Program for April 10, 2007, reported by David Sills

President Tav presided, Tom Lidkea tickled the ivories for a rousing O Canada, and Joe Prentice said grace.

Visiting Rotarians & Guests, introduced by John Snively: Jack Birt, Calgary Downtown, Tpt. & Logistics; Rick Lemon, Harbourside, Tourism; Bruce Hooker, Saanich, Real Estate; Jim Porter, Calgary S., S/A; Chuck Newmarch, Calgary Downtown, S/A.; Bill Lesourd, Calgary S., Oil & Gas Exploration Laura Randall was the guest of Neil Madsen, Dick Brownley guest of Jack Petrie and Dola Dube, guest of the Club. At right is our guest speaker, Don Hamilton, photographed by Jack Petrie

Ramblings. (Mark Bedford)
Ever alert, our S-at-A noted and fined Lorna for arriving late and leaving early. Cashier George was fined for having the temerity to sign in members thereby depriving the Club of much needed resources. Tom Croft paid gladly for a dated photo of his early days on the range and Ben paid for some perceived transgression regarding the removal of marbles from the draw.

Happy - Sad Dollars were paid by Mr. Petrie to share a story about his grandson’s activities and by Pablo to announce his upcoming grand tour of Mexico and Europe.

Birthday cards were awarded to Sills, Petrie, MacPherson and Ockermueller.

John Edgell won the draw but, amazingly, drew a black marble.

For Your Information:

1) Lorna Curtis put in a plug for two upcoming Club social events - “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” on Saturday, April 21 and the “Island Wine Tour” to be held on Saturday, May 12. Click here for details on both these gatherings.
2) Joan Firkins reported that $2,193.43 has been contributed by members to the Polio Plus campaign. A total of $3,290.00 will be available when the Rotary grant is included. President Tav awarded Joan a prized Club book mark for her efforts.
3) President Tav presented Dola Dube of the Victoria Youth Choir Society with a cheque for $1,000 on behalf of the Community Relations Committee as a Club donation.
4) Lynn Murray announced that we will be hosting a Youth Exchange student from Poland for the 2007-2008 school year. The young lady will arrive in Victoria in August.

Guest Speaker, Don Hamilton, introduced by Dallas

The Library Is Free, The Library Is Freedom
This descriptive title originated away back in 1904 when Andrew Carnegie financed our Victoria library building, just one of the 1,900 library buildings he financed world wide. At the time Andrew was the richest man in the world and decided that education was the source of all good in the world and he was going to use his wealth to advance public education.

Don Hamilton is a professional librarian with 30 year’s experience at UVIC and is a trustee of the Greater Victoria Library Board. Libraries are big business as noted just last week in a headline in the Times-Colonist that the one month circulation record had been smashed with over 500,000 items taken out at the nine library branches.

Don introduced us to the operating side of the operation and the delicate art of compromise necessary at the Board level, given the diverse interests of the trustees. The 21 Trustees comprise the largest Board in the province, with Victoria and Saanich having five members each. They need only one other supporting vote to carry any resolution. There are 166 staff members, made up of 37 librarians, 93 clerical and 34 other employees located in the Central Library and the eight branches. All but the eight employees in managerial positions are unionized.

The statistics are impressive – 1,000,000 plus books available, 176,000 borrowers, 5,000,000 borrowings annually, 1,400,000 web site visits and 250 computers on site for customer browsing. All this at no cost to the user. Sadly, nothing is really free as the annual budget of $12,000,000 is paid by the taxpayer. Even so, this works out to only $39 per capita, a bargain by anyone’s standard.

Little known facts, at least to this reporter, divulged by Don:
- The library staff will make home visits to shut-ins.
- Consumer Reports are available on the web-site.
- They have experienced competition problems with DVD rental businesses.
- Meeting rooms are available for the public. (How about a vocational visit - reporter)

In thanking Don, Ted Chambers emphasized that libraries are an essential part of every community and he is dismayed at the constant bickering over funding an institution so important to our knowledge based society.

April 21 there will be a “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” opportunity for members to get to know one another a little better. The format will be as follows -- -- there will be hosts who do not know who their guests are to be and the guests will be kept in the dark, about who their hosts are to be, until the last minute. It is hoped that in future those who are guests will take on the role of hosts. The match ups will take place on the day of the event. The guests will bring either an appetizer or dessert and everyone will bring wine.

Saturday, May 12 there will be a Wine Tour to be held, for members of the club and guests, to visit wineries up island. Five different wineries are to be visited and there will be a gourmet three-course lunch included for the cost of a $90 per person.

HOW TO PROPOSE A NEW MEMBER (click here to read pamphlet)
This pamphlet will help you make a membership proposal using Rotary International's standard procedures.