The Westerner for August 26, 2013
Meeting: chair, Ben Doz; music, Jerome; grace, Rob Dusnseith
Attendance/Guests: 29 including Jim Wooley, former member of Rotary Club of Edmonton West, current executive director of West Edmonton Business Association - guest speaker; Paul Schile, guest of Darrel Ripley; Duart Berg, guest of Ed Schultz; Raj Sran, guest of Chris Gowers
Second Notice: Duart Berg has been proposed for membership by Ed Schultz.
Jim Rowand Memorial: Ben Doz conducted a short memorial, including Bill Buckham's reading of the poem High Flight, to honour the passing of Past President Jim
Joke: Steve gave a joke about a farmer and a woman, not his daughter
Rotary Club of Edmonton West Collared T Shirt: Al Holmes provided a new T Shirt that Bill Storoschuk had stored for a least 10 years. Chair Ben auctioned it off for $25 to Mike Ryan
No Monday Meetings @ Edmonton Petroleum Club for September 2 (club closed for Labour Day) or September 9 (that week's meeting is being held 5:00 p m September 10 @ Victoria Golf Couse).
Fun Golf: call Bob Lamoureux to participate September 10, tee times about noon, cost $72 including power cart, followed by steak dinner after 5:00 p m, cost $38 - attend dinner even if you do not want to golf
Addict Recovery Day: Mike Ryan invited members to attend the first recovery day being held in Edmonton at Beaverhill Park (Jasper Ave & 105 St) @ noon on September 8
50/50: Chris & Wayne did not match cards, $13 carried over
Finemaster: due to an inglorious appointment of Bill Buckham as finemaster, Bill fined Ben Doz $1 (no hello, just will you be the finemaster) and then he fined Jim Spalding for gloating. Other fines - if you were at Grandview on Saturday to enhance the Rotary House of Friendship with improved landscaping, $1 for the fellowship and good feeling; if you participated in a favourite activity this weekend $1; if you golfed recently $1; if you have enjoyed a summer break or had an anniversary or birthday in August $1; if you enjoyed the company of children or grandchildren this weekend $1.
Guest Speaker: Jim Wooley was introduced by Mike Ryan. Jim was born in Edmonton, he and his wife have 2 boys who each own and run their own businesses in Edmonton, and Jim also has his own business in addition to being executive director for WEBA (West Edmonton Business Association). Jim is a former member of our club and a former member of the hotel association.
WBA is 30 years old and was started in 1982 as an organization to fight rising municipal taxation, due to annexation of various land parcels, without a corresponding increase in services. It now has 200 members. Its transportation committee if still trying to influence the LRT location decision. It provides its members opportunities to network at breakfast meetings on the second Friday of each month. There are also 8 networking lunches per year and the third Tuesday of each month provides a "get to know you" mixer. Educational sessions with guest speakers are popular. It is a volunteer organization that exists on member dues or donations. They honoured one of their charter members at their 30th anniversary dinner last year. The area of service is west of Groat Road between the river and St. Albert.
Jim was thanked by Fred
New Rotary Website: The Rotary.org website is completely new as of Monday, August 26th. Rotary.org is for the general public. It tells our story to external audiences in a fresh streamlined way, encouraging people to get to know Rotary and learn about all the great work Rotarians are doing all over the world. My Rotary is for Rotarians. Each of us will have to re-register to use this site. You will need to use a new password which has at least 8 characters, uses both caps and lower case letters and contains at least one number. When you first try to login by entering your e-mail address, RI will send you a link via e-mail, and then you will be able to login with your new password. It is worth doing, because the new site will give you a user experience that is cleaner and more streamlined than what has been offered previously. There are tools that help you manage your Rotary business - such as running reports - under a tab called "Manage". The website's search engine is now powered by Google, making documents, articles and tools much easier. Please give it a try. Google Rotary.org first to have a look at the public site and then click on the My Rotary tab to start your re-registration process.