Northwind template (Feb 08, 2023)

Meeting: February 7, 2023

Colin's Rotary History:

2019/20

We were led through the Rotary year by ‘Captain’ Barney Sharp who stick-handled the club into the COVID unknown assisted by Rob Waine, Rotarian of the Year.

Our fundraisers were:

Dragon Boat bars
Craft Beer Crawl
Popcorn/Hot Dog sales
Sale of Bastion Prints
Wine Tour
Beer, Burger and Auction
Coffee Sales

The Dragon Boat bars, Wine Tour, and the Beer and Burger provided fellowship as did our hands-on projects at the Salvation Army breakfasts and Loaves and Fishes.

For fellowship there was a

Dinner at the Dinghy Dock
Wine tour of the Cowichan Valley
Off-site meeting at Gill and Chris Campbell’s
Craft Beer Crawl kick-off at White Sails Brewery
Harewood Family Fun Event where we served hamburgers, hot dogs and popcorn
5-club Christmas dinner at the Coast Bastion
Tour of the Specials Collections Library at VIU, which was funded by the 5 clubs, followed by dinner at the Jingle Pot Pub
Club Christmas party at Barney and Sarah’s

The first Vancouver Island RYLA conference was held in Crofton.

There was a large gala planned by the Rotary Club of Nanaimo to celebrate their 100^th anniversary that would involve all Rotary clubs as it was also celebrating 100 years of Rotary in Nanaimo.

Because of COVID our in-person meetings were cancelled in mid-March of 2020 and we scrambled to master the art of Zoom! To our surprise, our attendance did not drop as many clubs experienced. Our members also gave amazing support to happy/sad which made Ed Poli happy, not sad.

This also meant the cancellation of:

District Conference
Dragon Boat
Rotary International Conference
Salvation Army breakfasts
100^th anniversary celebration
Student Exchange
RYLA

Loaves and Fishes continued with limited numbers, masks, and social distancing.

2020/21

Glynis Hayes and the Board of Directors were installed in-person on the patio at the Golf Club as at that time the restriction allowed gatherings of up to 50 people, but we were back on Zoom by the end of July. Larry Rumming was Rotarian of the Year.

Our fundraisers and fellowship were severely hampered by COVID in 20/21. The fundraisers that survived were the:

Craft Beer Crawl
Popcorn/Hot Dog sales
Golf Ball Drop
Coffee sales

For fellowship we had pub nights until they were shut down in December by worsening COVID case numbers. Our club Christmas party was held on Zoom.

The Salvation Army breakfast resumed in November, then halted again in December.

Rotary International and Rotary clubs around the world were all engaged in helping their communities during the COVID crisis.

Guests: Anne Northwood

Announcements:

Sally Ann breakfast is on Saturday Feb 11. Let a Rob know if you are able to help.
Coldest Night of the year walk is on Feb 25. Larry is looking for more volunteers/walkers.
District 5020 Conference is in Victoria May 19/20. Registration is now open.
Jim announced the beer and burger event - March 21 at Pipers Pub. Limit of 60 tickets, advance payment by e-transfer (no cash at the door), members were encouraged to think about items for the silent auction.
Ed announced that the Golf Club is raising its price and starting with next meeting dinner will be $27.00
Ed thanked the folks who came out for the Hospice painting work party.
Derek introduced the speaker,
Robb Hunter - Nanaimo Clippers - Director of Business Operations and also mentioned that on January 27th, he organized the social outing for to a Nanaimo Clippers game to show our support for our local Junior A hockey team. Forty local Rotarians came out and had fun
cheering our team! Thanks to Robb Hunter, we were given a front lobby table for our PI Team. Thanks to Ev Boegh for managing the table. We had club presidents including our Assistant DG Ken Hammer and Derek
drop the pre-game puck.

Program:

Rob Hunter gave a great and informative talk about the Nanaimo Clippers history, where it is today and what its future plans are. The new owner of Nanaimo Clippers, Brad Kwong and his organization's executive main mission is to help his players play well together and learn leadership skills and give his players the opportunity to better their education by earning a scholarship to a university. Brad Kwong, as a Junior A hockey player was able to earn a university scholarship to Harvard University. His fellow business partners, with whom he went to
Harvard now want to give back. They choose to own the Nanaimo Clippers to do just that! The current team have been playing very well and lead their division.