Miscellaneous
Repeat from last week or until no longer relevant or until I delete it:
Our club is joining with other clubs to award a Richmond external Paul Harris award in March of 2022. So start thinking of a deserving recipient.
Covid passports are now necessary.
September 30th Federal Statutory Holiday, the first National Reconciliation Day.
World Polio Day is October 24th.
Zoom Meeting Rules
THE LINK TO OUR THURSDAY MEETINGS WILL NO LONGER BE EMAILED BUT ACCESSED THROUGH THE LINK BELOW.
Meeting ID: 868 5522 9058
Passcode: 473892
1) Mute your microphone if you aren't already muted. Background noise is distracting.
2) If you are not engaged in the presentation, turn off your camera.
3) Chat function should only be used to address the speaker, not for Club member remarks during the presentation
4) Unmute when harassing the Sergeant at Arms or taking your turn during Sergeant at Arms.
Presidents Report
The club AGM will be on November 4th .
There will be no meeting on November 11th, recognizing Remembrance Day.
We are encouraged to wear orange next Tuesday, September 30th to recognize Truth & Reconciliation Day. Susan provided an explanation as to why an orange shirt? A new orange shirt was given by a grandmother to her grand daughter when she went to a new school for the first time. On attending, the child’s clothes, including her nice new shirt, was confiscated and all her clothes destroyed and replaced. It was of course a residential school.
Please direct any questions to me or a board member of your choosing and we will discuss any and all questions or concerns during our board meeting. Also please refer anyone who may be interested in attending a meeting or joining the club.
Be kind and be calm and safe...
Announcements and other stuff.
Apparently Gordon croaked during the national anthem and the rest of the club present carried on. He must have been resuscitated because he sent me the notes from the meeting. In any event thank you Gordon for taking notes for this weeks bulletin.
Dick provided the inspirational quote which was more than I got up this morning.
Chris Marin discussed our need for a club pop-up tent. Currently we use the Steveston one – which we appreciate, but makes it look as if we are the Steveston Club. Chris solicited donations to purchase our own one with our club logo on it. By the end of the meeting we had amassed more than $1,200 in donations – enough to get one tent. Notified before publication by Chris M. that we now have too tense!!!!
Melinda intimated that a Project Committee meeting would take place following today’s club meeting. And it did!
Margaret said the we had only 3 volunteers for SAA and reminded us that the SAA did not have to be present in person. Doing SAA with Zoom works just fine.
She also asked anyone who is storing any Club supplies, promo material or other club assets, to please let her know what, so an inventory can be completed.
The Lower Mainland Foundation dinner/event will be held on February 5th 2022 – more details will follow.
And last, but not least, Ron’s next Apple Picking Extravaganza (aka APE day) is now slated for October 2nd
Visitors
Belinda Boyd on Zoom - Yippeee a big welcome back.
sergeant At Arms Tidbits
Dalbir had ben involved in further Peace Facilitation with the Tsawwassen club. These events have been getting rave reviews.
Richard (aka Dick) appreciates having Zoom as an alternative method for meetings.
Bobbie G. spend some quality time in Whistler, but had enough time to clear out stuff at the Banquet Hall – and found two bottles of wine which appeared to be part of the club’s stash. There was sudden interest from the assembled wine buffs but to avoid any scuffle, the SAA moved on to…..
…..Belinda, who brought calm back to the room by showing her pleasure being back amongst us. She and her Grandkids are “Flying” to Hawaii this evening – virtually, of course!
Debbie T. saw her son married at the weekend, enjoying wonderful weather in an outside setting.
Danny is off to Whitehorse, Yukon to try and catch the Northern Lights – he missed them the last time he went.
Elena has been the Information Officer at an election site. 6 am to 9 pm – but she enjoyed the experience as she met many friends from the Kaleidoscope event we used to run.
Susan was zooming, and nursing a damaged arm!
Amanda (sp??) was also zooming, but was incognito – not even a black screen! She threatens to be a real in-person next week!
Debbie S. took up her winning bid for time at a Whistler Condo and had a glorious time there. Marred only by her sister experiencing a fall which dislocated her shoulder. Highly painful – and a 2 hour wait for help. OUCH!
Chris M’s puppy has graduated from puppy school. The excitement caused some gastric events for the new Grad. Which led to….
….Sam’s graphic explanation of giving his dog the de-worm treatment and the difficulty in getting him to ingest pills. To hear more about these trials and tribulations, you really had to be there in person.
Chris B. returned to us from her spell in Barbados – which she has rebooked for next year! However it was fraught with decision problems – such as to swim in the pool or the ocean…..when to flip over and get sun on her back…… we felt so sorry for her dilemma!
Garth had a nice trip to Osoyoos.
Margaret had an uneventful sports week, but her jar sales netted $4,000 toward people living with AIDS, so that ain’t too shabby at all!
Kal thanked us all for ….something …..not sure what!
Peter had some grand Lake fishing
Sandra was aghast at how many were driving in the dark/dusk without lights. I must admit I second that – especially cyclists!
Debbie M. has been slated for surgery on October 25th. There was some discussion about her increasing her “size” and the fact that she would be milking that fact strongly. To understand all this, you really had to be there!
Melinda told us that Willow (grand daughter) was unimpressed with her first taste of pre-school. Probably has too much fun with Grandma!
Gord said a silent prayer for the death of the National Anthem.
Pat had a great dinner at the Cactus Club.
speaKER
Garth has been a member of the club for, he says, half of his life! So an introduction was hardly necessary. But as a well known lawyer in Richmond, he spoke to us about the Mediation/Arbitration role that he and his partners perform.
Often working in a complex, and even fraught, situation, the lawyer as a mediator or arbiter must at all times remain neutral. Arbitration is increasingly used akin to having a private judge; the courts are less burdened and the issues such as child custody are dealt with in a less antagonizing way.
The parties are usually separated so the mediator goes back and forth between the parties and issues are dealt with separately; Family Law has been changing in more recent times and the process aims to be more collaborative. Issues such as divorce are rarely easy or cut and dried. Both parties must sign a confidentiality Agreement to which they are bound. That includes that they do not go to court. But the fact that the process has a 92% success rate, speaks for itself.
Parenting co-ordination is another area that can be an important aspect of the process. Even with a Separation Agreement in place, the parties can often arrive at an impasse, thus Mediation or Arbitration can help to produce a resolution.
If you want a peek at what goes on in this area, have a look at “Family Law”, now screening on Global – and shot in Vancouver, so it illustrates Canadian experiences rather that the usual USA ones. Heavens, what an exciting life these lawyers lead…..eh?
Meanderings
So we are studying WW I in my history class now and most of us would have been taught and read about it's history from a Euro centric point of view. What you may not have know was the British raised a huge labour corps from China, Egypt, East and West Indies but in particular India. The Indians unloaded steamers built trenches hauled supplies and swept latrines and fought side by side with the other allied armies. This is taken from the text book:
"Of all the colonies in the British, French and German empires, the contribution of undivided India (comprising present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka) in terms of manpower remains the highest: a total of one and half million men, including soldiers and non-combatants, were recruited into the British Indian army during the First World War. India joined the war as part of the British empire. In late September and early October, two Indian divisions – renamed Lahore and Meerut and totaling some 24,000 men – arrived at Marseilles to the joyous cries of ‘Vivent les Hindous’ and were placed under the command of General Sir James Willcocks. They were almost immediately sent to the trenches to fill in the gaps left by the heavy casualties suffered by the British Expeditionary Force. Over the next four years, a total of 140,000 men would be sent to France. Most of them would serve there from October 1914 to December 1915: they took part in some of the fiercest battles – Ypres, Givenchy, Neuve Chapelle, Festubert and Loos – often suffering traumatic losses and winning the first Victoria Crosses to be awarded to Indians."
"Some 588,717 Indians, including 7,182 officers, 287,753 other ranks and 293,152 non-combatant ‘followers’ (often forming porter and labour corps), served in Mesopotamia. A significant number – often estimated at around 10,000 – from the 6th Division were captured at Kut-el-Amara, after a prolonged siege and ultimate surrender by General Charles Townshend on 29 April 1916. The Hindu sepoys, along with their British counterparts, were subjected to severe brutality in the hands of their Turkish captors, including a 500-mile long march to Ras-el-Ain. However, the highest casualty rates for the Indians were in Gallipoli, where some 1,624 of the 3,000 combatants were killed. There is no monolithic or single ‘Indian war experience’: it has to be nuanced to the specificities of rank, kind of work, class, region and theatre of battle, among others. Moreover, there were hundreds of thousands of women and children in different villages in India whose lives were irretrievably altered by the war, and it is important to remember and recover their war experience as well. "
So it wasn't just Mel Gibson who served in Gallipoli! If you haven't seen the movie it was made in 1981.
Upcoming Events
Club AGM November 4th Details to follow.
Foundation Dinner February 5th, 2022. Details to follow.
Please note the date for the Auction
Friday May 6th 2022 Auction Fundraiser with final details to be determined but anticipating live and in person.
Committee (and other) Updates
Nothing this week but this is where dreams come true:
TODAYS CHUCKLEs
🤪
Life is not a fairy tale if you lose your shoe at midnight you’re drunk.
Someone told me I have two faults, I don’t listen and some other stuff they were rattling on about.
There is no need to drive me crazy I’m close enough to walk.
I know the voices aren’t real but they come up with some really good ideas.
