Bulletin for February 25
Greeter- Roger for Tara, Door Duty: Roger Sarge: Barry
Meeting called to order at 6:30 pm National anthem was sung with Gordon accompanying on the piano,
Dan said the invocation
Guests tonight were Claude Jolivet , and Owen Hanam-President from the Vancouver Island Model Engineers Society (VIME) guest speakers
Announcements:
a) Car Raffle update; Ian discussed Brentwood Bay and SIdney by the Sea have appointed representatives for the Car Raffle Committee. Each Club should will work an area of Peninsula that they wish to sell the car tickets at. Brentwood would prefer to work out of Thrifty Foods –Saanichton. Car will be brought to site and will need to have two Rotarians on duty to sell tickets. Each Rotarian will be given one booklet of tickets to sell on their own to family, friends, neighbours. No information yet as to the car make or model, when the tickets will start being sold although there was speculation that the raffle will be drawn in August 2015. (all subject to BC lottery corp)
b) DLTA: recommended that as many people who are interested in executive positions to attend the assembly in Centralia March 27-28, 2015 Ian has advised that he will probably attend to keep up to date with the child protection issues for programs such as student exchange and Adventures in Citizenship.
c) Rotoract Club members Katie and Briana sent an email proposal for chartering a new Club to Gordon . Gordon copied the email and brought it up as a discussion point this evening. The Sidney Club is keen to explore the proposal with the two members subject to them coming to a meeting to discuss the pros and cons of their proposal and to them having enough members to charter a new Rotary Club. Gordon will invite them to a meeting in the near future.
d) Rob C. brought up the literacy fund raising project for the Victoria areas--- a raffle for a gift bag of books . Also he will collect books to be taken to Russell books who will give the 1000 x 5 group a credit for purchasing appropriate books for under 5 year olds in the program.
Program:
Owen Hanam- President of VIME gave a background discussion of the Vancouver Island Model Engineers Society (a Non profit society) which is quartered on the grounds of the Heritage Acres Society between Island View and Mt Newton X Rd. south of the Tsartlip band reserve. He showed examples of some of their artefacts including a Galileo clock, a long ship model a small steam engine and a tool and cutter grinder/sharpener owned by the group. The property they occupy is actually Federal Land which was deeded to the municipality of Central Saanich and is presently being leased to the Societies for a very reasonable amount. They have a good working relationship with Central Saanich. VIME, presently has 90 members of which about 20 are very active they try to meet once a week for work parties or just to interact. Their principal interest is working on Steam engine locomotives and Owen has been working on building his own for the last 8 years. He thinks it will be another two before he is ready. Most of the trains are 1/8 scale of the originals- majority are owned by members but they have one club train, which runs on 1 mile of track in the field bordering the Pat Bay Highway. During the Spring starting in April , Summer and Fall they operate every second week and have 2 day Summer and Fall fair events and a Birthday party booking service to host kids of all ages. They try to educate all the riders about steam power and have a cut away of an engine cylinder.
Claude discussed the proposal to build a washroom near the catering caboose to help members and riders rather than having them walk 3/4 of a kilometer to the washroom facilities on the south property. The facility will also have display windows showing some of the artefacts that the society owns –see above. The original drawings of the washroom were shown at the Meeting to discuss funding the project. There has been a good deal of support in kind from local contractors and Camosun College. It is anticipated that construction will be started in May 2015. A cheque was presented to Claude and Owen and photographs were taken, Barry thanked the speakers and recommended that all the members take a ride on the railway.
Sgt at Arms: Barry immediately reminded Ian that he should not have attended and gave him a fine for being there. Rob Christie was fined for not attending meetings because he was working too much up island. Nina and Carolyn for sitting beside each other. Roger for cutting his grass, Cosmo for agreeing with Barry, and Gordon for bringing up the subject.
Jack M gave a happy dollar as he had a difficult time tracking down a Cordless Eagle leaf blower from Home depot that was on sale and Rob Christie picked up one for him in Courtney.
Gordon won the ticket draw but sadly did not pick the blue marble. Draw Pot is about $40.
Next weeks meeting: will be a Club in the Pub at the New Chinese Restaurant on 2nd and Beacon Ave (formerly Pier One) at 6 pm March 4, 2015