The Westerner for November 21, 2011
Meeting: chair, Sherry; music, Jerome; grace, Jennifer
Belize: Duane advised that the money we sent to Placentia and Sine Bite last year was well spent. It went to building new toilets and help for the kindergarden. Envelops for Santas Anonymous Belize 2011 were circulated.
Rotary Christmas Party: Bob Lamoureux advised that roast turkey and roast beef highlited a large buffet dinner menu. Bring guests (family, friends) on December 16 to the Royal Glenora Club, 6:00 pm for cocktails, 7:00 pm for dinner.
Grandview Concerts: Sherry congratulated Jerome for an excellent concert last Friday by I Coristi, the residents all stayed for the entire presentation and expressed their appreciation. Rotary members that did not attend missed an excellent event. The next concert is December 14, 7:00 pm, performance by Lazy River Quintet (including our own Jerome Martin and Ed Schultz) and vocalist Sylvia Lyon, title is Christmas and All That Jazz, please attend.
50/50: Jennifer & Jerome, no match of cards.
Rotary Fireside: New members are invited to attend a Rotary Fireside at the Faculty Club on Tuesday, November 29th. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to bobkimmerly@hotmail.com
Mustard Seed: Rudy Mangold will be collecting clean used winter clothing and footwear outside the Petroleum Club next week, so if you have some items you don't wear anymore, just put them in a bag and we will fill Rudy's Volvo wagon.
Finemaster: Bill Buckham, unprepared as no previous invite, fined those that went to Oiler game Saturday $2; those who watched Eskimos $1; those who did not go to ICoristi $1; anyone leaving to go south before January 1 $1.
Guest Speaker: Kieran introduced Haley Simons who obtained her Doctorate in Music and her Bachelor of Music from the University of Alberta while her Masters in Music came from Rice University, Houston. She is part of a new music combo called Hammerhead Consort.
Her talk today was on Creative Alberta. She discussed the rationale behind this endeavour, She was a renowned pianist and then her daughter was diagnosed with autism and her mother with Alzheimers. She needed a new path of validation for the 2 abilities she valued in music - the development of relationships in music and the ability to express.
Creative Alberta was created a year ago to encompass every sector of life and age - creativity starts with imagination and goes to innovation. It all starts with education but we don't teach "what could be" in the normal education system. Alberta's education system is rated second only to Finland as the best in the world. However 1/3 still don't graduate and the rest are disengaged. With that failure rate, we need something new. One apprach is to start imagination conversations that encompass all sectors of life.
Creative Alberta was invited to an imagination summit in Lincoln Centre, New York. The speakers were a broad spectrum of people with imagination resumes, such as the head of Disney. As a result, Creative Alberta will do a similar conference in Edmonton, May 15 - 17, 2012 at the Winspear. If we can't open up the discussion of imagination then the future looks bleak.
Jerome added that we need to focus on learning, not education. Ben Turner added that Rotary is in the flux - all graduates of Calmar Secondary School that had been in Interact were in advanced education or in jobs that had a future. We need to do ciriculum design to provide for life long learning.
Haley was thanked by both Kieran and Don.