President's Comments
President Paul welcomed everyone to the first of our evening meetings under our new meeting schedule. It is hoped that having these meetings will provide more flexibility for members, especially those for whom making the Monday noon meetings can be a challenge.
President Paul also made mention of the fact that the meal price has gone up at the Crowne Plaza due to increases in labour, food and energy costs. details are contained in an email he has sent recently.
As of August 21 there have been no reported cases of Polio in Nigeria for the past three years and all of Africa can now be declared Polio free!
Club Announcements
Secretary Bill spoke to the matter of the need for members to renew their Police Records Checks. It has been 5 years since we initiated the policy and those none then are now expired. The application can now be done online, detailed instructions and a Volunteer confirmation letter have been sent to members. All members intending to volunteer with the Nutrition for Learning Program at Forest Hill P.S. must get the Records Check done.
Program Highlights
The first part of our program this evening was a presentation by our recently returned exchange Student Eylse Varney, who spent the last year in Finland. She spoke about her many and varied experiences in Finland and noted how much it is like Northern Ontario and how much she enjoyed the spectacular views of lakes and forests from just about everywhere. One of the biggest things she needed to get used to was that fact that the sun rose at 4:30 in the morning and that at the summer equinox the sun did not set.
There were 118 exchange students in Finland and they all met at a Language Camp soon after arriving and had some other adventuress together including three great trips - Lapland, Russia and a Euro Tour. Despite the reserved nature of the Finns she soon made some close friends at her high school of just 250 students. In addition to learning much about the Finnish culture she was pleased to be able to impart some of our Canadian culture to them in the form of organizing and running a Hallowe'en Party for the whole school. She spoke weekly to a grade 8 classes and made presentations to many classes at the high school.
Eylse thanked us for the opportunity and expressed sincere gratitude for the experience, indicating that it has changed her life already and she expects that it will continue to do so in the years to come.
The second part of our program was a workshop on getting members connected through technology, and specifically downloading the ClubRunner app onto their mobile devices. despite some slow connectivity at the Edelweiss all members wishing to download and start to explore the app were able to do so. Much thanks to Louise and Darren for their technical support.
Closing Remarks & Reminders
President Paul reminded members that our next meeting is on Monday, September 9, It will be a shortened meeting back at the Crowne Plaza when we will have our official Online Auction Kick Off.
