17 members in attendance. Bob led us in O Canada and Larry gave the invocation

 

Guests:  Valerie Grace and Geeta Sharma

 

1] Garage Sale

​Will be held on Saturday March 22 9AM to 3PM.   Set up and donation receiving will be on Friday March 21 starting at noon till 5PM.  The sale will be located at 7187 Lantzville Road down stairs.  Knox contracting is located on the top floor of the building.  A request for volunteers will be sent out soon.  In the meantime spread the word as we are looking for items for sale.  Art work is not a priority as it does not sell well.  We do have some and if we get more it will all be marked down to rock bottom pricing.  Don has once again shown his true talent and has produced a poster for the sale.  If you have a place to put one ask him to email one to you.

2] Beer and Burger

​This event will once again be held at the Lantzville Pub on Sunday June 22.  Set up for the event will be at 4PM till 5PM and food and drinks may be ordered starting at 5PM.  We will advise the ticket price in mid-April as there is some uncertainty caused by Mr. Trump’s tariff.  

3] Family Fun Day

​We will be holding this event at Maffeo Sutton Park on Sunday August 31.  The time will be 11AM till 5PM.  We are making several changes to the event this year.  First there will be no continuous musical entertainment which will be a cost saving of around 8000.00.  Our Rotary Corn Zone will not have as much corn on the cob but will add Corndogs to the menu.  We will also have bottled water on sale.  The attractions will include the bouncy castles, the climbing wall, canoe and kayak paddling in the lagoon, the best dressed pet contest, and Frisbee and football tossing.

4] Shop Rider Electric Scooter

​The shop rider scooter was donated to our club and we have spent 436.00 to purchase 2 12 volt 45 amp hour batteries and installed them.  It has lots of power now.   We have a poster with all the details on it so if you have a place to post one let me know and I will email one to you or print one and give it to you.  The asking price is 2000.00.  It is a 2010 model but is in very good shape.  New ones with the same features sell for around 6000.00.

Loaves and Fishes next Tuesday February 25th. Sign up to volunteer.

New member Induction.

We welcomed Geeta Sharma as our newest member.

Geeta was born and grew up in North India.

New Member Application:

The one thing that came out of the membership survey, loud and clear, is that we need more members.We need more members for a couple of reasons: Our current membership is made up of 67% retirees, of which I am one.  Many of our retirees like to travel and are away for extended periods of time.  They worked hard for that and deserveit. But with a current membership of only 25 active members and 3 of those members away on extended holidays, it makes it impossible to meet the 20 thresholds for dinners so that the club is paying the difference with publicly raised funds, which is unacceptable.

This also makes it difficult to put on projects such as the Garage Sale, Loaves and Fishes, School Dinners, and Family Fun Day.  We wind up with the same people committing most of their time to the projects. The cure for this is more members, particularly those who are working in the community as they bring new ideas to the club and have the energy to participate in the community work and also to take on the running of the club.

If we don’t increase membership, we will have to seriously address the issue of the dinners.  If we don’t increase membership, we will have issues with club leadership in the future. Membership is up to each and every one of our members.  If you enjoy Rotary and what we do, invite a co-worker, friend, even a relative, to a meeting.  

If you have any ideas on how we can encourage membership growth, please get in touch with our membership chair, Cara.

 

Derek introduced Robin Fisher, president of Mid Vancouver Island  Elder College Society, which was created by a group of dedicated senior learners after VIU cancelled their Elder Learning Programs.

Mid Island Elder College offers short, low-cost, general interest courses on a wide range of subjects – academic, arts-related, lifestyle, hobbies, current affairs etc  to mature adults. It also has a public lecture series on a timely and compelling theme, usually over a number of Saturdays. All the activities are inspired by the desire to share ideas and skills amongst like-minded souls. Classes are held in a variety of locations in the central island as well as by Zoom.
Once you become a member with a $25 membership fee you can register for any class. You can also offer to teach courses (unpaid).Check out the website at: /eldercollege.org

 

Valerie attended the meeting just to receive our rousing Happy Birthday chorus!

 

Perry and Ronda celebrated 44 years of marriage on February 14th.

Rotary Anniversaries:

Derek 12 years, ( 2nd time around) Don 11 years. Cara 6 years..Deb 3 years.

 

I was born in England and, at the age of 3, immigrated to Prince George with my parents, both teachers, in 1956.  After 8 years our family moved south to Kamloops and later to the Cowichan Valley where I finished my high school years at Cowichan Senior Secondary.  I am fortunate to have 4 siblings and our family enjoyed the outdoors and boating – particularly when we arrived on Vancouver Island.

With my Dad’s encouragement, I developed a keen interest in science and technology which led me to BCIT where I completed a diploma in Electrical & Electronics Technology.  While at BCIT, I also met Darlene who was nursing student.  We married in 1973 and started a life of adventure together!

I joined BC Tel in their engineering department and we moved back to Prince George.  I was fortunate to assist with the implementation of the first electronic telephone exchange in BC – the #1 EAX.  Next I moved on to Xerox – first as a technical representative and then sales.  Along the way, I became intrigued by real estate investment which led me to becoming a licensed mortgage broker.  The real estate crash of 1981 was a lesson in the benefit a salaried job – I joined Credit FoncierTrust, later becoming manager of the Prince George branch.

While in Prince George, our family grew to include 3 sons and a daughter.  We thoroughly enjoyed the outdoors of Northern BC with lots of camping, boating and fishing.  I also had the opportunity to learn how to fly and purchased a share in an aircraft.

In 1988, we had the opportunity to move to Nanaimo where I took on the position of Regional Manager for group of BC commercial properties.  This led me to starting my own commercial real estate agency providing property management and brokerage services and which became NAI Central Vancouver Island.  I sold the company and retired in 2019!

While I continue to do some real estate consulting and development, I thoroughly enjoy spending more time in community service.  I have been a Rotarian since 1988, am actively involved with affordable housing and continue to promote community economic development.

Each of our kids are married with kids of their own and are professionally active. We are lucky to have 8 grandkids!  Darlene and I spend lots of time boating the BC coast and doour share of travelling.  I’m fortunate to still do some flying – using a plane that my brother and I built 25 years ago.  
 

Bob Hargreaves - a message from Cathy.