No. 50
Brian Street, President
Joan Posivy, Secretary
Next meeting: Tuesday July 2, 2019
Ashley Smith, President, Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver Real Estate Market Update
Passionate about leadership and good governance, Ashley Smith proudly serves over 14,000 realtors at the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver in 2019/2020, its centennial year, as the youngest President/Chair in the organization's history. In this role she also serves as Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's media spokesperson. Through her tenure as a Director of the Board (first elected in 2012), Ashley has sat on the association's Government Relations Committee, chaired its Governance Committee, and as an Officer has served its Pension Plan and Human Resources Committees. Whether engaged in professional education, skill development, networking, transit or community planning workshops, Ashley is keen to participate in growth and learning opportunities. She takes pride in staying on top of new and coming development, and is skilled at pin-pointing areas for strategic investment.
Upcoming meeting: Tuesday July 9, 2019
Graham Harrop Cartoonist
Graham Harrop is a self-taught cartoonist based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His humorous work has been published in The Globe and Mail,The Vancouver Sun, Tabaret, Mac Today, and other publications, and he has illustrated four books. He has a special interest in volunteers and cats, which is evident on his website.
Brian Street chaired the meeting and gave the invocation.
Kayo Otake accompanied us on the piano for the singing of O Canada.
Joe Lopushinsky, Sergeant-at-Arms, introduced visitors and guests.
President's Announcements:
Thank you to Mark Busse who facilitated the Strategic Planning Session on June 20th, and to Gordon Esau & Dentons for hosting us at their offices.
The District Governor’s installation dinner on June 22nd in Richmond was really well done and fun. We welcome Bala Naidoo as our 2019-20 District Governor. He is with us today to install our incoming Board.
Thank you to Joan Posivy for being a great secretary and help to me [Brian] through the year.
Joan Posivy, provided the Secretary's announcements:
reminders of upcoming events/meetings (see above)
birthdays: David Motion June 25th, Tom Calkin June 28th
member anniversaries:Kayo Otake 14 years, Stephanie Lawton 22 years, Paul Martin 32 years
wedding anniversaries:Milton Kiang & Emily Geng 3 years June 26th, Angus & Kimberly Campbell 9 years June 26th, Jason & Carissa Boudreau 9 years June 30th, Bill & Candice Davidson 35 years June 29th, Myron & Karin Kuzych 40 years June 30th, John & Jane Bathurst 49 years June 26th
Special announcements and members' moments:
Phil Webber announced that he would soon be leaving the Board of the Club as he would no longer be immediate Past President. He thanked the members of the Rotary Club of Vancouver for the honour of serving them as the Club’s President, a year ago, and then serving on the Board this last year.
Phil then thanked Brian in the following words:
“Thank you for your dedication to our Club’s renewal. Fellow members and guests, I am delighted to thank Brian on behalf of all of us for his initiative and hard work, and for daring to take our club, the Rotary Club of Vancouver, to a new level.
First, as memento of Brian’s year as President, I turn over to him the banners which were collected by the Club from visiting Rotarians, or were brought back to our Club by our own members who made-up at a Rotary Club outside the City of Vancouver. These banners, along with the stories of member’s make-ups at foreign Rotary Clubs, are a reminder of the international nature of Rotary and how Rotary fosters extensive humanitarian services carried out or funded by Rotary Clubs worldwide, not the least of which are the humanitarian services performed by Rotary Club of Vancouver. However, the international nature of Rotary, also fosters:
- international fellowship;
- international goodwill across borders;
- international peace and understanding;
- along with reliable and trust-worthy business connections.
On behalf of the Rotary Club of Vancouver, on behalf of all of you, the members, I thought of getting Brian an “Optic Mountain” crystal glass ornament of “Everest”, available from Clarkes Awards, to commemorate Brian’s year and his efforts to take the club to new heights (some might say extreme heights); but seriously new heights in maintaining membership growth, in raising our profile in the community and in carrying out the multitude humanitarian projects we do from year to year. But also worthy of commemoration is the effort Brian put into trying new initiatives such as:
- the Red Carpet Ball, as a fundraiser;
- developing our relationships with young business and professional people through pioneering the establishment of a Young Professional Division; and
- challenging us to better use technology to communicate with each other and to get our message out; including improved recording of our meetings.
But not knowing if a crystal “Everest” would resonate with Brian, I deferred working on this idea.
I also thought of getting Brian a “Melting Wall Clock”, also available from Clarkes Awards, as a reminder of just our quickly and amorphously, time slips away, and Brian’s Rotary Year has almost passed.
Finally, after consulting with other past Presidents, I was reminded of Brian’s interest in history, old (“antique”) wind-up record players, Vancouver History, our streets and the origin of their names.
The gift I present to Brian today on your behalf, on behalf of the Rotary Club of Vancouver, speaks to Brian’s interest in Vancouver’s history, but more importantly speaks to our collective appreciation and affection for Brian and a job well done. It’s inscription reads: "In recognition of his initiative, dedication and hard work in leading the Rotary Club of Vancouver, and in particular in growing our relationship with young Rotarians through the foundation of a Young Professionals Division and organizing the first Red Carpet Ball fundraiser for our club's many contributions to our community and worldwide."
I close in presenting Brian with my Past President’s Pin.”
Mass Abedi announced that he will be donating back to the Club the $300 he was paid for producing the 2018 Red Carpet Ball video.
The following received honourary Paul Harris awards in recognition of their wonderful “service above self” for our Club. Congratulations and a sincere thank you to them all.
Kayo Otake
Peter Clarke
Franz Gehriger
Bala Naidoo, District Governor, installed the 2019-20 RCoV Board of Directors:
Bill Davidson, President
Parisa Adrangi, Secretary
Kaz Kadono, continues as Treasurer
Gerry Glazier, President Elect
Brian Street, Immediate Past President
Angus Campbell, (absent) continuing as Director
Jack Zaleski, continuing as Director
Franco Gallo, continuing as Director
Kayo Otake, Director
Mark Startup, Director
Min Kuang, (absent) Director
Peter Clarke, Sergeant at Arms
Milton Kiang, (absent) Sergeant at Arms Elect
Thank you for the service of our outgoing Board members:
Phil Webber, Past President
Joan Posivy, Secretary
Jason Boudreau, Director
Keith Phillips, Director
Joe Lopushinsky, Sergeant at Arms
Brian Street provided a short overview of the Club’s accomplishments over the year. Some of the highlights include: another successful bike-a-thon, some great speakers, an improved presence on YouTube, a number of fun socials, the inaugural Red Carpet Ball, the initiation of member interviews, amazing committee work, and the upcoming start of the Young Professionals Division which will undoubtedly prove to be the future of our Club.
Bala Naidoo spoke briefly about his role and District Governor and the Club President’s role in leading the Club. That being the highest honour at the Club level, Bala challenged Bill to focus on having fun, enjoying the fellowship of Rotary, and to be sure to take advantage of the world class development opportunities available to him.
Bala, himself, wants to know, for the approximately $100K received by District from its Clubs, what value does District bring to the Clubs. Under the direction of the incoming RI President, Mark Maloney, the organization will be moving away from the traditional top-down approach and moving toward a bottom-up approach. It is recognized that Rotary needs to grow in a different manner than it has traditionally if it to stay vibrant and relevant.
Our Club is to be congratulated for already moving in that direction with the development of the Young Professionals Division.
All are encouraged to register for the District 5040 conference, April 2020, that will be held right in the heart of Vancouver. Being the “mother ship” club of Vancouver, we will be called on to help make it a great event. CLICK HERE for more information or to register.
A special congratulations as well for the St. Paul’s hearing centre initiative. Bala has promised to help promote the fundraising effort throughout the District during his term.
Finally, congratulations to the incoming Board. A loud shout out to John Bathurst for his leadership role in the District as Assistant Governor. Thank you to all for your service and support of Rotary.
Bill Davidson took over as President and closed the meeting.
Meeting adjourned with a toast to the strength of Rotary through its members.
Passionate about leadership and good governance, Ashley Smith proudly serves over 14,000 realtors at the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver in 2019/2020, its centennial year, as the youngest President/Chair in the organization's history. In this role she also serves as Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's media spokesperson. Through her tenure as a Director of the Board (first elected in 2012), Ashley has sat on the association's Government Relations Committee, chaired its Governance Committee, and as an Officer has served its Pension Plan and Human Resources Committees. Whether engaged in professional education, skill development, networking, transit or community planning workshops, Ashley is keen to participate in growth and learning opportunities. She takes pride in staying on top of new and coming development, and is skilled at pin-pointing areas for strategic investment. 
.jpg)
.jpg)
