The Westerner for April 4, 2011
Meeting: chair, Mike Ryan; music, Jerome; grace, Ben Doz
Attendance/Guests: 36 including Past District Governor Judy Harcourt, Rotary Club of Edmonton Riverview; Heather Davison, support person for Shane Lafond; Ben Turner; Kieran Leblanc, Executive Director of Book Publishers Association of Alberta and Michael McLaughlin, associate to Kieran;
Gift Cards: purchase from Kasey in order to support our club
Rotary District 5370 Conference: June 16 - 19 in Athabasca, our club pays registration fees for members
Eyes for Huehue: May 18 @ 5:30 pm @ U of A Faculty Club; tickets from Lorner or Ben Doz; $55 each, support Ben's eye missions to Guatemala
Casino: Bill Buckham or Bill Macdonald will call to arrange for your shift at the July 24-25 casino fundraiser
April 11 @ Grandview Extended Care : 7:00 pm to hear Senator Tommy Banks talk about music and play the new grand piano ; Jerome advises no dinner meeting, drinks and refreshments at the end of the presentation - MEETING POSTPONED DUE TO ILLNESS AT GRANDVIEW. NO MEETING ON APRIL 11TH.
Induction Corporate Member: Kieran and Michael were inducted as representatives of our first corporate member, Book Publishing Association of Alberta
50/50: Mike Henry and Bill Buckham did not match cards
Hockey Pool: winners Mike Henry, Brian Gould, Ben Doz; end of the pool
Finemaster: Lorne fined $1 if you did not have tickets to Eyes for Huehue or Centennial Interact fundraiser
Classification Talk: Al Plesniarski is a technical resource @ IBM and main responsibility is to keep the provincial government systems up and running. Al and his family (3 children), especially one of his sons, are volunteers at CleanScene which is where Mike Ryan met Al. The kids are approaching the teenage years.
IBM is a leader in I T; the firm awarded the City of Edmonton a smart city/smart environment award. Al described IBM Watson as software designed to have programs from different data bases communicate and also understand human language. Computers cannot make the final decision. They can be used, through this type of software, o produce a more efficient operting environment. This will change the way tecnology services are delivered over the next 5 years.
Mike Ryan thanked Al.