Volume 93, Number 45 4,590th Meeting Friday, June 28, 2013

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 405, Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 5L3 — web: www.rotarynanaimo.org

Serving Our Community Since

May 1, 1920 - Charter Number 43

DIRECTORS Doug Cowling Brent Stetar Susie Walker

John Shillabeer Chris Pogson Susan Gerrand

President Rotary International Sakuji Tanaka, Rotary Club of Yashio, Japan

District Governor Assistant Governor Judy Byron, Sidney, BC Barry Sparkes, Lantzville, BC

Club Meeting Friday at 12:00 p.m.

at the Coast Bastion Inn

CLUB OFFICERS 2012-2013

President ....................................................... Joan Ryan

Vice President ............................................... Wahid Ali

Secretary ......................................................... Bob Janes

Treasurer .............................................. Gordon Hubley

President Elect .................................. Douglas Anderson

Immediate Past President ..................... Dave Hammond

Late Afternoon sun shines on the Millstone River - Photo by Ian Williams 6-26-13

Meeting Notes from June 21st

By Charles Ramos

President Joan called today’s meet-

ing to order, and led us in a rousing an-

them, followed with a fine invocation by

John Salem. Charles Ramos asked for

visiting Rotarians and guests. There

were no Rotarians and four guests; these

being VIU students Clayton, Bernice,

Navjik, and Rosa.

Birthdays and anniversaries were an-

nounced. There were many of each-

this is a popular week.

President Joan asked her weekly

trivia question, this time a multiple-

choice question about the name of the

harbour on the southeast tip of New-

foundland. Bob Janes correctly an-

swered that the harbour is Port Aux

Basques.

During social period before today’s

meeting, one of our senior members

expressed great concern with the fre-

quent rough treatment to which his

name is subjected. The following mem-

ory aid is provided for those finding the

pronunciation difficult:

There once was a man named

Vanidour

Who had a great fondness for cider

To Mike Herold he said, after

bumping his head,

“Why don’t you design doorways

wider?”

Announcements:

President Joan made a notice of mo-

tion for our club to nominate Jerry L.

Hall for Rotary International president

for the 2015-2016 term. Discussion fol-

lowed, with the result being a majority

vote taken. Of the club members vot-

ing, 18 were in favour of the motion and

6 were opposed. The motion was car-

ried, which means our club will nomi-

nate Mr. Hall for the position.

Bob Fenty thanked all who helped

with the Rotary-Salvation Army food

drive last weekend. From the 9 loca-

tions, 500 lbs of food and over $4,000 in

cash was donated.

Keith McFarlane reminded the club

that our Installation Banquet is in two

weeks, on July 5th at the Coast Bastion.

Social hour begins at 6:00, and dinner is

at 7:00. Farewell to President Joan

Ryan and welcome to President-Elect

Douglas Anderson. President Joan said

the expression, “Better the devil we

know”, might apply here.

Leadership Conference at VIU

The four Vancouver Island University

students each gave a short talk about

their experiences at the Vancouver Is-

land Leadership Conference (VILC),

and mentioned that they are asking Ro-

tary to partner with the VILC as well as

requesting sponsorship from local busi-

nesses.

Sergeant at Arms:

Sgt-at-Arms Bob Fenty began (and

finished) with a long Newfoundland

story involving a visiting furniture

dealer, a beautiful woman, and, eventu-

ally, a punch line. Following that, we

moved into Happy/Sad bucks.

Happy/Sad bucks:

John Salem gave a donation to relate

his meeting Gord Hubley at the VIU

sports golf day, and coming to the reali-

zation that most new MNP hires just

happen to also be accomplished golfers.

Bob Buchanan gave happy bucks

that he is away for 3 months of vacation

beginning tomorrow. He also updated

the club on Bob Wilson’s cross-country

bike ride. Bob is now 2,800 miles into

the ride and is currently in Crystal

Beach across the Niagara River from

Buffalo, NY. [is Bob a better rider than

Mr. Vanidour?]

Wahid Ali gave thanks for club mem-

bers’ support of the VIU golf tourna-

ment.

Bill Horman gave happy bucks

that today is his

58th club anniver-

sary. Fifty-eight

years ago, he was

the 236th member

to join the

Nanaimo Rotary Club. In this time, he’s

had 52 years of perfect attendance, has

held numerous board positions, includ-

ing President, and became an honorary

member in 2007. He then recounted

many memories and events from over

the years.

We are honoured to have Bill as a mem-

ber of our club, and he was given a

standing ovation by all members.

Debbie Narver gave happy bucks

that her son and friends in Alberta are

safe and sound in spite of the flooding

Frank Shoemaker gave happy bucks

to see the VIU students here today, and

related a story of accompanying a Ma-

laysian student to Yellowknife in Janu-

ary where the cold was a bit surprising.

Table Stakes were won by Dave

Connolly. Card Draw was won by

Charles Ramos.

Now that a deck of

cards has appeared,

two previous win-

ners and Charles

tried their luck. All

were unsuccessful.

Classification Talks By Ross White

President Joan introduced our two

club members, Bruce Forward and

Norm Myden. Her comment was that

this was an ideal opportunity for all

members and especially the newer

members to learn from long time Rotari-

ans.

BRUCE FORWARD: Bruce and his

wife Betty moved to Nanaimo a year

ago. Besides having children and grand-

Four students from VIU, Bernice Dang-kat, Rosa He, Navjik Sengha and Clarton

Cameron, spoke about an upcoming leadership conference at their university.

children in

Nanaimo

and on the

Island, his

grandfather

was from

Ladysmith

so he vis-

ited often

and at one

time he lived here for a few months. At

seven years of age, Bruce’s family

moved to Prince Rupert as his father

was with the YMCA War Services.

This was to provide recreation ser-

vices for in excess of 18,000 Canadian

and USA troops. Just prior to the end of

the war there was a YMCA building that

later became Prince Rupert’s Commu-

nity Centre. His father was the manager

and the family lived upstairs.

Following graduation from high

school in 1955, Bruce joined the Royal

Bank and after a year was transferred to

Vancouver. With a later transfer he met

a very nice girl who worked at the bank;

Betty. They have been married for al-

most 53 years but had to wait until

Bruce had fulfilled the obligations of

not getting married until he had five

years of service with the bank. He

worked with the bank until 1964 when

his father opened a building supply store

in Kitimat and he was asked to be the

accountant/bookkeeper. When the ac-

countant left the Prince Rupert store, he

moved there and in time became the

general manager for both stores. Bruce

retired about 14 years ago.

In 1966 he was asked to be Returning

Officer for Skeena and later to be Field

Liaison Officer for Elections Canada.

This involved representing most of an

area of BC other than Vancouver and

Vancouver Island. As well he was asked

to be the interim manager of the YPR

airport and that turned into a six months

stint.

He and Betty have five children; a son

and family in Fort McMurray, four

daughters (Port Moody, Nanaimo, Co-

mox and Victoria) and 10 grandchil-

dren.

Bruce developed a love for basketball.

He was not much of a player so took up

referring and did that for about 47 years.

He refereed the All Native Tournament

for 22 years. From this association he

became treasurer and was inducted into

the All Native Tournament Hall of

Fame.

Throughout the years, church and

singing have been major interests. He

now attends St. Andrew’s United and

sings in the choir and with Yellow Point

singers. He is fond of classical musical

and has participated in various musicals.

At one time he belonged to a Rotary

choir.

Since 1966 he has been a member of

the Prince Rupert Rotary Club. He

served as President and on three occa-

sions has served as Assistant Governor

in D5040. He recommends attending

other clubs to obtain a sense of the work

of Rotary. Through Rotary he and Betty

have met some wonderful people.

Just prior to leaving Prince Rupert,

Bruce was presented with the Civic

Merit Award for the many years of ser-

vice he gave to the city and organiza-

tions. He concluded by thanking the

club for accepting him and that he has

just 3 more years to reach 50 years of

membership.

NORM MYDEN: Born in Delbourne

Alberta, Norm and his wife Barbara (44

years) have three sons and 6 grandchil-

dren with one on the way. At 15 years

of age he lived in Bengasi Libya for two

years with his family. There were no

teachers so he took correspondence

courses and

later attended

a US school in

Tripoli. That

was during the

time of the

Cuban crisis

and was an

interesting

period of his

life. In 1969

he attended

the University of Alberta where he met

his wife and received a Bachelor of

Commerce degree

He started his career at FW Wool-

worths in Edmonton and then moved to

Calgary where he became a CA. For a

period of three years he worked in Free-

port, Bahamas. A return to Calgary oc-

curred in 1977. All three sons swam

competitively and he was actively in-

volved in fundraising. His middle son

was an Olympic competitor.

Rotary membership started in 1982 in

Calgary and he was president in 1997-

98. Over time he has attended three in-

ternational conferences. Norm enjoys

Rotary and has been involved in Inter-

national Service. He has made three

trips to the Dominican Republic and the

last project he worked on turned a

$10,000 funding into a $65,000 grant to

build above ground water cisterns.

When relocating to Nanaimo he won-

dered about continuing with Rotary and

decided he did not want to be a “retired

Rotarian” or a “used-to-be Rotarian”.

He looks forward to working with the

members of the club.

ATTENDANCE Report by Bob Janes

Attendance for June 21st was 51%.

We missed these Rotarians:

D. Anderson, W. Anderson, Black-

more, Brand, Cowling, Gerrand, Lucie

& Yvan Gosselin, Grice, Donna Hais,

Hammond, Heisterman, Henderson,

Herold, Hobbs, Holzwarth, Knutsson,

McIver, Pankratz, Patrick, Pogson,

Raedler, Al Smith, Kathy Smith, Val-

sangkar, Welch, Wilson

Guests:

Navjit Sengha, Clayton Cameron,

Bernice Dangkat, Rosa He, all VIU

students.

Make-Ups;

Wahid Ali June 16th Daybreak

Installation,

Brent Stetar June 16th Fellowship

Wahid Ali June 18th Board Meeting

Birthdays:

Mikel Knutsson, June 28

Spouse Birthday:

Tracy Pogson (Chris) on June 29

Wedding Anniversaries:

PROGRAM

THANK SPEAKER

INTRODUCE SPEAKER

WEEKLY CLUB PROGRAMS

GREETERS

CASHIERS

SGT-AT-ARMS

INVOCATION

HEAD TABLE

INTRODUCE GUESTS

“COGS” is the official bulletin of the Rotary Club of Nanaimo, published each

Friday by the Bulletin Committee

Winner of District 5020 Best Bulletin

Awards

Bulletin Committee Chair — Lila Tanner Meeting Reporter: Lila Tanner / Program Reporter: Ross White / Photos: Ian Williams

Editing & Production: Bruce Gordon / Web Posting: Ian Williams

PRINTING COURTESY OF ISLAND OFFICE EQUIPMENT NANAIMO - BOB JANES

GREETERS

CASHIERS

SGT-AT-ARMS

INVOCATION

HEAD TABLE

INTRODUCE GUESTS

INTRODUCE SPEAKER

THANK SPEAKER

PROGRAM

Friday, June 28th

Bob Fenty,

Bob Buchanan, Kevin Cantelon

Lila Tanner

John Heisterman

Art Vanidour

Pres. Joan, Wayne & Gail Anderson, Norm Myden, Mikel Knutsson,

Fenty, Buchanan, Cantelon

John Salem

Norm Myden

CHINA WITH OUR DAUGHTER:

Wayne & Gail Anderson

Al Smith

INTRODUCE SPEAKER

GREETERS

CASHIERS

SGT-AT-ARMS

INVOCATION

HEAD TABLE

INTRODUCE GUESTS

THANK SPEAKER

PROGRAM

Friday, July 12th

Lynne Pankratz,

Wahid Ali, Bruce Gordon

Lila Tanner

Dave Hammond

Art Vanidour

Pres. Douglas, DG Peter Taylor, Brenda Grice, Sharon Welch,

Pankratz, Ali, Gordon

Keith McFarlane

Brenda Grice

DISTRICT GOVERNOR VISIT:

Peter Taylor

President Douglas

Friday, July 5th

INSTALLATION NIGHT

Coast Bastion Inn

Fellowship 6:00 pm

Dinner 7:00 pm

No Regular

Noon Meeting

DATES TO REMEMBER

July 5—Installation Night at the Coast Bastion Inn. No charge to members.

August 3-4—RCMP Musical Ride at Arbutus Meadows. Tickets $10, Marlin

Travel or Parksville AM Rotary Club, Cara MacDonald 250-248-3089.

August 11—Rotary Picnic, Huddlestone Park in Lantzville.

Aug. 16, 17, 18—VIEX shifts at three admission booths. Volunteers needed.

Dec. 1st—Rotary Family Christmas Breakfast at Bowen Park Club House.

Dec. 19th—Rotary Christmas Dinner at new Nanaimo Golf Course club house.

Group hopes to raise US$3 million to restore Rotary founder's

home - By Diana Schoberg Rotary International News -- 22 January 2013

For nearly 40 years, Paul and Jean Harris entertained visiting Rotarians at their

home on Chicago's South Side, which they affectionately named after the street

in Edinburgh, Scotland, where Jean lived as a child. Today, the house is badly

in need of repairs.

The Paul and Jean Harris Home Foundation has embarked on a campaign to

raise $3 million to pay off the debt and interest on the house, complete the reno-

vations, and establish an endowment to pay for maintenance in perpetuity.

“Comely Bank is the Mount Vernon of Rotary -- it's the home of our founder,

and it's too important an asset to not do something about it,” said Robert C.

Knuepfer Jr., 2010-11 governor of District 6450 and president of the Harris

Home Foundation.

After Paul Harris died in 1947, Jean sold Comely Bank. It remained in private

hands until the Paul and Jean Harris Home Foundation bought it in 2005 with

money borrowed from the charitable foundation of the Rotary Club of Naper-

ville. The Harris Home Foundation replaced the basement floor and made a few

immediate structural repairs so Rotarians could safely visit the house during

Rotary's centennial year.

But since then, the restoration project has come to a standstill.

The Harris Home Foundation hopes to restore the home to the way it looked

when the Harrises lived there. It plans to display historic images of Harris and

provide visitors with information about Harris and his Rotary activities.

Knuepfer says the house could also be used as a meeting place for local or visit-

ing clubs and for other functions.

The Harris Home Foundation also envisions creating a Rotary history trail, with

stops at the Paul Harris Home, Harris's gravesite at nearby Mount Hope ceme-

tery, and RI world headquarters in Evanston, Illinois.