The Westerner for July 4, 2011
Meeting: chair, Sherry; music, Jerome; grace, Ron
Malawi Girls School: Ken Haywood of the Rotary Club of Edmonton Northeast has forwarded emails concerning the first graduating class, 72 girls, from this school that our club helped to fund. Congratulations to the school , the teachers and the graduates plus all the people and clubs that helped to make the school possible.
One or both the emails may end up being posted to our website.
Al Holmes: Al thanked John for help getting many Rotarians to the Air Museum on Kingsway to view the Hawk One F86 Sabre Jet and the ability to talk to the pilots. One of the pilots was Chris Hatfield who is an astronaut (working towards commanding the space station for 6 months next year) and a test pilot. Al received a welcome surprise when Chris found out that Al was a retired test pilot for the RCAF and he made an effort to discuss mutual concerns/experiences with Al. Chris gave Al a shoulder patch that Chris currently wears on his uniforms.
Casino: Bill Buckham advised that we have received our casino licence
Plaques of Appreciation: Mike Ryan presented plaques for work well done to Bert, Lily, Chris; then rookie of the year to Kasey
50/50: FC Edmonton donated soccer game tickets for July 13 game for the winners of the draw; Jim Johnston and Don McDermid won the tickets but not the money
Finemaster: Don McDermid raised funds through questions on soccer
Annual Dues: Invoices will be issued via e-mail for most members and paper copies will be given to others. The dues are remaining the same as last year at $325. On your invoice, you will also have the options of paying for gift cards from Safeway, Sobeys or Saveonfoods, plus you will be able to make your "Every Rotarian Every Year" donation to the Rotary Foundation Canada. Separate cheques are required for each of these transactions so we can properly account for them, and so you can get your charitable donation receipt from the Rotary Foundation Canada. We ask that you pay your dues in a timely manner.
Guest Speaker: Rob Dunseith introduced Tom Leip, new general manager for FC Edmonton, who is moving to Edmonton from the USA. Among his previous positions, Tom was executive director for Northern League. Tom commented that, just as people made Fort Edmonton into Edmonton, Alberta, the capital of the province, people will make FC Edmonton into a super soccer club.
FC is in the North American Soccer League, a league of 8 teams. The league will expand to 10 teams within 2 years. FC is in second place even though it only has 3 import players. The club has 15 Canadian players, 13 of which are from Alberta. The team plans to continue to be a venue that will allow rookie Canadian players to move into professional soccer. This means the club will stay at the same league level.
Tom Fath represents the ownership which is the Fath family headed by Ron Fath; Joe Petrone is the technical director who brings excellence to the development of the team and the individual players; Harry Sinkgraven, from Europe, is the head coach. A list of players and other important personnel were detailed in the brochure handed out by Tom at the meeting.
FC is being involved in the local community by supporting or showcasing Stollery Children's Hospital, Special Olympics; honour for the military by involvement with Edmonton Garrison plus honouring police and firefighters.
In order to showcase Edmonton, they plan to host high profile events in Edmonton. They plan to purchase a women's professional soccer team but, regardless of the success in this venture, they will seek to obtain the rights to the 2015 Women's World Cup for Edmonton. To be effective, the club needs to play in a 12,000 seat stadium, not the 3,500 seat Foote Stadium. If Clarke Stadium had the seating increased to 12,000, the arena would be an excellent venue. The players would prefer to play on natural grass but this may not be practical in Edmonton. Playing on frozen grass causes major problems for regeneration of the grass after the game. Artificial turf appears to be the answer for Edmonton.
Tom was thanked by Mike Ryan