Vol. 101 No. 15
Brian Street, President
Joan Posivy, Secretary
Next meeting: Tuesday October 16, 2018 Gordon Price, Director of City "Leading Candidates for the Vancouver City Election"
Gordon Price is the former director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University. In 2002, he finished his sixth term as a city councillor in Vancouver. He also served on the board of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (Metro Vancouver) and was appointed to the first board of the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (TransLink) in 1999.
Gordon writes a monthly column for Business in Vancouver on civic issues, and he conducts tours and seminars on the development of Vancouver. In 2003, he received the Plan Canada Award for Article of the Year for Land Use and Transportation: The View from '56 from the Canadian Institute of Planners. In 2007, he was the winner of the “Smartie” People Award from Smart Growth B.C. In 2009, he was made an honourary member of the Planning Institute of BC.
Gordon sits on the boards of the Sightline Institute and the International Centre for Sustainable Cities. He is also a member of local districts for the Urban Land Institute and Lambda Alpha International.
Upcoming meeting: Tuesday October 23, 2018 Club Day - Youth at Risk!
The final meeting before our Red Carpet Ball - Studio 54 fundraiser to support Vancouver's youth, especially our at-risk youth. Let's get pumped and ready to party!
Upcoming meeting: Tuesday October 30, 2018 Visit by DG, Darcy Long
We will be enjoying dinner and comaraderie in the exclusive Officers' Mess Hall. This area of the Seaforth Armoury is not normally open to the public so we are thrilled to be able to
host our guests there.
All attending the dinner will enjoy the beautiful classic surroundings and will have exclusive access to the area throughout the dance party as well.
WHY
The purpose of this event is to raise funds to help Vancouver's at risk youth. An important legacy of our Club, we need to keep up the good work we do, this takes money and lots of it.
Your support is key! So why not get some bang for your buck so to speak and bid on the auction items that have been generously donated by fellow Club members.
Get your friends who cannot join us the night of on the phone and bid on their behalf!
HOW
The live auction will be hosted by Fred Lee. Fred Lee's fabulous sense of humour and unique style makes him Vancouver's 'Man About Town.'Fred is a regular contributor to CBC's The Early Edition, the Province and Vancouver Magazine, and is the Director of Alumni Engagement at UBC.
The experiences being auctioned off are fantastic! See below for just a few examples.
WHAT
Two night stay at the EXchange Hotel Vancouver. Included is a Superior King room, complimentary valet parking and breakfast for two.
Vancouver’s first LEED Platinum Heritage Conversion, the latest from Executive Hotels & Resorts, this landmark hotel is the former home of the original Vancouver Stock Exchange. The historic building has hosted creative minds and distinguished individuals for nearly a century, and has become established as an intersection of culture, hospitality and style in the heart of downtown Vancouver.
Value: approx. $800
WHAT
Water Street Cafe's Chef Alan's 5-course menu with wine pairings for 6 people.
Water Street's culinary team works with local suppliers to bring in the freshest of products to showcase the best that BC has to offer. What every small restaurant ought to be: a commitment to quality, service and value that keeps our guests coming back time and time again creating true guest connection and the best hospitality experience in Vancouver.
Value: approx. $700
WHAT
Westcoast Aquatic Safaris tours - a whale watching & a bear watching tour for two. Included is a two nights stay in the heart of downtown Tofino.
Considered to be one of the most beautiful locations in the world, Tofino is a great place to unplug, relax and rejuvinate.
Tofino’s waters, known as the Clayoquot Sound, is the best whale watching location in the world as the waters are rich with food. In fact, the whales gain over 30 percent of their body weight while feeding in our waters!
President 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:
The District 5040 dinner for the lower mainland has been postponed until the spring. The planning committee is still, however, looking for volunteers. If you are interested refer to last week's Rotor for more information.
Unfortunately a couple of other events for other clubs have been cancelled: Vancouver Sunrise's Day of the Dead event at the Hellenic Centre, and Rotary on Ice.
Red Carpet Ball update:
I [Brian] with John Hayto and Katherine Copeland attended the VIFF screening of Studio 54 last Friday. They announced our event at the end of the screening to whoops and cheers. We hosted an info table where we had great response. Hopefully it will translate into some ticket sales.
Ray-Cam, our partner, hosted an all-candidates meeting today (Oct 9th). Free dinner included @ 5:30 p.m.
Auction update:
Franz Gehriger has donated 2 nights at The EXchange Hotel Vancouver including valet parking and breakfast
Gerry Glazier has donated one night at the Pinnacle Hotel. This will be a great addition to the hockey tickets perhaps!
Ticket sales update:
71 dinner and dance tickets
5 donations, totalling to just over $5,000
Please let all the younger set, friends, kids, grandkids, know about the $40 dance tickets available. It will be a really hopping night in a safe environment for them to enjoy.
Thomas Miller, Vancouver Club Young Professionals President and social media guru for us, provided an update on how the social media campaign is going with regards to promoting the Red Carpet Ball. He encouraged all to please help with the organic reach of the event by going on to the Rotary Facebook page and liking it/sharing posts, etc. CLICK HERE to go the the page.
Joan Posivy provided the Secretary's announcements:
reminders of upcoming events/meetings (see above)
birthdays:Diego Centanni Oct09, Milton Kiang Oct09, Paul Martin Oct13
member anniversaries: none this week
wedding anniversaries:Keith Phillips & Theresia Lee 2 years Oct15, Curt & Ingeborg Haase 54 years Oct12, Tremayne & Margaret Perry 65 years Oct09!
Program:
Brian Street introduced guest speaker, Spencer Chandra Herbert, MLA for Vancouver West End & Coal Harbour. Spencer, given today's political climate, decided to speak on Civility in Politics.
Spencer has been an elected official for 10 years now; prior to that he was a member of the Park Board.
Some of his thoughts:
There seems to be continual divisive attached breaking up communities. Clubs like Rotary are so important, even more so now, in building social stability through diversity, acceptance, and support for one another working towards common goals.
The problems faced by societies are complex. The solutions are complex. Media doesn't want to listen, they want quick sound bites. Preferably controversial sound bites. As they say, what bleeds, leads unfortunately.
He was taught by then leader of the NDP, Jack Layton as Spencer was just starting out on his political career, being the opposition means not only citicizing but proposing alternative solutions. It is easy to point out problems, but that isn't good enough. We need to help with the solutions.
The behaviour that is accepted in the legislature is really not good. We are not setting positive examples for the younger generation who come to observe their government in action. It needs to improve. The shouting and disrespectful behaviour needs to stop. We, as elected politicians representing our constituents, should be models for young people.
We should be working towards building a cohesive society regardless of one's political beliefs.
Some issues important to Spencer:
Creating ladders of opportunity for folks working to get back into the workforce regardless of the hurdles they've faced, e.g., addictions, illness, etc.
Creating a safety net for foster kids. The government can be likened to being a negligent parent by not providing for foster kids when they leave the system. They are currently simply dropped. For example, when kids are put into foster care start an education fund for them, encourage them to continue their education and better their future.
Create a comprehensive poverty strategy covering social housing, education and employment opportunities.
Banning big corporate money in politics. Elected representatives should be by citizens for citizens. This results in less money but does also result in more candidates.
Electoral reform. Spencer believes that proportional representation, with the correct parameters, will increases cooperation across parties. Members (and negotiations) will maintain a level of humility not currently seen with the 1st past the post system. That said, if proportional representation is chosen by the people, it will be important to run it for a couple of years and then give the people the choice to continue and adopt it for good, or go back to the old system.
In closing:
Problems faced by politicians (& everyone really) can be really, really big and complex or really small. Regardless, they are ALL human problems. We need to look for the best in each other, support one another, and search for solutions together.
Gordon Price is the former director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University. In 2002, he finished his sixth term as a city councillor in Vancouver. He also served on the board of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (Metro Vancouver) and was appointed to the first board of the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (TransLink) in 1999.
