The Westerner for January 21, 2013
Meeting: Chair - Rob Dunseith; Music - Jerome Martin; Grace - Ben Doz
Attendance / Guests: 28 including Brent Birch (proposed member), Ed Boodle (Valour Place) & Paul McElhone (Riverview Club)
Announcements:
- Brent Birch has been proposed for membership in the Club by Mike Ryan. His Classification would be Building Materials Sales. Please introduce yourself to Brent when you have a chance.
- Steve McEachern presented a cheque in amount of $2500 from the Rotary Club of Edmonton West to Ed Boodle, accepting on behalf of Valour Place. Originally, we intended to help with the purchase of a pool table, but that got done by another organization. The real needs of Valour Place at this time are to build a Sustaining Fund to generate funds for ongoing maintenance and operations of the home for recovering wounded military and RCMP personnel.
- President Rob is pleased to advise all Club members that their input is solicited for a March 18th Club Assembly and then for an April 20th Strategic Planning Session. The result of the planning session will be a longer-term plan for the club which future presidents and boards of directors can use for guidance, whereas the focus of the Club Assembly will be shorter-term planning for the next Rotary year.
- One of the recipients of a George Grover Scholarship has sent a card of thanks to the club.
- Next week we will be celebrating Robbie Burns birthday, so there will be some haggis & scotch along with the regular lunch.
- 50/50 Draw - Brian Thompson & Jim Spalding failed to match cards so $22 carries forward to the next draw.
- Finemaster Don McDermid extracted $2 from everyone for a bunch of sports questions.
- Fellowship Dinners - Bob Lamoureux circulated a sign-up sheet for those interested in participating. If you missed your chance to sign up, please give Bob a call. He will be dividing the list into small groups and will announce the groupings very soon.
PROGRAM - PAUL McELHONE - UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA SCHOOL OF RETAILING
Chris Gowers introduced Paul McElhone, PhD, President of the Rotary Club of Edmonton Riverview and Executive Director of the School of Retailing at the University of Alberta.
Paul grew up on a farm in southern Ontario and had his early schooling in a three-room schoolhouse. He is amazed at how well he, his twin brother, and the other students from this small school turned out in terms of education and careers. Paul earned his undergraduate degree at McMaster University in Hamilton.
After graduation he took a year off and then started working in a mens wear shop. After three years he bought into the ownership of the shop. After another few years he had a falling out with the partners and took off to Colorado to do some skiing. While on that vacation, his mother was killed in an automobile accident.
After that, he came to Edmonton to visit with a friend. During the visit, he went to Henry Singers Dirty Shirt Sale. He was not very impressed, but realized that this store was pretty special to Edmontonians, so he called them in regard to possible employment and got an interview. He was impressed with his meeting with Fred Singer, and Fred Singer must have been impressed with him because an offer was made and accepted. Paul's wife moved out to Edmonton the following summer.
After three years at Singers, Paul became the Manager / Buyer for the Ralph Lauren line of clothing. By 1997, he was the head of corporate sales for Singer. While working at Singers, Paul became involved with the School of Business Retail Studies at the University of Alberta. This School was involved in increasing professionalism of salespersons, training future retailing entrepeneurs, and disseminating new knowledge about retailing.
Eventually, Paul applied for the Executive Director position at the School and got the job. He has now spent 15 years at the U of A working to make the School of Retailing so strong that no future Dean could ever shut it down. He registered websites for School of Retailing.Org, School of Retailing.Com, and School of Retailing.CA. Graduates from the school are now working all over the world and the School is ranked very high among it's competitors in the world.
Paul was thanked for his interesting presentation by Past President Mike Ryan.