Hey, it’s been a minute since we’ve had one of these! Light crowd today as several members are still away on holidays – either by their own choice or thoughtfully extended by Air Canada. Laz and Craig are manning the front desk, so you know that sheet is going to balance. No greeter today, oh well. And Ed Heitzman seems surprised that he’s been tapped for inspirational moment (someone really should put these meeting duties into the bulletin) but he pulls it off because he’s Ed, and not all heroes wear capes. President Ed rings the bell at 7:15 sharp, and thanks Suzan, Doug and the Food Bank staff for getting up at Zero-Dark-Stupid (old Army term!) to prepare breakfast for us. And if you didn’t know that on this day in 1914 the Canadian Parliament passed the War Measures Act, well Ed’s got you covered. Jody does a land acknowledgement and rocks it, natch. Only two guests today but we’ll regale them with the Welcome Song, and it’s off for bacon and eggs.
Jody is up to tell us about our guest speaker, St. Albert Metis Elder Garry Gairdner. Garry has a comprehensive resume, and she seems determined to cover all of it in her introduction. His non-profit organization, the River Lot Trading Post Co-Op, aims to build and operate an old school trading post on St. Albert’s Historic River Lots 23 and 24 (home to the city's grain elevators) to serve as a tourist attraction and promote Indigenous history and culture. Trading posts and the fur trade have a long history in St. Albert, and this would help promote Indigenous heritage in this community by selling arts, crafts and traditional plants and medicines. There’s time left for a few questions, and President Ed seizes the levers of power afforded by his office to ask the first one – what’s the timeline? Garry would like to see it built within the next two years. Great topic, thanks Garry!
Sandra is up to present a PHF+1 to Kevin, well done that man!! And in the background, Jody is closing out Garry’s slide deck and reopening Ed’s. Or trying to. Minimize. Open Explorer. Reopen Powerpoint, reposition that window. Minimize. OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST CLICK THE MAXIMIZE BUTTON, THE SLIDE SHOW TAB AND CONTINUE FROM CURRENT SLIDE!! OCD is a terrible thing to have, or at least so I’ve heard. Anyways. Craig is up for a quick Secretary’s report, recently departed outbound student Mason thanking everyone for attending his farewell party a few weeks back. Enjoy your year in Mexico Mason! And there are a few announcements: the Garage Sale runs Sunday, there’s lots of great items and a few more hands to help sell it would be welcome. Flags go out next week, and there are a few routes that need to be covered, please help out! There’s a Ways & Means meeting on Tuesday 26 Aug at 310 Circle. Inbound exchange student Lily Hammer will be arriving next weekend from Deutschland, more to follow on that. And the corn roast will open for registration in the next few days, watch for the invite. There’s no birthdays report, but both Kevin (23 Aug) and Mark (24 Aug) have birthdays this weekend, and Kevin is celebrating his first anniversary as a Rotarian, also 23 Aug. Woo hoo!!
Well with Jim still away there a secret Sarge, and it's…Craig. Oh, good. Back, like an unvited dinner guest. He wastes no time recruiting David's son Saxon to help out, because apparently he's a big proponent of child labour. The first order of business is to draw for wine, and it's President Ed's lucky day! This immediately draws calls of FIX!! from the peanut gallery, and poor young Dooley is crushed. I mean, accusing Malin or Dooley senior of corruption is one thing, but his kid? Justice is swiftly served, and young Saxon is dispatched to the back table to collect. The perpetrators could have been Laz and Shelly, but we'll go with Statler and Waldorf - two of my favourite muppets - to protect their identities. Ravi was the last person to arrive, Daniela didn't read this week's Gazette, Charlene couldn't recall the stories in the most recent bulletin, and Kevin told a lame pun. Fined, fined, fined and fined. Mark doesn't reply to texts, Shawna has been away for a while and Heike is just back from visiting BC (we'll call hers a Welcome Back tax). All fined, all deserved. Determined to squeeze the last nickel out of the room, Happy/Sad bucks are sought and Kim, who should have been in the Turks and Caicos Islands (thanks again to our national carrier), but got to have breakfast with Darel, Kevin, Ian and Mark instead. Hmm, not much of a consolation prize, but we'll give a Rotary key chain as well. And Doug gives a shout out to members who assisted with the Community Foundation Charity Golf Tourney at the Sturgeon. Jeri was bundled up at the fifth hole checking for holes-in-one. She recalled that when she was a Mountie, they called the white camouflage gear their sperm suits! How cool is that?? Craig is happy to report that Ribfest was a smashing success - our event was described by the rib teams as the gold standard! The numbers are still being crunched but it was a moneymaker - thanks to all who helped out! Garry has some happy bucks because he enjoyed breakfast and we're a fun-loving bunch. And the Sarge is out! Jody is just finishing up the introduction of the guest speaker, Ed leads us in the Four Way Test and that's a wrap!