August meeting: There was no profiler this month so President Mike took a few minutes to explain to members the troubles facing the club these days.

Our speaker was Jacques Pawles who explained that in taking tours to far-off places he had become fascinated with place names. How did they originate? Many of them were not Latin or Greek and must have come, he found out, from ancient languages as people moved from Africa into Europe after the Ice Age. Some of the names he mentioned were: Nile which means flood, Gibraltar – nothing beyond, Briton – land surrounded by water, Atlantic – the great western sea.

September meeting: This was AGM day so we had a brief regular meeting before the AGM was convened. President Mike reported on the year’s events and management committee members gave reports on their activities. Then Bill Perdue, chair of the nominating committee proposed the slate of nominees, previously announced, for the management committee positions and as there were no further nominations from the floor the slate was declared elected. Unfortunately John Chattoe who had agreed to take over as Speaker chairman found he had a much larger teaching load than he had bargained for. Gerry Sutton kindly agreed to take on the speaker job until someone else can be found to handle it. The meeting ended when President Mike handed over the gavel to incoming President Dave Patterson.

Our meeting’s speaker was a very enthusiastic RCAF flight engineer on helicopters, Master Corporal Johanne Hamelin. She had done two tours in Afghanistan. Her account of her service there proved to be extremely interesting.

A week later the President’s Reception, was held, this year at a new venue, The Harbour Banquet and Conference Centre in Bronte. It has a beautiful view over Bronte harbour and Lake Ontario. While the meal was rather average, the evening’s entertainer, Adam Timoon, gave a spectacular guitar and comedy performance.