The Westerner for November 14, 2011
Meeting: chair, Sherry; music, Jerome; grace, Duane
Attendance/Guests: 32 including Terry Wickham and Silvio Dobri; guest speakers for Edmonton Folk Festival
50/50: Danny Chau & Bob Lamoureux did not match cards; $28 carried over
Community Service: John reported that Rotary Employment Partnership has had its best year with 9 placements - the latest due to Duane as Enbridge have hired 2 people with disabilites. John then reported that the Fort Edmonton Rotary Legacy Project, through Jim Greenough, will be asking Rotary District 5370 to commit to a permanent movement of their office to Fort Edmonton.
Grandview Concerts: Jerome reminded us of November 18, 7:00 pm, I Coristi Choir and December 14, same time, Lazy River Quintet plus Sylvia Lyon for Christmas and All That Jazz
Belize: Duane left envelopes for Members to contribute to Belizian Santa's Anonymous.
The Mustard Seed: Rudy Mangold is available to receive cash, used clothing and boots or other footwear for the Mustard Seed. If you bring your donation on Monday, November 28th or December 5th, Rudy will be at the entrance to the Petroleum Club with his Volvo Station Wagon from 11:30 am to 12:10 pm to collect items. Any members who miss these opportunities but would still like to contribute can drop off items at the Mustard Seed Church at the corner of 114 Street and 106 Avenue from Monday to Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM. The address is 10568 - 114 Street at the alley.
Gift Cards: send email to Brian Thompson with your requirements and trade a cheque for the gift cards at the next meeting.
Sally Ann Kettles: Ben Doz received a good response from members about staffing a kettle in December so he will proceed to get a date, location and schedule of members.
Finemaster: Bill Buckham fined $1 for a variety of discretions (indiscretions) - watching playoff football, not wearing your Rotary pin, having a birthday in November, going south during the winter, Doug Sollows for his many trips to Victoria, Jennifer for not changing her South African accent to Australian through her long visit to Australia, Bob Kimmerly for the best story of why the table had no guest.
Rotary Christmas Party: Bob Lamoureux advised that there is lots of room so bring guests to the party on December 16 @ Royal Glenora Club
Guest Speaker: Jerome introduced Terry Wickham, general manager of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. Under his direction 32 of 33 festivals have made money. The festival runs thanks to 2200 volunteers including 6 lifetime members. Silvio Dobri, who ran the powerpoint part of the presentation, is one of those lifetime members.
The festival lets children and seniors in for free and teen agers are half price. There is a family atmosphere and they have a perfect safety record, partly due to fencing around the site to keep the area safe. It is a 4 day celebration of folk music from around the world. Entertainers like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell who are well known Canadian performers high light the best local, best national, best international performers that the festival can afford. The site is Gallagher Park near the Muttart Conservatory - the hills give better exposure for the audience to the main stage and 5 side stages. Music includes jazz, blues, Celtic, even rock and roll. There are lots of activities for the kids.
When Terry joined in 1989, the festival was broke. Now they are on top of technology, own a building and have money in the bank. The festival could make more money but it is not profit driven - they just need to provide what the audience wants. Now they sell 13,000 tickets in 2 hours. This will change as the festival can lose touch with its fans by being too tied to technology. Tickets are going to be sold in person in order to by-pass scalpers. Further, since the average of the audience is increasing, the festival may have to start charging seniors a modest fee.
The festival is an environmental leader in the festival culture. Among other practices, they repair the park to the status before the festival if any damage is done.
Terry and Silvoi were thanked by Doug Sollows.