Stories

Dave Murray is a Professional Engineer and past national president of the Canadian Water Resources Association that specializes in coastal and river flood protection and natural restoration projects.  He addressed the club on the effects of climate change on flooding, and how we need to adapt.  

Guest Speaker James Legh was introduced.    James has worked for the past 15 years towards the amalgamation of two or more cities in the Greater Victoria area.  He is the Chair of the Pro-Amalgamation Party in Victoria and has been a Board Member of Amalgamation Yes.

Dave Obee, Editor in Chief of the Victoria Times Colonist, kicked off our new speaker series Victoria: a Capital for the Next Generation.

Judge Gerald Pash presented to the club.

Each of the Board members presented their goals for the year. Each preceded their presentation by telling us about a special skill they have, their greatest fear and best professional moment.

Jim Swanson, General Manager of the Victoria Harbourcats gave us an overview about the team, the league, and how much fun it is to go to a game.

Dave Murray, member of our club, and Engineer with Kerr Wood Leidal Consulting Engineers, told us the store behind this project. 

Miles Takes introduced the Christopher Bowers, the guest speaker, who plans to help us to have a "conversation."  Christopher Bowers, a retired teacher of 30+ years, teaching: Math. Music, Entrepreneurship, and Intro Japanese.  Since arriving in Victoria in 2005 has has spent a lot time teaching people about the power of great questions and having authentic conversation.  Christopher started Conversation Works Charity.

Colin Smith introduced Col. Jamie Hammond, our guest speaker.  Col. Hammond was raised in Esquimalt and took Honors History from UVic and a Masters degree at Carlton University.  He spent 28 years in the Military, serving Bosnia and Afghanistan.  He currently is the Private Secretary to Her Honor the Lieutenant Governor, Judith Guichon which means he is also the Chief of Staff for Government House.  He has been very involved with Her Honor's Literacy Program and has worked with several Rotary Clubs in implementing the 9 libraries in small communities.

Harbourside Rotary Victoria held a special meeting to award $107,100 in Community Grants. This was the first time that the Club and the Harbourside Foundation had invited all recipients to receive their cheques in a single ceremony. A total of twelve community groups will benefit from the Foundations investments and Harboursides' fund raising efforts this morning.

David Iles introduced our speaker first by commenting on previous introductions that were so long they required someone to thank them.  This morning he introduced Gordon Greeniaus by saying he’s really smart, he’s from Winnipeg and he specializes in experimental sub atomic physics at UVic.  He is going to talk about the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Dr. Cameron McCrodan is a developmental optometrist who runs a clinic in Victoria that helps youngsters and adults to make meaning from what their eyes are taking in.  The key to how this works is in the interplay between what the eye sees and how the brain works with it. He will be presenting on this topic at a session at 7 pm on May 6, organized by the Victoria Rotary Clubs' Literacy Roundtable. It is open to anyone in the community.  The location is the theatre at Berwick House on Elk Lake Road. 

Doug Webb introduced Gregory, an athlete who had a heart attack at age 40. Greg has written a book called Open Heart Runner on his experience of suffering a cardiac arrest at the end of an 8K and his recovery from that experience 16 years ago.

Harbour in Transition:Competing Interests.

James Bay is one of Victoria’s harbour based communities and has taken an active interest examining harbour issues. 

What follows is a thank you from Glenn Raynor, our 2009-2011 Rotary World Peace Fellow.

He would like to pass on his thanks and best regards to the Rotarians of Victoria Harbourside Rotary Club!

ShelterBox Canada is appealing for donations to support the Typhoon Haiyan relief effort.

Hundreds of thousands of men, women, boys and girls in the philippines are now homeless and without clean water or food in the wake of super Typhoon Haiyan. Their situation is desperate. 

CANADIANS CAN DOUBLE THE IMPACT OF THEIR DONATION THROUGH THE GOVERNMENT'S TYPHOON HAIYAN RELIEF FUND.  

Vice President Lisa Collins presented the Board's Strategic Plan for the next three years.  The strategic planning process began in the spring, with a questionnaire that was completed by 63 members.  This was followed by a one day "Visioning" exercise, facilitated by trained District 5020 facilitators, and attended by 22 club members. 

David Chard of Chard Development Ltd on recent projects in Victoria, including "The Sovereign"

The future of the Inner Harbour

Ernie Stigant introduced our guest speaker Janet Munsil, Artistic Director and Festival Producer of Intrepid Theatre. Janet has been responsible for programming the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival, Uno Fest, and the new experimental theatre festival, Winterlab. Over the past 21 years at Intrepid, she has produced 45 performing arts festivals.

Intrepid Theatre also operates two downtown venues that are available to the community - the Metro Studio and Intrepid Theatre Club. Janet is an alumni of the UVic Phoenix Theatre program. She is an accomplished playwright whose work has been produced across Canada, the US, Ireland, the Czech Republic and throughout the UK. Her adaptation of Pride and Prejudice was seen by 30,000 people last fall in Ottawa and Calgary and it recently won the critic's award for the best play of 2012.

The Honourable Judith Guichon was sworn-in as the 29th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia on November 2nd, 2012.  Prior to this appointment, she owned and operated Gerard Guichon Ranch in the Nicola Valley in the BC Interior.  The Guichon family has ranched in the area since 1878 and Her Honour's father-in-law was awarded the Order of Canada in 1974 for his leadership in the Cattleman's Associations and his contribution to agriculture in Canada.

Currently in Canada there are three professional designations for accountants – the CMA, CA, and CGA, but an effort is underway to merge these in to one designation. Sheena Manson tells us more.

 R otary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is Rotary's leadership training program for young people. RYLA participants can be ages 14-30, but most clubs and districts choose to focus on a narrower age range, such as 14-18 or 19-30. RYLA emphasizes leadership, citizenship, and personal growth, and aims to

• Demonstrate Rotary's respect and concern for youth
• Provide an effective training experience for selected youth and potential leaders
• Encourage leadership of youth by youth
• Recognize publicly young people who are rendering service to their communities

 Gillian Manson was pelased to introduce four young women who were Harbourside's "UN Contingent" to RYLA this year: Rachel Corwin, Chahat Mehra and Alice Shimizu who are all from Vic High and Angela Yu from Mount Doug.

What will Harbourside look like in 5 years?

This is the question that will be answered as members engage in a "visioning" process that will begin this spring.

Acting Sub lieutenant  Nalae Yang and Master Seaman Chris Leger presented Remembrances on behalf of our proud Canadian Armed Forces. 

This Rotary Club project helps educate 2,000 of the poorest children living in Teguciagalpa, Honduras.  For information on this program, please click "more", below. 

If you wish to donate, instructions are at the end of this article.  If you have questions, or require further information please send an e-mail with your telephone number to cdysart@shaw.ca.   We will contact you by telephone to answer your questions.