No one wore shorts to the meeting.....ok, enough said about this abysmal weather. The meeting though was fun and very full (3 speakers?) and opened with a very saxy rendition of O Canada thanks to Gregor. It was noted that this is Gregor's last meeting with in this Rotary year as he heads back to Stratford ON next week - we will look forward to his return in the fall.
Pres Lynda introduced our guests Barry Romanko, Richard McQuire and a later guest Jill Palmer and then Barry again as our keynote speaker.
Barry has been our Town's Chief Administrative Officer for almost 10 years and from this unique leadership/overseer position gave us highlights of last years accomplishments and then this years goals. He did say that the role involves a tetch more than sewage, roads and water and then proceeded to identify such a range of issues/projects that cross his desk continuously that it made retirement sound like a worthy option. From business planning to police cost negotiations to Resort Municipality funding and dealing with Counsel members (Jim?) his days are full and as he said, all of this is well documented on the Town website so I won't repeat them but of the 18 projects for this year, several were feasability studies and had public consultations planned, such as the pool and Gyro Park. He did reference the influential role that he believes Rotary plays in the community and appreciated it. It would be great to have Barry share this overview on an annual basis - enjoyed it.
Jill Palmer then spoke to us representing the Heart and Stroke Foundation. The famous Big Bike comes to Osoyoos on May 9th as a fundraiser for critical heart disease and stroke research and she was suggesting that it would only take 29 Rotarians to ride the 2 kms in support? Last year the Bike appeared in over 200 communities across Canada and raised over $8 million.
Harold also took the podium and shared 3 things with us. Firstly, 8 of the Camelbak Hydration packs had been presented to the Rangers in S. Africa by Henry Tarr and they were evidently gratefully received and will be used as intended to reduce the role of poachers in the Parks. Harold is still working on replacing the 12 other packs that went missing in transit. He was wearing a Winnipeg Jets jersey in honour of the Humboldt hockey team and was emotional as he told us about those that he knew in that crash and that the jersey itself was a duplicate of the one that had to be cut away some 1541 days ago for AED access on himself. Lastly he also presented 2 tapestries from very early Osoysoo Rotary days with banners from visitors worldwide - he and Audrey made one of those...back in the day!
Shari presented a much newer banner from the Rotary Club of Barbados that she met with earlier this year.
Harold appropriately won the 50/50 and will donate that into the Rotary Scholarship Foundation fund.
As I said...a good meeting!