Have you reviewed our website at www.oakvilleprobus.com ? If you have questions about it please contact our webmaster Paul Nelson at the meetings or 905 469 4752 or at pnelson1941@hotmail.com . Find our latest newsletter events and executive list there. The more we Google the website, the more it prioritizes our site.

Our Activities Committee makes a great effort and greatly benefits our club with a variety of interesting outings. Recently new or popular events which were well attended in the past, are not proving as popular now. The Committee is interested in hearing from you about your likes and dislikes and you will see a questionnaire attached to the mailed Newsletter. Please fill in and return at the August meeting.

Another year has rolled around and it’s time for our Annual General Meeting, providing for a look back at the accomplishments and disappointments of the past year and a look ahead at the new year. Our 2011- 12 President will give an overall resume of the past year followed by reports from individual Management committee members on their responsibilities. And then the elections. In August the chairman of the nomination committee will have announced the slate of officers they are proposing for 2012-13. At the September meeting further nominations can be made from the floor and then the new management committee is voted on. Finally our auditor reports on the veracity of the club’s financial statements

In June our profiler was Wolfgang Hartmann. He was born in Germany after the war. The family moved to Canada when Wolfgang was 15 and settled in Calgary. After graduating from the University of Calgary he took post grad studies at McMaster obtaining an M.Eng and a PhD in Nuclear Engineering. His whole business career was with Atomic Energy of Canada and had interesting visits to Argentina,China and South Koreain connection with the installations of Candu reactors in those countries.

Bob Kerby of Bob’s Cruises was our main speaker. Bob told about his business and how things had changed in the last 20 years Now he does almost all his cruises featuring radio and TV personalities. He cautions us to read the fine print when signing up, that relocation trips are worthwhile, be sure to get medical insurance and tipping is 15% or less.

In July our profiler was Frank Fisher. As a young man Frank was quite a hockey player being invited twice to NY Rangers training camps. His business career spanned 37 years of interesting times as a bank and credit manager inOntario andQuebec. After retirement he has taken a leading role in many community organizations.

Our main speaker was Don Cook a Mississauga local historian. Topics he has covered and discussed in his talk include a 50^th Anniversary book on Applewood, the early story of Malton airport, Victory Aircraft Co. which built 400 Lancaster bombers using, in wartime, an all women work force, the story of the Avro Arrow and how Russian royalty wound up in Malton

 This month Helmut Erxleben reports on The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa.  “If someone had asked me who Roger Casement was before I read this book, I would have answered with a shrug.  Roger Casement made news in the early part of the 20th century when he exposed the corrupt and inhuman practices by the colonial powers during the extraction of rubber from the jungles of theBelgian Congo and the Amazon.  His reports shocked the world with the details of the unimaginable suffering of the indigenous population to harvest the ‘Black Gold’.  In 1911 he was knighted by the British Crown for his efforts.  This did not deter Casement, who was born in Dublin, to involve himself more and more in the struggle to freeIreland from British rule. His contacts with the enemy during the war were seen as treason and he was subsequently hanged in 1916 by the British. The book was published in Spanish in 2010, the same year that Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.  The OPL has the 2012 English translation.”

Harold Erlendson, our movie critic, reports on To Rome with Love “If you enjoyed Midnight in Paris, you will enjoy this movie. Both were written and directed by Woody Allen. It is a collection of stories with no commonality except that they all take place inRome. The stories are about love and relationships. As in all farces, the characters are exaggerated who become involved in highly unlikely situations. My favorite character is a mortician who is a gifted tenor (played by Fabio Armiliato) who can only sing well while showering. He actually does sing “Pagliacci” on the opera stage while he is showering and gets a standing ovation. The movie is unabashedly sweet and I was caught up in the music and the golden city ofRome. It ends with a scene on the Spanish Steps and a huge band playing “That’s Amore”. While it is well acted and filmed it is unlikely to win an Oscar for best film, but both Theresa and I loved it.

Gordon Cunningham recently received a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal to add to his impressive collection of medals. Congrats Gord . . .  Al Histed called us from his residence in Post Inn Village. Al is as bright as ever and would welcome visitors. Mike Purcell visits residents at Trafalgar Lodge, a volunteer job he has had for the past year. Mike says he and wife Verna have had no problem drawing out residents in interesting conversations. A perfect couple for the job . . . Frank Petrie and his wife Peggy have added to the pleasure of lakefront residents in Bronte. Several years ago they began spreading hollyhock seeds along the waterfront. Each year the beautiful flower display increases. A simple job, a great result . . .  Gunther Lutz stopped off in Hamburg on his way back from a Baltic cruise to see the largest model railroad display in the world. He was very impressed.

The Membership Committee is happy to report that almost 70% of the members paid their annual dues well ahead of the August due date which made our treasurer very happy.  If you still owe the annual amount of $40, please bring a cheque to the August 16th meeting or mail it directly to

Jim Tonner,2294 Woodfield Road,Oakville,L6H 6Y7. Make the cheque payable to the Probus Club of Oakville.

During these last few months we have had about a 55 – 60 members at meetings.  We currently have 100 members in the club so this means that there are a lot of members who have missed some great speakers to say nothing of the coffee, Timbits and the company of 55 friends.  In August another great speaker, Doug Porter, Deputy Chief Economist from BMO, will talk about the economic outlook.  Bring your friends and neighbours to hear what Doug has to say.

PLEASANT EXPERIENCES

Members are invited to offer brief write-ups on good movies, shows, restaurants or trips that they have enjoyed.

Jim Smith recently visited Jac’s an Italian restaurant on Kerr St. He reports the food was good and the price was reasonable.

Grant and Carol Gooding have just returned from a river cruise on the Rhine and Danube. It was run by Viking cruise Lines, the largest river cruise operator. Grant reports “They have cruises all over the world. They know what they are doing and satisfy their clientele. The food was excellent, as was the service. The cruise visited 6 countries, and 17 cities. Tours were included with local guides, who really knew their cities. The boat ties up at a wharf that is usually near the centre of town. You see spectacular scenery from the boat, especially the castles on the Rhine. The boat carries about 120 customers, and over 100 were Americans”.

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