oct-nov 2015 page 1 (1) - oakville probust! page3!of!! 6theprobusclubofoakville !!!!! ! !...

THE PROBUS CLUB OF OAKVILLE Established in 1988, The Fifth Probus Club in Canada

October/November 2015

Gunth e r Lut z

Member o f t h e Year 2015

Congratulations to our Award Winners

It is important that we maintain the membership drive in full swing again this year to add to the club Membership numbers and to replace those unable to attend for various reasons. Finally I am looking forward to working with the Management and Subcommittees to provide another stimulating and exciting year for the Probus Club of Oakville. Robin Davison President

It is my great pleasure to provide my first message as your President for the 2015/2016 Probus year. My thanks go to the nominating committee for the provision of such a strong Executive Committee with which to work and their backup teams supporting these members. I look forward to working with the teams put together by the committee, with both those members who have taken on the tasks once again and with those members who have stepped up to take on the challenge. My thanks go to Brian Taylor, his activity group and our M/C and Vice President for this year, Stewart Bryan for such a great job organizing the President’s Reception held once again at the Harbour Banquet and Conference Center in Bronte. The Club introduced two new awards this year that were presented at the President’s Reception. The Life Membership and Member of the Year awards which were presented to Bill Hamel and Gunther Lutz respectively, in recognition of their contributions to the Club.

Bil l Hame l

Li f e Member 2015

The President’s Message

The

P re s i d en t ’ s R ec e p t i on S ep t emb e r 25, 2015

of 6 The Probus Club of Oakville

Upcoming Activities

October 23rd- Woodbine Races A fun afternoon at the races and a great buffet lunch. See Russel Mewes, cost is $57 per person November 1st- All Star Big Band at Oakville Centre This event is sold out

November 26 th - Amica Retirement Centre Bronte Road and Lakeshore, tour of this new facility plus a lunch. Cost is $10 per person, sign up with Jim Smith at the next meetings December 10th - Christmas Lunch at the Atrium in Burlington February 7th - Drury Lane Theatrical Productions There will only be 24 tickets available for this event See Jim Smith at the activities table at the Oct. meeting

February 14th - Valentine Day's Luncheon, Glen Abbey Golf Course Sunday Brunch Upcoming Speakers October 15th- Bruce Christie Bruce will talk about food safety and his climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro. November 19th- Richard Brisson Richard will talk about WWII including the Enigma Machine and he is planning to bring a machine as well. January 21st- Dr. John Chattoe Our own John Chattoe will talk about Research into Virtual and Augmented Reality. February 18th- Dr. Ross Prince Dr. Prince will discuss prostate issues. March 17th- Sean Livingston Sean will talk about WWII exploits and the corvette named for Oakville.

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Our August Speaker In August, our speaker was Sol Gaultieri, Senior Economist and Director of Economic Research for the Bank of Montreal. His presentation covered many topics including household debt levels, cost of Canadian exports and the supply and demand for crude oil. He touched on the declining growth rates in China and the influence this has on commodity prices. He summarized the US situation as one with relatively better debt and employment outlook and accordingly a stronger US $$. He declined to speculate on the oil price and price of housing issues. His presentation was well received and there were many questions..

Our September Speaker Our speaker in September was Bill Bailey of Halton Health Care talking about the new Oakville Trafalgar Hospital. Bill began by giving some statistical measures of the size of the new Oakville Hospital project-‐ such as the 13th largest infrastructure project in Canada last year. The total size is 1.6 million square feet and will cost over $2 billion over a full cycle of 30 years. The facility will initially have 310 beds and grow to 452 -‐of which 80% are private rooms. Emergency patients will go into a private triage room vs. a semi -‐public cubicle and each room will have equipment for diagnosis, Each room will have digital controls to monitor patient's vital signs and will offer increased comfort to patients. There is an on -‐ demand food service which will be more efficient for food handling and staff costs. The common areas will have mall type food amenities and cozy seating areas. Moving day is December 13 and there have been months of training to prepare for the move on that day. On Monday Sept. 21st, we had the pleasure of touring the hospital. There were about 75 of us, members and wives and we got to tour the 1st, 2nd and 6th floors of the new hospital. We got to see many of the facilities including emergency rooms, an OR and a private and semi private room.

Our August Profiler Today’s profiler was John Pretty who spoke of 4 important things he learned over his career that made a difference to his success , Education-‐Hard work-‐ No one owes You –Do not be afraid to take a risk. His education was in civil engineering and an MBA from Western. His career was mostly in the construction industry and one of his passions is sailing for for which he built a 35 foot sail boat.

Our September Profiler There was no profiler this month


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New Members In August, we welcomed three new members as shown below in a group photo. Starting on the left we have new member Bruce Higgins, Les Stevens, sponsor Jim Smith, new member Peter Sinuita and sponsor Paul Nelson.

In September, we welcomed four new members to the club. Left to right in the photo after Helmut is Andy Rickaby, Fred MacLennan, Archie Keown and Erich Becker. Gunther Lutz and Helmut welcomed them into the club and presented them with their name tags and Probus Pins.


The new Probus Hiking Club got off to a good start this past week with a walk along one of the trails by 16 mile Creek. If you would like to sign up, have a chat with Harald Matthiessen or Helmut Erxleben.

A Walk in the Woods. This is the movie version of the 2006 book by Bill Bryson. The aging Robert Redford plays Bryson and overweight Nick Nolte his erratic friend Katz who decides to join him on the 2,200 mile long Appalachian Trail.. Emma Thompson rounds out the cast as Bryson's worried wife. As the two unprepared and unfit hikers start out, they encounter unforeseen and at times highly risky situations. Weather, bears, weird people and a tricky terrain test their resolve, and they do in fact take some shortcuts thus avoiding the more dangerous parts of the trail. Redford at 79 and Nolte at 74 may not be your typical long distance hikers, but they are great actors and give us some fabulous entertainment for two hours. Reviewed by Helmut Erxleben The Wright Brothers by David McCullough This was a most enjoyable and informative read. The Wright brothers were men of exceptional ability, unyielding determination and far-‐ranging intellectual interest and curiosity. They grew up in nearby Dayton, Ohio without electricity or indoor plumbing, but enjoyed the benefits of their fathers huge library so they never stopped learning. No problem seemed insurmountable. When they couldn’t find an engine light enough for their first plane they designed and built their own using an aluminum block and gravity fed fuel system – no carburetor. They knew the risk of being killed was very high and therefore they never flew together until the very last flight when Wilbur stopped working on the flying part of the business. It was amazing to me that the US government declined all offers to participate or even take any interest in the building of the plane and it wasn’t until France was extensively involved that the US Army thought there might be some merit. Neither man ever married and Wilbur died very young. Their sister Katharine played a far more important role in their endeavors than has been generally understood. I would give the book a 5 out of 5 rating. Mike Purcell

Reviews and Items of Interest

Tourist in Vienna A tourist in Vienna is going through a graveyard and all of a sudden he hears music. No one is around, so he starts searching for the source. He finally locates the origin and finds it is coming from a grave with a headstone that reads: "Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770 -‐ 1827". Then he realizes that the music is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and it is being played backwards! Puzzled, he leaves the graveyard and persuades a friend to return with him. By the time they arrive back at the grave, the music has changed. This time it is the Seventh Symphony, but like the previous piece, it is being played backwards. Curious, the men agree to consult a music scholar. When they return with the expert, the Fifth Symphony is playing, again backwards. The expert notices that the symphonies are being played in the reverse order in which they were composed, the 9th, then the 7th, then the 5th. By the next day the word has spread, and a crowd has gathered around the grave. They are all listening to the Second Symphony being played backwards. Just then the graveyard's caretaker ambles up to the group. Someone in the group asks him if he has an explanation for the music. "I would have thought it was obvious the caretaker says. "He's decomposing.

The Probus Club of Oakville 2015/2016

Other Positions

President: Robin Davison 339-1702

Past President: Helmut Erxleben 901-9268

Vice President: Stewart Bryan 842-4478

Secretary: Alex Murphy 337-2924

Treasurer: Barry Cook 582-4236

Speakers: Jack Talbot 639-8295

Activities: Russell Mewse 827-6007

Newsletter: Jim Tonner 257-9305

Membership: Gunther Lutz 844-0542

Liaison: Mike Purcell 845-4097

Website: Paul Nelson 469-4752

Management Committee

Equipment Jerry Reid 845-5005 Member Welfare Dick Goulding 827-5968 Auditor: Harold Erlendson 845-3139 50/50 Draw: Ulrich Wickardt 465-0641 Roy Oldfield 847-2062 Photographer Peter Pretty 338-5583 Dave Johnson 338-6076 Greeter Jack Rugg 820-1973 Communications Roy McEwen 844-8648

Probus Club of Oakville P.O. Box 52127 Oakville On L6J 7N5

Email: [email protected]

Website:

www.oakvilleprobus.com

Meetings take place 10 am on

the third

Thursday of each Month

At the Quality Suites

754 Bronte Road OAKVILLE

oct-nov 2015 page 1 (1) - oakville probust! page3!of!! 6theprobusclubofoakville !!!!! ! !...

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